As Thomas Alva Edison Once Said, Opportunity is Missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Jesse Dunsmoor, a 21-year-old business development intern at Minnesota Power (Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.), not only recognizes opportunity, he isn't afraid to go in search of it. No matter if he's attending college classes, interning or growing the investment holding company he founded, Dunsmoor knows that sometimes in life you have to make your own breaks.

“If you want to do something and you're really passionate about it, then you can't sit around and wait for an opportunity to come to you,” he advised. “You have to go out and create one. I think it's important to convey to people that you have something to add — that you can help them out in some way. By doing this, they will realize your value and let you prove yourself.”

A full-time student at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), Dunsmoor did exactly that when seeking a summer internship to complement his economics major and finance minor. Instead of going the traditional route and applying for advertised employment positions, he approached Jim Vizanko, a professor who teaches finance classes at UMD and is the former CFO of ALLETE, the parent company of Minnesota Power.

“I wanted to explore investment opportunities at utilities, and Professor Vizanko recommended I contact ALLETE,” he explained. “So, I wrote a letter to the company's vice president of business development. He handed it off to one of his managers who, in turn, contacted me. Through a series of conversations and interviews over the course of the next year, the company actually created an internship and hired me for it.”

The quality of Dunsmoor's work — which he says involves performing industry and company research to identify opportunities in or related to Minnesota Power's core business — has so impressed his colleagues that the company decided to keep him on part time through the end of this year. Compared to some of his classmates with internships, Dunsmoor finds his work at Minnesota Power is helping prepare him for a real-life career in business.

“I'm performing work that people at the company actually make decisions based on,” he said. “I think it's fascinating to attend meetings and talk to different people and companies to figure out how the business world works and how corporate decisions are made.”

Although Dunsmoor is confident about his chosen career path, he admits he wasn't always so certain. Raised in the rural town of Eagle River, Wisconsin, U.S., Dunsmoor enjoyed discovering how things function by taking them apart and putting them back together. For a while, he thought he might want try his hand at engineering. “Then, my family got a satellite dish,” he remembered. “My dad started watching CNBC every day, and I'd watch along with him. That's how I became interested in following the stock market.”

After attending the Conserve School, a private college-preparatory boarding high school for students who share an interest and concern for the environment, located in Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin, Dunsmoor entered UMD to study medicine. “In high school, I wasn't as motivated as I am now. I went to college thinking I wanted to be a doctor but changed my mind after taking chemistry,” he laughed. “I switched majors a couple of times during my first year of college based on different classes I took. But once I found how much I liked economics, I got more passionate about learning.”

In addition to helping him obtain his internship, Dunsmoor has used his knowledge of economics and finance to launch JD Investment Strategies, an investment holding company. The company, which was founded in 2005 when the budding businessman was just 18 years old, is now in its third full year of operation. “I wanted to form a company to raise some money to buy a piece of property,” he recalled. “But with the limited amount of capital I had, it made more sense to invest in stocks. I started doing that, and I loved it. This eventually evolved into JD Investment Strategies.”

Despite his hectic work and school schedule, Dunsmoor manages to find time to pursue his love of outdoor activities, including mountain biking, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, water skiing, boating and wakeboarding. His favorite activity, however, is spending time with his fiancee Kely, an accounting major. The couple has set a wedding date for June 2009, after they both graduate.

Future professional plans include working for a utility in some capacity, pursuing an MBA or CFA, as well as continuing to grow his investment holding company.

“The other evening, I was reading through a bunch of different industry reports,” Dunsmoor said. “I suddenly realized that this is something I like doing even in my free time, so it's both my hobby and my job. When you find a career you truly enjoy, then it really isn't work anymore.”