Russ: Good morning. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com, and this is that show about innovators and entrepreneurs, the ones that truly improve our lives.
John: I agree with you on that, Russ.
Russ: And here's out linup for this morning. First for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback we are going to role back to episode 174, where our social media expert, Erica O'Grady, ventured out to the Bay Area and met up with Pete Cashmore, the founder and CEO of Mashable. Probably the number one online source for social news and social networking sites. A real cool interview. And then for our featured guest segment we are going to do one of our BusinessMakers DealMakers series, where venture capitalist Blair Garrou of DFJ Mercury joins me to do a real world VC snapshot deal review of a new company. And today we will review Moximity, the Austin Texas based business that virtually shows you where your friends are by using your cell phone. Because we will be joined by the founder of Moximity, Bryan Jones But first... that's right, it's time for the School of Business. And this isn't ordinary business school; in fact, if we don't teach it, you don't need it.
John: If you don't need it, what are you doing here, you know?
Russ: That's right.
John: I'm just kidding. But it's fun for us but it's necessary for the listeners to tune in on this.
Russ: Absolutely. And we kick it off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: I hate to continue to pick on politicians, but it just is so easy to do, isn't it?
John: Hey, why not, oh, man.
Russ: And this one goes way back. It's another famous Winston Churchill quote. Goes like this, "Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why none of it happened.
John: Right. I agree with that wholeheartedly.
Russ: It's what they do.
John: That's right.
Russ: All right, and that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this second week in January in business history?
John: Okay, this week in business history Julius Caesar crosses Arubakan, signaling the start of a civil war.
Russ: Yeah, that was like a major step, wasn't it?
John: It was a small creek, wasn't a big river, you know.
Russ: Yeah.
John: But he was very successful in his Gaul campaign, you know, Gaul was what we now know as mostly France.
Russ: Right.
John: And he became very popular and they had a triumpherant at one time running Rome and got cut down to a duopoly.
Russ: Okay.
John: A guy was Pompeii, and they were both running, because you know, the Roman people still wanted a Republic, they did not want to turn it over to the hands of a dictator. But Pompeii declared Caesar an enemy of the state because a Roman general could not enter the city of Rome with his Army.
Russ: Ah.
John: Okay, and this is 49 B.C. and Caesar took more and more power but as we all know, five years later, in 44 B.C., he was assassinated.
Russ: Okay.
John: This week in business history in 1776 Thomas Paine publishes the pamphlet Common Sense, which challenges the British government and the King of England and it was written in such language that everybody could understand it. This was the first time it was ever written down in a way that-
Russ: Ah,, for the common man.
John: For the common man.
Russ: Cool, good deal, all right.
John: The most common men could not read, but the ones who could understood.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1861-man, a lot of stuff happened during the Civil War. Why weren't these guys in uniform?
Russ: Right.
John: This guy invented the elevator.
Russ: Wow.
John: Elijah Graves Otis.
Russ: Oh, wow, yeah.
John: How many elevators do you go in that does not have the word Otis in there?
Russ: Right, right.
John: Okay. And he also invented the elevator pitch.
Russ: Oh, he did?
John: Well, yeah. He had to-when he first demonstrated it-
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, he had to go with his patenting; he had to give a pitch on why they ought to get the patent.
Russ: It probably had to be a quick one; because there weren't any tall buildings.
John: That was an elevator pitch.
Russ: All right.
John: Okay. Later on, this week in business history in 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
Russ: Yeah, that was kind of a success story.
John: Yeah, right, yeah. It really was.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, this week in business history also in 1870-
Russ: Same week, ay?
John: Yeah, donkey is first used as a symbol of the Democratic Party in Harper's Weekly.
Russ: Wow. I don't know if I would have selected a donkey, would you?
John: Well, considering what they were up to these days, it's very apropos. I don't know.
Russ: Okay.
John: I don't know; what do I know?
Russ: All right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1889 the Coca-Cola Company, then known as Pemberton Medicine Company is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
Russ: Wow.
John: Yeah.
Russ: This is a huge week in business history.
John: Makes up for last week.
Russ: We're having success stories this week.
John: Success stories, right, yeah.
Russ: Wow. Coca-Cola originally they were a medicine company?
John: Yeah, I guess so. Because they had cocaine; they put cocaine in it.
Russ: Yeah.
John: It was considered good for you back then, I guess. Alright. Moving on, this week in business history in 1890, the inventor of the first breath analyzer to see if you're drunk or not was rolling, Neil Hauger was born January 14th, 1890.
Russ: Yeah, the guy that invented the breathalyzer was born in 1890.
John: Well, they didn't call it a breathalyzer back at that stage.
Russ: They didn't know what to call then.
John: No, he called this device the Drunkometer or Drunk-o-meter.
Russ: Either way.
John: Either way.
Russ: Drunkometer?
John: I think if you're sober you call it the Drunkometer; if you're drunk you call it the Drunk-o-meter.
Russ: So he knew how to detect alcohol just through your breath?
John: Well, yeah, you blow into a balloon and then the air is released into some chemical stuff and-
Russ: You see if you can light it on fire.
John: If it changed color and exploded-
Russ: You're drunk.
John: Right. This week in business history in 1896, only six years after the Drunkometer guy was born, it was the first intercollegiate basketball game.
Russ: Wow.
John: Westwing beat Yale four to three.
Russ: Maybe it was just a defensive battle, that was before the shot clock though, that's why.
John: All right. Sometimes tragedy can really benefit. This guy named Holzmayer and a friend died in a ship collision.
Russ: Yeah.
John: It motivated him to invent a testing apparatus that used radio waves to detect metallic objects, which became the radar.
Russ: Whoa. And when did he do this?
John: 1906.
Russ: Wow, 1906. This guy Holzmayer essentially invented radar.
John: Yeah, radar, right. Nobody wanted to use his invention, and it did suffer some limitations, difficult to operate, maybe the range wasn't great enough.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And you've just got to wonder if someone would have said, "Hey that is a good idea."
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1945 is the birthdate of Rod Stewart.
Russ: Wow, what a singer.
[Music: "This Old Heart of Mine"]
John: This week in business history, 1949, that's the year after I was born.
Russ: Yeah.
John: RCA introduces the 45 rpm record. that was the record with the big hole in it.
Russ: Oh, yeah. Well I'm sure in your childhood, mine too, it was the way we listened to music. It was 45 rpms.
John: Well, not quite because I was born in '48 so one year of my childhood where I probably never would have seen it.
Russ: Where you would have listened to 33 1/3 rpms or 78 rpms.
John: My father, 78s.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And 33.
Russ: You might have been back there when the Victrola was still-
John: We used wax cylinders. Okay, all right.
Russ: All right.
John: This week in business history in 1954 Joe DiMaggio makes a big mistake.
Russ: A mistake, ay?
John: He marries-
Russ: He made an error.
John: He marries Marilyn Monroe.
Russ: Oh, my God.
[Music: "Mrs. Robinson"]
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire reaches number one.
[Music: "Great Balls of Fire"] right here.
Russ: All right. That was a pretty radical song.
John: Yeah, right. This week in business history in 1964 U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous.
Russ: Wow. So that means that before 1964 we were just still full speed ahead lightin' up, smokin' butts, man.
John: I think everybody knew, okay.
Russ: But we just weren't official.
John: Took the Surgeon General to put a stamp of approval on it.
Russ: Or disapproval.
John: Yeah, okay. This week in business history also in 1964 Jeff Bezos-
Russ: Wow, Amazon founder.
John: Yeah, American entrepreneur is born.
Russ: Wow, 1964. He really shook up the world successfully. So that would mean in '64, so he's just 44 years old now.
John: Yeah, isn't that something.
Russ: Wow, wow. Cool. Good story.
John: This week in business history in 1965 the Searchers Love Potion Number 9-that's a great song.
Russ: That is a great song.
John: Love Potion Number 9.
[Music: "Love Potion Number 9"]
John: Okay, 1969. This week in business history, I mean, this changed the entire National Football League.
Russ: Yeah.
John: I mean, it just changed it overnight. This Superbowl III, this is when the New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts-
Russ: Right.
John: 16 to 7, the Miami Superbowl champ that game was Joe Namath, the New York Jets quarterback.
Russ: What a game. I assume you watched it?
John: Oh, yeah. I couldn't believe it.
Russ: I mean, before then the Superbowl wasn't anything because the AFL just always inferior.
John: Everybody turned their nose at the AFL.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay.
Russ: Well, Namath was so interesting too. I mean, he came out wearing white. He guaranteed a win and he wore white shoes when nobody wore white shoes.
John: Yeah. This week in business history in 1971 All in the Family premiers on CBS, and they had the first toilet flush on television.
Russ: Wow.
John: How would you like to be remembered for that?
Russ: I don't think I'd like to be known for that.
John: Okay, this week in business history 1974 the Steve Miller Band, that's a great band, number one hit, the Joker.
Russ: Great song.
[Music: "The Joker"]
Russ: I like those sounds, all right.
John: Hate to end this one on a downer but a downer this was. This week in business history in 1995 the murder trial against OJ Simpson begins in Los Angeles.
Russ: Wow. That thing kind of shook up a lot of people's confidence in the system.
John: Well, that's it.
Russ: That's it. Wow, what a week, man.
John: That's a rap, okay.
Russ: That's an incredible week. We had the Joker; we had the song Love Potion Number 9; we had the basketball starting.
John: How about the first toilet flush on national TV.
Russ: That was huge; it was a huge week, man.
John: Huge week.
Russ: All right. And that brings us to navigating business jargon, and this is a part of the show that's our vocabulary lesson, where we do our best at keeping you apprised of new words, new techo-speak, new acronyms, and we do this in a contest format where I say the word and John uses all of his intellect to try to define the word.
John: Yeah, what little of it I still have left.
Russ: That's right. All right.
John: All right.
Russ: And here's this morning's word. It's a noun.
John: Go easy on me here.
Russ: Okay.
John: All right, it's early in the morning.
Russ: All right.. Here it is.
John: All right.
Russ: Sympvertizing.
John: Okay, how do you spell it?
Russ: S-Y-M-P-V-E-R-T-I-Z-I-N-G.
John: Sympvertizing.
Russ: Sympvertizing.
John: Okay. Sympver-sympvertizing is like advertising.
Russ: Yeah, you're hot. You're on there.
John: Symper, you're simulating advertising?
Russ: No, I'm sorry.
John: All right.
Russ: You were heading in the right direction. It's advertising that attempts to sympathize and identify with the consumer.
John: Oh. Sympathize with the person you're trying to sell.
Russ: Right.
John: All right, okay. All right.
Russ: Sympvertizing. That's our word for the day.
John: All right.
Russ: And that brings us to dumbest moments in business history.
John: Okay, the Environmental Protection Agency, I didn't know this but they have what they call an advance notice of rule-making, ANPR.
Russ: Okay.
John: And they can levy a tax on something if they want to.
Russ: Okay, the EPA can.
John: It's the Environmental Protection Agency, wants to enact a cow tax.
Russ: A cow tax?
John: Yeah, actually they refer to it as stationary sources for greenhouse gases.
Russ: Right, cows are.
John: Because they fart, you know, they belch or they, you know.
Russ: I mean, they're huge contributors to the problem, right?
John: Right. I mean, every now and then you hear how humans are causing this.
Russ: Right.
John: But what they want to do is dairy cows will be taxed up to about $175 per cow and beef cattle would get taxed $87.50. Hogs would be $20 a hog.
Russ: So this means like your hamburger and your bacon and all that's going to have to go up in price.
John: Yeah, right. And then any operation that has more than like 25 dairy cows or 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.
Russ: Permits.
John: A permit, yeah.
Russ: Wow.
John: Yeah. And the head of the Farm Bureau says it's going to raise the cost of everything and probably drive some cattle/hog farmers out of business.
Russ: So instead of a tax, why don't they do like one of these carbon sequestration programs?
John: You mean like they do with nuclear waste?
Russ: Yeah, just kind of just take it out of the air, just follow them around, and when there's a problem, where they're emitting greenhouse gases, they could just put it in a big plastic bag somewhere.
John: What would they do with the plastic bag?
Russ: Just keep it from escaping into the air.
John: Send it to Congress. I hear you created this.
Russ: I love it.
John: Okay.
Russ: Good story; fantastic. All right. And that just about wraps up this morning's school of business except for one item, and that's that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: Here he is, okay.
Russ: So let's welcome Greg Price on the piano.
Russ and John: Okay, Russ. A one and a two and a-
[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook]
Russ: And that wraps up the school of business this morning. You're listening to the Business Makers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
