Barry Moltz, an internationally recognized speaker and member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, will deliver a keynote address to kick off National Entrepreneur Week at the University of Missouri-Rolla at noon on Monday, Feb. 26. 

Moltz, author of “You Need to be a Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business,” speaks at more than 100 business events per year. He has been starting businesses for the last 15 years with a great degree of success and failure. He has co-founded three separate start-up companies, including SciTech, a direct mail catalog and e-commerce reseller of scientific, engineering and technical software.         

Moltz has twice been named one of the Top 100 people in Chicago’s high-tech community by I-Street Magazine. In 2005, he was appointed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to serve on the board of the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education. He also teaches entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology.         

Moltz debunks the myths of business start-ups by telling the truth: You have to be little crazy to start a business. He delivers humorous straight talk about financial health, physical well-being, spiritual wholeness and family life. His perspective is augmented with other personal tales from the entrepreneurial front.         

Moltz offers insight to anyone who has started a business or is thinking about starting one. Among his favorite topics are the roles of luck and timing in success, channeling craziness, staying focused by striving for “minimal achievement,” and developing the resilience to ride the waves of success and failure.        

“I heard Barry speak at a national conference this past summer, and he’s funny and easy to listen to,” says Barry White, program manager for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach at UMR. “He’s been there and done that in the business world. Barry has failed in business more times than he has been successful. He shares those stories in a way that anyone in business can identify with. You can actually learn from his mistakes.”       

Moltz wrote the foreword to “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans,” published by the Penguin Group in 2005. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a master’s of business administration from Northwestern University.         

The general public is invited to attend Moltz’s free talk, which will be held in St. Pat’s Room C of the Havener Center on the UMR campus.        

Seating is limited. Seat registration is available at www.missouribusiness.net (click on the calendar tab). This seminar is sponsored and paid for by the Office of Technology, Commercialization and Economic Development and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach on the UMR campus, and by the University of Missouri Extension office. For more information, call 573-341-4690.