In 1975, Bob Smalling’s family moved from the Eastside of Indianapolis to Mooresville. He enrolled as a sophomore at Mooresville High School. When he graduated, he was not certain of his path.

Smalling started out following in his father’s footsteps as an electrician. “I loved it and made good money,” Smalling said. But he had always wanted to own his own business. “I looked at business owners and I thought they were making a very good living. I had this idea that it was a way to build wealth.”

One thing is for certain, you never know when you will meet someone who will change your life. That person for Rich Myers was a good friend of his father who would come by their Eminence home to visit. His name was Rod Katter.

Katter was a policeman. Myers said, “I knew him, saw him, and saw what he represented: law and order.” He would show up in his crisp, sharp uniform and washed car, and young Myers saw what he wanted to be when he grew up – a policeman.

Engineer Brian Figg turns creativity and persistence into success

Like many youngsters who grew up in Speedway Indiana the sound of racecars flat out on the track fueled Brian Figg’s dreams of being a race car driver. The proximity of race shops and the cottage industries surrounding them offered the junior high student opportunities to explore the industry. “Racing was my desire, my passion,” Figg said. “I kept telling Amy Watson, daughter of A. J. Watson (renown racecar chief mechanic and winner of 6 Indy 500s), I was going to come out to work at her dad’s shop on Indy cars. I think she got tired of me saying that and finally one day she told me that her dad said I should come on out.” Figg did so and immediately got put to work washing body parts and waxing wheels. “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” Figg said.

Water Solutions Unlimited is making water safe and healthy.

Making that decision required changes in the distribution process. Special trucks and specifically trained and certified HazMat drivers were essential. To economically accommodate distribution, Water Solutions opened distribution warehouses in East Peoria, Illinois in 2013 and in 2019, another in Jackson,
Michigan.

Dave Nash graduated from Ball State with a marketing degree. He joined the media industry in newspaper advertising. “I enjoyed that work,” he said. “It was a way to help businesses in the community meet their goals.

“When I was working at my first newspaper in Elkhart Indiana, there was an opening at the local Y for a sports director,” said Nash. “It paid so little that I didn’t feel I could do that.” But he views that opportunity a little differently now, as the CEO for the Barbara B. Jordan YMCA he said, “This is my passion. This is what I was born to do.”

Keith Smith’s introduction to landscaping came when he was 18 years old and went to work as a laborer for a family friend. The first day, he was tasked with shoveling 30 yards of pine bark, by himself, and he loved it. Although he didn’t know it at the time, that day was the beginning of a 30-year profession. It was part-time and he kept at the landscaping business through high school and even through two years of college while pursuing studies in finance and business.