Back in 2007, I visited Austin for the first time with Jeremy Wright for SXSW. I fell in love with the city and have come back for every SXSW since. The truth is, as I’ve since realized, is that Austin is better when it’s not SXSW time and I have spent the past few months coming back and visiting this city every month for a week or more.
As of this past weekend, though, that has all changed. I live here now. I have a job here now (which I will announce more about when it is formalized this week). I have a girlfriend here. I have a built in community here.
In Austin, there are plenty of startups. Besides the one I will be working with, it claims startups like Other Inbox and Gowalla. The sense here is that people feel empowered to be entrepreneurial.
This is a far cry from DC where only a small subsection of people felt entrepreneurial, but most opted to work inside the governmental complex of agencies, NGOs, contractors, non-profits and public affairs. While that is all well and good, I have always believed that the human spirit is a creative one that can only be satiated by creating things, and that is the essence of entrepreneurship.
I have no love for DC. I have lived there for the last year and a half and before that, I spent most of my life 45 minutes up the road in Baltimore. I am not sad that I have left. In Austin, I look forward to resetting life and starting over. The last time I did not share my home with someone else was in 1999. The last time I had to start from scratch and buy everything new in order to make a house a home was… in 1999. Fortunately, I’m in a better position to do that then I was 11 years ago.
I made mistakes in DC that I don’t intend to make in Austin. A year and a half ago, I entered a city and approached it from a social stand point. While I made good friends, they were rare instead replaced by hundreds of acquaintances. The people with enough depth of character and heart to be truly friends can be counted on one hand.
In Austin, I refuse to play the social game. I’m diving deep. I’d rather have a dozen people in my circle that know me well and I know them well, than have 100 people that know me enough to be my friend on Facebook but are mainly just acquaintances.
Lessons learned from before. This is a chance to start over. I plan to take it.
Honey, I’m home.
Photo by Visualist Images.
About Aaron
Happy for you :)
Congrats! Enjoy it. It’s a great city and wish you the best of luck and success!
Welcome home to Texas!
Dude, there is no pain that Austin is not the perfect balm for — you’ll dig the genuine people there. Good luck down there!
You should update your Gowalla more often if you’re gonna work for them.
I think most people underestimate the value of being able to start over every so often. We get so used to and comfortable with what we know and don’t consider what we might be missing or if things could be better.
I’ve lived in DC (VA side) for 9 years as of July.. and I’m looking forward to Austin for the same reasons. A built in technology community, a vibrant startup scene, and the definite lack of gov/NGO/non-profits.
There are a good number of people I’ll miss, but most of those seem to be drifting away from DC anyway..
very cool man…glad to have you in Texas at least! Glad when we’re closer and can be more than Facebook friends!! Also, very interested in your new job…can’t wait to hear about it….
Congrats and very happy for you.
Welcome to Austin! I hope it’s not long before I run into you around town.
Congrats dude :)
I am happy for you too. Good luck in the new life and adventure. And Joe and I will keep our promise to visit and do a meal every time we come to Austin.
Sorry, misread on iPhone and thought you were working for Gowalla. Good luck in Austin.
Good luck, brother! Austin sounds like a stimulating place to hang your hat. (And I always preferred hanging out with you solo or within a small group, rather than fighting for time amongst a large posse of social media wannabes.)
Austin is wonderful.
Great food and Alamo Draft House.
We will be down next weekend.
Congrats on the move. Setting up an apartment myself as well, and doing the slowly but surely resetting life and restocking an apartment. it’s all the weird little shit that I took for granted that adds up!