Sometimes you hear people clamoring about economic development and the need to attract good-paying jobs in Albert Lea.

Indeed, Albert Lea should continue to recruit companies, but the people who moan should think about this aspect, too:

Many cities prosper because of their home-grown jobs.

Microsoft didn&8217;t just pick the Seattle area. Bill Gates and his friends grew up there and built the company there. Hormel didn&8217;t locate in Austin. The Hormel family is from there. 3M isn&8217;t in Minnesota because it did a nationwide search. State residents know the three M&8217;s are Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing.

Take those big examples and consider all the work done when those companies were small and wanting to grow. Locals made it happen one step at a time.

Mrs. Gerry&8217;s Kitchen packaging hot salsa for Casa Zamora is an excellent example of local cooperation &8212; two local companies working together for mutual benefit.

Encouraging that economic atmosphere locally is every bit as important for development as is recruiting companies from outside the region.

Do the complainers want good-paying jobs? Then they should go out there and engage in the entrepreneurial spirit that makes home-grown companies grow.

Who knows? Maybe one day Mrs. Gerry&8217;s will go from a regional product to a national product known in households from Hawaii to Maine, but it will never happen unless everyone in Albert Lea pitches in to support our local company.

Not just the movers and shakers, either. Everyone. The whole town.