The guy that started his own business four years before he could
drive
First off was Brent Comstock, CEO
of bCom Tech Solutions. Brent is a bright 16-year-old who
started his own tech company when he was just 12. He shared the importance of being passionate about
your small business and gave some advice for those in the audience who were
looking to be entrepreneurs in the future: First, you have to find a need in a
community, then you have to acquire the skills to fix that need. Finally, you need to market that need
to the public. He learned several
tech skills to help out the population of his small hometown, Auburn, Nebraska,
and was an instant success.
Healthy employees = cheaper employees
The next speaker in the Inspire Talk series
was Matt Condon from the Athletic Rehabilitation Center
(ARC), who spoke about “Health and Wellness.” He shared some scary stats about how as American becomes
more obese, the percentage of the GDP spent on healthcare positively correlates
as well. Most of these financial
burdens are taken on by the companies who provide healthcare to the
employees. His solution? Get your employees fit and healthy (and
not just so you can win the “Kansas City’s Sexiest Office” award)! As small business owners, you can help
save yourself money by encouraging your employees to get off the couch and go
for a run; it’s even worth investing some of the company’s money in, too.
Just get up and exercise already, America!
Finally, Don Peterson of Big Iris
spoke on “Big Data and The End of Wisdom.” Although he said he would need hours to explain the concept
of big data to the audience, he also had an interesting perspective on the
healthcare industry. He
criticized doctors for not encouraging their patients to do the one thing that
vastly reduces the presence of cardiovascular disease – getting up and
exercising (maybe iKC panelist Micah LaCerte of Hitch Fit should’ve been speaking at Inspire Talks, too?). He mentioned a study from the early
1930’s that showed people who had more active jobs drastically reduced their
likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke later in life (it may be time to
become a professional dogwalker!)
The audience members left for their
break feeling inspired to get up and work hard to solve the world’s problems
(thanks, Brent!) and to later jog off that jumbo cookie that was in the iKC
2012 lunch box.
