Entrepreneurial Spirit in NW Minnesota

[star2city]

Central Boiler record profits - expands manufacturing to lawnmowers - to hire hundreds

Anybody have any clues into how rural NW Minnesota is capable of starting companies and growing them into major employers?

Central Boiler is just the lastest.

Digi-Key in Thief River is well over 1000 employees and has been adding at a rapid pace.

Polaris in Roseau has taken on Japanese companies with new products and done well.

Arctic Cat still doing well.

Marvin Windows - the housing economy hurts - but surviving a very difficult downturn.

In all of ND, only Melroe Bobcat has really risen from nothing as a manufacturing company into a national name: but it is owned by Koreans.

What's the secret of NW Minnesota? If those companies didn't exist, places like Roseau, Warroad, and Thief River Falls would be fractions of their current size.

Imagine what a similar company could have done for Devils Lake, Valley City, Langdon, Cavalier, or even Grand Forks.

[moser53]

Politicians especially when they campaign are always talking about bringing good paying jobs to there state. What do you consider a good paying job. If the job has healthcare and pays enough for the wife to stay at home to raise the kids it's a helluva job. How many jobs are out there like that. The % of families in America that needs 2 incomes is what 99%.

The reason I bring this up is what I heard on KFGO recenty. A guy walked up to Rick Berg and asked him what is a good paying job. I guess Rick didn't have an answer. That's a shocker.