Last week we had our last ‘family of three’ trip and went to visit a friend in Lisbon. The short, five-day holiday was great, with the added kicker that while we were sunbathing on the beach it was snowing in London. Great market timing!
Our friend is a French painter who was living in London when we met her and moved to Portugal one year ago. For a person that reads and writes about FIRE, her life is a very interesting subject. Especially at the current juncture: she is one of those who ‘turned her passion into a career’ (without waiting to be FIRE first), she was successful at it but, for example, she still refers to her salary…free but not yet 100% there. To put it into context, you cannot buy one of her paintings for less than five figures, definitely not cheap but not a Damien Hirst either (at least, not yet).
She is super happy about her new city. She is still paying herself a ‘London salary’, as she calls it, but now that salary goes a loooooooong way further. She is a single mum, so paying a nanny €6/hour instead of £15 makes a big difference. And she can bring her son to the beach during the weekend instead of the local pool (the water temperature is still the same though, glacial in both places).
Talking with her made me think about two topics that are often discussed in (wanna-be) FIRE communities: high costs in big cities and remote working.
Big cities are expensive
No one likes the high costs of big cities…at least no one that is not a deca-millionaire. Even millionaires rant about them, if it is not about rents their scorn is for school fees and other services’ charges. High costs are obviously painful for young professionals, people at the beginning of their career who put in big hours for relatively low salaries.
Everyone complains so everyone is looking for the magical solution, a way to avoid paying 70% of your income to have a 25sqm room in an apartment to share with other four strangers. Unfortunately, that solution does not exist.
Under the Portuguese sun, a cold beer in front of us, I asked my friend “do you think you would have made it if you moved here directly from France instead of living in London?”
“No. Fucking. Way.”
We had just visited the workshop of a local guy who makes artisanal vases. His stuff is pretty exceptional and still he is selling each piece at €50. My friend knows the rule of the game.
A small room in London costs like a double bedrooms apartment in Lisbon because that’s where everyone is. And by everyone, I mean everyone relevant. That’s where things happen. There is no Zoom call or Discord channel that can substitute the casual encounter you can make at a party. The big city represents all those possible connections, including sex.
If you are starting as an artist, you need to be close to other artists; more importantly, you need to be close to artists better than you. You need to be close to gallerists, agents, journalists and…potential clients. Proximity means availability, it gives the artist the chance to learn. Mastering your craft, something you can maybe do indeed alone on a mountain, is not enough. You need to learn how to network and how to sell. This is why my friend would have not made it without living in London.
But this is something relevant for anyone who wants to have a successful career. You need a mentor…and you won’t find them on that remote island with a beautiful sunset…unless they bring you there. You need to be close to them to pick their brain, shadow them and peek over their shoulders. In many instances, you will learn by just being in the room, without being a participant in the conversation. You learn and progress by interacting with people better than you, more skilled and experienced.
The entropy of the city promotes random interactions and those interactions will bring you closer to other people holding the missing parts of your treasure map. A designer looking for a coder with the same love for…skateboarding?
If you want to succeed, living in a big city gives you the best shot at it. Maybe the only one.
Do as I say, not as I do
I wanted to rule the world but I wanted to get there at my own pace. Which basically meant going out of my comfort zone in tiny steps. In hindsight, it is obvious that I was at best deluding myself. No one ever achieved anything from the comfort of their armchair…and yet I am here writing a blog named after a sofa. I’ll never learn.
I was conscious of my (lack of) social skills, something I built pretty late compared to the average lad. London is expensive but that’s the price of the opportunities the city offers you. That’s the way I see it. At the beginning of my career, I thought I would not be able to exploit any of the opportunities while paying all the costs. Like a guy with a gym membership that never uses it. This is why, when I left Italy, I moved to ‘cushy’ places like Luxembourg and Geneva. The fact that I eventually landed in London is a bit beside the point in the context of this post because my career was already set when I arrived. My wife’s example would be way more illustrative but…I am not sure I want to go there 😉 Suffice to say, she arrived here with zero experience in the fashion industry and she is now directly collaborating with the creative director of a big Italian brand.
If you want to achieve something outstanding, you have to make sacrifices and work for it. And paying an absurd rent, unfortunately, represents only the entry ticket to the club, after that is up to you.
Remote Working
If you are young and hungry, remote working should be your worst enemy. Working from home is great for people like me, people that do nursery pick-ups and washing machine loads in between calls.
If you get your dream job at your dream company, there is zero chance you will get any interaction with any senior person outside the office. Your best spots are the cafeteria, the corridors or, if it is still a thing in the corner of the world where you live, the cigarette break area.
It is again about proximity. You can learn and grow faster sitting next to colleagues and your boss(es). Random exchanges are easier and can lead to unexpected places. It gives you better chances to know people working in other departments and understand other parts of the organization.
OK Boomer
I am conscious I am running the risk of sounding like that ass on Twitter that considers younger generations as soft and snowflakes. I do not want to minimize the struggle and the pain. But I never read anyone considering cities’ high costs as ‘premiums on optionality’.
And let’s be clear, this situation is another brick added to the high wall of inequality. If you have rich parents that can subsidies your rent (if not buying you an apartment on the spot), you can access the city opportunities with way fewer struggles; and those opportunities might compound into other opportunities, exposing already lucky individuals to a virtuous cycle that might further spiral them up. I still remember a friend of a friend that once invited us to his apartment right behind Sloan Square: the guy was 28 and had a £35k/year marketing job (Narrator voice: he was not the one paying the mortgage).
If your daily life is just a three hours commute and a lonely cubicle spot with few interactions, then by any means you are only paying without none of the benefits. At that point, you are better off considering other situations.
But do not compare your circumstances with someone that already grown their profile/career and are now ready to move to a less crowded location. If you have a great network and a prominent cv, technology is indeed pretty effective these days in maintaining those connections from afar.
Going back to my friend, she can now fly back to London only when she needs to. She even has clients popping at her studio when they are in Portugal for holidays. She does not have to be in London 24/7 because she built the connections and her status.
Few words on Remote Working in general
The company I work for has settled on a 3+2 model and each employee can decide if 3 are the days spent at the office or at home. Coincidentally, this seems to be the most common model adopted in London (except for banks, they are keener to go back to the old model as soon as they can).
I think this is more a reflection of the current status of the job market than an independent decision. If you are struggling to hire new people, offering a less appealing deal (i.e. forcing employees to go back full time) can only increase your hiring problems. I am not shocked that in continental Europe, where the job market is less strong, companies rolled back faster to the old plan, even net of possible cultural differences (I arrived in London in 2017 and I could already work from home one day per week back then).
We have to wait for the first real recession to see if remote working is really here to stay or just a phase that we (boomers) will long for. There are few elements for optimism: the majority of companies that started in the last two years were ‘remote first’ and others, like mine, reduced their office spaces for good. If we look at the yield curve, we will probably know sooner rather than later 😉
If I have to bet on something, I would (sadly) do on further increased inequality. If you are a key employee, you would be free to choose whatever model suits you, irrespective of your seniority level. Anyone else would have less freedom. Just remember to negotiate these things on the way in, not only your salary.
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