America Isn't Completely Finished

A friend forwarded me this marvelously encouraging article about a teenager who saw a market opportunity, and went for it.  From the September 3, 2012 Santa Rosa Press-Democrat:

ALEXANDER, N.D. - It took little more than a day for 18-year-old Evan Jensen to smell opportunity in North Dakota's booming oil patch.

The recent high school graduate got a whiff of himself and his 21-year-old brother, Justin. The two had been sleeping in a pickup while looking for work in the oil fields of western North Dakota.

"We smelled," he said. "Bad."

Thousands of workers have descended on the region to seek their fortune in the oil fields, and housing construction and growth of brick-and-mortar businesses haven't kept up. The closest shower to Jensen was at a truck stop some 60 miles away. It was expensive, filthy and the wait was several hours long.

With some help from father and friends, they converted a 53-foot semitrailer into a five shower system that he can move to where it is needed, and charges $10 per shower, no time limit.  The $15,000 in capital he made from trapping muskrats for sale to China.  Now:

He recently advertised the business on Craigslist at $95,000 and hopes to use the proceeds to pay for four years of tuition at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minn.

But remember what President Obama said: He didn't build that business.  Someone else did.

UPDATE: Now at August 24, 2012 CNN.