Josh’s unconventional marketing blog published a post today focusing on Michael Marcil of Fargo, North Dakota.  Marcil is the founder and CEO of the Marcil Group.  This four year old company relocated to North Dakota from California and has had tremendous business success.

I especially appreciated these comments from the post:

A majority of my conversation with Michael was focused on the unbelievably bright economic future North Dakota has and how that will transform the state’s citizens. In a time of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with the sub-prime housing mess and skyrocketing commodities such as oil and wheat, the only downside for North Dakota is its chilly winters. Just about everything else in the state will benefit greatly due to the rise in oil and food prices. Michael shared his love for all the different types of energy our state has the potential to produce and pictures North Dakota becoming the “Dubai of North America.” In case you didn’t know, North Dakota is very rich in agriculture, coal, oil and wind. Michael Marcil spent roughly 10 years in the dot com industry with his hand in a few projects like food.com and many, many more. Through consulting, he built up his management and development company extremely fast. So fast, that The Marcil Group has grown over 800% in three years. Not only that, but the company has been in positive cash flow every quarter since inception. It takes a man with a grand vision to grow and expand a company that fast. I have no reason to believe there is any slowing down in his future. The sky is the limit.

With regards to the chilly winters, I just have to say people should come in August.  It seems like we get about two weeks of extremely hot temperature that compensate for the roughly two weeks of very icy temperature we get in January/February.  Our weather here is more of a pendulum situation than a static cold spell. 

Granted, that’s all a perception thing.  But back to the post:  with our wind potential, coal and oil production–including the Bakken formation–some people are beginning to look at North Dakota as the Dubai of North America.  That could be a very good thing for everyone.  Regardless of the winters.