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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This show is about those that most positively affect our lives and it's about those that are the job creators; the people that make it happen.
John: Yeah, the people who built what they have.
Russ: That's right.
John: All right, they actually did build it. They had a little help along the way -
Russ: Sure.
John: - but the taxpayers and as is, you know, these entrepreneurs funded whatever they're living off of off the government largess. So, no matter how you pose this thing, they built it, they paid for it, and, you know, let them run their deal, you know.
Russ: Right, well it's sort of interesting that we started this show, you know, some, I don't know it seems like about 35 years ago. It was actually only seven.
John: How's that song go 100 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper got the -
Russ: And -
John: - taught the band to play.
Russ: And we did it, based on feeling the need to champion those -
John: Right.
Russ: - who built their own companies and, 'cause how hard it is and how they're the working class and -
John: That's right.
Russ: -little did we know come 2012 we'd be in this month-long saga where we're continuing to defend what they're doing because the President of the United States was critical.
John: That's right, critical of the achievement and the know-how and the intestinal fortitude of these folks.
Russ: Right.
John: Plus the creative streak they have -
Russ: Absolutely.
John: - that creates this stuff but no, no. They didn't build it. Hell no. Good Lord.
Russ: Without that road out there, they couldn'ta built it. I think many of them woulda built it, even if the road wasn't there.
John: The road would probably be better, too.
Russ: Probably would but not to mention, you know, it was their taxes that built the road, too. So anyway.
John: Okay, all right.
Russ: Here's our lineup for today.
John: Great.
Russ: But first -
John: That's right.
Russ: That's right; it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business.
John: Ah, yes, class is in session boys and girls.
Russ: Yeah and if you pay attention to the curriculum that we offer here. You will know that people that build businesses are good for America.
John: Yeah, 'cause they wanna learn 'cause knowledge is good.
Russ: Knowledge is good. All right.
John: All right, okay.
Russ: And we kick it off each week with the Quote of the Day.
John: Quote of the Day, yes.
Russ: And today, the quote comes from none other than John Maynard Keynes.
John: Ooh, yeah.
Russ: And it goes like this. This is a little controversial up front but capitalism is a little controversial.
John: Oh really?
Russ: Yes. Here it is.
John: All right.
Russ: "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
John: That's right. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that.
Russ: There it is.
John: There goes, yes, he's entitled to his opinion.
Russ: That's right.
John: As you're entitled to my opinion.
Russ: That's right, that's right.
John: All right.
Russ: Okay. Oh but that's right. It's time now -
John: Time for -
Russ: - for This Week in Business History for you to tell us what happened in this kind of mid-September weekend in business history.
John: This is a momentous start here. This week in business history 1789, which is actually also the beginning of the French Revolution but anyway -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - the first Supreme Court was founded. The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States tribunal made up of six justices to serve on the court till death or retirement, which has been problematical from time to time -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - 'cause I don't think Washington ever envisioned these guys living to 90 years old, you know -
Russ: Well -
John: - but be that as it may
Russ: Yeah.
John: - the Supreme Court was established and, you know, we've been suffering the consequences or reaping the benefits of their decisions since that very day, yeah.
Russ: I think it's probably about as good as you can get it, you know?
John: Oh yeah.
Russ: I think some of the guys go into their 90s and don't quit because their worried about what the person in office might replace them with.
John: That's right or they just think they're gonna live forever.
Russ: They might that, too.
John: That's right, okay. This week in business history 1902, Levi Strauss, the inventor of the denim jeans, died this week in business history.
Russ: Oh my God.
John: Yeah, an uneducated immigrant comes to America and makes a fortune selling blue jeans.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And, you know, he was out there in the California gold fields and -
Russ: Right. Supplying them to gold miners.
John: That's right, yeah.
Russ: Little did he know they would turn into fashion statements -
John: He was building his own gold mine.
Russ: That's exactly right.
John: A denim mine.
Russ: But he's an example of a great entrepreneur, an American entrepreneur, who built it.
John: This week in business history in 1913, the inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel, you know, known for the engine that bears his name, commits suicide.
Russ: Goodness.
John: And he was, you know, he was a renaissance man and his diesel engine changed the world; more efficient than steam or used on everything from locomotives to boats, et cetera, et cetera, and he jumped overboard while crossing the English Channel.
Russ: Maybe he been inhaling a bit too much diesel fumes.
John: You know, he might've been, you know, maybe he had a love affair that went south on him, you know, or -
Russ: Well, that'll make you do it, man.
John: That's -
Russ: Yeah.
John: You kiddin' me?
Russ: So -
John: Heartbreak Hotel on the high seas.
Russ: That's right. So but, you know, it might be good that he's no longer around, since -
John: Well, there's no way he could be.
Russ: Yeah, he's been gone for 100 years, right?
John: I mean he jumped off of the ship before the Titanic ____ ___.
Russ: Right, so but because natural gases, natural gas boon that's happening because of the innovation here in this country -
John: That's right.
Russ: - is gonna probably replace diesel -
John: I know.
Russ: - top to bottom.
John: So Rudolf Diesel, wherever you are, we salute you.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1922, two researchers with the US Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory were working on high frequency radio tests - these two scientists, Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Clifford Young, noticed the ships on the river interfered with the radio signals and viola, leads to radar.
Russ: Cool.
John: Yeah.
Russ: I wonder - I guess that's an invention, a patent that's owned by the US Navy since they were with the Navy at the time of the discovery.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Regardless, it's an incredible discovery.
John: Yeah, stolen by the Germans in World War II.
Russ: Well they were, yeah, they're all there. Everything gets stolen, eventually.
John: Everything gets stolen eventually, right, yeah. This week in business history in 1928 work begins at Chicago's new Galvin Manufacturing Company and it would produce the first Motorola radio, the first mass-produced commercial car - this is a car radio -
Russ: Wow.
John: - back in 1930. The name had two parts: "Motor," evoking cars in motion -
Russ: Right.
John: - and "Ola," derived from -
Russ: Victrola.
John: - Victrola, right.
Russ: Yeah, cool.
John: And made people think of music.
Russ: Wow.
John: This week in business history in 1930, you know who Ray Charles was -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: - the great R&B pioneer. Ray Charles is born.
Russ: Speaking of music, yeah.
John: And he was the first mainstream musician to combine gospel music with blues and other musical styles.
Russ: Did you see the movie about him? Yeah.
John: Absolutely.
Russ: It was a great movie.
John: Yeah. Not bad, not bad at all. Okay, this week in business history in 1948, September 24, that's two days after I was born -
Russ: Okay.
John: - Honda starts its engines.
Russ: Whoa.
John: It was on this day that the Honda Technical Research officially became the Honda Motor Company.
Russ: Yeah?
John: Went on to build motorcycles and motorbikes -
Russ: Yeah, I think motorcycles were first.
John: Yeah, right, then they came out with an automobile, people were -
Russ: Yeah -
John: Shocked, shocked.
Russ: - like why are they doing that?
John: Yeah. Then they'd be two wheel automobile or something.
Russ: Yeah, their motorcycles were cool looking, you know, in that era. In the early '50s there weren't a lot of motorcycles. There were a lot of motor scooters.
John: Yeah.
Russ: And their motorcycle was in the price range of people that bought motor scooters and their little 50cc and they were pretty cool looking.
John: That's right. This week in business history in 1949, Bruce Springsteen is born.
Russ: Oh, wow.
John: Yeah.
Russ: So he's 63.
John: Yeah and the 26 years later, he hits the charts for the first time in the song, "Born to Run."
John: This week in business history in 1960, the first Kennedy-Nixon debate -
Russ: Wow.
John: - which was televised and also on the radio and the people who heard the debate on the radio thought Nixon won the debate -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - and people watching it on TV thought Kennedy won the debate because Kennedy was more dressed and more suited for television than Nixon was.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Who did not look very good.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Some people would remember he had a accident. Someone slammed a car door on his arm about a week before the debate, so he was in some pain.
Russ: Wow.
John: Yeah, and -
Russ: Well, I remember hearing - I remember seeing parts of it. I was awfully young -
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: - but I think he even sorta was perspiring quite profusely.
John: Yeah, right. He, you know, he was under the lights.
Russ: You know, the television.
John: Yeah, he wasn't used to it, so anyway. That just goes to show fairly or unfairly if you don't look good on TV -
Russ: You're nothing.
John: - people think you're an idiot. Doesn't matter what you say.
Russ: That's right.
John: You're an idiot.
Russ: That's right.
John: So always, we always get a camera shop you think you're - if you're gonna be on live TV, see if you can get a monitor shot.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Make sure you don't have some hair growing out of your nose or -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - or you know, hair sticking up or -
Russ: But you know there's a corollary to that theory, too.
John: A corollary.
Russ: Yeah, that there - I know people that look great on TV that sound like an idiot but they still get good grades.
John: I know, yeah.
Russ: Doesn't that - that hacks me off.
John: As long as you look good, you can say pretty much anything you want.
Russ: It's right.
John: This week in business history in 1961 was "I Love Lucy's" last episode.
Russ: Oh my God.
John: I know.
Russ: Yeah.
John: The show created by Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz. That thing ran for ten years.
Russ: Yeah.
John: But they had a break-up. They had a divorce. It was kinda messy and it was not a pleasant -
Russ: Yeah, well and also our audience members now that are probably like under 40, even, would kinda saying, "Why are they talking about this?" Well, back in that era, you didn't have every night like 50 different shows you could watch.
John: No.
Russ: You had two or three.
John: Yeah, two or three networks.
Russ: And then when one was real good, well the other networks wouldn't put anything good on in that era -
John: No, they'd run -
Russ: - they didn't want - yeah.
John: - they'd run a, you know -
Russ: Yeah, so this was extremely special sitcom TV.
John: Yeah. They broke up, they divorced in 1960.
Russ: Yeah.
John: So it's tough to make a show when you're -
Russ: Yeah, with your ex.
John: Yeah, with your ex, yeah. This week in business history in 1968 the Beatles song, "Hey Jude," hits the top of the charts.
John: This week in business history in 1968, "60 Minutes" debuts on CBS and goes on to mislead the American public for the next 30 years or more, 40 years.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: Okay and you have a very personal story -
Russ: Yeah, I -
John: - with "60 Minutes". You're gonna have to tell the audience about it someday.
Russ: I will.
John: But I was trying to get you to be more proactive -
Russ: Well, I -
John: - against their slander.
Russ: It was not a fun chapter in my life.
John: Yeah.
Russ: But I, you know, I would've loved to have been on and been able to defend it. By then the company that owned my company, they just barely would let me go outside during the day so they -
John: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my advice to our listeners is if you ever see Leslie Stahl attempt a business store in that "60 Minutes," immediately turn it to the Cartoon Channel, which is gonna be much more accurate -
Russ: Yes.
John: - in its portrayal of life.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1979, CompuServe launches the first consumer Internet service, which features the first public electric mail service.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Wow, 1979.
Russ: I know, well and CompuServe was just unbelievably -
John: I know.
Russ: - in the forefront.
John: I know. What happened to them?
Russ: well, I think they merged a couple of times.
John: Yeah, yeah, and they got watered down and the -
Russ: Well, yeah.
John: - creativity left the organization, which is what usually happens when tech companies merge.
Russ: Yeah, well I think AOL first was the first one -
John: Yeah.
Russ: And so they were maybe investors and employees that got out of there pretty good but they were very much in the leading edge. The one that I got involved with and it wasn't - it was five or six years later - was Prodigy.
John: Prodigy, I remember Prodigy.
Russ: Which was a combination of Sears and IBM.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And it was pretty, for me it was interesting for two reasons and what it did have a e-mail function. The only problem is that everybody I knew didn't have Prodigy, so you couldn't send or receive very well. But you could go online. In the city I lived in. Back then I lived in Houston, Texas -
John: Where?
Russ: In Houston, Texas.
John: Oh.
Russ: And you could buy groceries online in 1985 and not only that - now listen to this. You could pay for them with a credit card and that intrigued me as much as being able to buy it online because I was already accruing frequent flyer miles and I loved to use my credit card every chance I got and went, "Wow, I can use it for groceries now."
John: Did they e-mail the groceries to you or did they fax them to you?
Russ: No. They actually had a human being driving a human being-made van -
John: Oh, okay. All right.
Russ: - to the house and they did it, I think - I think they continued to do it for almost three or four weeks and then they discontinued the services.
John: I had this idea to get into the pizza faxing business.
Russ: That's a good idea.
John: I would make the pizza and run it through my fax machine.
Russ: Yeah, yeah. You know, you might have something.
John: I couldn't get any investors.
Russ: I bet they can make that work, now.
John: Probably could, you know, 'cause -
Russ: Now they can, I mean the -
John: Yeah, because if -
Russ: Well you know -
John: You have to use a very thin crust pizza.
Russ: Right, but now the wires that go to the Internet are much bigger.
John: That's right.
Russ: you can probably get pizza through those.
John: That's right and with 3D glasses it's -
Russ: That's right, you got it made.
John: All right. This week in business history in 1983 - this is a little-known item in the Cold War history, but not too many people know about this but there was a Soviet military officer. His name was Stanislav Petrov and he averted, single-handedly, a worldwide nuclear war because the Soviet radar was identifying an incoming nuclear missile.
Russ: And this was in what year? In 198-
John: In 1983.
Russ: Yeah
John: And they were getting ready to launch, you know -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - a full flotilla of ICBMs over to our country but he thought it was a computer error and after further investigation, that's what it was.
Russ: He should be like a global hero.
John: He was probably thrown in the gulag.
Russ: He probably was.
John: For exercising independent thought without going through the politburo.
Russ: They probably said, "You shoulda pushed the button. How do you know? It might've been," -
John: Push the button, then find out if was a computer error.
Russ: So that wraps up today's history lesson?
John: Hey, that's enough for me.
Russ: I agree.
John: All right.
Russ: It was a good one. It was a very good one.
John: All right.
Russ: All right and that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon.
John: Go ahead.
Russ: Our vocabulary lesson. I come up with a - find a new word.
John: Ja.
Russ: And John just tries to do his best, using his cognitive skills -
John: All right.
Russ: - to guess the meaning.
John: Cognitive skills.
Russ: Yeah, you ready?
John: Yes, I got skilled cognitives.
Russ: Yes.
John: Yes, all right.
Russ: The word is digilante.
John: Okay, vigilante is someone who takes the law in their own hands so a digilante would be someone who takes the digital world in their own hands and -
Russ: Well, you're sure close but I don't think you're close enough.
John: Yeah. Look, I either hit it or I don't.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay.
Russ: Okay, so you didn't.
John: Yeah, all right.
Russ: You're a loser, all right? All right, so here's the -
John: But I'm an honest loser.
Russ: That's right. Here's the definition of digilante.
John: Yeah.
Russ: It's a person who uses digital tools and techniques to avenge a crime.
John: Very nice. Okay. I like that.
Russ: It's a good word.
John: It's a good word.
Russ: Digilante.
John: I almost got it but you know -
Russ: Yeah, you did.
John: What the heck.
Russ: All right, that brings us to dumb moments. Do you have one for us today?
John: Yeah, I've got a dumb moment.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay, I'd say this whole embassy flap -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - you know, who and the, you know, the administration's blaming it on this 14 minute video -
Russ: Right.
John: - that's very critical of the Muslim religion and -
Russ: Right.
John: - the Prophet Mohammad. It just doesn't make any sense because these people were raiding these embassies using heavy weapons and -
Russ: Yeah, no it was -
John: - military tactics and -
Russ: - those are terrorists.
John: - it is a terrorist thing.
Russ: They might not even know about the movie.
John: Yeah, right they've -
Russ: And that from what I hear.
John: They probably don't but the - I guess you get to the bottom line here is our own Secretary of State is apologizing for this thing and -
Russ: For the movie, yeah.
John: - the President was apologizing for it and I mean there's nothing to apologize for. We have a First Amendment and it does let - you know, a lot of crazy stuff leaches through the First Amendment -
Russ: All the time.
John: - and some of it's very critical.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And this whole thing about the Muslim religion and making fun of it. I mean no one should make fun of anybody else religion -
Russ: But you can.
John: But it happened - but they can and it happens all the time.
Russ: You can't ___ ___ yeah.
John: you know, if you make fun of the religion to the wrong Muslim, you get your head cut off -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - okay?
Russ: Yeah.
John: If you make fun of the Mormon religion -
Russ: Yeah?
John: - you can win a Tony award.
Russ: The Church of Mormonism on Broadway, right?
John: Yeah, right. You could make fun of -
Russ: And they got a Tony award.
John: - you could make fun of Christianity, you'll get a spot on the John Stewart "Daily Show" or something. I mean it's crazy and there's nothing you can do about it but to apologize to these -
Russ: Well, you could. We could -
John: And there's no reason, you know, there's - just because you're getting something, just because your way of life is being made fun of does not give you license to go out there and start killing people.
Russ: Right. Well, we could do something about it.
John: But it happens, yeah.
Russ: We could just undo the First Amendment and say we're no longer gonna have freedom of speech here.
John: I know, right, so -
Russ: And if you say anything - we're gonna have a set of rules of what you can say -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - and what you can't say.
John: That's right and that would be pretty good. They could publish it in the newspapers and on the Internet.
Russ: Right. Everybody got a copy.
John: And then you got a copy of what you can say and what you can't say.
Russ: Right. You just go by the rules.
John: Then everybody wins.
Russ: Yeah. Well the people won't win Tony's anymore for the Church of Mormon, will they?
John: That's true. That's true.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, but -
Russ: But maybe you could allow them to stay things about the Mormons.
John: Maybe they would call it the Mormon Dispensation.
Russ: They could.
John: That's right.
Russ: They could.
John: I don't know, I just -
Russ: Well, even -
John: I just think it's - the whole world's gone cockeyed.
Russ: Yeah, well Salman Rushdie is still in hiding, right?
John: That's right. He writes a book, you know, some, I've never read the book and a lot of people haven't read the book but they know about the book.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Called, The Satanic Verses.
Russ: Yeah?
John: And I mean they put a death sentence on the guy.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They put a fatwa and, you know, the guy had to go into hiding for a number of years -
John: - 'cause you know that South Park show.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They were gonna do a segment, you know, they make fun of the Mormons and they make fun of Christians -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - and all that. They were gonna make fun of the Muslims and some - those people found out about it and they were threatened to kill these guys.
Russ: So they didn't do it?
John: So they didn't do it, you know -
Russ: That's terrible.
John: - so -
Russ: Well I wonder if they did it, you know, like we said. If they just made a set of rules. This is what you can say; this is what you can't say -
John: Right.
Russ: - which is kinda this is what you can produce and this is what - I wonder if they'd let them produce that movie, Killer Joe. Have you seen that?
John: I have not seen the Killer -
Russ: Well, you need to go see it.
John: Really?
Russ: And then you tell me whether or not it's okay.
John: Have you seen the movie?
Russ: Yes, I have.
John: Is it bloody?
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: Well what makes it like something you shouldn't be allowed to do?
Russ: I think you should be allowed to do it. I think it should win awards but man, there are people that will come out of that thing probably not feeling good about being a human being. But anyway -
John: Killer, Killer Joe. Who stars in it?
Russ: What's his name. Matthew McConaughey.
John: Are you kidding me?
Russ: No, he's been getting in these edgy - have you seen Bernie?
John: Oh yeah, Bernie's great., yeah.
Russ: Well he's - I saw Bernie and that's what made me like Matthew McConaughey.
John: Yeah right.
Russ: He was great in that movie. And that's a true story.
John: A true story.
Russ: I don't think Killer Joe's a true story but you ought to go see it.
John: Does Matthew McConaughey play Killer Joe?
Russ: Oh, he does. Oh he does.
John: All right.
Russ: Man, all right, but before we wrap up today's School of Business, I mean we really gave them some extra curriculum today, I think.
John: Yeah, right and if you're on the radio, if you wanna get the full course load, you just go to thebusinessmakers.com.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And it's on there, yeah.
Russ: There you go. All right. But before we wrap it up, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.