Moving Back Home to MS

I met another of the increasing number of people who are fleeing the “rat race” of big cities back to their roots. Here is the story of one such individual, Hank Jones, who Rich Karlgaard mentioned in his talk that I blogged on yesterday. Hank sang in the church choir with Rich’s wife in Silicon Valley. He moved back home from CA to join SmartSynch (www.smartsynch.com). Here is his story from an email that he sent me.

“I am from Richton, a timber town of 1000 people 60 miles from the Gulf Coast. My small public school was able to give me Japanese, Russian, and statistics classes via satellite feed (well before the Internet), and the small community exposed me to diversity, accountability, and charity. My parents, both small-town Mississippians themselves, made a concerted effort to show the broader world to my younger brothers and me through frequent travel. I studied mechanical engineering at the University of Mississippi and then completed my masters and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Along the way, I started a venture-backed remote sensing company and a disaster mapping non-profit, both still going strong.

SmartSynch designs and manufactures telecom devices that fit into electric meters and software that ensures highly reliable communication. We were the first company to successfully use public networks (paging, cellular) to give utilities real-time access to their meters - their cash registers. Though we're based in Mississippi, our biggest customers are in California, the Northeast, and Canada. We landed our first pilot customer in Mississippi only a few months ago. I joined SmartSynch a year ago as the first Director of Research and Development. My primary task is to create new products for nearby vertical and horizontal markets, providing new directions for growth. I also handle our government relations and our intellectual property strategy.

I was very happy in California. The activities, the weather, and the energy in Silicon Valley combine to make it an extraordinary place to live. I could have looked back in thirty years and thought, "Wow, there were a lot of beautiful hikes and cycling trips I took," yet that didn't seem very meaningful. I never felt like I would really matter to the community there, or that I could find a community that would matter to me. The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that I was in my soul a Mississippian whether I wanted to be or not. Nonetheless, the actual decision to move was neither simple nor easy. Before I left, I wrote down a list of all the things I would be giving up, and all the things I thought I'd be gaining. They were about even. Friends argued about whether I would be able to move back if things didn't work out. Those arguments were about even, too.

I am very happy in Mississippi, though in a different way. My surroundings don't mesmerize me like in Silicon Valley - instead, they challenge me to do what I can to make them better. I'm a bigger fish in a smaller pond here; my Stanford PhD is much more noteworthy. I have far more responsibility in my company and in my community than I would have had in 10+ years in California. I sit on university boards, participate in city leadership teams, was asked to be on the Governor's Reconstruction Commission after Katrina hit. I easily bought a bigger house than a single guy needs, three minutes from work. I have bright friends, new and old, and I belong to the active local cycling club. My list of things I was giving up was accurate, and on my business trips to California I miss some parts of my life there down to my bones, but my life now in Mississippi is good, good, good - I'm glad I'm here.”

Local towns that can tap back into their brain bank of talented young people who have moved away will create some very unique opportunities for themselves. Why don’t you try it in your town?