.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} At last week’s Power Breakfast event, sponsored by this newspaper, some attention was paid to a problem so common that it’s easily ignored, so benign-sounding that it hardly seems to demand a solution. But it’s important.

It’s Iowa’s inferiority complex.

In the audience was a man who grew up in Los Angeles and has lived in Colorado – two-for-two on the coolness scale – and decided to settle in Central Iowa. He asked the panel how we can make Iowans aware of the overly humble attitude that’s obvious to outsiders, and what we can do to change it.

“Make some noise,” Ted Townsend said. “When you hear someone say what we cannot do, tell them they’re wrong.”

Once we get some big accomplishments under our belt, the problem will resolve itself, he said. No doubt he was putting in a plug for his Earthpark dream, but it’s still a valid point.

Steve Chapman, however, rejected the premise. We don’t have an inferiority complex, he said. Because some other regions of the country tend to be a bit, shall we say, arrogant, our conservative, genuine approach just looks submissive by comparison.

He told a story about opening an ITAGroup office out East and running into problems. Then the company assigned Iowans to get things straightened out and “you can’t believe how sales took off,” Chapman said.

When positive comments rolled in about the service, someone out there said, “It’s a Des Moines thing.”

Moments like that serve as a perfect starting point.

The fact that we’re still tossing around the inferiority complex label suggests that we’re conscious of some reticence in ourselves.

And if we’re already impressing outsiders with what we consider standard operating procedure, well, that’s proof that we have lots to be confident about.

“We need to be proud,” Chapman said, “but we never need to be arrogant.”

We can leave worries about arrogance to the next generation.