Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about innovators and entrepreneurs.

John: That's right, Russ. These are the artists and the athletes of the free enterprise system and boy, do we need them now.

Russ: Well, we just encourage our entrepreneurs keep pushing forward.

John: Yeah, keep pushing because you're the ones that are making anything happen right now.

Russ: That's right. It is uphill and against the wind, but keep going.

John: All right.

Russ: And here's our line up for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashbask, earlier this week I had time with Ester Steinfeld, she's the daughter of a former BusinessMakers guest, Jay Steinfeld founder and of Blinds.com. And Ester is the owner and creater of a new website called, NotAllCEOsAreJerks.com. I think you can kind of figure out and it's a pretty cool discussion. And then for our guest segment, two days ago John and I attended the 2009 Rice Business Plan Contest. And we kick that off with me interviewing Brad Burke, the Managing Director of the Rice Alliance in front of four hundred innovators and entrepreneurs as we kicked off the Elevator Pitch Contest. Then we follow that with eight of our favorite elevator pitches from that contest, they are so so cool. And as a matter of fact, we have all 41 of them on the site. Just go to thebusinessmakers.com and look for the Rice Business Plan Contest. But first... That's right it's time for the Businessmakers' School of Business. And this is not your business as usual school.

John: No, this is business unusual, I'd say it's business unique and set aside and apart from anything else that's out there.

Russ: All right, and we kick off the school of business each morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today I've selected a quote from Frank Herbert, U.S. science fiction novelist.

John: Frank Herbert.

Russ: Yes, Frank Herbert. All right, here it is. "The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action."

John: Okay.

Russ: Allright and that brings us to this week in business history. What do you have for us, John?

John: This week in business history in 1775 Paul Revere and William Dawes warned that the British are coming. Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington and the reason why the British were coming to Lexington is there are rumors that the Rebels had a lot of arms and powder stored there and the British were coming there to seize the illegal stores of ammunition.

Russ: Okay. And this was that famous warning, so that was 234 years ago, wow.

John: I know. 1833 this week in business history a patent was granted for the first soda fountain-1830, that's before the Alamo fell.

Russ: I know.

John: They had soda fountains before the Alamo fell, oh my goodness. Okay, in 1836 you know, they talked about the Alamo. The battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas wins independence from Mexico.

Russ: Right.

John: And we caught Santa Ana wearing a private's uniform or something. This week in business history in 1884 the slashed metallic screening process was patented by John Golden of Chicago, which is screens for the doors.

Russ: So screen doors, wow.

John: Screen doors, you know, don't see too many in submarines but you see them everywhere else.

Russ: Okay, true, that's true.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1888 Eastman Kodak forms.

Russ: Wow, so they've been around a while.

John: They're still around but they're kind of struggling there I think.

Russ: Well, I think -

John: Nobody's using the film anymore.

Russ: That's right.

John: And there's other companies that are way ahead of them in digital photography.

Russ: Yeah, the land kind of shifted for them, but they're showing signs of wanting to really get involved in it now, so that's pretty cool.

John: They're showing signs, yes. Okay. This week in 1889 Adolph Hitler was born in Burnell, Austria. Later became dictator of Nazi Germany, 1936 to 1945.

Russ: Now, you're not going to sign your happy birthday for him.

John: No, he doesn't deserve it.

Russ: He doesn't deserve it. I agree. Cool.

John: Moving on. This week in business history in 1897 the first Boston marathon won by John McDermott in New York. He ran it in two hours and 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

Russ: Wow.

John: Boston marathon, I didn't know it was that old.

Russ: It has been around a while but I do tell you what, man, they've cut not quite an hour but they're down close to two hours now on that thing.

John: I know. Training methods are better, the shoes are better and the endorsements are better too.

Russ: Endorse - yeah, they pay you to win.

John: I know. They have a lot of money there too.

Russ: That would cut off about 20 minutes right there.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1919 Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first free-fall parachute jump. There's no information available however of whether he survived that parachute jump.

Russ: It might have just been all free-falling.

[Music: "Free Falling"]

John: This week in business history 1921 Junior Achievement incorporated in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I'd say the first significant organization to teach entrepreneurship and business and life lessons to kids.

Russ: It's a great organization. We've had them on the show a couple of times.

John: We have had them on the show.

Russ: It was pretty cool.

John: It was very good, very good. I'm glad they're still around.

Russ: You bet.

John: This week in business history in 1934 the first washateria, a Laundromat, opens in Forth Worth, Texas.

Russ: You know, they still used those hand wringer washing machines and stuff. It would be interesting to see photos of the first washaterias.

John: This week in 1936 the birthday of Rob Orbison.

[Music: "Only the Lonely"]

Russ: He was a good guy.

John: This week in business history, get this, 1942, you know, like that's about four or five months after Pearl Harbor.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Pearl Harbor gets bombed; everybody thinks that it's over.

Russ: Right.

John: The Japanese, they might as well come in and take California. But in April 1942 James H. Doolittle and his squadrons take off of a couple of aircraft carriers not too far from Japan and bomb Tokyo.

Russ: Bombs over Tokyo.

John: And other Japanese things - a suicide mission too because they didn't have enough fuel to come back.

Russ: Yeah, it was a huge distance to get bombers there, real bombers, and man -

John: Well they had to put them on aircraft carriers.

Russ: Yeah, and normally aircraft carriers wouldn't handle airplanes that big but they specially equipped it, yeah.

John: And then get this, two months after that the Battle of Midway where the United States Navy successfully decapitated the Japanese Navy and for all intensive purposes made it totally irrelevant.

Russ: Quick turnaround on that one, yeah, cool.

John: Yeah, six months. Okay. This week in business history in 1942 Barbara Streisand, singer, actress, award winner, leftie to beat the band, is born.

Russ: Okay, so she's 67 now.

John: 67, yeah. How about that?

[Music: "THE WAY WE WERE"]

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1946 the League of Nations dissolves three months after the UN starts.

Russ: Yeah, but you would know this. The League of Nations was a lot weaker than the United Nations, wasn't it?

John: Yeah, right. They couldn't do much of anything. I wouldn't say weaker. I'd probably say as weak as the United Nations.

Russ: Equal too, all right.

John: This week in business history in 1954 the NBA adopts a 24-second shot clock and 16 foul rule.

Russ: Wow, do you remember for college basketball, I remember before they had a shot clock rule a completely different game.

John: Oh, yeah. Well, North Carolina had that four corners offense and when they got into that, that was it.

Russ: Yeah, they'd have the ball; they were just playing keepaway the whole time.

John: Yes, keep away, yeah, right. Almost like hide and seek. Okay. This week in business history in 1956 Elvis Presley's first hit record Heartbreak Hotel becomes number one.

[Music: "Heartbreak Hotel"]

John: I've been in a few of those Heartbreak Hotels. Okay, I think we all have. This week in business history in 1956 American League umpire Frank Umont is the first to wear glasses in a regular season game. That probably took him a lot of courage to do that.

Russ: To admit that he needed them.

John: Yeah, right, because for years and years and years people would say, "You lousy ump, you need glasses." You know.

Russ: So before then I guess everybody assumed all umpires has perfect vision I guess.

John: Yeah, right. And of course we know they don't even with the corrected version.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1963 the Beatles meet the Rolling Stones for the first time.

[Music: "Sympathy for the Devil"]

Russ: Well, I wonder where they met. Do you think they met in church or something?

John: I bet it was like West Side Story, the Sharks and the Jets and they have a big rumble under the highway overpass.

Russ: That's probably it.

John: This week in business history in 1974 Paul McCartney releases the song Band on the Run.

[Music: "Band on the Run"]

John: Now you know he had that group the Beatles; they fell apart due to Yoko Ono, okay.

Russ: Right, she split them up.

John: She split them up and then McCartney put the group together called Wings.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay. This week in business history 1977 Woody Allen's film Annie Hall premiers. One of the great flics, good movie.

Russ: I loved it. That's probably my favorite Woody Allen show. Man, that was cool.

John: I know, I know. Later on he marries his daughter, okay. This week in business history in 1982 Rosie Ruiz, marathon race cheater, arrested for forgery because she cut in and won -

Russ: She only ran like a mile.

John: I know, I know. And everybody thought she was the winner for a while. She had like 10, 15 minutes of glory and turned out she was a fraud.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah, she did a little prison time, came out and ended up doing stuff for Bernie Madoff, I think, you know. This week in business history in 1982 Sally Ride as announced as the first woman astronaut.

[Music: "Mustang Sally"]

Russ: I remember that.

John: This week in business history in 1985, man I tell you, I'm getting a little winded here, but this is a good one. The new Coke debuts. One of the biggest corporate disasters I'd say in the history of corporate America. You take something that everybody loved and you get rid of it in lieu of something new.

Russ: And I was a huge Coke drinker.

John: Everybody was.

Russ: I couldn't believe that they changed it and they changed it because they kept losing in the Pepsi Cola taste test. That didn't mean people wanted to change the drink, it just meant that Pepsi was sweeter. Geez, okay.

John: Okay. This week in business history Marion Barry is let out of prison.

Russ: Oh, yeah, the former DC mayor, right.

John: Okay, the bitch set me up. That was what his -

Russ: Defense was?

John: That's what his defense was, yeah. Later some pundits thought that should be his new campaign slogan because he was running for mayor again.

Russ: And he won.

John: He won, yes. All right. This week in business history in 1993 my proctologist's favorite planet, Uranus passes Neptune. And it passes it every 171 years. I mean, that's amazing.

Russ: Why did they name that planet that?

John: I don't know. I think it's really pronounced Uranus, but it's fun to call it - Uranus is funnier. Okay. This week in business history in 1993 the web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.

Russ: Yeah, well, Mosaic was put together by Eric Bionet and Mark Endreason. Eventually they took the same technology, turned it into Netscape and Netscape was one of the big first dot com IPOs. This was a monumental event in technology history. Cool deal.

John: I know, I know. Cool deal. Okay. This week in business history in 1995 a truck bomb at the Federal building in Oklahoma City kills 168 and injures 500.

Russ: Everything seems to have happened in April in history.

John: I know, I know. This week in 1997 the movie Titanic opens in the Lund Fontaine Theater in New York City.

Russ: Titanic.

John: Yeah, the Titanic. Remember that movie?

Russ: We've been talking about that for three weeks in a row.

John: I know, I know. And it's - the thing is -

Russ: Have you gotten over it yet?

John: Yeah, I have. But you see, the thing that really gets me about this, I mean, as many times as they've shown that movie they still don't have enough lifeboats for everybody. You'd think they would go back and re-edit the movie so that people would have lifeboats.

Russ: So DiCaprio would survive?

John: Everybody would have survived. That's right.

Russ: Yeah, they could have revised history if they really wanted to, right?

John: They could have. I mean, why not?

Russ: And they chose not to.

John: They chose not to.

Russ: All right. And that wraps up the history lesson for today. Wow, great job. All right and that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson from the school of business and the way this works, I think you all know, I say the word and then John does his best to guess. If he gets it right he's a winner and if he doesn't he's the other thing. And here's this morning's word.

John: All right.

Russ: You ready?

John: You bet.

Russ: It's a noun.

John: Person, place or thing.

Russ: Right. Prebituary.

John: Prebituary. An obituary is something that's in the newspaper about your demise, about your death, okay? Prebituary is something that gets in by mistake and says that you're dead but you're really not dead.

Russ: No.

John: Like what happened to Mark Twain, "The reports of my death are greater exaggerated."

Russ: No, it was a real good guess. In fact I think we're going to mark this up onto the win column even though you're not right, according to the jargon definition that we have here, which is an obituary composed or published prior to a person's death, a prediction failure, it can be other than death, particularly of a political candidate. So it's kind of a prebituary, a prediction of failure for a political candidate.

John: Well, that's pretty darn close.

Russ: It was. That's why I gave you a win.

John: Because if you die, I mean, that's a failure of your entire body.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: To live.

Russ: You just failed to live.

John: Well, there you go. I think that's a win. Did we put that under the W column -

Russ: We did.

John: -- with no asterisk.

Russ: We did, no asterisk.

John: You put an asterisk in.

Russ: I was thinking about it.

John: You were thinking about it, all right.

Russ: But I'm not going to do it.

John: Okay, I'd like to see how you'd do on some of these words.

Russ: We're not going to do that. And now it's time for dumbest moments in business history. Do you have something for us?

John: It's very rare when there's a dumb moment in history, that there's a monument for it, okay?

Russ: Yeah, that's true.

John: Okay, like a monument that everybody can look at.

Russ: Not like even a New Coke; there's not a monument for that. They just wanted to erase it, right?

John: Right. But this is, you know, the new Yankee Stadium.

Russ: Oh, my God.

John: Okay, now the new Yankee Stadium cost about $2 billion, $2 billion dollars.

Russ: Now that's more than that Texas stadium football thing that Jerry -

John: Yeah, Jerry Jones, his monument to his ego was $1.1 billion. Now the taxpayers paid about a third of that.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But the Yankees, you know, everything's bigger and better in New York City. Now we've all talked and everybody knows about how broke the city of New York is.

Russ: Not too broke to build a stadium.

John: Well, you know, they provided the land for the stadium rent-free. It issued bonds to pay for the park's construction and even convinced the IRS to waive any taxes associated with the project. And then as the project was being completed the Yankees even went back to the city for more stuff like 1,100 flat-screen televisions. And they always sell these things to the public and say, "Well this is going to create a thousand or so jobs."

Russ: Right.

John: But there's only about 22 permanent jobs created by the new ball park.

Russ: For $2 billion.

John: For $2 billion. And -

Russ: Is that the baseball players, the 22 members of the -

John: Well, they were already there. See they were already there.

Russ: All right, so they didn't count.

John: But this just goes to show you that I don't care whether you're liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, doesn't matter to me but building these stadiums is the worst of all public policies.

Russ: Right. And you're a big sports fan too, right? You love to watch it.

John: Yeah, I'm as big a sports fan as anybody else out there but -

Russ: But we don't need these things.

John: I mean, these teams are rich enough. They could sell stock like any other - like whatever other company that needs to get their facilities revived, an IPO or go get some venture capital or -

Russ: Right.

John: Or private equity or something like that, but no they come to us.

Russ: That's right. The taxpayers, right?

John: People just lose their common sense when these things start coming around.

Russ: All right. And before we wrap up this morning's school of business it's time for PKF Texas the entrepreneur's playbook. So let's welcome Gregg Price on the piano;

John: Hello, Gregg. Have a seat.

Russ and John: A one and a two and a...

[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneurs Playbook]

Russ: And that wraps up the School of Business. You're listening to the BusinessMaker's Show, heard here and online at the businessmakers.com. Stay tuned for Esther Steinfeld, founder of notallceosarejerks.com, and then Brad Burke from the Rice Business Plan contest.