Russ: Good morning. This is the Business Makers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about the business builders. Now, John, I've been thinking about this, you know, with the economy being in the situation that it is, maybe we ought to get all these innovators together and just go on strike until those guys get their act together. Kind of like-

John: -it was Atlas Shrugged.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: That's what Atlas Shrugged is about. You know they're coming out with a movie.

Russ: Oh, man.

John: You figure these movies take a long time to get in development. How prescient that the producers are of this movie, because this is exactly what's going to happen; but I think you're on to something.

Russ: Okay, okay. Well, let's plant that seed to gather all the innovators and, maybe, actually do this. They'll all go on strike and say, "Okay, no more innovation until you elected officials-"

John: And then they all disappear and nobody knows where they go.

Russ: That's right.

John: Right.

Russ: That's it. Okay. And here's our line-up for this morning. First up the Aflac Business Makers flashback, last week Katie Laird had the founder as well as the managing partner of Coffee Groundz. The founder being Jonathan Zadok and the managing partner being J.R. Cohen to come in and tell their story with their success with Coffee Groundz. Now obviously since the segment involves Katie Laird it also happens to involve social media. And this is an incredible success story of using Twitter in your business. And then for our featured guest segment this morning I am going to have the privilege of visiting with Janet Gurwitch, she is the co-founder and former CEO of the very successful Laura Mercier Cosmetics and skincare company. This is a cool cool story. Janet was on a rocket ship on her retail career, was aimed at being the CEO of Neiman Marcus and well on her way when suddenly she decided, whoa, the entrepreneur world is for me. It's a cool cool story. But first... That's right, it's time for the Business Maker's School of Business, and as I like to say, John, it's not business as usual school.

John: It's better than usual. I'd say every week we come up with things that really the business schools don't really pay much attention to.

Russ: That's right.

John: And we have a vocabulary lesson, we have the business history segment.

Russ: That's right.

John: We've got dumb moments. Business schools really, they're not into the real world yet-

Russ: That's right-

John: -like we are. We're real and we are worldly.

Russ: You bet! And we kick off the Business Makers School of Business each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: The quote of the day.

Russ: You bet. And this one's, in my opinion, very appropriate now. It's about economic forecasting. It's a quote by John Kenneth Galbraith, and here it is. "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."

John: There you go!

Russ: Okay.

John: That's right.

Russ: Thought you would like it!

John: That's right. It's a good one because nobody knows anything.

Russ: That's right.

John: And that's my favorite quote. That's from some movie-

Russ: That's from you, isn't it?

John: No, no, no. Some movie producer came up with that, because no one has ever been successful at predicting the future.

Russ: No one's clairvoyant.

John: I know. Because the only thing you have to go by, which is the only predictor, is the past.

Russ: Right.

John: And everything's different.

Russ: Right. There's nothing in the past like this economy that we're experiencing right now.

John: I know. Who would think that we'd come up with a system as selling mortgages to people who we know could not pay it back but still sold them the mortgages anyway.

Russ: And did that, like, fifteen years ago.

John: And did it for fifteen, yeah, and kept doing it.

Russ: Yeah, and kept doing it. All right, and that brings us to this week in business history. So what do you have for us this morning?

John: Well, this is appropriate, because this week in business history in 1841 was the first continuous filibuster in the U. S. Senate, which began this week and then lasted until March 11.

Russ: My goodness! Can you imagine that!

John: I know. That's when filibusters were actual filibusters.

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

John: You know, because in the Senate, the head of the Senate has to yield the floor.

Russ: Right.

John: And once you yield the floor you lose the time and someone can go in and filibuster. Nowadays they skip that part. They just say, "Hey, we've got their votes for filibuster. If you don't vote our way, then we will filibuster."

Russ: So it's just a threat.

John: It's a threat, but they don't have to carry out because the other side knows that they will carry it out.

Russ: Back then these guys talked for three weeks.

John: I think that's what we should have in the Senate now-

Russ: We should. Make them-make them work.

John: Make them work for their money.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay. Later on this week in business history, in 1849, in New York City, James K. Polk becomes the first serving president of the United States to have his photograph taken.

Russ: Well, that's interesting.

John: I know.

Russ: 1849. So-

John: I wonder if they made him say "Cheese"?

Russ: They probably did.

John: This week in business history in 1876, I learned something on this one, a lot of people refer to Alexander Graham Bell as the one patenting and then inventing the telephone.

Russ: Right.

John: Well, he had a competitor, Elijah Gray.

Russ: Okay.

John: And he fought with this guy, and he worked for a Western Electric Company. And they fought over the patent back and forth for the telephone, and eventually we know who won.

Russ: Right. Wow! Wow. Wonder if the other guy had a case?

John: I think he did because I think Alexander Graham Bell did borrow some technology.

Russ: Borrowed some technology!

John: And they claimed it as his own.

Russ: Ah! Interesting.

John: Yeah, and the rest is history.

Russ: There you go.

John: Okay, moving right along, this week in business history, in 1878, the first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with eighteen phones.

Russ: Okay. Wow.

John: Eighteen phones.

Russ: Eighteen. So if you owned one there was only seventeen other people that you could call, right?

John: That's right.

Russ: Yeah. Wow.

John: I hope the police had one.

Russ: I hope they-well, and if they were-

John: And the fire department, hopefully, had one.

Russ: Yeah. And so now we're only down to about fifteen or sixteen people that you could call.

John: Okay. The week in business history in 1899, U. S. Congress begins using voting machines.

Russ: Oh, wow! This is like a high-tech history lesson, isn't it?

John: That's right-

Russ: Voting machines, telephone, exchanges. Wow.

John: I wonder if they had hanging chads back in those days.

Russ: I think they did.

John: All right. This week in business history in 1919, brown forms. In other words, United Parcel Service was found. And nineteen-year-old Jim Casey and eighteen-year-old Claude Ryan founded the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington.

Russ: Wow!

John: They had a hundred dollars in debt. In 1913 the first delivery car appeared, that was a Model T Ford. They eventually merged, and they formed Merchants Parcel Delivery.

Russ: Okay.

John: And it went on and on and on, and a new member was recruited, Charles Soderstrom, who help managed their ever growing fleet of vehicles; and the service began in Oakland, California. And the name United Parcel Services adopted, then, in 1919.

Russ: Wow! Think they wore shorts?

John: I don't think so.

Russ: Okay. All right.

John: This week in business history in 1924 the IBM Corporation was founded by Thomas Watson.

Russ: Wow!

John: Can you imagine if you had bought IBM stock back then?

Russ: Right. Well, I know a little bit about that one. I mean, you know, that one was not too different than the UPS story. There were predecessors that preceded 1924 with tabulation machines and census machines, and then eventually, when Thomas Watson took over, they changed it to International Business Machines.

John: Wow!

Russ: And the rest is history.

John: And the rest is history.

Russ: You bet.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1939, Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of Gone With The Wind.

Russ: Wow. So meaning originally, George was there directing it and he got laid off or something?

John: Yeah, I guess they didn't like the job he was doing.

Russ: Okay. Wow!

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1941 is the birthday of Gene Pitney, a Hartford, Connecticut vocalist and song-writer.

Russ: And his song was?

John: Town Without Pity.

[Music: "Town Without Pity"]

Russ: That was a cool song, man. I like that.

John: It makes you think of Washington, DC. Okay. This week in business history in 1953, baseball star and pilot, Ted Williams, is uninjured as his plane is shot down in Korea.

Russ: Gah, I hope he was on our side, right?

John: Oh, yeah, I think so.

Russ: Okay! But he was shot down-

John: Shot down-

Russ: -uninjured.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Wow!

John: This week in business history in 1954 the first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.

Russ: Well, that's a interesting church.

John: I know.

Russ: Kind of founded by a guy that-

John: Believed in aliens-came here.

Russ: -was a writer.

John: Science fiction writer.

Russ: Science fiction writer.

John: Went to his head big time.

Russ: Yeah, I guess so.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1959, Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's Premier after overthrowing Batista, the Cuban dictator.

Russ: Yeah, that would have been almost fifty years ago.

John: I know. He's still alive.

Russ: Wow, it would be fifty years ago that they did that. Wow.

John: That sounds like a Beetle's song-"It's fifty years ago today." This week in business history in 1962, the Beach Boys introduce a new music style with their hit, Surfin' Safari.

[Music: "Surfin' Safari"]

Russ: Man, that was such a happening time, you know, the whole beach surf thing and the Beach Boys. Wow, cool.

John: This week in business history in 1963 is the birthday of Michael Jordan, a guy that couldn't even make his high school basketball team at one time, becomes the all-star, all-world NBA Guard Forward for the Chicago Bulls.

Russ: What an athlete too. So he's forty-six now.

John: I guess so.

Russ: I bet he could still play-

John: I bet he could play.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1967, Aretha Franklin records Respect.

[Music: "Respect"]

Russ: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Then so that was forty-two years ago.

John: I know-

Russ: That song-

John: Makes me old, man.

Russ: Yeah, man.

John: Okay. Good. 1971 this week in business history, Richard Nixon installs a secret taping system in the White House.

Russ: Okay. So he's recording what's going on in there.

John: That's right, but he's not the only president to do that, because-

Russ: Oh, really?

John: -LBJ did it and JFK-

Russ: JFK did it.

John: -John F. Kennedy.

Russ: Oh, so John F. Kennedy would have been the first one to do it.

John: I think he was the first one to do it, although some presidents before that might have done it too.

Russ: Those two for sure. Okay.

John: Okay. Moving on. In 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini, this week in business history, orders Moslems to murder Satanic Verses novelist Salman Rushdie.

Russ: Wow. That's kind of a bad book review when you want the author killed.

John: Or a really good book review-

Russ: You have to figure what-how you look at it.

John: Yeah, right. Okay. This week in business history in 1990, Perrier recalls millions of bottles of sparkling water after traces of Benzene, this is pure French spring water, right? Benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some of the bottles.

Russ: Yeah, I remember that you couldn't buy it for, like, six months or a year.

John: Good thing you couldn't buy it, either.

Russ: True! Wow!

John: This week in business history, in 2001, the first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature magazine.

Russ: Now that's some interesting science going on there. I'm optimistic about what it's going to give to us.

John: I wonder if you can get a GPS of the human genome? So, you know, you are here, and you want to get over there, you kind of-

Russ: You know, I think you have something there, man.

John: I know. The last but not least, this week in business history in 2005, YouTube, the popular Internet site in which videos can be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.

Russ: And what a success that was. Now that's something to think about. 2005, we're talking about four years ago. I think it sold, like, two years ago; it was such a fast-developing, popular application. And man-oh-man is it still growing in popularity.

John: All right.

Russ: All right. That wraps up the history lesson, another fantastic one. We learned a lot. That was most interesting about Alexander Graham Bell. Man, geez, a contested patent.

John: He later went on and invented the Graham Cracker, though.

Russ: Did he!

John: Yes, he did. And there was no contesting that one.

Russ: No contesting of that one.

John: That was his fall-back position, because he knew if he lost the patent on the phone, he had the cracker to fall back on.

Russ: Great!

John: A lot of people don't know that.

Russ: They don't. Heard here at The Business Maker's School of Business.

John: Hey, if you don't hear it here, you're not going to hear it anywhere else.

Russ: That's right. No kidding. All right. And that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson.

John: And watch how you say this, all right. Don't get so cocky.

Russ: All right.

John: All right.

Russ: And the way that we do this is I go out and look at the landscape and select a word, and by contract, John doesn't get to see it, doesn't get to hear it until right now. And sort of like a contest, I say the word, and he uses his vast vocabulary to sort of kluge words and mash up together to come up with what he thinks is the meaning. Here's today's word: Stockalypse.

John: Stockalypse. Okay, there's an apocalypse. Okay, that means that's a terrible happening. Lypse is a happening.

Russ: Yes, it is.

John: Okay. It's a happening where you don't have any stock. In other words, your stocks crash.

Russ: You got it!

John: And that becomes...

Russ: Hold your calls ladies and gentlemen, we got a winner! It's that sinking end-of-the-world feeling produced as the stock market drops precipitously.

John: Right.

Russ: Which we're getting quite used to these days, right? It happens all the time.

John: Yeah.

Russ: All right. And that brings us to Dumbest Moments. What do you have for us this morning, John?

John: Well, if anybody's taken the time to read the economic stimulus package.

Russ: Yeah, I was reading it last night.

John: I know. Right. There's so many dumb moments-

Russ: Yes, there are.

John: This is the granddaddy of dumb moments because it's a big dumb moment-

Russ: Yeah.

John: Full of little dumb moments.

Russ: That's right.

John: They're not so little because these are billions and millions of dollars.

Russ: Yes, they are.

John: There's a health care provision in this stimulus package that creates a new bureaucracy.

Russ: Okay.

John: It's called the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology.

Russ: Okay.

John: And what they're going to do, they're going to be monitoring treatments to make sure your health care provider is doing what they government deems appropriate and cost-effective.

Russ: They're making, like, the decision?

John: Right. Now the goal is to reduce cost and guide your doctor's decisions.

Russ: So they going to be online when you're in there in the examination room?

John: Yeah. And their job is, also, to keep doctors informed of the newest medical findings. But they also are going to be enforcing uniformity.

Russ: Oh, my goodness!

John: Okay. And there'll be new penalties.

Russ: Oh, my goodness!

John: Okay. And it's doctors and hospitals that are not meaningful users of this new system will face penalties. But the word "meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill.

Russ: Okay.

John: Okay. And there's going to be, also, a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, and it's going to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies that are driving up the cost. So if you go into the hospital and you need one of these new things to stay alive, there's going to be some nameless, faceless, you know-

Russ: Government bureaucracy-

John: -dweeb. Yeah, it's too expensive.

Russ: Yeah, you can't do it.

John: Let 'em die.

Russ: Can't have it, eh? Oh, my God. That qualifies.

John: That's just one thing.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But that's just emblematic. Who knows what else is in there.

Russ: Yeah.

John: That's just one little thing.

Russ: They might be trying to control the content of radio shows in there too.

John: Well, there's a Fairness Doctrine, but it's not part of this.

Russ: Okay.

John: But they may sneak it in. You never know.

Russ: You never know.

John: And the Fairness Doctrine means for every radio station that airs our show, they have to air another show which is anti-entrepreneur.

Russ: Which is focusing on Socialism.

John: On Socialism. Right, yeah.

Russ: They have to keep a balance, right.

John: They have to keep a balance.

Russ: All right.

John: There you go.

Russ: All right. Oh, my goodness! Okay, but before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: And you know Greg Price is one guy who will never go on strike regardless of what happens in these times.

Russ: He's just not made of-

John: He won't be like you and I.

Russ: That's right. We'd do it.

John: He'll be there 'til the bitter end. Here he is now. Come on in, Greg.

Russ: On his piano-here we go:

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

[PKF Entrepreneur's Playbook]

Russ: And that wraps up this morning's School of Business for this morning. But stay tuned in for the Aflac Business Maker's flashback where Katie Laird is visiting with the founder and managing partner of Coffee Groundz, a cool Twitter success story. And then followed by Janet Gurwitch, the co-founder and former CEO of Laura Mercier Cosmetics and skincare. A real cool story. You're listening to The Business Maker's Show, heard hear and online at thebusinessmakers.com.