Russ: Good morning. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show that champions innovation by featuring "Make It Happen" entrepreneurs.
John: These are the athletes and the artists of the free enterprise system because they are the ones that make this country go. But their beneficial effect on the country is immeasurable-
Russ: Absolutely. That's why we do this, too.
John: That's right.
Russ: All right. And here's our lineup for this morning. Our subject matter is adult beverage businesses. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, this morning we are rolling back all the way to episode number 57 from the summer of 2006, when we had Patrick Henry, founder of Patrick Henry Creative Promotions on the show. It's a food and beverage specialty advertising agency. And then for our featured guest, I had the opportunity to visit with Inaki Orozco, the founder and CEO of Riazul Premium Tequila. Inaki's great great grandmother was awarded land in the state of Jalisco in Mexico by the Mexican government for her significant assistance in the fight for Mexico's independence from Spain in 1812. And today, Inaki is turning his inheritance, of that land, into producing premium sipping tequila. But first...That's right. It's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business. And this is not your "business as usual" school.
John: No, it's not and we don't ever want it to be usual. We want it to be unusual. Because that's what sets us apart. That's what entrepreneurs do-they come up with an idea that sets them apart from other people and their space.
Russ: That's right. All right. We kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning-first with a quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And this morning, we're going to quote one of our guests from about three shows ago-none other than Mr. Jason Pontin, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Technology Review.
John: Un-hunh.
Russ: And I like this quote. Here we go, "Science fiction is to technology as romance novels are to marriage-a form of propaganda."
John: That's pretty good.
Russ: You like that. Well, a technology guy would not believe in science fiction, I think. And that brings us to this week in business history. What do you have for us John?
John: I've got a whole plethora of items here.
Russ: All right.
John: A whole plethora.
Russ: We're ready.
John: We're going to start in 585 B.C. A solar eclipse occurs as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales while Aylattes is batting Cyaxares in the battle of the eclipse, leading to a truce.
Russ: Okay.
John: And this is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
Russ: Ah. So if that had not happened and been recorded back in May of 585 B.C., we might have trouble knowing what the date is.
John: You're probably right. This was one of the benchmarks in keeping time in the world.
Russ: Cool.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1647, Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.
Russ: Boy, they got pretty wild up there in those days didn't they-
John: I would say if you hang somebody-
Russ: Because they're a witch-
John: Because you're accusing them of a being a witch-that's pretty wild.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1686, a guy by the name of Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in the City of Danzig, which is now Gdansk, Poland.
Russ: Okay.
John: But anyway, Fahrenheit moved to Amsterdam when he was 15 and he became a building of precision-oriented, scientific instruments.
Russ: Okay.
John: And he measured weather and came to the Fahrenheit scale.
Russ: Okay.
John: And the rest is history. How could we measure anything-temperature wise-
Russ: Without this guy.
John: -we have Celsius but I always get confused by Celsius.
Russ: I think the Celsius guy came along after him too.
John: This week in business history in 1721, John Copsom becomes the first American insurance agent.
Russ: Wow.
John: That's right.
Russ: 1721.
John: 1785 this week in business history, Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
Russ: He invented bifocals. Wow.
John: I know. The guy was prolific.
Russ: Yeah and we're both sitting here wearing them right now.
John: That's right but you can't tell because we have the seamless-
Russ: That's right.
John: -lenses-
Russ: That's right.
John: This week in business history in 1787, the Constitutional Convention opens in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.
Russ: Cool.
John: After the Revolutionary War, we had the Articles of Confederation-
Russ: Right.
John: -which was really a disaster because it was too de-centralizing-it was too de-centralizing. States could mint their own currency, negotiate their own treaties-they could do anything they wanted to do. So they knew they had to have a stronger federal presence so they organized this Constitutional Convention to kind of get things organized.
Russ: Cool.
John: It's worked pretty well ever since I would say.
Russ: Right.
John: In 1830, the song Mary Had a Little Lamb is written.
[Music: "Mary Had a Little Lamb"]
John: In 1896, Dow Jones begins an index of 12 industrial stocks.
Russ: 12.
John: Yeah.
Russ: 12-it started with 12.
John: Yeah-the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Russ: Cool.
John: Okay. In 1899, this week in business history the first auto repair shop opens in Boston.
Russ: Okay, so we're just now having enough of these horseless carriages to need a repair shop.
John: And then two weeks later, this week in business history in 1899, the first lawsuit against a faulty repair.
Russ: Is filed.
John: Filed in Boston against the same repair shop.
Russ: Great.
John: This week in business history in 1900, the Associated Press news service forms in New York.
Russ: Okay.
John: It became a very important way to get the national news out to all the cities around the country-
Russ: Yeah.
John: -without those newspapers, radio stations, etc. having to send reporters to cover these national news events.
Russ: Now, you would know this-are they still as powerful as ever with the internet? Has that sort of changed the world?
John: Well, they've become powerful because of their inaccurate, biased reporting.
Russ: That's interesting.
John: All right. Several years ago, newspapers and news services decided they'd be more popular if they were "interpreters" of the news as opposed to people who would report the news.
Russ: "Interpreters" of the news is what they are.
John: "Interpreters" of the news.
Russ: Okay.
John: And who cares what a reporter thinks?
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1911, the first Indianapolis 500 auto race is run.
Russ: I bet you it was interesting to see how many people were in the stands, how many people participated, how many cars finished.
John: I know. I know. Just think about what the carbon footprint was back in those days.
Russ: Boy-no kidding.
John: This week in business history in 1915, Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations.
Russ: Wow. That's legal to do in quite a few states as long as one person-
John: Even here in Texas.
Russ: -as long as one person knows.
John: I know-right. This week in business history in 1927, Henry Ford stops producing Model T cars and begins with the Model A.
Russ: And he had produced a whole bunch.
John: This week in business history in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to vehicular traffic. 1945-this week in business history-Winston Churchill resigns as British Prime Minister.
Russ: Why did he resign?
John: Well he was forced because they had a vote of no confidence in Parliament and they wanted somebody new in there.
Russ: But why would they have had a no vote of confidence of him after he had essentially-
John: Because the voting public is fickle.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay, and they thought, "Thanks for saving us-saving our lives-but we want somebody else in there.
Russ: Right
John: Eventually, he came back in. Okay. This week in business history in 1946, the patent was filed in the U.S. for the H-bomb.
Russ: Okay.
John: Now how do you go to the patent office-he goes and sits down next to the patent guy, "What do you got here today?" The guy opens it up and says, "Well I got this thing here that could wipe out an entire city-just one little bomb. And here it is." The guy goes, "What? What are you talking about?" Of course he must have know what he was talking about because the bombs were exploded the year before-
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: -to defeat the Empire of Japan. It probably was not a surprise. In 1961, this week in business history, JFK sets a goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
Russ: Now he really stuck it out there man. He said, "We're going to do this."
John: 1961-hey man, this is great-this is groovy baby. The first black light is sold.
Russ: 1961?
John: The black light-remember the black light?
Russ: Oh absolutely-glow-in-the-dark kind of paints and stuff is big business.
John: You bet. I know. They have these stores in the mall.
Russ: First black light sold in 1961.
John: Yeah.
Russ: You don't get this at regular business school, do you?
John: Yeah, I know. God help us if you did get it anywhere else.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1966-this is the year I graduated from high school-the Beatles released Paperback Rider.
[Music: "Paperback Rider"]
John: In 1968-not to be outdone-the Rolling Stones released Jumpin' Jack Flash, another great tune.
[Music: "Jumpin' Jack Flash"]
John: And in 1969, the Who released, I guess the first rock opera, Tommy.
[Music: "Pinball Wizard"]
Russ: It's a happening music time.
John: Happening music time. 1969-this week in business history-John and Yoko Ono (who destroyed the Beatles) began their second bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
Russ: That was a happening event wasn't it?
John: Oh man. In 1971, the rock group Iron Butterfly-this week in business history-disbands. Now we all know their favorite song which eventually became the national anthem of Bosnia, Herzegovina-also known as In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
[Music: "n-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"]
John: This week in business history in 1972, White House plumbers break into the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate.
Russ: Well, we saw that in Forrest Gump-it was in the movie.
John: It was in the movie-right. He was looking for a good place to stay-
Russ: That's right.
John: -and Nixon recommended the Watergate Hotel.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1976, in the Judgment of Paris, wine testers rate wines from California higher than the French rivals-disputing the notion of France being the foremost producer of the world's best wine.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: There's a movie made about that called Bottle Shock-great movie.
Russ: I saw it.
John: Right. This week in business history-a milestone movie event-1977-this week in business history-Star Wars debuts. I liked it. I thought the best Star Wars was The Empire Strikes Back- the second one. That was the best one. This week in business history in 1990, the cost of rescuing savings and loan failures is put up to be around a hundred and thirty billion dollars. And that's chump change these days. Nothing compared to these days.
Russ: Oh man.
John: In 1992, this week in business history, Jay Leno becomes permanent host of the Tonight Show.
Russ: And he's just about to the end that.
John: Boy, I tell you it seems like it wasn't that long ago.
Russ: I know.
John: This week in business history in 1994-Michael Jackson, 35-weds Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
[Music: "Going to the Chapel"]
Russ: What a happy couple they were.
John: Oh they were. A striking couple.
Russ: All right. And does that wrap up this morning's history lesson?
John: Yeah-I've run out of words.
Russ: Great job.
John: I am running out of words here.
Russ: But speaking of words, it's time for our vocabulary lesson.
John: There we go-you had like that little segway I handed over to you.
Russ: You bet.
John: Okay.
Russ: We're talking about navigating business jargon where we do our best at helping our listeners understand the new words that are just popping up all the time-
John: I know they're popping-
Russ: -around us.
John: `-I know they're popping up like daisies.
Russ: That's right. And we don't recommend using them usually but you've got to know what they mean.
John: Well we recommend using them-you just have to practice using them.
Russ: All right. And we do this by me choosing a word and saying the word and then John has to guess what it is. If he gets it right, he is a winner.
John: I don't know what the word is.
Russ: That's right. We just don't allow that here. Okay. Here's this morning's word-staycation.
John: Staycation. Well vacation is when you leave somewhere to go somewhere to let off some steam in your life. Staycation is when you stay where you're at.
Russ: I think I might have to give you a win-
John: All right.
Russ: -no asterisk or anyway-just a winner.
Russ: All right. That brings us to dumbest moments. What do you have for us?
John: Again, we're running down our list from Portfolio Magazine-God rest its soul- before they go away-
Russ: They have gone away.
John: They have gone but they have left this list in their wake.
Russ: All right.
John: This is a list of the worst CEO's-
Russ: Okay.
John: -the next couple of week, we're just going to kind of review some of these.
Russ: We're going to celebrate some of these guys.
John: That's right. And who can forget Angelo Mozilo?
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: He decides to grow his business by marketing to borrowers who may have problems paying back their mortgages.
Russ: Yeah-so he specialized.
John: And not only does he make that mistake-
Russ: Yeah.
John: -but he-it looks like he kind of bribes a few members of Congress or treats them in a way that would make them think that they owe him something back.
Russ: That's probably business as usual.
John: It was called "the friends of Angelo." Chris Dodd is one of them and another Senator-Kent Conrad-
Russ: Yeah.
John: -and because of all of this, he overdoes it-
Russ: Yeah-a little.
John: -and his mistake and his dumb-moment is not the right word-I would say dumb-career- ending move-
Russ: Okay.
John: -would be to-
Russ: Where did Portfolio rank him in the top-bottom-
John: He's number two.
Russ: Number two. Oh wow. Congratulations to Angelo.
John: Of the 20 worst CEO's, he's number two.
Russ: Wow.
John: And of course what happened, all these subprime mortgages got packaged with really good mortgages as securitized instruments-
Russ: Right.
John: -and Wall Street bought them up-
Russ: Right.
John: -got a couple of insurance companies to hedge-insure that they would not go backward-
Russ: And that cut the market in half.
John: Cut the market in half-we're still ... So let's hear it for Angelo Mozilo-
Russ: There you go.
John: -one of the worst CEO's in the history of the United States.
Russ: There you go.
John: All right.
Russ: And before we wrap it up, it's time for that very popular PKF of Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. So let's welcome Greg Price on the-
John: There he is. On time-every time.
Russ and John: A one and a two and a...
[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook]
Russ: And that wraps us this morning's school of business. You're listening to The BusinessMakers show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com
