Russ: Good morning. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com, and this is that show about those people that build businesses, that make businesses grow, that create taxpayers and that make everything run.

John: That's right, and they're the ones that are making it all happen.

Russ: That's right. And here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback. Earlier this week I visited with Arjun Aurora, the founder and CEO of ReTargeter, a cool web based technology that allows you to follow around visitors to your website and allows you to show them ads as they cruise around the web, just to remind them that for some reason they were interested in you and oughta return to your site. A cool cool company. And then for our featured guest segment, our own Esther Steinfeld attended the social commerce summit in Austin last week and managed to capture time with Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, the leader in social commerce. But first...That's right. It's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business. This is business school priced right for the times.

John: It is priced right because it doesn't cost anything.

Russ: That's right. And we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with the Quote of the Day, and I haven't done this in a long time, but this is one of those anonymous quotes. I don't know-

John: An anonymous quote.

Russ: That's right. So if you are responsible for this quote, please go to our website and tell us about it, okay?

John: Maybe I'm responsible for the quote.

Russ: Well, you might be. Here it is.

John: Yeah.

Russ: "Life is all about how you handle Plan B." Businesses are kind of like that, too.

John: That's right. General Eisenhower, the guy that planned D-Day and later became President of the United States-he's famous for saying that your battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy.

Russ: That's right.

John: But the same goes with a business plan.

Russ: That's right. All right. And that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this May week in business history?

John: There is so much stuff here, I don't know whether I can get to it all-

Russ: All right. Let's give it a try.

John: -but I'll give it a try. Okay. In 1620, This Week in Business History, the first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Turkey.

Russ: Wow. The first merry-go-round.

John: Yeah. 1620.

Russ: Wow.

John: All right. That's right around the time the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

Russ: It must have been, like, horse-powered probably, right?

John: It might have been. I'm sure it was, like, human power. It was Turkey. They probably had slaves.

Russ: Slaves pushing it in big circles.

John: Okay. 1804, This Week in Business History, Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed emperor of France. Well, he did the proclaiming.

Russ: He did it.

John: That's right. He named himself emperor of France.

Russ: Okay.

John: Lewis and Clark expedition same year, 1804, begins in St. Louis.

Russ: Wow. So that's 205 years old now.

John: Yeah, right. The U.S. got all this cheap land from France and they had to explore it and see what was going on there.

Russ: You bet.

John: 1817, the Mississippi River steamboat service begins for the first time-

Russ: That's a big business.

John: -and that was important. Right, right. Instead of rowing and depending on wind power, they actually had steam engines.

Russ: Cool.

John: Okay. First bicycle, uh, in the U.S. was introduced in New York City. They were called swift walkers.

Russ: And what year would this have been?

John: 1819, This Week in Business History.

Russ: Wow.

John: Yeah. I mean, all this stuff is still around-you know?

Russ: Yeah, cool.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1846, the saxophone is patented by Antoine Joseph Sax.

Russ: Wow.

[Music: "Take 5"]

John: This Week in Business History, in 1860, Chicago Republican Convention nominates Abraham Lincoln for president, and that was no easy feat. There were a number of ballots to get him nominated.

Russ: Do you know who his primary contender was?

John: No. Who was it?

Russ: I don't know either.

John: I don't know either.

Russ: But there were lots of them.

John: That just goes to show you, if you don't win, nobody's going to remember you.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay, 1866, Congress authorizes a nickel five-cent piece, which replaces the silver half-dime. Hmm.

Russ: Wow, okay.

John: Yeah. I bet that silver now would be worth more than the dime, obviously.

Russ: Yeah, well-

John: It keeps going up, right?

Russ: -good thing they did that, though, because then we wouldn't have had that group, Nickelback.

John: Nickelback, yeah. Yeah.

Russ: Okay.

John: All right. Okay. All right. This Week in Business History, in 1887, the process of the apparatus for working metals by direct application of electric current, otherwise known as welding, patented by Nikolai N. Benardos and Stanislaus Olszewski of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Russ: Easy for you to say.

John: Yeah, right. Okay.

Russ: Welding. Wow.

John: Welding, yeah.

Russ: How do you think he figured out, "Hey, maybe if I just start shooting this electrical current in this metal, it's going to stick together."

John: I don't know.

Russ: All right.

John: All right. This Week in Business History, in 1891, George Hormel & Company-ah, Spam. He introduces Spam, which ultimately led the industry of spam blockers.

Russ: That's right. Spam. What year now was this one?

John: 1891.

Russ: Okay.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1897, surgical absorbent dressing was patented by Robert W. Johnson of New Brunswick, New Jersey. They actually started the company Johnson & Johnson.

Russ: Wow.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1907, the flying machine patented by Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, Ohio, but even though it was patented then, they actually had to test fly the machine-

Russ: Yes, they did.

John: -down in North Carolina-Kitty Hawk.

Russ: Yep, yep.

John: In 1918, This Week in Business History, the Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

Russ: Hmm. It's not anymore, is it?

John: It's not. This Week in Business History, in 1927, the Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax.

Russ: Those poor bootleggers.

John: I know. I mean, they were just trying to keep people drunk through the Depression.

Russ: Yeah. They had to pay taxes?

John: I know. Even though they were breaking the law, the government still wanted taxes.

Russ: Sure.

John: All right. This Week in Business History, in 1929, the electric automatic stock quotation board was installed in New York City.

Russ: What year?

John: 1929.

Russ: Just in time for the crash, right?

John: Just in time for the crash, yes. Good. This Week in Business History, in 1933, the drive-in theater was patented by Richard Hollingshead of Riverton, New Jersey. A lot of stuff happens up in New Jersey.

Russ: It does. That was a great invention. I'm glad he did that.

John: The drive-in theater.

Russ: It's about gone now, isn't it?

John: I know. Just think of all the heavy petting that came along with that.

Russ: That's right.

John: All right. This Week in Business History, in 1933, the beach and lawn chair was patented by Max Wasserberg of Brooklyn, New York.

Russ: The beach and lawn chair. That's another great invention.

John: This is a very rich-

Russ: Week, isn't it?

John: -week in business history.

Russ: Yes, it is.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1954, Robert Zimmerman, also known as Bob Dylan, is bar mitzvahed.

Russ: I bet that was interesting.

[Music: "Subterranean Homesick Blues"]

John: Okay. This Week in Business History, in 1959, Ford wins the battle with Chrysler to call its new car the Falcon.

Russ: Oh, you mean Chrysler was trying to use the name Falcon, too?

John: I know. Why would they both pick the same bird?

Russ: I don't know, and the Falcon automobile was not one I would be proud of.

John: I know, but it served its purpose.

Russ: I guess.

John: Okay, in 1961, This Week in Business History, "Mother-in-Law" by Ernie K-Doe hits number 1. That was a good song. I like that song.

Russ: That's a real good song.

[Music: "Mother-in-Law"]

Russ: Mother-in-laws are kind of in right now. You know, Barack Obama takes his with him to the White House, man.

John: I know. My favorite Henny Youngman joke is, "I just returned from a pleasure trip."

Russ: What's that?

John: "I drove my mother-in-law to the airport." Okay?

Russ: Okay. Continue.

John: Okay. This Week in Business History, LBJ in 1964 presents The Great Society.

Russ: And what do you say about that?

John: Well, the thing is, not everything in business history is positive.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right.

John: But I think we've won the war on poverty.

Russ: You think so?

John: Look at all the people at or below the poverty level. They own their own homes, they have swimming pools, they have digital television, they own a lot of stuff.

Russ: Yeah, I know. It makes you wonder where they put that line.

John: I know, I know. So I think they ought to just declare victory-

Russ: Declare victory and go on.

John: -and move on. Okay. This Week in Business History, in 1965-this is kind of ironic that this would come a year after The Great Society is passed by LBJ-the song "Ticket to Ride." "Taken for a Ride," they ought to call it. The single goes number 1.

[Music: "Ticket to Ride"]

John: This Week in Business History, in 1965, I'd say one of the most important members of the carbohydrate food group is first sold.

Russ: And what's that?

John: That's the SpaghettiO.

Russ: Oh, the SpaghettiO.

John: I'm not talking about Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat here. I'm talking about yo ho SpaghettiOs.

Russ: What year were they-? This is when they made it to the market?

John: 1965 they first sold the SpaghettiO.

Russ: All right. Cool.

John: I wonder how many SpaghettiOs-just the individual SpaghettiO-

Russ: Have been consumed?

John: -have been consumed.

Russ: That's good, man.

John: Yes. Okay.

Russ: Another story that you don't get in regular business school.

John: I know. Right. This Week in Business History, in 1966, the Beach Boys-this is one of the best albums they ever put out, if not the best album-

Russ: And what is it?

John: It's called Pet Sounds.

[Music: "Sloop John B...]

Russ: Okay.

John: 1967, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, This Week in Business History, debuts on PBS. It was called NET at the time, and the show was produced in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

John: All right. 1973, This Week in Business History, President Richard Nixon confesses his role in the Watergate cover-up.

Russ: It was hard for him to do but he did it, right?

John: Yeah, well, he had no choice.

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

John: The world was crumbling around him.

Russ: Yep.

John: Okay. This Week in Business History, in 1979, Elton John becomes the first Western rocker to perform live in the U.S.S.R.

[Music: "Insert Back in the USSR"]

John: 1981, This Week in Business History, "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits number 1 for the next 9 weeks.

[Music: 'Bette Davis Eyes']

Russ: You liked that, eh?

John: I liked that "Bette Davis Eyes."

Russ: Yeah, it was a good song. Okay.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1983, one of the strangest men in show business, David Bowie's "Let's Dance" single goes number 1.

[Music: "Let's Dance"]

John: Okay, moving on to 1984, This Week in Sports Business History, Boston's Roger Clemens beats the Twins 5-4 for his first victory ever.

Russ: You think he was juiced? Probably not then.

John: Probably not then. Of course, he admits he has never been juiced.

Russ: That's true.

John: So his alleged juicing is-

Russ: So then he couldn't have been juiced then.

John: He couldn't have been juiced because, according to him, he was never juiced in the first place.

Russ: That's right. All right.

John: This Week in Business History, in 1985, Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of the Year. It's unbelievable that kid got cut from his high school basketball team.

Russ: I know. Man.

John: It just goes to show you out there that you never know when your time is going to come.

Russ: Cool.

John: Okay. This Week in Business History, in 1988, the nation's nanny, otherwise known as Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, reports that nicotine is as addictive as heroin. Do you agree with that?

Russ: No.

John: Okay.

Russ: I don't. I mean, I think it's bad but, come on, you can't exaggerate on these things.

John: That's like saying a 22 caliber bullet round is just as destructive as a 155mm howitzer round.

Russ: Right. Right. They're both bad.

John: Yeah.

Russ: But one of them is real bad.

John: Yeah, right. This Week in Business History, in 1992, the polls show that Ross Perot, George Bush the First, and Bill Clinton could be in a deadlock when they were running for president.

Russ: Wow. That was unbelievable, man.

John: That's right. Actually, Ross Perot had a lot to do with Clinton beating Bush in that election.

Russ: But it was also interesting that a third party guy could show up and do as well as he did.

John: All right. This Week in Business History, in 1993, the first full-length movie was broadcast on the internet. The movie was Wax or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees.

Russ: 1993?

John: 1993. It's very surrealistic. It didn't really catch on, for obvious reasons, and it's an 85-minute movie, appeared in some theaters around 1992. In 1993 the whole movie was broadcast on the internet.

Russ: So it wasn't good but it was broadcast, the full-length movie on the internet.

John: Yeah. You'd think they'd have something good.

Russ: Yeah, for the first one.

John: I mean, why don't they take a movie like Ben-Hur and put that on there?

Russ: Yeah.

John: They could've put any movie on the internet.

Russ: I know.

John: They could've put Gone With the Wind.

Russ: That's right. It kind of hacks me off.

John: War and Peace.

Russ: Yeah. The Last Picture Show.

John: Or The Last Picture Show but they put in Wax. All right. This Week in Business History, in 1998, the United States vs. Microsoft-okay, I remember that.

Russ: Yeah. Ultimately, the government did throw in the towel finally.

John: Yeah, but that was just as timely as the government saying, "Oh, by the way, Arthur Andersen, we were wrong."

Russ: Right, exactly.

John: I mean, come on.

Russ: Exactly.

John: It was ridiculous.

Russ: You're folding that up as though the history lesson is over, man.

John: Man.

Russ: That's a good one, though.

John: I know. It is good.

Russ: It's real good stuff.

John: I hope those people down there at Texas State take note on a couple of these things.

Russ: Yeah, they have a class down there that listens to us and we appreciate it, man. They're smart. And that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon.

John: Yes.

Russ: This is our vocabulary lesson, and we don't necessarily condone using these words, but we think you have to know what they mean.

John: That's right.

Russ: And we do this in a contest format, where I know the word, I select the word, I say the word Say the Word and then John does his best at guessing it. Today's word is bricker mortis.

John: Bricker mortis. Okay. Mortis is, uh, a kind of a, uh, thing that happens to the body when it's dead.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay. Rigor is, uh, when the body stiffens.

Russ: Right.

John: So bricker is when the body turns into a brick.

Russ: No. I thought you were going to get it, too. Bricker mortis is the definition of the property and the market where few homes are being sold, and they're all sort of going into a rigor mortis state.

John: Oh.

Russ: Bricker mortis. Great word.

John: It is a great word.

Russ: Yeah.

John: I've got to hand it to you.

Russ: It's a happening word. All right. And that brings us to Dumbest Moments. What do you have for us this morning?

John: I've got kind of a new take on dumb moments because we usually talk about the moments, but I'm going to talk about some individuals who-

Russ: All right.

John: Remember, every now and then, Fox has a TV show When Good Pets Go Bad or When Wild Animals Attack-you know. This is When Good CEOs Turn Bad.

Russ: Okay.

John: Or When CEOs Turn Bad.

Russ: Okay.

John: And they can really cause a lot of damage in the process.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: We've talked about this guy before, but not in this kind of depth. You know, he really was not a very nice person and did a lot of despicable things, which hurt a lot of people.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay. His name was Jay Gould.

Russ: Yeah.

John: To say he was unscrupulous would be a huge understatement. He was a railroad developer and speculator, and he sold out his associates, bribed legislators to get deals done, and even kidnapped a potential investor. He duped the U.S. Treasury, pushing up the price of gold and prompting a scare on Wall Street that depressed every stock. At their hiring strike breakers during a railroad strike in 1886, he was reported to have said, "I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half."

Russ: Now this was Jay Gould.

John: Jay Gould, yes.

Russ: This was in the 1860s?

John: Yeah. Yeah. Late 1800s, yeah.

Russ: All right. Now, where are you getting this information?

John: This is from a former magazine called Portfolio, which is-

Russ: You mean, Portfolio is going away?

John: They are. They're gone.

Russ: Oh, man.

John: Yeah, they closed their doors not too long ago, and this is from their last issue. They burned off a lot of cash. I still maintain it was probably the best business read I've ever had.

Russ: Yeah.

John: It's just too bad they couldn't make it. The magazine business is tough, as we well know.

Russ: I know. Jason Pontin, our guest the last 2 weeks, talked about it at length.

John: Uh-hunh (affirmative).

Russ: And so they had a story on Jay Gould.

John: Actually, the article was about the 20 worst CEOs of all time.

Russ: And Jay Gould was included. He was-

John: He was number 8.

Russ: Number 8?

John: Yeah.

Russ: And before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time to bring Greg Price in here on the piano.

John: Ah, Greg. Okay. All right. He's a good guy. If he were a CEO, he'd be in the top 20 great CEOs.

Russ: He would.

John: Okay.

Russ: Because it's time for the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

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

[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneurs Playbook]

Russ: And that wraps up the School of Business. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.