While waiting to be seated at one of my favorite local restaurants I decided to play a word game. "What is the word that makes Portland so special?" I asked myself. The secret to its success? At the top of "best of" lists across the nation and the world? And even closer to home, it is growing while every where else seems to be declining. In Maine, the census confirmed state with the oldest population, Portland still has a healthy balance. What is it that brings young people to Portland, and that young people bring to Portland? The Opportunity here is more than just proximity to Boston, it is deliberate work to cultivate local Entrepreneurship. Yes, young people want jobs, but we want to be more than a nametag in a faceless conglomerate. We want more than to just work for someone, we want to work towards something. We need Mentors, we need to be able to look around and see positive role models of people who have done it, who took the risk, who started their own business, and found a community there Supporting them.
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