I’ll be moving to Indianapolis from San Diego by the end of the year. I happened to be in Indy last weekend and read the Star article about this site on the plane ride home. The subject matter alone grabbed my interest but then I saw a name I recognized. I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Pat Coyle at the end of July. In many ways, I think my interaction with Pat is indicative of what I like about the Midwest.
I grew up in Madison, graduated from IU Bloomington and then lived in Chicago for 8 years. I decided I wanted to “get out of the Midwest” and have lived in San Diego for a little over two years. I must admit that San Diego, consistently ranked as one of the best places to live, is as good as advertised. Of course, it also comes with a hefty price tag but it’s not the housing market that has driven so many others away that is motivating my relocation. I don’t like being so far away from my family, some close college friends, and the Midwestern lifestyle that was ingrained in me over the first 30 years of my life.
I debated moving back to the Midwest for months. I started off with the mindset that moving to Indy would definitely be a downgrade from San Diego, and so the debate wasn’t San Diego vs. Indy. as much as it was San Diego vs. Family. At that point “having to live in Indy” was something I would have to deal with if I ended up choosing family.
I decided to start looking for jobs in Indy just to see what was available. I work in the Internet/digital marketing space and must admit that I found the job market in Indy to be pretty restrictive. I only identified a handful of companies that I felt were potential employers. But I got lucky. I reached out to Pat, completely out of the blue. I explained my background and my desire to move back home. To his credit, Pat didn’t just hang up on me, instead he extended a helping hand. I sent him my resume, he passed it along to some contacts at other companies and I landed two interviews. To make a long story short, I was at the point of accepting a position with one of those companies when my current employer decided to create a new position for me that will allow me to work remotely from Indy and that is what I will be doing.
At some point during the job search process, my attitude towards Indy changed. I started thinking about all the ways that Indy has improved. I thought about how Circle Center Mall transformed what used to be Naptown into a vibrant downtown. I thought about the excitement of being able to cheer on my Colts surrounded by fellow Blue Backers. I thought about the short drive down to Bloomington to watch as IU climbed back atop the men’s basketball world. I thought about quick trips to Cincinnati to watch the Reds. I thought about weekend trips to Chicago. I thought about the cost of living indices that show Indianapolis to be 40% less expensive than San Diego. I thought about actually being able to afford my own home. I thought about living around people who aren’t self-absorbed. I tried not to think about the rain and cold winters. And then I realized….
I’m not just choosing my family. I’m choosing Indy because it’s a great place to live and has a lot to offer. Yes, indeed. I choose Indy.
1 response so far ↓
Pat Coyle // Sep 2nd 2006 at 8:46 am
OK. So I read this post and I could barely restrain the “AMEN”! THAT’S what we’re talking about. People helping people. But here’s the rest of that story…
I get a call from a guy who needs help. I look at his resume and it’s strong. I take 2 seconds and come up with a couple of companies that might fit, Crowe Chizek and ExactTarget. So I forward the resume on.
Crowe is one of the largest and most successful consulting companies in the world. ExactTarget (ET) is one of the fastest growing E mail marketing companies - which just made the INC 500.
I was able to refer to ExactTarget because my friend, Daren Tomey, works there. How did he get his job at ET? Well, Daren went out of his way one day to help me. He came to a post-work strategy session to help me think through a business problem I was having. At that session he happened to meet Scott Dorsey, one of the founders of ExactTarget, who was also volunteering his time to help me that night. So unless these two guys went out of their way to help me, I would not have been in a position to help.
Meanwhile, Paul Thomas, at Crowe Chizek also took time to consider the resume. I send a couple of resumes per month over to Paul and he always finds time to help, not because it’s part of his job, but just because I ask (and I try not to send him things that don’t fit).
And the only reason I know people at Crowe and ET is that I work at the Colts. And the only reason I work at the Colts is that Jim Irsay decided to give me a chance. (By the way, this I Choose Indy blog wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the efforts of Doug Karr, another ET executive who goes out of his way to help me with lots of my hairbrained schemes. Thanks, Doug).
So you see - people are the most valuable natural resource. We tend to take this for granted, like the air we breath, because we don’t have to pay for all the people we know. People are just there. On the other hand, we can make investments of time and energy into other people. And as this case illustrates, a few minutes investment shared across a network of people can lift a person, and an entire community, toward his goals.
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