Russ: Good morning, this is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about free enterprise – about the private sector. About those innovators that participate and change our lives and improve our lives.

John: You know, you mention the private sector, you know, and there's another sector called the public sector.

Russ: Yes there is.

John: Now the private sector is the one that produces everything.

Russ: That's right.

John: Produces the wealth. Produces products people like and enjoy and use. Produces jobs – but the fact is, public sector makes no money.

Russ: Right.

John: And makes nothing of value to anybody, really.

Russ: Right, right. They take the money that the private sector makes –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - and decides what to do with it.

John: Yeah, right and they redistribute it.

Russ: That's right.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Okay. Good deal.

John: That's why we celebrate the private sector.

Russ: Abs- absolutely.

John: Yeah.

Russ: We celebrate innovation and in fact, we're celebrating it this morning right here because The Businessmaker has taken another step towards being green.

John: Uh huh.

Russ: Because we're actually producing this show today on a very sustainable computer.

John: yeah.

Russ: The Recompute computer.

John: Uh huh.

Russ: Now we featured this on an interview about six months ago with an industrial designer by the name of Brenden Macaluso and we're now producing the show on one and it's like got a cardboard case on it –

John: Uh huh.

Russ: And it's really cool lookin' and I think we sound pretty good. Right this minute, it's just being lent to us –

John: Right. Yeah. Uh huh.

Russ: - because it's also gonna be featured on The Businessmakers Overtime Show on the Wednesday following this broadcast.

John: Right.

Russ: Brenden's actually gonna be here –

John: Uh huh.

Russ: - and everybody thought well since he's gonna be here and be the guest, it should be on his cardboard computer.

John: Right.

Russ: And here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the AFLAC Businessmakers Flashback, we're gonna do somethin' a little bit different. We're gonna have a solo performance by Mr. Walter Ulrich, entrepreneur and President and CEO of Houston Technology Center. Walter is gonna give us his very cool definition of entrepreneurship and then for our featured guest segment, I'm gonna sit down with David Mebane, a young businessman who right out of college started offering tours of Paris, France. He's the founder and President of fattirebiketours.com, citysegwaytours.com and classicwalks.com. And today he's expanded it to offering tours of Berlin, Barcelona, London, Budapest, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, Vienna and Washington, DC. It's a real cool business. But first, that's right, it's time for The Businessmakers School of Business and this is not your ordinary business school.

John: You're right, Russ. We've looked at all the business school curriculums that we could possibly look at but in the process, we figured that we could develop a curriculum that would be more useful to people. But in this case, this is an extra value to people because it's real-world stuff and stuff you can put into use in your own business.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Yeah.

Russ: And as we announced, I think, two weeks ago, we had kinda let our fact checkers go for Thanksgiving and in the spirit of really making cutbacks in this tough economy, we decided to permanently let 'em go because I've noticed that nobody else seems to be using fact checkers, so why should we?

John: Oh, especially those people at the University of East Angeles Climate Research Unit. They certainly aren't using any fact checking.

Russ: - yeah, not only do they not use fact checkers, they, they've thrown away a lot of facts.

John: Yeah, they've – the real facts somehow got lost.

(Laughter)

John: Or got eliminated or manipulated.

Russ: There you go. Okay and that synchs up very well with this morning's quote of the day –

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: - 'cause we kick off The School of Business with a quote of the day.

John: This comes from a very good President.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Abraham Lincoln.

John: Okay.

Russ: And here's Abraham Lincoln's cool quote.

John: Okay. All right.

Russ: You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

John: That's right. And Bernie Madoff figured that out and now he's in prison.

Russ: Yeah. (Laughter)

John: 'Cause he didn't figure it out very well.

Russ: He was doin' pretty well for a while there, wasn't he.

John: Well, he was and they all do well for awhile.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But then eventually –

Russ: That's right.

John: - you can't keep perpetrating a fraud forever.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Someone's gonna find out. You know, look at Tiger Woods, you know?

Russ: But this theme is also gonna carry forward into the final Dumb Moment sector, segment –

John: Yeah, I would say –

Russ: - of today?

John: - it's a dumb – I think it's a dumb moment but I think that dumb is too kind for what this is, you know?

Russ: (Laughter) Okay, right. But first it's time for This Week in Business History. What happened during this December week in business history?

John: Okay, well there's a guy – 1805, his name was Nicholas-Jacques Conte –

Russ: Okay.

John: - who died and he's the inventor of the modern pencil.

Russ: Oh, my goodness, wow.

John: But he didn't start out as an inventor. He was an artist –

Russ: Yeah?

John: - and he painted rich people –

Russ: Okay.

John: You know, the pencil is a pretty big accomplishment.

Russ: No kiddin'.

John: But I think that is overshadowed by his biggest accomplishment –

Russ: Which was?

John: - he survived the French Revolution.

Russ: Ah, wow.

John: 'Cause he painted these rich people.

Russ: Yeah.

John: You know, the guilt by association was big in those – in those days.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: You know, and so he survived the French Revolution and actually designed the crayon which is still used by artists –

Russ: Wow. But he was a, he was the inventor of the modern pencil –

John: Yeah, that's what I said.

Russ: - and he died this week in 1805.

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: Wow. Cool. All right.

John: This week in business history in 1901, the birth of Walt Disney.

Russ: Happy birthday, Walt.

John: That's right, he was born in Chicago. They later moved to Missouri where he grew up and became interested in drawing and photography. He actually drove an ambulance in France during World War I and of course, he, later he went to Hollywood. He created Steamboat Willie, who was later called Mickey Mouse. He did a lot of innovative things in –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - in film and cinematography –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and animation and he's also big in the theme park business as well.

Russ: Yeah, I'd say so.

John: And I guess he's probably the inventor of the modern theme park.

Russ: Yeah?

John: You know, 'cause he had Disneyland in Anaheim and Disneyworld in Orlando –

Russ: Right.

John: Okay this week in business history in 1927, Robert Norton Noyce, who was one of the inventors of the integrated circuit, was born in Iowa.

Russ: Wow.

John: Okay.

Russ: 1927. Wow. Okay.

John: 1927 he invented the integrated circuit and – which is a way of putting several transistors together on a sheet of silicon and connectors etched between them, which really revolutionized everything.

Russ: Totally. Everything.

John: Totally everything. He later decided to start another company with a few colleagues, which was called Integrated Electronics but referred to as Intel.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: And we all know what, what has happened to that company.

Russ: They have done well.

John: They have done well.

Russ: All right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1941, Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese Navy.

Russ: Yes they are.

John: The Japanese Navy, although it was a successful attack, made a crucial error. They coulda sent a third wave. They, the Japanese attacked in two waves.

Russ: Right.

John: They coulda come in with a third wave and finished the job.

Russ: And why did they decide not to?

John: Well because the carriers were not in the harbor.

Russ: Okay.

John: And they were concerned that the carriers might be close by their fleet –

Russ: Okay.

John: - and create damage –

Russ: Okay.

John: - but by not attacking with a third wave, they failed to destroy the fuel tanks.

Russ: Yeah.

John: The fuel depot.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And that was a big mistake because if they would've sunk the fleet and eliminated the fuel depot –

Russ: Yeah, making the harbor ineffective for a long, long time.

John: Yeah, you put the fuel out of the –

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And – but to show you the resiliency of the military –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and this is one of the few things that the government does right. We castigate the government all the time –

Russ: Right.

John: - for not bein' able to do things but this shows you how good the military can be when you got the right people running it and there's little interference elsewhere.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Because just several months after that, in April, the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, 16 B-25s took off of an aircraft carrier –

Russ: Right.

John: - and bombed Tokyo.

Russ: Bombs over Tokyo.

John: Bombs over Tokyo.

Russ: Right.

John: And it just completely shocked the Japanese population.

Russ: Right.

John: And then about a month and-a-half later in June, the US Navy wins the Battle of Midway and sinks the main aircraft carriers in the Japanese fleet and puts the Japanese on their heels the rest of the war.

Russ: Came back fast, man.

John: So.

Russ: After such a devastating attack. And you –

John: I know, just months afterwards.

Russ: - I know, have you been to Pearl Harbor?

John: No, I've flown over it but I never visited the harbor.

Russ: Man it is, it is really interesting.

John: Yeah.

Russ: And emotional.

John: Yeah.

Russ: I mean, you know you go out to where the Arizona is and that's real impressive how, you know, there's still oil bubbles that come up.

John: I know, right, yeah. Yeah.

Russ: It's still coming up. But what was most impressive to me, too, is how many of the crew that was on the Arizona that survived and died later requested to be buried there.

John: Oh really, I didn't know that. Yeah.

Russ: It's – yeah, I think they still hold funerals there and they will –

John: Geeze.

Russ: - of course most of 'em probably are – there's probably not very many of 'em left but –

John: Right.

Russ: - you know, there were people that were buried there in 1990, 1991 and stuff and –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - it's quite emotional.

John: I know. It's a marvelous memorial –

Russ: Absolutely.

John: - that the government put in.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Yeah. In 1967, this week in business history, 26-years – I didn't know he was this young when he died – Otis Redding dies in a plane crash and he had that great song, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" –

[Music: "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"]

John: This week in business history, in 1970, The Doors played their last concert that with controversial lead singer Jim Morrison – was held in New Orleans. It was reported that Morrison now shares a room there at the Wooden Waldorf with Elvis.

[Music: "Roadhouse Blues"]

John: This week in business history in 1974, Linda Ronstadt records her only number one hit, "You're No Good" –

[Music: "You're No Good"]

John: I didn't know that was her only number one hit.

Russ: Yeah I woulda thought that she had plenty –

John: I thought she had more than – but she did some cover music, too.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah, she did.

John: All right. Okay, this week in business history – in 1974, a big sex scandal involving an Arkansas politician – his name was Wilbur Mills, a Democrat from Arkansas, was stopped by Washington Park Police. He was driving at night with his lights off and the reason why is 'cause he was drunk and he had this strip-

Russ: And he didn't need his lights.

John: - yeah, that's right. And he was riding around with a stripper, her name was Fanne Foxe –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and also called The Argentine Firecracker and man, I tell ya, things went downhill fast. This guy was a very powerful guy.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He was Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee or –

Russ: Right.

John: - that puts tax policies together and –

Russ: Right, right.

John: - this guy was oh, just a big – and she, Fanne Foxe, jumps outta the car and she jumps into the tidal basin – those of you familiar with Washington, DC.

Russ: That's right.

John: You know where that's for.

Russ: To go for a swim?

John: Well I think she was trying to swim away from the cops because she didn't wanna be caught with this dummy.

Russ: It would ruin her career, right?

John: Yeah, it would ruin her –

Russ: This politician.

Russ: Yeah. (Laughter)

John: Okay. All right. This week in business history in 1980, John Lennon is murdered two months after he turns 40 years old.

Russ: Goodness gracious. Ugh.

John: Okay.

Russ: I still remember where – I was watching a Monday Night Football game when they announced it.

John: I know. Yeah.

Russ: It was incredible.

[Music: "Imagine"]

John: Okay. All right. This week in business history in 1988, Roy Orbison dies at the age of 52 years old.

[Music: "Only the Lonely"]

Russ: Lotta young musician deaths this week, geeze.

John: I know. They all led pretty hard lives, you know?

Russ: Yeah, they did. Okay and that wraps up the history lesson this morning?

John: That's all I got. That's a wrap.

Russ: All right. You ended it on a downer, man. Seems like you coulda found – we need somethin' good to happen in this week in business history –

John: Okay.

Russ: - next year so that we won't be ending on Roy Orbison's death.

John: Okay, they'll say, "This Week in Business History, you and I both agreed to end This Week in Business Histories from here and evermore on a happy note."

Russ: Okay.

John: Right.

Russ: That's a commitment, a contract.

John: That's a, that's a contract.

Russ: We'll make somethin' up if there isn't somethin'.

John: Hey we do that anyway. Why stop now?

Russ: (Laughter) Right. All right.

John: Right, okay.

Russ: All right and that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson.

John: Uh huh, yeah.

Russ: We go out there and find new words and new acronyms and techno speak and we try to help our audience out by knowing the meaning of these words.

John: That's right.

Russ: We have to do it this way as a contest.

John: Uh huh.

Russ: And the contest is really a contest for John 'cause he never knows the word.

John: I don't know the w- and you know a lotta people think I, you know, we're makin' this up.

Russ: Yeah.

John: - I literally do not know the word he's gonna come up with.

Russ: Right.

John: Even though you've just probably made it up five minutes ago.

Russ: Well, sometimes I have to do it that way –

John: Well –

Russ: All right and I say the word and then John guesses the meaning.

John: I guess the meaning and sometimes I get it right.

Russ: Okay. Here's this morning's word. You ready?

John: Yeah.

Russ: Factoid.

John: Factoid.

Russ: Factoid.

John: Well, factoid is a small fact and it's usually a – it's kind of a journalism term and you have to put them in the story, sometimes you'll li- it's a list on the side of a story, called a sidebar, and it's a, it's a small fact that helps bolster a story along – in a larger context.

Russ: All right. All right, I tell you what. Everybody hold your calls. I think, I think we have a winner but you, you actually hit the second definition right on the head.

John: Yeah.

Russ: The first definition is the one I prefer and it's a piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition.

John: Okay, the word factoid came out when USA Today first started publishing.

Russ: Yeah, yeah?

John: Okay. That first definition didn't apply.

Russ: Yeah, but it does today.

John: It does today.

Russ: (Laughter) Yeah, right.

John: Right.

Russ: It's a more mature definition.

John: So I'm – so the definition I gave you is the one –

Russ: I gave you –

John: - is the one that I grew up in my career.

Russ: All right. I'll give you winner designation on that definition.

John: All right.

Russ: But I think this new number one definition is what happens today.

John: The only – the new number one is there because it's so prevalent in the media.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Yeah, the word fact – if they wanted that word to apply to that definition, they'd have to remake the word factoid the lieloid or –

Russ: Right. (Laughter)

John: - the non-truthloid.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay.

Russ: Right, well and I, and I think it segues very well into –

John: Yeah, oh it does.

Russ: - this morning's Dumb Moment is kind of a factoid, a whole basket full of factoids, right?

John: Right, well I tell ya the global warming that you and I have joked about it. We've talked about it but you know, you and I both agree that how can any group of people predict what's gonna happen with the earth's climate.

Russ: Right.

John: And how can anybody really ascertain what's happened in the earth's climate, there's just too many factors –

Russ: Too many variables.

John: - too many variables. The sun has a hand in it.

Russ: Right. Clouds have a hand in it.

John: Clouds have a hand in it. That's right.

Russ: Cows have a hand in it.

John: We have a hand in it 'cause we –

Russ: We're breathing.

John: - we're breathing – yeah, so what happened is someone actually got to the truth.

Russ: Okay.

John: And what they did is they hacked the servers at the University of East Angeles Climate Research Unit. Now the thing is, this group of people is the one that most heavily influences –

Russ: Absolutely.

John: - the United Nations Panel on Climate Change.

Russ: Right, right.

John: And it turns out that they were manipulating information –

Russ: Significantly.

John: - significantly. They were altering information.

Russ: Yeah.

John: If they got information from other scientists it did not jive with their preconceived idea of what the climate should be, they threw that out.

Russ: Right.

John: And then I just learned from you this morning – why don't you tell me what you just told me.

Russ: Well, they also were the keepers of all the historical temperatures that base the long-term increase in the temperature –

John: Right. 'Cause there was no Accuweather back in 1700, right?

Russ: - (Laughter) right. And they actually – according to a sort of scientific rule had kinda used algorithms to make it come out the way it is and nobody really disputed it but lately, people said, "Now wait a minute. Let us use our algorithms," and they went, "Oh, we threw all that away."

John: Yeah.

Russ: So –

John: Now the, the dumb moment –

Russ: - yeah.

John: the dumb part of this – these people were not dumb –

Russ: Right.

John: - they're very smart.

Russ: Right.

John: Just like Bernie Madoff was smart.

Russ: Right.

John: The dumb moment are the people who are believing all this stuff –

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: - and not questioning it. The ones who did question it got humiliated –

Russ: Got dismissed.

John: - got dismissed, castigated, lost all their funding –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - I mean it just a –

Russ: Now you, you would agree with me, wouldn't you, that if, if the planet were gettin' ready to really heat up –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - we would like to know about it. We don't wanna drown from –

John: Hey, I saw the movie 2012, all right? I don't wanna go through that.

Russ: (Laughter) That's right.

John: All right? Did you see it?

Russ: No, not yet.

John: I saw it. It's pretty scary.

Russ: Well see, we, we don't want that. We don't want it but we also don't want to destroy the economy based on thinking something's just gonna happen 'cause we –

John: That's not proven.

Russ: - because we have a hunch and we have a political cause that says that's –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - that's what –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - if it's happenin', we wanna know but nobody's proved that it's happening.

John: Right, we don't go around deliberately defiling the earth and –

Russ: Right, right.

John: - creating garbage pits and –

Russ: Right.

John: - anyway – and we have a responsibility –

Russ: Right.

John: - to be good stewards of the earth.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: But that does not mean we have to go crazy over it.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay?

Russ: Right.

John: And it's just – you know, we're part of the environment.

Russ: Right.

John: And it's –

Russ: Right, no I like what John Hofmeister said –

John: What'd he say?

Russ: - in his interview here. He said he wanna eliminate gaseous waste. We don't –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - we don't wanna pollute, you know –

John: Yeah.

Russ: I'm glad we agreed on that. All right.

John: All right, all right.

Russ: All right and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for that very, very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneurs Playbook. So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price –

John: Come on in, come on in, Greg.

Russ: - on the piano.

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.

In "Player versus Victim Leadership Part 1 we discussed that taking the role of a player is the preferred way to address business and life in general. Let's explore some additional information on this subject.

In his book Conscious Business, Fred Kofman outlines his definition of response-ability. Kofman writes that this applies to the way you respond to a situations that are presented to you. In life, we are presented with the opportunity to make choices. The responses you make are the key to your individual self awareness.

In addition, being responsible does not necessarily translate into being successful. But it provides a solid foundation from which one can live their life and deal with anything that comes your way.

While you are not responsible for the environmental factors that surround your world, you can and should be responsible for how you respond to the cards that are dealt your way. Or in other words you can be a player and play the cards dealt to you, or, you can complain about them become disengaged and unproductive.

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse." Says Don Juan.

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas – The Fit That's Right!

Russ: All right and that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in for the AFLAC Businessmakers Flashback, where we're gonna feature Walter Uhlrich's definition of an entrepreneur and then our featured guest segment with David Mebane, (do I pronounce his name correctly here?) the founder of City Segway Tours and Fat Tire Bike Tours. You're listening to The Businessmakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.