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

John: That's right, Russ. These are the people who really make the country go and grow.

Russ: Absolutely. And here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the AFLAC BusinessMakers Flashback. We're gonna roll back to a recent BusinessMakers Overtime – that's that cool new show with Esther Steinfeld and Katie Laird –

John: Oh yeah. They do a great job.

Russ: Oh, they do. We're gonna feature a segment where they talk about the new Google Wave.

John: Oh wow.

Russ: Cool, happening things out there.

John: Right.

Russ: And then for our featured guest segment, earlier this week, I was over in Austin, Texas and had the opportunity to visit with the two cofounders of Simply Interactive. That's Ben Lamm and Dr. James Moshinskie, also known as Dr. Mo. But first... That's right, it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business and this is not your business as usual school.

John: So to substitute any superlative I could ever come up with, I'm just gonna say we're just better than the rest of 'em, you know?

Russ: That'll work. And we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning first with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today's quote comes from one of my favorite presidents, John F. Kennedy.

John: Uh huh.

Russ: And here it is. "An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget, just as it will never produce enough jobs or profits."

John: That's right. You know whatever you say about JFK, the deficiencies he had in his presidency, he did two things amazingly well. Number one, he cut taxes.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Because he realized that you know, the rising tide lifts all boats.

Russ: Right.

John: And he actually used that expression –

Russ: Right.

John: - that phrase when he was announcing these tax cuts –

Russ: Right.

John: - that he wanted to go through and of course the other thing was he was a cold warrior –

Russ: Yeah.

John: He realized that freedom needed to be spread around the world.

Russ: Oh yeah. Right and that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this December week in business history?

John: Well, we got a very interesting rundown and we're gonna start with a tax.

Russ: All right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1820, Missouri imposes a one dollar bachelor tax on unmarried men between the ages of 21 and 50.

Russ: Okay.

John: So, hey.

Russ: So were they trying to encourage them to get married or what?

John: I guess so or maybe-

Russ: Or raise money...

John: - they were probably hoping they weren't ever going to get married.

Russ: Right.

John: Because if people would get married, then it would decrease the tax revenue.

Russ: That's right.

John: It's kinda like the cigarette tax.

Russ: That's right. We don't want 'em to quit smoking, man, we need that money.

John: That's right. This week in business history in 1820 is the birthday of the first self-made woman millionaire.

Russ: Wow.

John: Her name was Sarah Breedlove, also known as Madam C.J. Walker.

Russ: Okay.

John: American business woman, hair care entrepreneur, tycoon and philanthropist. And she made all her dough by developing and marketing a very successful line of beauty and hair products for black women.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And the rest is history.

Russ: Wow, cool.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1879, Thomas Edison privately demonstrates the incandescent light at Menlo Park. The reason – thing I wonder about why would he privately –

Russ: Private – by invitation only.

John: Yeah, by invitation only. I guess it's – these were his donors or people that made many – maybe his money people.

Russ: Or maybe it was a focus group. What do you think of this light?

John: What do you think of this light? Or maybe he didn't have the confidence level –

Russ: Right, could be, could be.

John: That he needed and he just – well, just test this with a small group of nobodies.

Russ: Yeah, yeah, there you go.

John: If it doesn't work out, you know, word won't get out.

Russ: Right.

John: Because we didn't have camera phones back in those days –

Russ: That's true.

John: - or Facebook or anything like that.

Russ: Right, or Twitter, yeah.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act into law.

Russ: Interesting.

John: Now for 80 years prior to that, the U.S. had been operating without a central bank but there were various financial panics – particularly a very severe one in 1907 –

Russ: Okay.

John: - and if they put the Federal Reserve Act into law –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - then we wouldn't have to worry about financial panics anymore.

Russ: Well that explains why it's been so smooth, right?

John: That's right. This week in business history in 1922, 14 republics form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and I'm sure they had a lotta say in whether they wanted to become part of the Soviet Union or not.

[Music: "Back in the USSR"]

Russ: Right, right.

John: You know, I'm sure they said, "Well, if you don't wanna come on board, we got some fine real estate up in Siberia we'd like to show ya."

Russ: Oh yeah. We'd like to move your republic up there.

John: Like to – yeah right. Okay, this week in business history in 1939, Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolf the 9th Reindeer.

Russ: Wow.

John: That's like the fifth Beatle or something.

Russ: Right. You mean before 1939 –

John: There was no Rudolph.

Russ: My goodness.

John: No, he was created by Robert May as part of a, a his employment with Montgomery Ward. You gotta admit that was quite a stroke of marketing, you know.

Russ: So, so this means that Rudolph was actually a fictitious character?

John: Yeah, I guess so.

Russ: How disappointing.

John: I don't think they had that kind of cloning thing where they could clone him from another reindeer.

Russ: With a lit nose, yeah, right.

John: With a lit up nose. That's right, yeah. So maybe he was over at Menlo Park. The reindeer was over in Menlo Park and that incandescent light –

Russ: That's right.

John: - okay, right. Okay, this week in business history in 1946 is the birthday, that's two years before my birthday, of Jimmy Buffet.

Russ: Wow.

John: And we all know he had a lotta great tunes.

Russ: So he's 63.

John: He's 63, isn't that something?

[Music: "Cheeseburger in Paradise"]

Russ: Wow.

John: This week in business history in 1965, director David Lean's Dr.  Zhivago premiers.

Russ: Wow.

John: Now the interesting thing about that movie – it's a fairly anti-communist.

Russ: Yeah, yes it is.

John: I mean, it's very negative against the –

Russ: The Bolsheviks, well yeah.

John: - and it's one of the few times Hollywood has ever –

Russ: That's right.

John: - poked sticks at communism, you know?

Russ: That's right. And it did it fairly accurately.

John: Oh yeah.

Russ: I remember seeing it when I was a young guy and I was like, "Wow."

John: Yeah 'cause it –

Russ: "These people are just coming into this guy's house and taking it over."

John: And they were taking it over and then they had the one guy who was a very gung-ho communist during the revolution.

Russ: Yeah, oh yeah.

John: And then he falls in love, you know, as his individualism –

Russ: Right.

John: - comes out and he ends up being a most wanted fugitive.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And it's a great movie.

John: This week in business history, The Graduate, starting Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, who I understand were about – roughly about the same age –

Russ: Wow.

John: - although she played the older woman.

Russ: Right.

John: You know.

Russ: Wow.

[Music: "Mrs. Robinson"]

Russ: Big movie week, wow.

John: Oh bi- well, yeah. Okay this week in business history, Ian Anderson and Glenn Cornick form the rock group Jethro Tull.

Russ: Goodness gracious.

John: And Aqualung. What a great song that is.

Russ: Wow.

[Music: "Aqualung"

John: This week in business history in 1968, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash premiered together in California.

Russ: For the first time, wow.

John: Yeah, for the first time and then –

Russ: Crosby, Stills and Nash, wow.

John: - and then of course they had that great Woodstock album –

[Music: "Woodstock"]

Russ: Oh yeah.

John: - too, remember that? Okay.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Right. This week in business history, in 1968, Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane"

[Music: "Leaving on a Jet Plane"]

John: That was a great song.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Very melancholy.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And I understand the song was written by John Denver.

Russ: Oh, wow! That's interesting. Cool.

John: Yeah, uh huh, yeah. Okay, this week in business history, the Soviet Union launches a spacecraft called Soyuz TM-4 and it had some humans in there, some humanoids. It spend more than a year in space. The first humans ever to do so.

Russ: Wow.

John: And it had three male Cosmonauts –

Russ: Yeah, well I think they actually went up to that space station, Muir and spent it up there –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - but even that –

John: Even that's cramped, you know?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Even though they were in the space station and then they were in that, you know, the rocket ship that took them up there you can imagine what it would've been like.

Russ: Well, I can't.

John: They can only shower once a month and they had –

Russ: Oh that's nice.

John: - to wear each set of underwear for an entire week.

Russ: (Laughter)

John: Which I used to do on college. I don't see that's a hardship there, because you can, you know, you take your underwear and you turn it inside out –

Russ: That's right, that's right.

John: You know, see actually, it's only like wearing the underwear for like three or four days –

Russ: That's right. That's not that big – yeah. That's right, right.

John: - because you turn it inside out. So that's – I don't really have any sympathy for that.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But you know, to only shower once a month. That's pretty bad.

Russ: Yeah. You don't get this stuff in regular business school, do you?

John: I know. Okay. So we're moving right along here. The last thing in this week in business history happened in 1989. Vice President Quayle, Dan Quayle was the Vice President then sent out 30,000 Christmas cards with the word beacon spelled with a K instead of a C, nation –

Russ: Spelling wasn't one of his strengths.

John: No, it really wasn't.

Russ: That was before they'd – they'd actually built spell check, too.

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: Now, but Quayle had trouble with the word potato as well, right?

John: Yeah, right. He had a problem with the word potato because he did a little spelling thing with some kids –

Russ: Right. And misspelled – right.

John: - and misspelled the word potato.

Russ: Sorry.

John: And it's pretty bad. You know, I know when the vice president can't spell a couple words.

Russ: Yeah, all right, so does that wrap up this morning's history lesson?

John: That is a wrap, my friend.

Russ: All right, good lesson.

John: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Russ: I enjoyed that, all right.

John: Yeah, I enjoyed reading it.

Russ: All right.

John: Okay. And talking about it. Okay.

Russ: All right. Okay and that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson.

John: Yes it is, uh huh.

Russ: And I think everybody knows the routine.

John: Yes we do.

Russ: I'm in charge of going out –

John: You're in charge.

Russ: - and finding a word –

John: Or, or making up a word.

Russ: - or making up a word that we want to, you know, display to our audience.

John: We got – because we have a – I think we have sworn duty to –

Russ: That's right, that's right.

John: - to educate everybody and vocabulary is part of that mission, I think.

Russ: Right and so the way that we do it –

John: Rightfully so.

Russ: - after I choose the word, I say the word. And then John has to guess the meaning.

John: I guess the meaning and I do not know the meaning of the word.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: And I gotta warn everybody, don't try this at home.

Russ: That's right.

John: Practice it before you start using these words out there.

Russ: Exactly.

John: Because some of these are so new, people don't know what they mean and they might get the wrong idea. They may think you're insulting them or ridiculing them.

Russ: That's right. That's very good advice. This morning's word is really a two word jargon phrase.

John: Two word jargon, right.

Russ: It's a noun.

John: A noun.

Russ: Right. Here it is. You ready?

John: Yeah.

Russ: Tramp stamp.

John: Tramp stamp.

Russ: Right.

John: Hmm. Tramp stamp. A tramp is a very ill-kept, destitute person who just meanders around the streets.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay. A stamp is something that you use to mail a letter. So I would say a tramp stamp is a tramp who also works for the Postal Service.

Russ: Wrong.

(Laughter)

John: Okay.

Russ: Wrong. No, this like a modern tramp and the stamp in this case is a tattoo.

John: Ah!

Russ: And it's a lower back tattoo, particularly on a woman.

John: Although they got the spread-eagle things –

Russ: Yeah, who ensures the tattoo can be seen by wearing a short top and low-rise pants.

John: Yeah, a tramp stamp.

Russ: A tramp stamp.

John: We're – okay

Russ: That's pretty good.

John: Does your wife have one of those?

Russ: No she doesn't. Does yours?

John: No, uh uh.

Russ: We ought to get 'em each one for Christmas.

John: For a while, I would never date anyone who didn't have one.

Russ: (Laughter)

John: That was one of my criteria. I had my list of people to go out with and I would –

Russ: Tramp stamp was a requirement.

John: - it is a requirement, yes.

Russ: That's great.

John: Because I wanted to relive my youth.

Russ: Thank you very much.

John: All right, okay.

Russ: All right.

John: All right, okay.

Russ: And that brings us to dumbest moments in business. Do we have one this morning?

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: Right.

John: This is unbelievable.

Russ: Okay.

John: Okay. Turns out that there are federal employees, you know, they're people who work for the federal government.

Russ: There's a bunch of them.

John: Right, they owe the government $3 billion in unpaid taxes.

Russ: Now wait a minute, you're kidding me.

John: No. This is according to WTOP, which is a TV and a radio affiliate in Washington, D.C.

Russ: Right.

John: Now, these are notable agencies on the – and it's really tough. You know, you gotta lead by example, right?

Russ: Right.

John: How can you expect you and I to pay our taxes, which we do, by the way –

Russ: Right, right.

John: – let's not make any mistake about that.

Russ: Right.

John: Yet, the head of the Treasury Department didn't pay his taxes.

Russ: Right.

John: You had this guy Tom Daschle who did not pay his taxes and they were gonna put him in front of the – in charge of Health and Human Services, but this trickles down all the way down to the workforce.

Russ: Okay.

John: Here's some departments that are – these are notable agencies on this list. The Executive Office of the President, which includes The White House. There's 50 employees that work there that owe about $800,000.00 in back taxes.

Russ: You're kidding me.

John: The U.S. Senate has 231 employees that owe $2 million, over $2 million. The House of Representatives have about 447 employees that owe about $5.8 million. The U.S. Tax Court, get this, has 3 employees that owe about 40 grand.

Russ: It's time to garnish some wages.

John: And then the mil- in the military, it has 27,000 employees that owe over $100 million dollars in taxes. Now I can excuse that.

Russ: Yeah.

John: These people are defending the country, all right, but –

Russ: My goodness, though.

John: They can, they can take as long as they want.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But I tell you, it's a crime, you know –

Russ: Absolutely.

John: - not, I mean literally it is, because you gotta pay your taxes but figuratively how can the government expect us to pay for all this high falutin' stuff they're dreaming up down there –

Russ: Right and they're not even –

John: And they're not even getting their own –

Russ: My goodness.

John: - employees to pay.

Russ: I'm glad you shared that with us.

John: So am I.

Russ: Start a revolution.

John: I get – I get angry just thinking about it.

Russ: Well, I'm getting mad, too.

John: It's not fair, man.

Russ: (Laughter) All right, all right.

John: All right.

Russ: And before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneurs Playbook.

John: And how ironic that it's an accountant. Greg always pays his taxes.

Russ: Oh, he pays his taxes.

John: He pays – actually he pays his ahead of time.

Russ: Yeah, but he complained but he pays them.

John: Well everybody complains.

Russ: It's okay to complain.

John: That's right, come on Greg, get in here. Sit down.

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

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. In our last segment we talked about focusing on the process to achieve your desired outcome. There is additional value by which you can evaluate your own actions.

In evaluating success, an additional standard is looking at the alignment between your behavior and your values. This is known as a measure of integrity, or success beyond success.

In his book Conscious Business author Fred Kofman lays out an impressive idea that integrity is not a particular value, akin to honesty, but rather integrity is adherence to a code of values. Ask yourself the following question: Are you willing to win at any cost? Before you answer yes, consider another question. What if winning requires unethical behavior? Does this cause a pause? Enron, Tyco, WorldCom all had impressive codes of ethics. But that code of ethics didn't prevent their executives from acting unethically.

Most executives know the difference between right and wrong and we know where the dividing line is located. In the heat of the moment do you put integrity first and subordinate success or uphold success at all costs and put integrity second?

Every time we act, we are either in alignment with our values or we are not. We choose whether or not we are aligned. When it comes to integrity, we can always be players.

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