Why I moved to London at 22 🇬🇧

Everything's hard. Choose your hard.

The hangover that comes with studying abroad at the University of Florida started to set in after arriving back to Australia in May 2023. My university days were quickly coming to an end and it was time for the next stage of my life.

My life in Australia is great, which means great is my average. I didn’t want to live an ‘average’ life that was built of the back of someone else’s hard work (my parents). I wanted to see what I could make of myself and increase my average living standard (turn great into amazing).

I was already in a ‘balls to the wall’ frame of mind. I knew I didn’t want to be in Australia. Why? Because I knew I could always come back. Australia to me was safe and I didn’t want safe. My graduation quote in year 6 was “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” Well, it was time to shoot for the moon.¹

What did that look like?

After looking at openings for jobs in Antartica and half-heartedly applying for a UN job in Afghanistan (I got rejected) I knew the audaciousness of my ambitions were a little too bold, even for me, which lead to idleness. If I got the job in Afghanistan, did I really want to move there?

Enough with the lunacy I thought, stop looking into the abyss, running away to another country trying to find an answer. Look within first, find an answer then proceed accordingly. So I locked myself in a room for an hour with nothing but a pen and paper with no distractions. I came out of that room with a bit more of an understanding of myself;

• I wanted to relocate countries. Where?

  • I decided London as it’s English speaking and on the doorstep of Europe. America I had already done and was too broad/diverse for me (Texas is so different to New York which is different to LA; where would I start?). London had the hustle and bustle I yearned for and wasn’t as big of a jump in cultures. The Australia to London pipeline seemed a lot more doable than Australia to Afghanistan, for me at least.

• Next I had to select what industry I wanted to be in (this step is easier with experience on your side). I found myself interested in Software/ Tech sectors as I believe the scalability is a lot easier with not much of a ceiling.

  • Startups or Corporate? I believe the work I do will be more influential and impact the company more in a startup than the work I do at one of the Big 4 of anything. I also didn’t think I was ‘smart’ enough or driven enough to join any of the Big 4, I’m still trying to figure out what a consultant does. I also firmly believe I’m more of a culture fit with startups as opposed to corporate, culture is really important to me.

• Finally I looked at the type of role I wanted. How I answered that was as simple as answering 3 questions; What do I spend most of my free time thinking about? What comes easier to me than others? What would I do for free? I landed on Sales and Partnerships. I love to yap, sales is a role where I get paid to do that (hopefully, I haven’t started yet!).

This process of finding my ‘best answer’ (shoutout Jack Rode) looks a lot easier than it is. In reality it takes a lot of presence of mind and active thinking, journalling helps. Upon reflecting on my journey I’m realising the process of finding a best answer never actually ends. Your answer is always evolving and its your duty to yourself to seek it outright and persistently (or maybe it’s not, idk, who am I to say).

I’d found what I wanted, my next step was to see what the world was offering. So I searched up “top 100 tech startups in London”. I picked one, basing my decision on what I thought of their company culture and what their ambitions to change the world looked like. I reached out to their team via LinkedIn and got no responses.

So I did what any other sane, reasonable human being would do and booked a one way flight to go knock on their door and introduce myself.

I had no place to stay, no visa, no job and I’d already booked the flight. I was going all in and had to figure it out.

Figure it out I did. Did it turn out the way I thought it would? Not at all. Am I a better person for it? I hope so. How it all turned out is a story for another day (which means I’m still writing that Substack and will link it once finished).² My biggest takeaway from this journey? Everything’s hard. Staying in Australia would’ve been hard, moving away from home is hard³. Akin to how anyone who’s married will tell you that marriage is hard, divorce is hard too. Being fit and healthy is hard, but so is obesity.

They’re pros and cons to it all. You can experience all that life has to offer, just not at the same time. Choose what you’re willing to give up wisely and timely.

What version of hard do you want?

1. My crush at the time actually had the same quote as me so I had to make a late change and opted for “Never give up on your dreams, keep sleeping.”

2. Here is that Substack: “I Flew Across the World to Join a Startup and Was Rejected. Here's What I Learnt”

3. This essay might have made the move sound easy (it’s not trust me) so here’s an excerpt of me trying to G myself up after having a mental breakdown:

“Moving countries, finding a job, finding an apartment, getting a visa, supporting mom with her mom, calling my family, calling friends, dealing with the existential crisis of what am I going to do with my life, it’s hard. Everything’s hard. I like hard. I follow the notion that I have to choose my hard, that’s why I’ve moved country. Everything was too easy in Australia. For crying out loud I didn’t know how to cook, the fucking thing I need to know how nourish and sustain myself I couldn’t do. I tried learning but to no avail. I know myself enough to know I am what I surround myself with. I know that in order for me to change I needed to change my environment. I’m now financially independent and paying rent, meaning I’ve got less disposable income meaning I have to be cautious with my spending. Cooking is cheaper than eating out. Therefore I am learning to cook. I am learning. I am growing. This is what I want. My rate of growth in Australia was too slow for my liking. Too fucking comfortable, I knew I could always come back to it so why not at least try make something of myself. Too much sunshine and you’ll end up with a dessert.”