The Leaving Problem · Part 1 of 2. One of my clients moved his whole operation south. The opportunity wasn’t the problem. That should stop all of us cold.
One of my clients recently moved his entire investing operation to the United States. Capital. Plans. Ambition. All of it, south.
Ambitious, coachable, self-driven… honestly, most of the people I work with are. They’re already out there doing the work. They just know what the right coach adds to it. And here’s the uncomfortable part. I helped him run the analysis that sent him there.
We worked together the better part of a year. And this is where it gets interesting, because Alberta is my backyard and my expertise.
When we stacked the Alberta opportunity against every US market on his list… Alberta won. Not by a hair. The numbers here were as strong or stronger than anything he was looking at down south.
And he STILL chose to go.
So why?
Not the deal. The deal was here. Not my support either… I gave him everything. Goals, accountability, the hard conversations, real results.
It came down to two things I can’t put in a spreadsheet, weather and lifestyle, and one thing I’d underweighted. Optionality. The US handed him dozens of viable markets to choose from. Up here, a handful.
It wasn’t the opportunity. It was the optionality.
Read that again, because it’s the whole thing.
Everyone’s Fighting the Wrong Fight
I thought about him hard this week, because my feed caught fire.
Gad Saad posted that he’d met with his accountant and found out what it’ll cost him in “exit tax” to leave Quebec and Canada. Numb, he said. Speechless.
Quick context. Saad is a Concordia professor, marketing on paper, but known publicly for his work in evolutionary psychology. He’s also a polarizing, outspoken figure who picks a hill and plants a flag. You don’t have to agree with a word he says. But agree or not, the man takes a firm position and stands on it. In a country full of fence-sitters, that counts for something.
The post detonated. 71,000 likes. 10,000 reposts. 7,600 replies. 4.1 million views. War in the comments. Everyone with a take on the tax.
I’m not going to argue the tax. Canada’s departure tax isn’t new… it’s a deemed-disposition rule that’s been on the books for years. Fair, unfair, fight about it on your own time.
Because everyone is standing at the toll booth screaming about the price… while the real story walks right past them.
Here’s what my client taught me that the whole internet is missing:
The best people don’t leave over money.
He left a market with a better deal than anything he found down south. If a world-class OPPORTUNITY won’t hold a sharp builder, an exit TAX definitely won’t. You can’t tax your way out of a leaving problem… because the leaving was never really about the money.
The Part That Cost Me a Renewal
And here’s the part that cost me something.
When renewal came up, I didn’t re-sign him.
Not because I couldn’t hold him accountable. I could, and he’d have gotten results. But something was missing. What he needed next was boots-on-the-ground knowledge in markets I don’t operate in. I’m an Alberta guy. The honest move was to send him forward with my blessing, not cling to a renewal.
I’m agnostic about WHERE you invest. Genuinely. I want your money working as hard as it possibly can, in whatever market makes that true. And sometimes the right person in your corner for that market isn’t me. Saying so out loud, even when it costs me the renewal, is the actual job.
These aren’t quiet exits, either. The builders with capital, crews, and platforms don’t slip out the back. They make noise. They bring people with them. One investor crossing the border becomes a line forming behind them.
Now here’s the part that kept me up.
Some of what pulled him south, you cannot fix. You can’t manufacture two dozen new markets overnight. You can’t change the weather. So if the things tugging at your best people are partly out of your hands… the only question worth asking is what’s actually IN your hands.
Hold that thought. It’s the whole of Part 2.
Your Move Today
But before you join the toll-booth fight, or start browsing Phoenix listings yourself, get clear-eyed instead of emotional. Your move today:
- Name the real driver. Opportunity, optionality, lifestyle, or tax. Be honest about which one is actually pulling you. Most people blame the tax when it’s really the lifestyle, or blame the market when it’s really the number of doors.
- Run the real comparison. Stack your home market against the ones you’re dreaming about. On numbers, not vibes. Alberta holds up against a lot more than people assume. That’s a whole other conversation, and one I love having.
- Decide on purpose, not in a panic. A tweet is not a strategy. Choose your market the way you’d choose a partner… eyes open, numbers clear.
Simple. Not easy.
This is the exact conversation I’m having with operators every week. Some are staying and doubling down. Some are looking south and need a clear head and clean numbers to do it right. I’ll run YOUR comparison with you and tell you the truth… even when the truth is “go, and here’s the kind of person you need on the ground.” Book a free call.
The best people leave for reasons most of us won’t look at honestly. Naming them is step one. What to actually DO about it, how you become the kind of leader and the kind of country people don’t want to leave, that’s next.
In your corner,
Russell Westcott
#Inspire # Encourage #Love
P.S. Part 2 picks up the question this leaves you with. If you can’t tax or penalize anyone into staying, what actually keeps them? The answer surprised me, and it started with a story Jack Canfield once told about Richard Branson.
