Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the businessmakers.com. And this is that show that continues to champion innovation and entrepreneurship.

John: That's right Russ. It's time we talk about these artists and athletes out there that are really making the economy happen-happening as it ever can be at this time.

Russ: And as they always have.

John: That's right.

Russ: Okay and here is out line up for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, earlier this week Microsoft came to town, that would be our town Houston Texas, to announce a 4.5 million dollar grant targeted to bring computer literacy services to under served communities. In other words, bridging the digital gap. So I visited with Jennifer Heard and Gail Thomas-Flynn of Microsoft to discuss that and other subjects of interest like the challenges they are receiving these days from Google. And then for our feature guest, this morning the topic is entrepreneurship in India and comparing that to entrepreneurship in the U.S. which as you will see is quite different. Because also earlier this week I had an interesting session with Gautam Gahdhi, entrepreneur in the U.S., entrepreneurship teacher in India, and presently head of New Business Development for Google in India. But first... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business and this isn't your "business as usual" school at all.

John: You're right because we don't want it to be that way.

Russ: And we kick it off each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: Yes, the quote of the day.

Russ: And this one's kind of funny. I think it is fitting to the time-the investment time.

John: The investment time.

Russ: Yeah. It's by Adlai Stephenson. Here it is: "There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted. But now, it happens to everybody".

John: It happens-

Russ: I just think-

John: I like what Gordon Gekko said. He says, "It's a miracle that the fool and the money are ever put together in the first place".

Russ: That's great. All right. And that brings us to this week in business history. Did anything happen at this-like the end of April or early part of May in business history?

John: Of course, there's a whole array of things.

Russ: Cool.

John: Beginning in 1501, this week in business history, the word "America" is used to define the country we now call the United States and other parts of our continent. Geographer Martin Wallseemüller first used "America" in 1501. He's a German cartographer, and he named America in the honor of the Florentine explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.

Russ: I remember reading about Amerigo in school.

John: That's right. We all read about him. They don't teach anything like that now because he probably was guilty of exploiting something--

Russ: That's right.

John: --when he came over here. Okay, this week in business history in 1792, the guillotine is used to execute a person for the first time.

Russ: Oh, kind of high technology.

John: Yeah, it's named after a French physician, Josef Gollitine, Geotene, who was born in 1738 and did not invent the device, but was a member of the French Assembly, and he proposed in 1789 that all prisoners condemned to death should be executed in the same way because the rich people got executed one way-and poor people got hung. Okay. So this whole concept changed the way people were executed, and most people think the French guillotine was a much more humane way to execute these people than by hanging them or have some ax come down on their neck.

Russ: Yeah, probably-that was cleaner, probably.

John: It was cleaner--cleaner and faster because they needed to be fast for the French Revolution where they started chopping everybody's head off. Okay. Don't lose your head over that item by the way. This week in business history, in 1789-that's when the French Revolution started, but it was also the time that George Washington was inaugurated the first President of the United States.

Russ: Wow. This week?

John: 1789.

Russ: Cool.

John: And what a great choice he was. Okay. This week in business history in 1840, the first adhesive postage stamp was issued in England.

Russ: So how did they stick them to the envelope before?

John: I don't know. I guess they used a wax imprint or stamp-you know-with ink. Yeah. But now there's the adhesive postage stamp. You know in 1840, you wonder what they used as the glue. Yeah, right. Okay. It makes me sick just thinking about it. Okay. This week in business history in 1844, Samuel Mores sends the first telegraphic message. "What hath God wrought" was the message and changed the whole concept of-

Russ: And he sent it in his own code, the Mores Code.

John: Yeah, the Mores Code. This week in business history in 1844, construction begins on the first Chicago skyscraper.

Russ: Wow! How big?

John: First Chicago skyscraper was ten stories.

Russ: We kind of have a different definition these days of skyscraper but back then, that was probably pretty high up there.

John: Everything's relative. Okay. This week in business history in 1900, the last ride of Casey Jones. Everybody thought he was a myth-but he actually lived.

Russ: I did too.

John: I know I had to reread this. He's a real guy. However, he's a little careless with the throttle of the train because he had to make up some time-

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay and he missed the flagman's signal, and by missing the signal, he rear-ended another train that was kind of half on the track. And the big crash-now he was heroic in the way he got all the other rail employees off the train. So he was the last one. He tried to reverse the engines. He tried everything but dragging his feet to stop that train.

Russ: Was that his last train ride.

John: His last-yeah, I would say so because he died.

Russ: Okay.

[Music: "Casey Jones"]

Russ: He was driving his train high on cocaine was probably the problem.

John: Okay. Later this week in business history in 1904, the ice cream cone makes its debut.

Russ: Whoa.

John: Now the thing about the ice cream cone-I'm not sure it really increased the sale of ice cream.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Because it made the ice cream a little more portable.

Russ: Yeah, it did.

John: And then after you ate the ice cream, you ate the conveyance.

Russ: Yeah.

John: This week in business history in 1916, the birth of the father of information theory-this is a fascinating. Okay, Claude Elwood Shannon-now he was an unknown guy. He was remotely related to Thomas Edison.

Russ: Okay.

John: But his greatest contribution came with the mathematical theory of communication which led to the ones and zeros that computers all over the world use.

Russ: Wow! So he's the guy that said, "Okay, you can use ones and zeros to communicate with."

John: In various combinations.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

John: And he suggested the word "bit" which is a contraction of the binary digit.

Russ: Wow. Important guy.

John: Okay. This week in business history, the Empire State Building opens in New York City in 1931.

Russ: It's a big building day, isn't it? First, that ten story one in Chicago way back when and then the Empire State Building. Man, that thing-back in '31 it was the tallest building.

John: It was the tallest building, right. And a couple of years later, a giant ape climbed the top and they had to shoot it down.

Russ: That's right.

John: One of those times in the movies where an animal was actually harmed in the filming of this movie.

Russ: It really was.

John: This week in business history in 1937, the U.S. Social Security System makes its first benefit payment-

Russ: Oh man.

John: --launching the biggest Ponzzi scheme in the history of the world. I just hope I die before the last payment.

Russ: That's right.

John: You're going to have like one-fourth of a person supporting ten people. This week in business history in 1939, Batman Comics hit the street. That's my favorite superhero.

Russ: Batman was? So were you a comic book reader even before the TV series came out?

John: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Batman, Superman, you know.

Russ: Okay.

John: Peanuts-I like all of those. Actually what they have done to the Batman Comics with these two recent movies, "The Dark Knight" and before that, "Batman Begins" really gets into the character in the way-you know-the books-

Russ: Oh, really? Wow.

John: This week in business history in 1940, Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000".

[Music: "Pennsylvania 6-5000"]

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1941 General Mills introduces the Cheerio.

Russ: Wow. So Cheerios was, I think, considered the simple cereal forever and hung on there and now it's considered a very healthy one. Lowers your cholesterol.

John: That's right. This week in business history in 1941-a tradition again-the first organ at a baseball stadium. Okay. This week in business history in 1941, the birthday of Bobby Rydell of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was in "Bye Bye Birdie". That was his big, big deal. He had a couple of his songs too.

[Music: "Wild One"]

John: This week in business history, one of the shortest marriages in the history of marriages occurred when Adolph Hitler marries Eva Braun.

Russ: In what year?

John: In 1945.

Russ: Yeah, that's pretty close to the end.

John: That was-they committed suicide the next day.

Russ: Wow.

John: I know some women drive you crazy after you marry them but that's a little ridiculous.

Russ: He was already crazy.

John: This week in business history in 1947, the birthday of Tommy James singing one of the worst-just awful songs ever to hit the radio.

Russ: Lets hear it.

[Music: "Crimson and Clover"]

John: I gag every time I hear that song. This week in business history in 1952, the American Bowling Congress approves the use of an automatic pinsetter.

Russ: So before then-

John: They had to human beings.

Russ: Yeah, and they were unionized or something.

John: They were unionized.

Russ: Those machines don't work as good as we can. We can set these pins up better.

John: This week in history in 1955 is the birthday of Jerry Seinfeld, one of the funniest people you will ever hear. This week in business history in 1960, Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Russia.

Russ: I remember that so well. It was so controversial.

John: Yeah. They threw him in prison and used him as a bargaining chip to get a spy that we had here in the U.S. back to Russia.

Russ: --I wonder what-I wonder what Bono would have named his band if that hadn't happened, though-you know.

John: I know. I know.

Russ: It's where he got the name.

John: I'm trying to think how great the music business would be without Bono. Okay. This week in business history in 1961, Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba. Okay. This week in business history in 1961, Robert Noyce patents the integrated circuit and manufacturing process.

Russ: Man, every week you out do the previous week on the content. There's so much that happened this week-

John: I'm not even halfway done with this yet.

Russ: All right. Keep going.

John: Okay. This week in business history, Roger Maris hits the first of his 61 homers in 1961.

Russ: Without steroids.

John: Without steroids but with an asterisk later on because he needed more games to beat the record.

Russ: --that's right. Like two or three games.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1967, Aretha Franklin releases "R-E-S-P-E-C-T".

[Music: "Respect"]

John: This week in business history in 1980, the announcement of Jimmy Carter hostage rescue bungle in Iran.

Russ: Boy, and that was a bungle, wasn't it?

John: Oh yeah.

Russ: It was such a down time. We couldn't do anything right-seems like.

John: I know. Well, we did beat the Russians in hockey.

Russ: But was it right after this that that rabbit attacked him too? Remember that?

John: Yeah, the killer rabbit. It's too bad he didn't put killer rabbits on those helicopters that go in Iran. They might have gotten the guys out.

Russ: That's right. That's right.

John: This week in business history in 1981, Xerox Park introduces a computer mouse.

Russ: Oh yeah.

John: The computer mouse! Where would we be without that thing.

Russ: I know. I think Steve Jobs saw it on a tour over there at Xerox and said, "Hey, we're going to do that".

John: This week in business history in 1983, a little girl named Samantha Smith writes a letter to the then Chairman of the Communist Party, Yuri Andropov. She writes a letter-says she's worrying about war-wants to know why the Russians want to conquer the U.S. and all that. After the letter, he invites her to the Soviet Union.

Russ: Now I remember that. Man, she was like a hero at the time but lost her life very early.

John: Age of 13 she died in a plane crash.

Russ: It's awful.

John: All right. Moving on. In 1986-this week in business history-the nuclear disaster, Chernobyl.

Russ: Goodness gracious.

John: That's a nuclear disaster that actually did harm and killed a lot of people.

Russ: But not nearly as many as we are led to believe.

John: I know.

Russ: There were fewer people killed there than are killed every year in coalmines and in all other kinds of energy-

John: You're right.

Russ: --combined.

John: 48 people died.

Russ: They made is sound like half of the continent was going to go away, and they didn't. And this was like a Soviet-built power plant without nearly the protection and controls that everybody else implements. It was a worst-case scenario and only 48 people died.

John: My favorite bumper sticker is: More People Have Died In Ted Kennedy's Car Than Ever Died In A Nuclear Accident In The United States. Okay. All right. This week in business history in 1990, the Hubbell space telescope is placed into orbit by the shuttle Discovery. Now they had to do a repair job.

Russ: Yeah, they did.

John: Now if you watch the "X-Files", the reason the Hubbell space telescope did not work right was because of aliens-

Russ: Oh.

John: --interfered with them because the aliens didn't want us to find out about them on Mars. Okay. This week in business history in 1997, the e-mail system with RF communications to mobile processors patented by Tom Compana, Jr., Michael Ponschke, and Gary Thelen. It's a Blackberry patent.

Russ: Wow. Wow. That turned out to be a pretty cool patent and a pretty valuable patent.

John: Yeah

Russ: What a week. Man, is that it?

John: Man, I'm winded.

Russ: Goodness gracious.

John: I feel like Rocky-"Cut me Mick. Cut me".

Russ: Great history lesson. All right. And that brings us to our vocabulary lesson, also known as "navigating business jargon."

John: All right.

Russ: And this is that part of the show where I say the word and then John does his best at guessing it. He doesn't know it.

John: I don't know it-I don't even want to know it. Half the time when I do know it, I don't want to ever use it.

Russ: Well that's okay too. We're not advocating using these words.

John: Be careful using it at home. You may use it incorrectly and hurt the one you love.

Russ: That's right. We just want people to know what they mean. It's an easy one today.

John: Okay.

Russ: Here it is.

John: All right.

Russ: Jargonaut.

John: Jargonaut. That is someone who is so well skilled in jargon, and they go out in the future finding new jargon and they just keep going and going. They're jargonauts.

Russ: Well, I'll give you a win on that one. The official definition is a person who uses an excessive number of jargons when he is speaking or writing.

John: Well-first half. But then they go out finding new words.

Russ: Yeah. No, I'll give you a win. I am going to put an asterisk on that win.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right. And that brings us to Dumbest Moments. Do you have a dumb moment for us.

John: Yeah, this has happened, but there's this poor guy, okay, and he's flying from Honduras back to-I guess Atlanta.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And 30 minutes into flight-I guess something he ate in Honduras is causing him a problem.

Russ: You've got to watch what you eat down there in Honduras.

John: That's right. Okay. And so he's in the coach part-not in first class or business class-so he has to use the restroom in the coach. Well there's a beverage cart blocking his way and he can't get through. I don't know whether you've ever had any gastrointestinal problems.

Russ: Never.

John: Never. But there are some of us who probably have. Okay, and sometimes you just can't-you know-you can't be tactful about these kind of things. So he tries to use the lavatory in business class and his way is blocked by a flight attendant.

Russ: Protecting those people up there.

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: Keeping the riff-raff out of here.

John: So he grabs her arm and she claims he twisted her arm-he doesn't know that he did-so they arrested the poor guy.

Russ: Oh, my goodness.

John: He served a day or two in jail and they let him out.

Russ: Do we know the airline?

John: It was Delta Airlines and the spokeswoman, Susan Elliott, released a statement saying, "Flight crews do everything within the limits of the law to insure the safety and security of our passengers unless they have gastrointestinal problems.

Russ: Then we don't care.

John: Then we don't care.

Russ: We need to talk to them. All right. Before we wrap up this morning's school of business, it's time for PKF Texas, the entrepreneur's playbook so let's welcome Mr. Greg Price.

John: Always on time-we saw him the other night at the-uh-Rice Business Plan Competition.

Russ: You bet.

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

[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook]

Russ: All right and that wraps up the school of business. You're listening to the BusinessMakers show heard here and online at the BuseinessMarkers.com