Yesterday I boarded a plane in Bismarck, ND having spent all week in the western part of the state giving talks twice a day in seven towns. Mike Fladeland of Montana-Dakota Utilities, which sponsored my trip, Scott Molander, one of my favorite entrepreneurs, along with Deb Dragseth and Scott Hanson of Dickinson State University accompanied me on this 800 mile journey. We were on the road from 7 in the morning until 10 or 11 at night every day, touring communities, meeting entrepreneurs and hopefully inspiring a person or two of what they can do for their community at each of my 7 talks. And, I had a great time!
The scenery was breathtaking (especially the Badlands), the wildlife abundant (we must have seen a hundred pheasants from Dickinson to Hettinger), the conversation stimulating (Scott and I came up with a great idea to capture permanent benefits from the current oil boom—more on that in a blog next week), but the highlight was meeting so many local residents who were working to better their small towns. They were genuinely looking for ways to create more opportunities so that their kids and grandkids would have the type of opportunities that they enjoyed. I’m going to be writing about some of them over the next week, including this weekend just because I’ve got so much great material.
Dickinson State is taking a very proactive approach to developing the skills of entrepreneurs in North Dakota. They were hosting their fifth annual Entrepreneuring in North Dakota Conference, which had over 400 attendees. It is underwritten by a couple who graduated from DSU, taught school, ran a restaurant and then made it big in Silicon Valley real estate. I’ll have more on their story in a future blog.
The people were very friendly. I hope to get back very soon.
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Once you get to decide that you're going to stay in North Dakota for good, you should check out the great properties offered by 55thcrossing.com.
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