The entrepreneur has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, North Dakota.

• Jaymes O’Pheron is an entrepreneur who has lived all over the world.
• He and his wife moved from Washington state to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.
• O’Pheron said the Midwest locale is his favorite because of its strong community.

This essay is based on a conversation with Jaymes O’Pheron, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who moved from Aberdeen, Washington, to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.

of Fargo-Moorhead areahome to about 261,000 people, has seen significant population growth in recent years and is expected to reach almost 340,000 people by 2045, a growth rate of 35%, according to the Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp.

My family is a bit strange. I am the oldest of eight and grew up in a very sheltered, religious-minded family. I spent most of my childhood in Washington state, outside of Vancouver and across the river from Portland. When I was 17, my dad got a job in Texas, so we moved to the South.

After that, we deliberately decided as a family to leave America. We chose Ireland because, at the time, it was the last English-speaking nation that did not allow abortion. We wanted to support him.

I absolutely loved Ireland. The weather, the people, the history, the language, the food, the music, the pace of life, the cities, the way it’s designed — it’s very much in common.

However, after four years in Ireland, some personal issues prompted me to return to Washington in 2012. I met my wife in Aberdeen and we got married in 2018.

But we knew we weren’t going to hang around Washington forever. We had experienced several health problems that we eventually traced back to mold allergies. We realized we were biologically incompatible with mold and how humid and moldy the Northwest is. We couldn’t live there.

We wanted to find a permanent home, so we started researching possible places to move in 2019.

We’ve tried to be intentional about where we’ve ended up. We narrowed it down to a few countries with favorable economic and regulatory aspects and a positive culture.

Then we visited Fargo, and we knew this was the place. We officially moved in May 2021.

Fargo is very startup friendly

I am a serial entrepreneur. I can’t stop starting things, both non-profit and for-profit. At the moment, I am mainly focusing on my non-profit organization, which is focused on empowering people to be change makers in their communities.

I am also an independent career performance, communication, networking and burnout prevention coach.

The community support here in Fargo is incredible. This was extremely important as I was trying to build my coaching business. I needed a larger metro hub to network, but I also needed a favorable regulatory environment for small business startups.

Fargo is a great place for small business startups, a big part of which is the community. People understand that we need to support each other. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally difficult and risky. Having people around you to cheer you on and have your back is incredibly valuable.

This community support is unique from all the other places I have lived. You can go out and make friends with anyone.

We are definitely putting down roots here. We want our great-grandchildren to live here, so we started looking for a place to buy.

We found a nice house. I am on the HOA board. There are many benefits and assistance in North Dakota for first-time homebuyers.

In Washington, I lived in a studio apartment. We paid about the same rate here in Fargo for our two-bedroom apartment, which was double the square footage, just outside of downtown.

It is one of the best places in the country in terms of the ratio between low cost of living and high paying jobs. The quality of life is high. There are many job opportunities here.

Fargo is my favorite place I’ve lived

I just love Fargo. It’s my favorite of all the places I’ve lived because I have all my favorite people here. I have better friends here than I have had in my entire life. My favorite part is the community.

When we first drove to Fargo, it felt like we were driving home. There is something about the scale of the city that is very accessible. It’s a bustling downtown area, but it also has that small-town feel. It feels very safe and welcoming.

We had new friends from church help us move into an apartment right away. We met the pastor when we first got to Fargo, and he called the parish and everyone showed up to help us.

Because it is a university town, there is a lot of youthful energy and idealism. It also borders Minnesota, a blue state. So Fargo is a real purple town. There is a wide variety of thoughts and opinions. People actually have conversations, which is interesting.

The only thing we were waiting to adjust to was the weather. We have made sure that we have done all the preparation. We changed the car battery and got the right types of tires.

We had a really hard winter the first year there. But it was fun. I dumped the snow from our yard into the bathtub and took an ice bath. The cold weather actually leads to the quality of the community here. People help each other because we are all in this together.

Fargo is growing fast. One of the issues we are dealing with is where to put all the people. We don’t want to create high prices or spread too far so people can’t travel. The city is trying to achieve that balance of small-town heart and big-city body that we love so much.

As a seasoned coach, I know the silver bullet is community. We need to be able to connect with the people around us authentically. Loneliness is killing us. So it’s a luxury to have people here in Fargo that I can count on.

I think others who value community should check out Fargo. It’s an amazing place to be.