Mark Hinton and Elton Klaustermeier stretch their definition of “customer service” miles beyond smiles. To them, the term means much more than common courtesy or on-time delivery.

Perhaps that’s why the “broken-down mill” they bought in 1973 survived to thrive as Big Gain, Inc., a major regional manufacturer of livestock and poultry feeds. Today Big Gain’s more than 100 employees formulate, manufacture, sell and deliver feed to dealers and beef, swine, dairy, sheep and poultry producers in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Some folks hide from their heritage, denying their humble origin. They prefer to believe they’ve never been anywhere but up, never anything but successful, self-assured and solvent.

Wes Schuck scratched his plan to become a lawyer. Kristi Schuck, his wife, put aside her majors in health fitness and health education.

Instead, they decided to “live a dream” and start Two Fish Recording Studios in Mankato in 1997.

Artie Ayers hunted geese and duck in the swamps of Maryland’s Eastern Shore with Curty Gowdy, was a “wudderman” who owned seven crab and oyster boats on the Chesapeake Bay, ran fishing expeditions out of Ocean City, had his own national TV show called Sportsman’s Showcase, but none of it prepared him for Minnesota’s harsh winters – only the people of Minnesota did, who warmed his heart so much he left a Maryland he loved for them.

If you’re reading this after January 1, 2000, by candlelight, shivering next to a dead computer, then Bob Dale was wrong about the impact of Y2K.

As 1999 waned, he believed that 2000 would make a benign arrival, with computer clocks and calendars clicking into the new millennium relatively glitch-free. “There might be some minor inconveniences, but I’m not moving to northern Minnesota and digging my own well,” he said, defining a minor inconvenience as finding your supermarket short on some items because less confident individuals stocked up on canned goods or their favorite cereal.