Made By: Chris Coyier (CodePen)

Chris Coyier I enamored the man for his work and his experience with developing truly innovative work while still pursuing an active "side project" go-getter-ness via Codepen. But after seeing his appearance on Envato's "Made By" series, I could not have chosen a better role model. He is exactly what I want to be in the future. Calm and Collected and revered as an expert in my field. Here is the video for those who are interested: ▶ this video

I think you can build a great life and career anywhere. There are upsides to being in the valley, but there are many other upsides to living somewhere else that you love. Ultimately it's up to you to slam dunk your business. I moved out of Toronto a year ago to a city (Hamilton) about an hour away where houses were affordable and the city was seeing renewal. My mortgage is much cheaper than a 2 bedroom rental in Toronto and I feel because I have such low overhead, it makes me a much better entrepreneur. I'm willing to take many more risks because I can make my mortgage pretty easily. So - my quality of life is very high outside a major tech hub and because we work on the internet, I'm still very involved. I recommend you watch this video about Chris Coyier / CSS Tricks. He runs one of the biggest web development websites around, two podcasts and CodePen from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ▶ this video