On Your Surroundings

“It’s not enough to be a general’s son-in-law — you also have to live in the capital.”

We often think it all comes down to talent and grit. But there’s one more decisive factor — your surroundings.

Picture this: a young, capable guy, well-read, with a phenomenal memory and a sharp analytical mind. Born in the provinces. He starts a business in his hometown, pours years into it, takes his knocks, grows. By forty or fifty he has a solid company — by local standards. But measured against what he’s actually capable of, it’s a fraction of what he could have built.

Now take the same guy, maybe even a less gifted one, who happened to land in the right place at the right time, somewhere the biggest opportunities are concentrated: the country’s capital, or the “capital” of his particular trade — IT, fashion, finance. He drops into a crowd of people doing similar things, trades experience, resources, contacts with them. And by that same age his business is already national or international, with revenues an order of magnitude higher.

Same story in the arts: a gifted girl dances ballet in a city where the culture scene is thin. All else being equal, her path is capped by the local stage. Another girl moves to a cultural capital, ends up under the best teachers and companies — and eventually steps onto the stages of the world’s great theaters.

I grew up in a big city myself, but a provincial one all the same. Yet through talking with very successful people and studying their tracks, I came to see how much it matters to be in the right environment at the right time — it’s one of the strongest multipliers there is. Yes, there are rare exceptions, but the statistics are merciless: your circle decides.

I’m not saying everyone should pack their bags this minute and move. We’ve got the internet and online communities now, after all. But if you carry ambition and potential, it’s worth answering yourself honestly: where is the place your abilities could open up to their full strength? And not losing time over it — the longer we put it off, the heavier the chains: family, kids, the mortgage, obligations.

Fantastic abilities can stay unrealized forever if there’s no one and nothing nearby to give you footing and a vector to grow along.

Here’s to remembering: our scale is set not by talent and work alone, but by where, and with whom, we walk this path! 😎