7th
Lessons learned in southern California
As you can see in the pics below I spent the last week in southern California; half business half mini-vacation.
I wanted to share a few thoughts on how I as a mid-westerner viewed life and business in Orange County. This is quick with not much thought.
Life:
1. The superficial gene is real and exists in all social classes of the Orange Co population
2. Time seems to slow down
3. 90% of Mercedes Benz income has to come from this one county - I actually overheard a 40k /year employee seriously shopping for a new CLK; and she called the Lexus a Camry with extra cup holders. You just don’t see that here. Funny.
4. People are generally not as friendly (there were exceptions in business) - I think this comes from people who have always lived there not realizing that there is an entire country of states to their east. Like the world exists of the state of California only. Just my impression.
5. Reasonable housing doesn’t exist
6. Beaches are amazing; so different than what I am used to
7. Surfers take on more risk in a day than some take on their entire life
Business:
1. Opportunity is larger - From a start-up perspective I think this is natural with bigger businesses and bigger money in any particular demographic. People are looking for deals everywhere; even in the OC.
2. Cheery business environments - I had meetings with three different companies in three different offices and in each instance the entire organizations appeared to be overly cheery and optimistic about everything. I don’t think this was because of my visit, I just think they work that way. I think the west coast probably does this better than the rest of the country.
3. Commutes suck BAD
4. Work hard play hard - they get it
5. Less analysis more action - Business people seem to think less and act more often. Again, only saw 3 companies, but that attitude existed in all of them and I am glad I got to see it.
For me the OC is a nice place to visit, but probably not somewhere I would want to call home. I would love to do business there because of all the points I listed above. I honestly didn’t see much I didn’t like on the business side.