I heard you die twice, once when they bury you in the grave And the second time is the last time that somebody mentions your name

- Macklemore, Glorious

Part 1 - Rural Towns

I’ve been doing research for my startup by asking people much smarter than me to answer a few questions.

Keith Heaton, the Community Development Director at the State of Utah’s Housing and Community Development Division, is one of these smart people. I asked him questions about the challenges of local governments. He told me something about rural towns that struck me on a personal level.

He said that many small, rural towns have had an economic development strategy he labeled “chasing smokestacks”. He suggested that perhaps rural towns would have more success if they would spend more time and resources nurturing and cultivating the businesses they already have in town rather than chasing down big retailers and businesses (‘smokestacks’) and trying to convince them to open up shop in their small town.

Part 2 - Zombie Friends

Poet and fashion icon of the proletariat Macklemore raps that people die twice, once physically, and once when they are no longer mentioned.

I have unwittingly turned many of my personal and professional connections into personal zombies by killing them in the second way. People who aren’t dead in real life, but that I’ve fallen out of touch with (I haven’t “mentioned their name”). They are out there, alive and well, but just not to me.

Part 3 - De-zombiefying

To apply Keith’s reasoning about small towns, I have not spent enough time focusing on the “businesses I already have in town” (the friends and acquaintances I already have), due to the allure of “chasing smokestacks” (seeking new potential connections).

I’ve turned many people in my life into zombies, and that is a formula for a personal ghost town of connections. So I’m going to start to de-zombiefying the good people I’ve had in my life that I’ve let slip away.