I write a lot about mobile gaming and AI on this blog, so this one’s a bit different. On [date], the Rocky Mount Telegram published an op-ed I wrote about remote work and what it means for a town like this one.

I had about 400 words to make the case, which meant a lot got cut that I wish I’d kept. But the core of it is simple. Rocky Mount doesn’t have a talent problem. It has a distance problem. The people who leave aren’t chasing a different town, they’re chasing opportunity that happens to sit somewhere else. Remote work is what let my family close that distance without giving up the career I’d spent twenty years building.

Below is the full piece as it ran in the Telegram on September 24th, 2026.

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Rocky Mount does not have a talent problem. It has a distance problem. The people who leave to build a career are not looking for a different town, they are looking for opportunity, and right now that opportunity mostly waits for them somewhere else.

OK, I’m tired of hearing the work-life balance commentary and nonsense. Over the 16 years I have been doing startups, there have been countless articles written on how you can balance work and life all of the time, specifically when referencing startups and early stage companies where the push for company viability and survival is so critical and demanding. Well, let me give everyone some advice and insight:

THERE IS NO WORK-LIFE BALANCE when starting or running a startup, especially if you are married and have children.

Welcome to the Startups, Code, and Shit, I mean Life blog! My name is Michael Raeford, and I will be your tour guide on this journey, from an African-American male perspective, into a world involving the ups and downs of startups, business, personal life, gaming, the world at large, and managing what I call “the imbalance of work-life balance”.