How Moving to a Small Town Forced Me to Start Owning My Career

Originally posted as a LinkedIn article, I wrote this to share more about my career journey over the past 2 years. The full article is below but can also be found on LinkedIn here.

Are we really doing this? The thought crept through my head repeatedly as we followed the moving trucks from the Twin Cities to the small town of Redwood Falls, about 2 hours west of Minneapolis, and just 15 minutes from the family farm where I grew up. Yet there I was, in the Fall of 2017, driving a truck filled with the last household odds and ends, battling a stomach-churning combination of optimism, apprehension and Jimmy Johns.

Just 6 months earlier I was in Europe, helping to understand the capabilities of a potential hard goods manufacturer for Target. A few months earlier it was market research in San Francisco and before that, consumer research in New York. Over the course of my career at Target I was able to travel all over the world in my role as a Product Development Engineer. I helped launch billion dollar brands, patented 25 products and was part of the amazing Product Design and Development team that created Target's owned brand products.

My wife and I had discussed the prospect of moving closer to home frequently over the course of 2017 but I’m not sure I actually believed we would ever actually do it. I mean, life was good! My wife and I had great jobs we loved. Our kids had yet to hit the strange, life-altering phase of life known as adolescence. We had a nice home, close to many of the great amenities of a large city. Why rock the boat?

But here, as I stared at the gauntlet of cornfields lining the road that was leading me home, about to start a new job in a completely different industry, I couldn't shake another growing feeling: Did I just walk away from the best job I ever had? Pushing that thought out of my head would be a recurring theme over the next 18 months. But the more I thought about it, the more it motivated me to begin owning my career in a way I hadn't truly done before. Indeed, it took moving to a small town and an 18 month detour on my career path to formulate just what I wanted to do.

Caution: Culture shock ahead. Road may be bumpy.

Small towns aren't for everyone. According to Pew Research, between 2000 and 2014, rural counties have seen their population growth remain basically flat, while suburban and urban counties saw 16% and 13% growth, respectively. This so-called "brain drain" is most evident when kids graduate high school and, as I did, head off to college or take a job in a larger city with seemingly more opportunity. Research from the University of Minnesota, though, suggests a "brain gain" specifically in the 30-49 age group, as many return to their roots, bringing with them skills, education and families. Consider me a statistic, because this is pretty much exactly what my path has looked like.

Despite having grown up in rural Minnesota, though, a culture shock was inevitable after spending much of my career with Target, known for having a very unique and progressive culture. I knew the culture at my new job was going to be quite different on day one, when everyone seemed to stand up in unison at 5:00 PM sharp and head for the doors, as if some silent school bell had just rung. It was an oddly chilling sight - as if to communicate that no one dared leave a single minute earlier. It was a small preview of the other culture shocks that lay ahead. Over the course of the next few months it became clear that I would need to begin formulating Plan B.

What do I really want to do?

This was the first question that needed answering. At Target I had had countless professional development conversations with my leaders to discuss this question as it related to my career goals. One would think after nearly 8 years there I would have a handle on this question. The problem was each of those conversations was focused on my career as it related to the Target corporate ecosystem. At a certain point it began to feel like I was saying what I thought I was supposed to say to get from point A to point B rather than what I truly wanted out of my career for me.

But as the 1988 Cinderella power ballad laments, you don't know what you got, till it's gone. Sure, I missed some of the fringe benefits of my old job - the travel, working downtown, the discount - but when it came to the actual work, what I missed the most was being able to bring products to life that helped solve guests' needs. At it's most basic level it came down to this: what I really wanted to do was make everyday things used everyday by people everywhere.

Once I had formulated this simple mission statement it was only a matter of figuring out how to put it into action. To quote Mr. Spock (quoting Sherlock Holmes), when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. When I considered the options before me - knowing that we wanted to stay and raise our kids in a small town - what would have been improbable a few years ago suddenly become the most likely choice: starting my own business.

So after months of planning, networking, building a website - all the typical start-up activities - I recently announced the launch of my product development consulting business - Section22 LLC. It's geared primarily toward providing product development solutions to manufacturers, vendors, retailers and others – with an emphasis in private label hard goods. 

After nearly 8 years at Target creating products for their many great owned brands I’m excited to be stepping back into that world. Looking back I'm incredibly grateful for the many mentors and leaders that invested in me professionally and personally at Target. I would not be nearly as prepared for what's ahead had it not been for that formative period of my career.

Follow your dream - just be ready for a few nightmares along the way.

I consider myself more risk-averse than average and the potential risks of moving to a small town back home were plentiful. What if the kids don't like their new school? What if this new company turns out to be a bust? What if we can't find a decent place to live? Will we get sick of being so close to family? The list went on and on. But after thinking through all these potential risks there was one overarching one that my wife and I kept coming back to - what's the risk of staying put and playing it safe?

You can't make a decision like this without looking to the immortal wisdom of Michael Scott. In this case his plagiarized advice is spot on. The risk of doing nothing outweighed all other risks. And while there have definitely been a few nightmares while pursing this dream, there have also been plenty of unexpected benefits. Chief among them is a newfound clarity of purpose for my career. Now, having channeled that vision into a new business, I can't help but think about the question circling in my head during that drive across the prairie 18 months earlier: Did I just walk away from the best job I ever had?

Maybe. But I believe the best is yet to come.