Russ: Good morning, this is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com. And this is that show about those people that make it happen, that make our lives better with their business idea and their courage and their risk-taking.

John: That's right and you roll all that up together, you got our artist, athletes, gallant knights and the marines all wrapped into one.

Russ: And this is the show that you're listening too, perhaps right now –

John: Uh huh.

Russ: - on the radio. You might be listening to it on the web but if you are listening to it on the radio, what should we tell 'em, John?

John: Well, this is just a partial curriculum.

Russ: Yeah.

John: The full coursework is available on the web and you'll get a lot more in-depth knowledge that way –

Russ: You think?

John: If you go to the web. It's okay to get this, just kinda get a taste for what it –

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: What it is and get some basic surface knowledge on what's going on.

Russ: You bet.

John: But if you, if you really want additional surface knowledge, go to the web. (Laughter)

Russ: Well.

John: thebusinessmakers.com. Yes.

Russ: I been wanting to remind our listeners, often, that you are the leader in the world, probably, on surface knowledge, right?

John: That's right. I'm the ice skater on the surface knowledge of life, you know?

Russ: (Laughter) Right.

John: Okay.

Russ: And if you go to the web, it's at thebusinessmakers.com.

John: Right.

Russ: Now, now – we don't mean that to be disrespectful of regular, traditional, terrestrial radio, do we?

John: Terrestrial radio?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay, that's a real –

Russ: It's extra-ter-

John: - is this terrestrial radio?

Russ: No, we're terrestrial. There is extra-terrestrial –

John: Extra terrestrial.

Russ: We don't know if we're on that yet.

John: Okay, but - well, you know, these sound waves –

Russ: They could be out there. Yeah.

John: - they, they're out there. Matter of fact the first show was like five years ago. You figure the sound waves are out there.

Russ: It's still out there.

John: We're probably out by Uranus right now.(Laughter)

Russ: And here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback we are going to feature an all-star lineup of successful entrepreneurs giving advice to other entrepreneurs. And by all-star lineup I mean, Brian Liu of LegalZoom.com, Carly Fiorina of HP, Nolan Bushnell inventor of Pong, Founder of Atari and Chunky Cheese, Jeff Sandefer, serial entrepreneur and co-founder and master teacher at the Acton School of Business, and Judith Cone vice-president of emerging strategies with the Kaufman Foundation. And then for our featured guest segment, I sit down with global energy expert, and I underscore expert. author of The Color of Oil and author of From Soviet to Putin and Back, the Dominance of Energy in Today's Russia and author of Energy, China's Checkpoint. That's Dr. Michael J. Economides. But first... That's right, it's time for The School of Business. And we have a little announcement to make –

John: Oh we do?

Russ: - for this, for this week's lesson.

John: What's that?

Russ: Yeah.

John: All right.

Russ: All of our fact checkers are off on Thanksgiving holiday, so –

John: That's right, yeah.

Russ: - so we can't be held responsible for any of this.

John: It's – yeah, and some of 'em just quit, 'cause you know, we don't pay these people. You get what you pay for.

Russ: We're – not only do we not pay 'em, we don't pay attention to them, either.(Laughter)

John: That's right.

Russ: All right and we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And today I've chosen Sam Levinson, the American humorist, television host and journalist.

John: Oh, wow. I remember him.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: Wow, he's dead, though.

Russ: Yeah, he is. This is a cool quote, too.

John: Okay.

Russ: Are you ready?

John: Yeah, I'm ready, go ahead.

Russ: You must learn from the mistakes of others because you can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.

John: That's right, 'cause –

Russ: There you go. Yeah.

John: - you know, there's only so many years you have in your life so if you –

Russ: To make mistakes.

John: - so if you learn off of other people's mistakes, that kind of adds to the number of decisions that are made that can create mistakes.

Russ: Absolutely. Very well said. All right and that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this last week of November in business history?

John: Okay, this week in business history – in 1701, Andre Celsius was born in Uppsala, Sweden. Now he invented the centigrade scale for measuring temperature.

Russ: Yeah, right.

John: But the little-known thing is, you know, Fahrenheit was out there, too –

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: - tryin' to do the same thing, only with Fahrenheit and this huge family feud and ruckus started. I mean it was like the Hatfield and McCoys and –

Russ: Really?

John: - the Bloods and the Crips and the Montagues and Capulets. I mean they were really going at it and they were torching each others' books and studies and everything and –

Russ: And thermometers.

John: What really started the whole thing is he originally described zero degree with a boiling point of water and 100 degrees was the freezing point –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - but for some unknown reason, I guess he had too much to drink that night. He switched 'em around and it's what caused everything.

Russ: Maybe it was for competitive advantage.

John: And he didn't tell anybody he was gonna do it and it just – it created mayhem. He died at the early age of 42 and some say it was mysterious circumstances.

Russ: But does the feud continue to this day?

John: Well the – yeah, the heirs of these people –

Russ: Yeah. Lotta trash-talkin'?

John: - and the pro- and the reason why Celsius is so well used in Europe is because the word Celsius fits better on baseball caps and t-shirts than Fahrenheit does. Okay. All right, this week in business history – in 1837, American inventor and grandfather of the plastic industry, John Wesley Hyatt was born.

Russ: Wow.

John: Now he developed, first a water purification system, a sugar cane – a prolific inventor –

Russ: Yeah.

John: But he's best known for two things: his role as a plastics pioneer in the mid-1860s –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - because he used it in the production of billiard balls and – to replace ivory.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But he's also well-known for setting up a very nice hotel chain and –

Russ: That's not the same Hyatt.

John: That's the same – I think – well, his name has two t's in it.

Russ: Hyatt Regency? Remember folks, our fact checkers are off today.

John: Okay, this week in business history – 1867, Alfred Nobel patents dynamite in 1867, okay?

Russ: Dynamite, oh – okay.

John: And he was a chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments and the inventor of dynamite.

Russ: Wow, gee.

John: And he owned a company called Bofors, a major armaments manufacturer and he was so, he felt so guilty – this is where had his downfall.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He felt so guilty about the manufacturing of dynamite –

Russ: Of explosives, yeah.

John: I mean this world – we wouldn't be able to live in the world if it weren't for dynamite.

Russ: Oh, I know.

John: Because of all the things that get built –

Russ: It's important.

John: - tunnels and –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - roads through mountain –

Russ: Plus we'd probably have a population problem worse than we do if wasn't for dynamite.

John: That, that's right – but anyway, his biggest mistake was instituting the Nobel Prizes, based on the types of people that keep winning the stupid things. I mean you know –

Russ: So, so –

John: I mean, Yasser Arafat getting the Nobel Peace Prize? Gimme a break.

Russ: - so he was – he felt guilty for inventing dynamite?

John: Yeah.

Russ: And started this prize.

John: The peace prize and the physics prize and this prize and that prize and, yeah, yeah.

Russ: But is – but is – He's givin' it out to the wrong people, hey?

John: He would be rolling over in his grave.

Russ: Yeah?

John: All right, this week in business history in 1891, the banjo – where would we be without the banjo?

Russ: Who knows?

John: Patented by Hobart Middlebrooke –

Russ: Hobart Middlebrooke.

[Music: "Dueling Banjos"]

John: - 1891. This week in business history in 1927, the first patent for a snowmobile design was granted –

Russ: 1927?

John: - to Carl Eliason of Sayner, Wisconsin. He had a crippled foot –

Russ: Yeah?

John: - this was the ah ha moment. Had a crippled foot and couldn't keep up with his pals when they were goin' on hikes through the snow.

Russ: Yeah.

John: This week in business history, in 1936, the first issue of Life Magazine is published.

Russ: Wow.

John: And the rest is history.

Russ: Yeah.

John: It was a very successful publication.

Russ: I was a huge fan. I mean the pictures when I was a kid, I mean –

John: Oh man, the magaz-

Russ: - you could learn everything you wanted to know about what was going on.

John: I know, it was all in pic – well didn't there – didn't even have to read it.

Russ: Right, right. It was so good.

John: Just look at the pictures. I mean, I mean it was a great magazine –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - they're still around but they're publishing commemorative editions.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1940, Woody Woodpecker debuts with the release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock."

Russ: Wow.

John: Now the thing is that Walter Lantz was one of those Disney defectors, you know?

Russ: Oh really?

John: Oh yeah, I think he was, yeah.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay –

Russ: But you don't know for sure?

John: - and here's – I'm not as f- well the fact checkers aren't here, so this is all supposition on my part.

Russ: All right.

John: Least I admit it.

Russ: All right.

John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1940, the birthday of Tina Turner.

Russ: Oh my goodness.

John: Now she was a twin sister of Lana Turner. Did you know that?

Russ: That's not true.

John: You're right, it's not true but Tina Turner still looks good to this very day.

Russ: Boy no kidding.

John: I tell ya.

Russ: Yeah, now if you do the math that means that she's 69 years old.

John: I know.

Russ: Will be 70 and mercy, mercy does she look good.

[Music: "What's Love Gotta Do With It"]

John: This week in business history, okay we gotta get serious here –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - because this was serious. John F. Kennedy was assassinated – he was traveling through Dallas in an open-top convertible.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Texas Governor John Connolly –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and his wife was riding in the same car as President Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Texas Governor John Connolly was shot –

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: - but he lived through it, and unfortunately, President Kennedy did not.

Russ: Yeah. Well it was a traumatic event.

John: And everybody, the evidence points toward Lee Harvey Oswald –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - but he was never brought to trial –

Russ: Right.

John: - so we'll say he was allegedly –

Russ: Right, right.

John: - assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Russ: He was kinda brought to trial but Jack Ruby, wasn't he, in the –

John: Well, yeah, it was not the kinda – it was, it was Texas justice, I guess.

Russ: Yes, it was.

John: Like back in the frontier days.

Russ: It was.

John: Yes. It's too bad that happened –

Russ: Yes, absolutely.

John: - 'cause I think more, more of the truth would've come out. Some people, including the guy who gave me my midnight tour through Dealey Plaza a couple months ago –

Russ: Yeah?

John: - thinks they didn't want the truth coming out.

Russ: Now was that an authorized tour or -?

John: I'm not sure whether it was or not, that guy sure sounded like he knew what he was talkin' about.

Russ: All right.

John: This week in business history in 1963, the 29th Heisman Trophy Award was given to guest, Roger Staubach.

Russ: Yes it was, man.

John: Yeah.

Russ: And yes he was a great guest on this show, talkin' about the Staubach Companies, you know?

John: That's right.

Russ: Which is amazing because the military institutions, they don't necessarily give out scholarships. They do, but not for sports.

John: Well, yeah, the government, yeah. Back in those days, you know, the service academies had pretty good teams.

Russ: Yeah, they did.

John: Yeah. This week in business history, in 1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience makes its London debut at the Bag O'Nails Club.

Russ: The Bag O'Nails Club.

John: Bag O'Nails.

Russ: You know, he was not known at all, hardly, when he was still in the U.S. –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - and some of those English musicians saw him and said, "Wow. You're big time," brought him over there and –

John: And, yeah.

Russ: - and then he did well.

[Music: "Stone Free"]

John: He died an early death, though.

Russ: Yes, he did.

John: Yes he did. This week in business history, in 1967, Arlo Guthrie released his landmark debut album in 1967, "Alice's Restaurant" –

Russ: He has a –

John: - as an 18-minute folk song telling the tale of Alice's Restaurant massacree, a collection of anti-establishment anecdotes.

[Music: Alice's Restaurant]

John: This week in business history, in 1969, the Rolling St- this is a rock n' roll week, here.

Russ: Yes it is.

John: The Rolling Stones start a four-night gig, a four-night gig –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - in Madison Square Garden that led to what some say is the best live rock n' roll album, ever, "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!"

[Music: "Rolling Stones Intro"]

John: This week in business history in 1971, that famous hijacker, called D.B. Cooper parachutes out of a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm with a buncha cash. $200,000.00 –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - in ransom money. Back in those days, that was worth a lot of –

Russ: That was big bucks back then.

John: - that's like a million dollars now, probably.

Russ: That was worth jumping out of an airplane into a thunderstorm.

John: That's right. Well, with a parachute.

Russ: Yes.

John: Yeah, but they never found the guy.

Russ: Yeah.

John: All right, they don't know where he is.

Russ: You know, I think if he survived it, now he oughtta surface.

John: I think he's a grease spot on the earth somewhere.

Russ: He might be.

John: All right, okay. This week in business history, in 1974, the Freedom of Information Act is passed by Congress over President Ford's veto –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and that's been misused. It's probably been misused more than it's been used for legitimate purposes.

Russ: It's a debatable act, in my opinion, you know, I mean I know about openness and fairness and how important that is to the history of our democracy –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - but man, we, we seem to hurt ourselves with it often, too.

John: Right. This week in business history, in 1976, The Band's farewell concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom.

Russ: - they are known, I think, as the musician's musicians.

[Music: "The Weight"]

John: This week in business history in 2005, the first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France. Think about that.

Russ: Wow.

John: You know, I know a lotta people that could use a pa- a face transplant.

Russ: (Laughter)

John: You know?

Russ: No. I'm too –

John: I used to date a few of them, in my day and uh, you know, I think –

Russ: And they probably thought you needed a – you could...

John: Hey, I – I've already had mine.(Laughter)

Russ: And that wraps up this morning's history lesson.

John: Hey, I can't get any worse than that.

Russ: Well, I think –

John: We need our fact checkers.

Russ: - I know. I think we might've survived without 'em. I don't know.

John: I think we stretched a few of these, so –

Russ: You think we did?

John: - a couple of tall tales but hey, it's comedy, folks.

Russ: That's right. All right. And that brings us to navigating business jargon. And this is our vocabulary lesson where we go out there and find these new phrases, new words –

John: Uh huh, yeah.

Russ: - new acronyms and present 'em for our listeners' benefit.

John: For –

Russ: Because we think they oughtta know 'em. The way we do this is in a contest format.

John: Yeah, and I don't even know the word.

Russ: John never knows the word.

John: I, I don't. I do not know the word, phrase or acronym or whatever, whatever the heck you've dreamed up on the way to the studio.

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

John: I don't know what it is.

Russ: That's right. But here's how it works. I select the word –

John: Yeah.

Russ: -I say the word –

John: Yeah.

Russ: - and then John has to guess the meaning.

John: That's right. Without ever hear- having heard the word until now.

Russ: That's right. That's right.

John: Okay.

Russ: Okay, now this is like a two word noun today.

John: Okay, two words to describe –

Russ: And, and I'm even –

John: - a person, place or thing.

Russ: - yeah, I'm gonna even give you a little bit of a hint

John: Yeah.

Russ: It's, it's a word used in the video gaming world.

John: The video gaming world.

Russ: A phrase. Yeah. Yeah.

John: Okay.

Russ: Okay, you ready?

John: Yeah.

Russ: Hand salsa.

John: Hand salsa.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay, salsa's kind of a jazzy Latin dance and the hands, when you're using the controls, these, these controllers for video games have so many buttons and with the Wii, you gotta move around. You know, if you're playing Wii tennis or Wii football or how- you're movin' around all the time. So you're, you got that – you got that wand thing with the buttons on it and you're tryin' to move around so you can ru- simulate running after a tennis ball.

Russ: I wish we had this on video, 'cause you're doin' a pretty good job of mimicking it.

John: I'm doin' a chair salsa, here, okay.

Russ: (Laughter) Well, you know –

John: That's gotta be pretty close to it, if it says...

Russ: Well, I'm thinkin' about giving you a win, even though that's nowhere close to what – 'cause you've changed the me-

John: Ah.

Russ: - you've, you've had better meanings before than the official meaning.

John: Yeah, that's right. Okay, all right.

Russ: And I think you just did. What – this is bad.

John: Yeah.

Russ: What this is is the slimy substance left on a mouse or a joystick after a harrowing round of a high-stress video game. Now if you've ever seen these guys, there's – you know they're sweatin' on it and they're gettin' star –

John: Oh yeah.

Russ: - and that's called hand salsa.

John: Oh! Okay.

Russ: Your definition – I think we're gonna give you a winner on that.

John: All right, okay.

Russ: I think your definition was better. It was cleaner, it was more exciting.

John: Well, I tell ya, you know, you look in Webster's dictionary, they do have more than one definition for –

Russ: That's right.

John: - a word.

Russ: Well that's right. That's a good point. So –

John: Yeah, right. Okay, so this is definition number two.

Russ: There you go. All right.

John: There you go.

Russ: And that brings us to dumbest moments in business history. Do you have a dumb moment story for us this morning, John?

John: Well this is what happens, I guess, when you have a dumb moment, like many years before. This is really not a dumb moment, this is like emergency surgery.

Russ: Okay, that's – yeah.

John: Because of a dumb moment.

Russ: Oh, okay.

John: As many people know, in Europe, they've had the European socialism for many more years –

Russ: Oh yeah, they're famous for it.

John: - and we've just – we've only had socialism here for about a year, okay?

Russ: Right, right.

John: You know, when you hear these employment numbers –

Russ: Right.

John: What you really gotta understand is when they give you the employment numbers, there's two factors in that number.

Russ: Yeah.

John: There's the private sector employment –

Russ: Right.

John: And there's the public sector employment.

Russ: Right, right.

John: In most areas, the public sector, especially when the economy's down, the public sector employment increases.

Russ: Gets bigger, yeah.

John: It gets bigger and the private sector goes down.

Russ: Gets small, yeah.

John: And then you get to the point where um, a famous politician once said, you get too many people in the wagon –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - and not enough people pulling the wagon.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And this is what happens. Sarcozy, "President Nicholas Sarcozy, this is according to FT, Financial Times.com, "will press ahead with measures to make people work longer for their pensions –

Russ: Ah.

John: to reform France's cash-strapped retirement system." Now the problem they have in France is around 25% of the workforce –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - works for the government.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And I think that's – when you have – we ever get in a position in this country – right now it's about 14, 15 percent.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And we're not anarchists here at The –

Russ: No we're not.

John: - there is a legitimate function of government –

Russ: Right.

John: - they fight the wars and –

Russ: Right.

John: - mint the currency and to –

Russ: Maybe hire the police –

John: - negotiate treaties, yeah, hire police, fix the roads. That kinda thing.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: But when you get into like public television stations –

Russ: Yeah, and, and running General Motors –

John: - running General Motors –

Russ: - yeah.

John: - and all this other stuff. Running, you know, the healthcare system.

Russ: Yeah.

John: It's gonna the tail wagging the dog.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: Too many people in the wagon and the pension. Public pension funds are the first warning sign.

Russ: Okay. And public pension funds would essentially be a public ponzi pension, right?

John: Well they're all ponzi schemes, yeah.

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

John: Yeah. The – if these things, public pensions, Social Security, all this stuff –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - if this stuff were in the private sector, they'd all –

Russ: It'd be against the law.

John: It'd be against the law. Yeah.

Russ: Yeah, so –

John: Right.

Russ: And so in France, they're upside down and Sarcozy's sayin', "Okay, you gotta work a few more years before you get this."

John: Yeah, before, before you can retire.

Russ: Right?

John: And this happened to a former president who, in 1995 – one of the former presidents, had to resign over this, because –

Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 'cause it got so upside down.

John: - because it got so upside down and not only do these people have to work longer back there in the 90's –

Russ: Yeah.

John: - but they actually had to pay more into the retirement plan, they had –

Russ: Yeah, wow, wow.

John: - than they originally thought they would have to, you know, pay into.

Russ: All right, all right.

John: That's it.

Russ: All right. All right and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, we've got to do that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. And we're talkin' about Greg Price –

John: Hey there he – Greg Price. He's here.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He's sitting down at the piano and here we go.

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. With the current economic climate, many companies either need to find a buyer or want to prepare to sell when their industry's market makes an upturn. How does a company prepare for a sell event so that they are rewarded with the highest price for their company?

One way to prepare now is to perform a sell-side due diligence review. This process is designed to allow current management to continue to focus on day-to-day operations while outside professionals perform agreed upon procedures on your accounting and operations records and reports.

Your financial records must be in a condition that potential buyers can quickly understand financial information and operations reports. Accuracy and transparency are key when buyers are evaluating your company and preparing an offer. Buyers want to ensure the quality of their purchases and develop a business plan and financial model that produces a significant return on their investment.

This type of review is designed to uncover potential concerns or anomalies that you will either want to correct or make the buyer aware of during the initial discussions. Because when it comes to willing buyers you never know when they may be knocking at your door.

For more information about sell-side due diligence engagements, visit PKFTexas.com/RTP. To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas – The Fit That's Right!

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