Inspiration and education stir the minds of visitors at the UMKC’s Entrepreneur Hall of Fame! College is not scary, it’s an opportunity for growth! And, it’s a fun learning experience at the Hall of Fame. Learn how normal individuals of all ages became successful entrepreneurs. They transformed opportunity into a career of success, where they became their own boss and determined their own opportunity and the dimensions of their own playing field in life. Many transformed a humble life into a successful and rewarding endeavor impacting multiple generations! Often you will hear an entrepreneur say that after becoming an entrepreneur, they never again worked a day in their life, for they were enjoying the passion they were pursuing! Thus, it never seemed like work!
Minds need food for thought. That is what the inductees into the UMKC Hall of Fame deliver to most who visit. Expansion of the mind–that is known as education! Come and learn, perhaps it will result in earning in a new way that ultimately allows you to yearn to return to others.
My wife, Judy, and I pursue this idea for a decade with three Deans and Chancellor Leo Morton before the concept became a reality.
Henry Bloch, who was a prototypical entrepreneur, began his entrepreneurial career walking the streets of Kansas City seeking anyone who needed his tax expertise. Each inductee into the Hall of Fame is asked to provide an artifact that impacted his/her entrepreneurial success. Henry provided a copy of his own income tax submission for his first year as an entrepreneur. Today, it shocks many who see his first meager income tax submission as they envision the 18-story high-rise headquarters in downtown Kansas City that reflects his lifetime of success in building H & R Block. How does one go from such a meager beginning to such a profound and generous entrepreneur? Henry has often summarized it in a single word: perseverance–a trait that all entrepreneurs need to nourish to succeed. It is joined by fellow ‘p’ words such as planning, passion, persistence, and real performance!
Henry’s success teaches us much about the thought process and diligence of an entrepreneur. And, overall other inductees have somewhat similar yet amazingly different pathways that inspire and educate visitors. Yes, come and learn and leave with renewed inspiration!
Examples of inductees and their fields of expertise that have been inducted into the UMKC Entrepreneur Hall of Fame include: Ewing Kaufmann (pharmaceuticals & KC Royals), Lamar Hunt (oil and gas, the American Football League, and his Kansas City Chiefs), Ollie Gates (BBQ), John McDonald (beer), Paul Malouk (financial services), Pat McCown & Brett Gordon (construction), Paul Malouk (financial services), Marcelo Claure (telecommunications, Annie Hurlbut (clothing attire), Tom McDonnellMcDonnell (Mutual Funds), William Dunn (construction) & the list goes on!
Visit the Entrepreneur Hall of Fame on the UMKC campus. It is located on the first floor of the Henry W. Bloch Executive Hall for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at 5108 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO; there is a digital display next door in the Bloch School of Management to the south of the Hall of Fame, Here at the Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, you can learn more by reading, watching, absorbing, conceiving as you learn more about the fabulous lives of successful entrepreneurs.
If you live locally or have visitors in town who have not experienced the UMKC Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, please visit, learn, and be inspired by the rigors, challenges, and rewards entrepreneurs have experienced in navigating their concept into a rewardingly successful life that has allowed many entrepreneurs to impact the lives of many others! Perhaps such a visit will transform someone’s life into a future UMKC Entrepreneur Hall of Fame inductee!
Dr. Joe & Judy Roetheli, North Kansas City Couplepreneurs