Why America is the place for me

To come home, sometimes you need to leave

Next year, after over 10 years of living off and on in the States, me and my family will be getting our green cards.

Soon we’ll go back to Australia to wait out the process, and that’s not such a bad thing. I am excited to breathe in that dry, clear air. For cars to actually give way to me when I ride my bike. I am excited to walk to a neighborhood cafe and get a proper flat white. To nip down to the world-class beaches in the afternoon. To hear the familiar but now also exotic sounds of magpies and kookaburras.

And when all the paperwork is done, I will be excited to hop on a plane and come back to the States.

How America changed my life

Had I stayed in Australia, I don’t think I would have ever started my business in 2015. The business that eventually employed 60 people and allowed many of them to change the course of their lives. A business that became iconic in its category. A business that has afforded me and my family a pretty great life after I sold it in 2022 — at which point I paid a lot of taxes.

Why do I think I wouldn’t have done that in Australia?

While Australia and the US are culturally very alike, there’s something very different here about the way people view success. Success is something to be applauded, whereas in Australia it is met with ‘tall poppy syndrome’ — where people are criticized or resented for their achievements because they are more successful than their peers.

The term comes from the idea that a field of poppies is most beautiful when all the flowers are the same height and uniform, but a poppy that stands out ruins the view and draws attention to itself. In the same way, people who are too successful can make others feel like they have overachieved and may be criticized or "cut down" as a result. 

The US is an individualistic culture, which also has it’s downsides. But the upside is that striving is applauded and appreciated. This extends beyond culture and into the more formal structures of the law, taxation, and norms of business. It’s relatively easy to start a company here. Companies are taxed favorably. There’s a very healthy ecosystem for funding new ventures. As result, entrepreneurship thrives here.

When I first came to New York in 2011, this emphasis on entrepreneurship was new to me, and I found it intoxicating. My natural disposition toward risk and reward had found a productive canvas to paint on.

I started my first business less than a year later.

It’s ambition that drives us

Celebrity chef Dan Churchill summed it up perfectly on a recent episode of the Rich Roll podcast:

Dan Churchill: But you've seen it, mate. If anyone's been to Australia, you are on the beach. You just get this amazing “why don't I live here?” vibe. And that's why everyone asks me, why don't you still live in Australia?

Rich Roll: So why don't you? Is it that for somebody who has ambition, they have this need to stretch themselves? Because you can just be at the beach and work at the coffee shop?

Dan Churchill: Exactly. And have a good life. There's no judgment on that. Not at all. I've just been back and caught up some friends and they're extremely happy and I'm really happy for them.

But I've always been interested and motivated to push and, and strive for something that's greater than myself. And I believe, when I first was thinking about Australia versus the world, Australia's a very small place.

So you can't really impact the world from Australia. Particularly in my field, I recognized pretty early on that if I wanted to have a positive impact on a global scale, I had to take a risk in in going to America. It's very ambitious. It's been the most amazing personal development I could've ever asked for. And I think that's part of the challenge. But you look at Australians who are now living outside of Australia and you do notice there's similarities between us all in the sense of our ambition…

I'm just interested in learning. And you see that connection between us all.

It's ambition that drives us.

Its easy to see the problems in your own backyard

I read a post here on Substack recently by the journalist Kristen Powers, titled The way we live in the United States is not normal. Having very recently found out that I’d been selected for the diversity visa lottery (AKA the green card lottery) I was curious if the arguments would make me hesitant. Powers’ points were familiar:

• Healthcare affordability and accessibility is ludicrous

• The cost of college education and home ownership is ludicrous

• The wealth gap is vast and apparently widening

• People are increasingly socially isolated

I can’t disagree with any of these points. They concern me, too.

But we can’t pretend there aren’t different, but equally concerning, problems in other countries.

My home country of Australia has very little gun violence. But due to a massive rental crisis, even dual-income families cannot find a place to live right now.

The people of Italy, the country that Kristen Powers is escaping to, may enjoy stronger social ties. But the country is grappling with major economic issues right now.

What are the Italians talking about when they meet for long lunches and pop-in on friends on their stroll home from work? Quite likely politics, immigration, and affordability.

It may seem that other places have it all figured out. They don’t. They just have different problems.

Still, I left

In 2019, I moved with my husband, cat, and 9-month old baby to Colombia. We wanted to be close physically to America, but we’d burned out a bit. I’d had a very poor experience with the US healthcare system while pregnant, and President Trump’s policies toward immigrants had shaken us. Owning a remote company, we realized we didn’t have to be in the US at all. We picked out Medellin, Colombia, for its excellent weather, affordability, east coast time zone, and easy infrastructure for remote workers.

We had a wonderful life there for two years. We settled in as expats. We traveled a lot, and I found it to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We learned Spanish and made new friends. It was affordable and we could afford a quality of life that would be well outside our reach in the US.

But when COVID hit, we left and never went back.

Because although we enjoyed ourselves, it never ‘clicked’ in the same way that it did when we first moved to America.

In Colombia, the most prestigious job occupation you can have is working for a big multinational company. Being self-employed puts you in the same category as people selling fruit on the street.

Family and security are valued highly — not necessarily a bad thing — but it comes at the cost of taking risks. I didn’t encounter the same opportunities living there that I would have had back in the States. We had a comfortable life, but it wasn’t pushing me forward.

And maybe you should leave, too

Every week or two there’s a Business Insider article explaining how an American retiree moved to Mexico (or Portugal, or any number of other countries) for a better cost of living and quality of life.

I enjoy reading these accounts and imagining a parallel life as much as the next person. Free healthcare, tango lessons, cheap rent, and casually picking out your weekly vegetables at an open-air market are definitely appealing.

If those things are what you’re optimizing for at your stage of life, I think you should go to those places. Perhaps even move there permanently.

But understand clearly what you’re optimizing for. What does a ‘good life’ look like to you?

No place is perfect

I don’t think America is perfect. There are a lot of things that are bad, and some indeed seem to be getting worse. Sometimes it’s a hard place to love.

But of all the places I have lived, America is the right place for me.