Russ: Good morning! This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com. And this is that show about the innovators – about the make-it-happen entrepreneurs.

John: You know, I used to refer to them as the artist and the athletes, but I'm adding the term "gallant knight" to these people because they're the ones that are keeping our economy going.

Russ: You got that right! Okay – and I mentioned this last week, but I thought I'd do it again. This is for those of you with experience and expertise but who presently don't have a job and might wanna consider an alternative. It's with the Consulting Stance, and this is the group that puts together two-day workshops to teach you how to take your industry experience and turn it into a thriving consulting practice. They're putting on one of their two-day workshops here in Houston on September 9th, and it's a real cool event, and we've teamed up with them to offer a $50.00 discount to the workshop. All you have to do is go to ConsultingStance.com, and in the "Discount Code" area, type in "BusinessMakers."

Okay – and now here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback we are going to roll back to January when we had Dr. Don Minnick of Interpersonal Skills Laboratory. He is the expect on being an organizational survivor in this down economy. And when he was on the show he mentioned his upcoming book, and we just got word that the book is imminent. So keep your eyes wide open for Survive Downsizing: How to Keep Your Job and Become Indispensable to Your Company. And then for our feature guest, recently I headed out to San Francisco, and had the opportunity to spend time with Victor Cheng, Stanford grad with a degree in quantitative economics, former McKenzie consultant and today know as America's Small Business Coach, and author of The Recession Proof Business. But first... That's right! It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business, and this is where John and I put together an entire week's worth of work to come up with this curriculum.

John: I know, and it's not easy. I know some of you may think, "Oh, it's easy. All they do is just make this stuff up." We do a lot of research. As a result, I think we come up with such a quality, real-world curriculum here that it's really hard to beat.

Russ: There you go! And we kick it off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today – this morning's quote comes from none other than Dan Rather.

John: Dan – oh, yeah!

Russ: Yeah – there you go.

John: Dan "let me forge those documents for my TV show" Rather – okay – all right.

Russ: That's right! This is a pretty cool quote, too.

John: Okay – all right.

Russ: Here it is: "An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell overture and not think of the Lone Ranger."

John: That's pretty good.

Russ: That is good! I think of the Lone Ranger every time I hear William Tell overture.

John: I know.

Russ: Okay – all right.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right – and that brings us to "This Week in Business History." So what happened during this fourth week in August in business history, John?

John: This day – this week in business history – this is the year 79 – okay.

Russ: Yeah?

John: Okay – 79 A.D. in the Roman Empire. Mount Vesuvius erupts.

Russ: Oh, wow!

John: The volcano was dormant for many, many years – centuries, in fact. And the problem is that poor people of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which is another town close by, they had like very little warning that this was gonna happen, and they all perished.

Russ: Yeah – wow.

John: This week in business history in 1609, the astronomer, Galileo, demonstrates his first telescope to a group of Venetian lawmakers.

Russ: I bet they were sort of impressed.

John: But before they were lawmakers, they were blind-makers.

Russ: Blind-makers.

John: That's where – that's how the Venetian blinds got started.

Russ: Venetian blinds –

John: When the lawmakers would have time off from making laws they would make blinds.

Russ: And that's where we got Venetian blinds.

John: And that's how Galileo got to know them because they were measuring Galileo's windows for these really fine-looking blinds.

Russ: To put up his telescope to look out the window.

John: And that's how it got started.

Russ: All right.

John: This week in business history in 1814, the British set fire to the main treasury building in Washington D.C., and then they go have a drink and a meal over at Rhodes Tavern.

Russ: That's – so they're – they're actually there wiping out some federal buildings, and then they go over and –

John: And have a drink and a roast beef sandwich.

Russ: There you go! All right.

John: Okay – this week in business history in 1849, there was the first air raid in history. Austria launches pilot-less balloons. These are like the buzz-bombs the Germans had. They would put these balloons up in the air, and they would make sure the wind was going in the right direction, of course, and they would drift over to Venice and –

Russ: That's where they did their damage?

John: That's where they did their damage.

Russ: Wow, cool!

John: This week in business history in 1853, the first potato chips – they gotta start sometime –

Russ: Wow!

John: And this is before the Civil War. They had potato chips prepared by Chef George Crumb.

Russ: Wow!

John: This week in business history in 1859, oil is found in Pennsylvania. Edwin Drake strikes oil 69 feet below the surface of the earth in Titusville, Pennsylvania, not too far from Pittsburg.

Russ: Wow!

John: One of the good things is the whale oil business declines. It almost goes away.

Russ: Wonder why they didn't protect those guys, man?

John: What – protect the whales?

Russ: No, the whale business guys.

Russ: It's just like saving General Motors. We need to save the whale oil business.

John: Oh, right – save the whale oil business.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: Government bailouts left and right! But anyway, it did become a useful substance – oil out of the ground.

Russ: Yes, I would say so.

John: But it didn't really reach the commercial success until they had the spindle top discovery over there in Beaumont.

Russ: Oh, yeah – oh, yeah. That's right. That's right.

John: This week in business history in 1901, Cadillac is launched.

Russ: Whoa, cool!

John: It's named after a French explorer – his last name was Cadillac – who founded the city of Detroit.

John: But anyway, Henry Leland, the former mechanic and precision machinist founded the company that would become the first American luxury car.

Russ: There you go.

John: Okay, this week in 1906 – this week in business history, the first Victor-Victrola is manufactured.

Russ: Wow!

John: Okay – this week in business history in 1914, the parachute was patented by Stefan Banic of Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Russ: Whoa! Do you think he also patented the golden parachute?

John: No, no!

Russ: It was somebody else that patented that.

John: No, that was somebody else.

Russ: But, you know, when I think about the golden parachute, what about those guys that have a golden parachute, but they also have golden handcuffs, and they can't pull the ripcord on the golden parachute, right?

John: Because they have the golden handcuffs.

Russ: Yeah, it can be complicated, right?

John: Life – well, I think generally life is a complicated mess.

Russ: Yeah, boy – all right! Here we go.

John: Okay – this week in business history in 1920, the 19th amendment adopted guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Russ: Okay.

John: And adopted by the U.S. Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.

Russ: There you go.

John: Okay – this week in business history, 1963, the Beatles release "She Loves You."

[Music: "She Loves You"]

Russ: Great song!

John: This week in business history in 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the moon.

Russ: God, that was so monumental, too.

John: I wonder if the conspiracy theorists think that was fixed, too?

Russ: I don't think they can think that on that.

John: Okay – this week in business history in 1968, the Democratic Convention, which was one of the worst-run conventions, I think, in political history –

Russ: All hell broke loose, man!

John: And then some!

Russ: Yeah, that's right.

John: Right – because all these protestors and –

Russ: Oh, yeah – all part of the Chicago Eight.

John: This week in business history in 1982 is when one of the most infamous business schemes in business history is launched. That's when Martin Siegel meets Ivan Boesky at the Harvard Club in New York. They're discussing their financial woes, and in the course of the conversation Boesky talks Siegel into giving him inside information as opposed to giving him a job. So Siegel stayed where he was; Boesky stayed where he was and was getting all this inside information making a fortune!

Russ: That's where we all learned a lot about inside information.

John: I know! I know, and it just would just keep going on and on and on until somebody gets caught, which is usually what happens.

Russ: That's right – exactly.

John: Okay – this week in business history in 1990, after opening for Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the great Texas guitar player, dies in a helicopter crash.

Russ: Sad day for guitarists, man, big time.

John: Oh, man, he was good.

Russ: Yeah, he was.

[Music: "Pride and Joy"]

John: Okay – and finally, this day in business history in 2007, Michael Oxley is interviewed on the BusinessMakers Radio Show and makes kind of a Mia culpa for part of the – his responsibility in screwing up the public markets.

Russ: That's right. He kind of blamed Sarbanes for the tough part of Sarbanes-Oxley, and he also said that it was wrong to take down Arthur Anderson in that interview too.

John: I know – well, where was he when we needed him?

Russ: That's right. They were all gone by then, so it didn't matter.

John: Yeah.

Russ: All right – all right – does that wrap up our history lesson for today?

John: Hey, I'm onto the next segment, baby!

Russ: All right – and that next segment is "Navigating Business Jargon." This is our vocabulary lesson of all the new words that keep popping up.

John: We all need a good vocabulary lesson from time to time, don't we?

Russ: Absolutely, absolutely.

John: Yes, we do.

Russ: All right –

John: Okay.

Russ: And we do this by me selecting the word and keeping it hidden from John. He does not know what it is. And I say the word – And then he guesses the meaning. And here we go. This morning's word is "face bride."

John: "Face bride" –

Russ: "Face bride."

John: Okay – there's Facebook, which is a social media site.

Russ: Right.

John: So "face bride" is somebody you meet on Facebook and ending up marrying her when they say, "How'd you guys meet?" say, "It was a face bride."

Russ: Ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls! We've got a winner.

John: All right.

Russ: Okay – good job.

John: Okay – all right.

Russ: All right – and that brings us to "Dumbest Moments in Business." Do we have a story this morning?

John: Yeah, this is why we shouldn't be turning healthcare over to the government.

Russ: Okay.

John: Okay – here's a guy – rides over a broken road reflector, and he wanted to get restitution from the government.

Russ: And it caused some damage, apparently.

John: Yeah, right – because he had a flat tire as a result. He did what any good citizen would do. He called the county to report the problem so others could avoid a similar fate.

Russ: That's good.

John: After he reported it, the state suggested that he file a claim, and the state charges him $25.00, and he also put $89.00 on there for his flat tire.

Russ: That was his claim was for $89.00.

John: That was his claim – right.

Russ: And it cost him $25.00 to try to get the $89.00.

John: Okay – officials responded with detailed reports – blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah – and said the state was not responsible.

Russ: Okay – so they denied the claim.

John: They denied the claim. Now, he could have filed an appeal, but he decided to cut his losses with a $25.00 filing fee and the cost of the replacement of the tire. But bills started coming. The first one was for an additional $22.00 for the state's investigation because they had to go out and reinvestigate the site.

Russ: Okay – yeah?

John: And then the officials were even charging Holden more than $6.00 for postage for the letters they keep sending him. And he kept – he just ignored them. He said, "This is not worth my time."

Russ: Right, right.

John: Well, they went after his house, and they threatened to garner his wages and bank accounts. And it just went on and on and on and on and on. You know, Holden has learned his lesson; you don't file a claim unless you got some good, high-powered lawyers behind you.

Russ: Oh, wow! What a story.

John: But he ended up paying the bill, and they dropped going after his house.

Russ: So he was out the tire and the bills for all of the claim activity.

John: Yeah, right – including the state's bill.

Russ: All right – well, that one qualifies for sure, and I hope he learned a lesson. Maybe we can get that guy on the show someday.

John: Hey, that'd be an interesting interview, wouldn't it?

Russ: All right, all right – and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, let's bring in Mr. Greg Price to do the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: There he is. Hey, Greg! How's it going, buddy boy? Have a seat. A one, and a two, and a –

Russ: A one, and a two, and a –

[PKF Texas: The Entrepreneurs Playbook]

Russ: And that wraps up this mornings School of Business. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com.