Russ: Good morning. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com and this is episode 191 of that show that champions innovation by featuring entrepreneurs.

John: That's right, Russ, and they are the artists and athletes of the free enterprise system. You know we've got the big Super Bowl this weekend...

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: ...and I'm thinking of the athletes, and I'm just hoping they don't become over-officiated with. I'm not talking about the athletes.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I'm talking about the entrepreneurs.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: The people who run the country pretty much as far as the economy is concerned; and you look at all this regulation they're talking about, it's gonna be a tough time.

Russ: You're absolutely right about that. Here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, and this is cool because about a week ago I managed to sit down face to face with Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Flipping Point, Blink, and now, Outliers: The Story of Success, all three big-time best sellers. We spent most of the discussion on Outliers. I totally enjoyed the time with him. And then for our featured guest section this morning, three days ago I was interviewed by the author and voice of The Entrepreneurs Playbook, Greg Price, and the interview took place in front of a live audience of innovators and entrepreneurs at the Houston Technology Center's tech execs group meeting. It was a total pleasure for me because almost all the questions Greg asked had to do with guests on The BusinessMakers Show. But first... That's right, The BusinessMakers School of Business. It's that school of business that's not your business as usual school.

John: That's right, Russ. I think we have really found a sweet spot in educating folks.

Russ: All right, and we kick it off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: The quote of the day.

Russ: Often these quotes are meant to be inspirational or to teach a lesson, but sometimes like today, they're just sort of there to help the entrepreneur live and work and do their business in a better country; because every once in a while we take a stab at those politicians that are out there kinda making rules.

John: We just did when we opened the show.

Russ: That's right, we did and I think we did it last week when we opened the show.

John: I think we do it every show.

Russ: I think we do.

John: They deserve it.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: If we don't do it, who will?

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Nobody.

Russ: OK, and here's the quote. It's by Alan Greenspan.

John: OK, well he's had his ups and downs.

Russ: Well, he has, but I think you'll agree with this one.

John: OK.

Russ: Here it is: "Whatever you tax, you get less of."

John: That's right. That's the whole thing behind the Laffer Curve.

Russ: That's right.

John: Laffer was the guy that talked Reagan into lowering taxes, saying "If you lower taxes, you'll get more revenue in the government." And sure enough, they lowered the tax rates...

Russ: Yep.

John: ...among all income classes...

Russ: Right.

John: ...and they doubled the revenue in about six, seven years.

Russ: Right, it kinda goes against that static analysis stuff, right?

John: Yeah, it's all behavior.

Russ: You bet.

John: It has nothing to do with static analysis.

Russ: You bet.

John: It's dynamic scoring.

Russ: You bet. And that brings us to this week in business history. What happened in this sort of late January, but early February week in business history?

John: Well, a lot happened, including a little murder and mayhem which I'll get into in a minute.

Russ: All right.

John: But in 1863, Samuel Clemens becomes Mark Twain for the first time.

Russ: OK, OK. Mark Twain is stepping out there.

John: Stepping out there. Mark Twain was as nom de plume and he used to work on riverboats.

Russ: Right.

John: That was a measurement cry.

Russ: Right.

John: You know, they put the rope in the water and they'd tell the boat captain how deep the water is. All right, now 1865, congress passes a 13th amendment abolishing slavery in America.

Russ: OK.

John: It's about time.

Russ: Yep.

John: OK, later on in 1876, Albert Spalding -- this is fascinating -- starts with 800 bucks (I'd like to see his elevator picture at the Rice Business Alliance) starts this sporting goods company which bears his name by manufacturing the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football.

Russ: Wow, boy it's on everything today still. Baseball gloves...

John: It is, right.

Russ: Wow.

John: It's quite a company.

Russ: 1876, so...

John: 1876.

Russ: So we're talking about 125, 130 years ago.

John: Yeah, it's Custer's Last Stand; the Little Bighorn Battle occurred in 1876.

Russ: Interesting. Cool.

John: This week in business history, in 1884 the Oxford Dictionary debuts.

Russ: Whoa.

John: OK, the first portion of the Oxford Dictionary, called the OED, is considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language is published.

Russ: OK.

John: Consider the authority of the meaning of over half a million words.

Russ: Wow. Cool.

John: The way this got started, however, is not a conventional story.

Russ: Yeah? It's kind of like a Wikipedia thing?

John: Well, it's not really like a Wikipedia thing.

Russ: OK.

John: It's kinda like a murder mystery.

Russ: Oh, my goodness.

John: It starts with the son of an American missionary, a guy by the name of Minor.

Russ: OK.

John: OK. William Chester Minor, Civil War veteran...

Russ: Wow.

John: ...developes some insanity and paranoia problems, and he traveled to Great Britain and Europe to see if he could find a cure.

Russ: OK.

John: They couldn't. They ended up putting him in a mental institution. But somehow, someway, he met a guy name James Murray, a professor, and over the years they develop a relationship which lead to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Russ: Cool. Like a mad man had something to do with it.

John: A mad man.

Russ: All right. Cool.

John: OK, 1901, the Loop-the-Loop centrifugal roller coaster was patented by Ed Prescott.

Russ: 1901, they were going upside down on roller coasters?

John: They were going upside down roller coasters. It was perfected by Edward Prescott in 1901. He knew to change the perfect circle into an ellipse thus easing the extreme forces riders experience.

Russ: Ah, OK.

John: And if you look at all those roller coasters you might see an ellipse, although some of them are circles.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I think technology has probably caught up with relieving pressure on the poor people that ride these things. You ever ride one of those things?

Russ: Not a Loop-the-Loop. I draw my line there.

John: OK, right.

Russ: Do you?

John: Oh, yeah, I ride those things. 1928, Scotch tape is first marketed by the 3M Company...and it was last marketed yesterday.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I mean, it's not like when I say, "first marketed" it's like they only did it one time.

Russ: Reminds me of that Saturday Night Live skit they did in the old, old days: the couple owned the Scotch tape store in the mall.

John: Oh, I saw that.

Russ: They never could do well at all until the mall went under and then everybody needed tape, man, and it was a success.

John: I know. What I like is a double-sided tape.

Russ: Well, that's good stuff.

John: You have to be very adept at your tape mechanics to use that double-sided tape.

Russ: You do, man, I know. OK.

John: All right, 1940, this week in business history, Glenn Miller and his orchestra record Tuxedo Junction.

[Music]

Russ: Man, Glenn Miller, that music brings back so many memories. That's a real toe tapper.

John: It is.

Russ: There you go.

John: OK, in 1958 this week in business history, the United States launches the first artificial satellite, Explorer 1.

Russ: Wow, was that like our first response to Sputnik?

John: Must've been.

Russ: OK. Wow.

John: All right. This week in business history...1959, one year after the first artificial satellite goes up, the music dies.

[Music]

John: The music died. That's when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper are killed on a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane in an Iowa cornfield right after taking off.

Russ: Imagine what the music world would've been like if had that not happened, geez.

John: I know. It was like Mozart dying when he was what, like 30 years old?

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: I mean he had his whole life ahead of him.

Russ: Yep, OK.

John: 1961, this week in business history, Houston voters approve the bonds to finance the luxury dome stadium known as the Astrodome.

Russ: Boy, and was that ever a leap in building technology.

John: Yeah, yeah, Monsanto came up with the Astroturf.

Russ: Yeah, and after...they couldn't grow grass in there if you remember. At first they tried to do that.

John: Well, yeah, because they had the translucent glass in the roof, yeah.

Russ: Right.

John: Yeah, I know, and I think we're still paying for the bonds too.

Russ: Are we? OK.

John: I think we are. OK. This week in business history in 1964, Indiana governor, Walsh, tries to ban Louie Louie for obscenity.

[Music]

Russ: OK, well boy, I remember the controversy. I don't know if it took it place in your part of the...

John: Yeah, well everybody was talking.

Russ: Yeah.

John: What was the obscene thing though? I mean I listen to that song and maybe they cleaned it up and the clean version is what you hear.

Russ: I don't think so. I think what happened was it was real muffled and it was real easy to take some of the lyrics and twist em; and boy, that's what got everybody excited and I think it was the Kingsmen that did it.

John: That's right.

Russ: And they opted "Let's just let em think what they want to think" and it became a huge hit.

John: If you play it backwards, it says, "Satan rules the earth."

Russ: That's exactly right. [laughs]

John: I don't know. I'm just kidding. OK, 1965, the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" is number one.

[Music]

Russ: Big, big hit.

John: OK, in 1974, Barbara Streisand's first number one hit, The Way We Were.

[Music]

Russ: Great movie to synch up with and a pretty cool song, right?

John: It was a pretty good movie.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: It was all right. The problem with that movie is that Robert Redford plays a naval officer...

Russ: Yeah.

John: ...but he refused to get his hair cut...

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: ...because he was such a matinee idol and they want him to cut his hair because naval guys back in World War II...

Russ: Wore shirt hair.

John: Wore very shirt hair, like bristly type hair.

Russ: Yeah, yeah, and he wouldn't do it.

John: He wouldn't do it because he though it would disturb his looks.

Russ: OK, nice tidbit.

John: Yeah, all right. This week in business history, 1977, Radio Shack officially begins creating the TRS80 computer.

Russ: You know, and that thing was a pretty big hit, and it seemed odd for many of us in the technology world at the time that Radio Shack would be coming out with one of the first real home-based computers.

John: It was owned by the Tandy Corporation.

Russ: I know, but they at the time made stuff.

John: Now they pretty much just retail other people's goods.

Russ: Right, right. OK.

John: OK, 1977, this week in business history, Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" -- that's an album -- was released.

Russ: Whoa.

[Music]

Russ: I was a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac and that album was incredible.

John: OK, we're gonna move right along. This week in business history, in 1990, the first McDonald's in Russia opens in Moscow; it's the world's biggest McDonald's ever.

Russ: Wow.

John: OK?

Russ: Cool. I wonder if it's successful.

John: I would think it is. OK.

Russ: Cool.

John: OK. Because they made a lot of money this year. They're one of the few companies that increased their earnings.

Russ: You bet.

John: OK, this week in business history in 2004, one of the most famous breasts in the world is exposed during the halftime show at Super Bowl 38.

Russ: That's right, the first nationally televised wardrobe malfunction.

John: That's right, it was a wardrobe malfunction. I tell you, the network went bananas.

Russ: Well, they did.

John: It's supposed to be a family TV show.

Russ: Yeah, I was there.

John: You were there?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Did you see it?

Russ: No, I found out about it the next day.

John: Where were you sitting?

Russ: I was in the end zone, high in the end zone.

John: High in the end zone.

Russ: Yeah, all right.

John: And that wraps up your history lesson.

Russ: I guess so. Not bad.

John: That's all I could come up with.

Russ: Mad men mystery with the Oxford Dictionary.

John: Murder and mayhem with the Oxford Dictionary.

Russ: You bet, and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" and "Rumors" and roller coasters, man.

John: And the tipping point.

Russ: There you go, and now it's time for Navigating Business Jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson where we try to help our audience understand the new techno speak, new acronyms, all the new jargon hitting the streets these days. Now, we don't recommend using these words, but if you do use them, use them with care. And we also present them in a contest format where I get to choose the word and then I say the word. And John has to come up with and guess the meaning. All right, this is gonna be an easy one today.

John: That's what you say all the time.

Russ: Yeah, but you'll agree.

John: OK.

Russ: Here it is, Mompreneur.

John: Mompreneur, that's a mother who decides to get into business for herself...

Russ: You got it.

John: ...while still being a mom.

Russ: You got it. Congratulations, we've got a winner. I chose that one because there is the Mom 2.0 Conference scheduled to happen not too far in the future and we're gonna feature that on a future story on The BusinessMakers Show.

John: Really?

Russ: Yep.

John: OK, good.

Russ: Now, it's time for dumb moments in business history. Do you have a story for us, John?

John: Yeah, everybody knows by now that Citigroup, you know they're getting a lot of taxpayer bailout money.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: They ordered a corporate jet a long time ago, and people would say that's a dumb moment.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But that's not really the dumb moment. The dumb moment is they were buying the jet from a European company by the name of Dassault, a French company.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: They should've bought the jet from a U.S. company.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: For example, Gulfstream, which is an independent operating unit of General Dynamics...

Russ: Right.

John: ...which employs about, last I saw about 6,000 people.

Russ: Right.

John: And a lot of those people are blue collar workers because they're in manufacturing a jet.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: But the really dumb moment here...

Russ: Yeah.

John: ...is they were buying it from a French company instead of a U.S. company, because they could've justified it saying, "Hey, look, we need the jet. General Dynamics needs the work."

Russ: Right.

John: "What's wrong with this?"

Russ: I totally agree and thank goodness they're not doing it at all now, but man, makes you wonder, what were they thinking? OK, and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: The minute you mention it, he's walking through the door.

Russ: That's right, that's right. So let's welcome Greg Price and his orchestra...

Russ and John: One, and a two, and a...

Greg: This is Greg Price with Entrepreneur's Playbook. I was reading Matthew David's list of tech predictions for 2009 and was very impressed with some of his observations. I've selected a few of the list for discussion:

1. 1) 2009 is the year of computing. The biggest event to happen this year is in effect a series of events. The common thread will be cloud computing based services. Whether architected on Microsoft's, Amazon's, or Google's cloud services, expect a lot of big-name desktop solutions to come to the web. The basics include email, calendar, and also complex solutions such as word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation tools that will be part of your daily tool set by the end of the year. By this time next year, you'll start to wonder why did you ever install software on your computer.
2. 2) New operating systems from everyone. Both Apple and Microsoft will release new operating systems. Apple will look to beat Microsoft to the punch with OS X Snow Leopard months before Windows 7. Did you hate those Microsoft Mohave experiment commercials? Then expect no peace when the Microsoft marketing machine gets cranked up to full throttle with the launch of Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2009, just in time for the holiday season. And...
3. 3) NetBooks arrive. Recession-driven cheaper computers are sprouting up like mushrooms after a storm. These new devices are slim in features, many don't even have a dvd drive, and they have little or no hard drive, but they come with Windows XP or Linux. They also have wi-fi and best of all, they come in under $450. These new devices are coming to be known as NetBooks. Target is even running a Linux NetBook for $299. If all you do is email and surf the web, than this may be the device for you.

You can see Matthew's entire list at itbusinessnet.com/articles. To read and comment on the Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog at fromgregshead.com, PKF Texas, the fit that's right.

Russ: That wraps up this morning's School of Business. You've been listening to The BusinessMakers Show here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.