Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at the Businessmakers.com. This is that show about the innovators, about the entrepreneurs, about the people that most positively affect our lives.

John: And they also positively affect the economy.

Russ: You bet. And we've been a little remiss on this. We need to tell our listeners about the Overtime Show, John.

John: That's right. The overtime.

Russ: It's a midweek podcast show hosted by two real cool millennial ladies.

John: That must Esther and Katie.

Russ: Absolutely. Esther Steinfeld and Katie Laird.

John: That's right. They're the generation coming up and Esther's got a great business background with Blinds.com and Katie's kind of intrepid reporter who also has a lot to do with the business that she's working with now.

Russ: You bet. She's been with Schipel, The Web Marketing Company –

John: Schipul Marketing, right –

Russ: -- playing a key role for quite some time, too. But man, you're going to get good information there. We use fact checkers on everything they do just to make sure –

John: They have a bigger staff than we do.

Russ: That's right. That's right. Just to make sure we get it right. I remember, John, your story last week about the New York Times and how important it is to read the corrections. We never have to have corrections on this show.

John: Well we do try to get things right.

Russ: We get it right and we add a dimension sometimes to the story.

John: I know. It's kind of like the fifth dimension.

Russ: Well it is.

John: Or the sixth dimension.

Russ: That's right. Well the dimension that I enjoyed last week was when we were talking about the government in Scotland paying for sex change operations.

John: That's right. Hey, why not?

Russ: You bet. Well, and the dimension added by you was that you think it's probably caused by them wearing those kilts.

John: Yeah, right. Well they do wear the kilts.

Russ: I know.

John: And look what happens.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: When a bunch of guys wearing dresses it's going to have a –

Russ: it's going to have an impact.

John: -- a lot of unintended consequences.

Russ: You bet; you bet.

John: There's a boom in the sex change market in Scotland.

Russ: There ya' go. Alright. Here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, we've got something special cooked up. We're going to go share bits of stories from several notable entrepreneurs we've had on this show. First, Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Pong and Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. We have him talking about another notable entrepreneur on this show, Steve Wozniak.

John: Oh yeah.

Russ: And then we've got none other than Rod Canion talking about an occurrence with Bill Gates that's very significant.

John: That's right. A fatefull occurrence.

Russ: You bet. Then lastly, Red McCombs talking about his interactions with the late, great James Michener.

John: There ya' go.

Russ: Cool stories. Then for our featured guest segment this morning. Last week was the Houston Fast 100, the fastest 100 growing companies 2008 over 2006.

John: Yeah; produced by the Houston Business Journal.

Russ: Absolutely. Plus five other sponsors. We're going to talk to them and the winners and some of the enterprise champions as well. But first... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers school of business. Not your ordinary business school by any stretch of the imagination.

John: I think we're several levels above what you normally get in a business school these days and I think the reason why is because we are real world in the trenches. And we've crafted it into a crafty curriculum I might say.

Russ: A crafty curriculum. You bet –

John: Very crafty. Very crafty.

Russ: And it's after a rigorous around the clock work all week long.

John: All week long.

Russ: You bet.

John: You bet. That's right.

Russ: Alright. We kick off the school of business each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: In staying sort of in sync with the tough economy –

John: Okay.

Russ: We're going to quote once again Stephen Wright. He's not an economist, but he oughta' be.

John: He should. He makes a lot more sense sometimes than they do.

Russ: And here is his quote of the day. The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.

John: There ya' go.

Russ: Alright. That brings us to this week in business history. John, take over with the history lesson.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1780 Benedict Arnold decides he's going to commit treason. Actually he decided before this. This is the day he did commit treason. He felt he was unappreciated. He was very instrumental in the Battle of Saratoga and didn't get any of the credit for it and his wife had monetary demands that he couldn't meet being a general in the continental army. So that all added up to the fact that he thought he'd get a better deal with the British. His deal was he'd turn over West Pointe. At that time West Pointe was a very strategic venue you might say during the Revolutionary War because of Hudson River. There was a real steep bend in the river and they had this huge chain that went across the river that would keep the British ships from going up river. Well what he was going to do was cut the chain and let the British ships come –

Russ: Wow.

John: But he was stopped.

Russ: The way you first started describing it, that he was shortchanged on recognition and his wife, but you sounded like a defense attorney and these day and times they might say, ya' know, that's a pretty good description. We'll let him off.

John: Yeah, well they didn't let him off.

Russ: They didn't.

John: After that he moved to Great Britain and died a lonely death.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

John: This week in business history, in 1789 is the first Supreme Court.

Russ: Wow.

John: The Judiciary Act is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington establishing the Supreme Court as a tribunal made up of six judges who would serve on the court until the day they died or decided to retire.

Russ: Wow. Cool. It's kind of like a tenured professor job –

John: Yeah, tenured. They can stay there for life and make laws.

Russ: Cool.

John: And which is what they are accused of doing.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1842 is the birth date of the inventor of the Thermos bottle.

Russ: Wow. Now we're getting into some serious stuff.

John: Yeah. So James Thermos was born in Scotland – no, I'm just kidding. His name was Dr. James Dewer was born in Scotland and became a chemist and physicist and later on in the 1870s became a professor in Cambridge in the Royal Institution of London. He worked with gases turning them into liquids and all that, but in 1892 he invented a new kind of container that could keep the cold liquids cold.

Russ: Cool.

John: And that was the thermos –

Russ: That was the thermos. Wow.

John: Right; yeah.

Russ: Neat invention.

John: Yeah, neat invention. This week in business history in 1849 the first commercial laundry was established –

Russ: My God. Goodness gracious –

John: -- in Oakland, California. Before then you couldn't take your clothes anywhere. You had to take them down to the river and beat them with a rock.

Russ: Or wear them dirty.

John: But you and I would probably not want to do that so we would hire someone to do that for us.

Russ: Right.

John: Well someone got the idea and say hey, I'll beat your clothes against a rock for you in 1849.

Russ: I wonder if they served wine back then like they do in some of the modern Laundromats these days.

John: I do not know.

Russ: Alright

John: This week in business history, 1930 Ray Charles is born.

[Music: "What'd I Say"]

John: Okay. Later, 1948. Wow, I was born that year by the way this week in business history, September 22nd. But also that is the same time that Honda started its engines.

Russ: You bet.

John: The Honda technical research institute officially became the Honda Motor Company and we all know what happened after that.

Russ: Oh yeah, and they first showed up in motorcycles.

John: In motorcycles, right. And still this day –

Russ: They were huge, yeah.

John: Big in motorcycles, but their cars are very well built and doing okay. Okay. In 1949, in September 23rd this week in business history Bruce Springsteen is born.

Russ: My God, the boss is turning 60.

John: The boss. Then later this week in business history, 26 years later in 1975, he hits the charts for the first time with Born to Run.

[Music: "Born to Run"]

John: This week in business history in 1954 the first Fortran computer program was run.

Russ: Now I even took a little Fortran class.

John: Yeah.

Russ: It was a very early stage computer language, which was –

John: Did you use those with punch cards? Those –

Russ: Oh absolutely. You bet.

John: This week in business history in 1960 the Twist by Chubby Checker hits number one. It was one of the most successful singles in the history of rock and roll.

Russ: It was a great song, but it was also a dance and I think that kind of happens now, but I think he was kind of out there in the leading edge, doing it back in 1960 –

John: Oh right. You still see people doing variations of the Twist.

Russ: Yeah. Let's do it while he plays the song.

[Music: "The Twist"]

John: This week in business history in 1961 is the last episode of I Love Lucy.

Russ: Oh man, what a show.

John: I know. It was a great show. The overriding plot of each of the shows was Lucy was always looking for a way of getting into the band and she wanted to perform with the band and so she'd come up with all these cockamamie schemes and it was great.

Russ: Yes, it was.

John: This week in business history in 1968, one of the worst songs ever written and performed, Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley becomes a number one hit.

[Music: "Harper Valley PTA"]

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1973, Billy Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the famous battle of the sexes tennis match which was held at the –

Russ: Houston Astrodome –

John: Houston Astrodome, right.

Russ: Man, no kidding. What an event that was.

John: Thirty thousand spectators and a lot of hype. Very anti-climactic because Billy Jean King put Bobby Riggs –

Russ: Cleaned his clock.

John: Cleaned his clock; 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 –

Russ: Man, wasn't even a match.

John: If it was a fight they would have stopped it.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1975, David Bowie's first chart topper with Fame.

[Music: "Fame"]

Russ: Great song, but I love that under pressure song, too. That's one we use it here in the show –

John: This week in business history in 1985, Dier Straits tops the charts with Money for Nothing.

[Music: "Money for Nothing"]

John: That was a pretty good little tune.

Russ: It was. I want my MTV.

John: I want my MTV.

Russ: I want my money for nothin', man. Don't want to do any work for it.

John: I know. I know. It's a rock and roll. What can ya' say? This week in business history in 1995 Ted Turner sells out to Time Warner Inc. and gets a hell of a lot of money you might say.

Russ: Boy did he ever.

John: Heck of a lot of money.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And it took awhile to get it all approved by the FCC and the feds and everything, but much better deal for Turner than it was for Time Warner.

Russ: Yes, yes, yes.

John: Especially since Time Warner then turned around and bought America Online, which they were looking at all this potential synergy between the magazine division, the broadcast division and –

Russ: Didn't pan out though did it?

John: That synergy hardly ever does pan out. You can't artificially create synergy. It just kind of happens. That's kind of the partial meaning of the word –

Russ: That's right. Alright and that wraps up our history lesson for today.

John: Yes, it certainly does and it's time to move on my friend.

Russ: Alright. That brings us to navigating business jargon.

John: Alright.

Russ: This is our vocabulary lesson.

John: And a fine vocabulary lesson it is.

Russ: It is. We're out there finding new words, acronyms, techno speak and we come in here. I get to choose the word.

John: Yeah, of course.

Russ: And John has no idea which word I chose.

John: No, I have to be very nimble and try to determine what the definition of the word is, many of which are made up on the way over to the studio by Mr. Know-It-All Capper over here –

Russ: That's right. That's right. The prize is –

John: Is nothing.

Russ: -- if he gets it he's anointed a winner.

John: A winner, yes.

Russ: And if he doesn't he's a loser.

John: I'm a loser; yeah.

Russ: And I say the word. And then he guesses it. Okay, this is going to be tough. This is like an abbreviation kind of acronym, kind of a happening way that people communicate these days.

John: Alright.

Russ: I'm going to read off. It's actually one, two, three, four, five, six characters.

John: Alright.

Russ: You ready?

John: Uh huh.

Russ: U, R, Y, Y, 4, M.

John: You are young enough to –

Russ: It's two Ys.

John: Okay. You are Y Y for me. You are too – I don't know. I have no idea.

Russ: Oh, you're so close. You are and then there's two Ys. For me. You are too wise for me.

John: Oh, I see.

Russ: Hold your calls ladies and gentlemen. We don't have a winner, but we've got the answer already out there displayed U R Y Y 4 M.

John: Yeah, it's a way they use words and numbers –

Russ: You bet. You're too wise for me.

John: You're too wise for me. Okay.

Russ: Remember that one.

John: Alright. Came all the way here to go through that.

Russ: And that brings us to dumbest moments. Do you have a story for us?

John: I think we just went through a dumb moment. We don't need another one. But the one I came up with was that last Friday the Obama administration imposed a new duty of 35 percent on Chinese tire imports.

Russ: Now that doesn't work.

John: Which is going to – I mean China's our biggest trading partner, one of the biggest if not the biggest –

Russ: Creditor on everything –

John: They own all our debt –

Russ: The big market for our...

John: So what does this guy do? He slams a duty on these tires –

Russ: You're kidding me. I didn't know about this –

John: No, and then what happens is the Chinese are threatening to put a duty on automobiles and some other things –

Russ: Well of course they will –

John: -- that we sell over there and the thing is, I gotta hand it to ya'. Even though our President sounds like he's intelligent and he may be book smart intelligence, but he has no –

Russ: He's not business smart –

John: And he has really no sense of American history –

Russ: Economics –

John: -- and economics –

Russ: I know –

John: Because it doesn't work. It's kind of like a lot of politicians when they look at the effects of the monetary policy or attacks or whatever, they look at what they call static analysis –

Russ: Oh yeah, oh yeah –

John: And they think well, everyone's just going to sit still and in this case the Chinese and fess up and pay up and everything will be right in the world, right. Thirty-five percent more money. Well what politicians don't take into effect is dynamic scoring and the dynamics of the situation which dictates that people are not going to sit still and take this and they're going to retaliate in some way –

Russ: I'm disappointed that he did this. Man, he knows better than that. My God.

John: I know. I know. He needs to talk to Al Gore who did an excellent job in a debate with Ross Perot awhile back.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Al Gore held a picture of this Mr. Smoot and Mr. Holly who were Congressmen who were trying to impose something similar right before the Great Depression.

Russ: Right.

John: And it helped exacerbate and elongate the Great Depression.

Russ: So you're saying Al Gore knows this much better than Barack Obama does –

John: Yeah, let's get Al Gore as president.

Russ: Alright. And before we wrap up this morning's school of business it's time for that very popular PKF Texas entrepreneur's playbook.

John: And here he comes, Greg Price. Come on in Greg.

Russ: So let's welcome him on the piano.

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.

As an entrepreneur, where do you look for innovative ideas? How often do you venture outside your industry to get new ideas? What are thought leaders from other industries saying that you can apply to your business?

The magazine, The Economist, hosts numerous conferences each year on different topics, bringing in the thought leaders from a variety of industries.

The TED conference, founded in 1984 has grown to be one of the premier conferences devoted to quote, "ideas worth spreading." It's an invitation only conference, but you can access the conference webcasts via their website, TED.com.

These types of conferences can provide you a cache of ideas that you can apply to your business to take it to the next level. Right now, innovation is king, and if you don't stay on top of trends (in and out of your industry), you could get lost in the shuffle.

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas – The Fit That's Right!

Russ: Okay. Be sure and stay tuned in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback with those notable entrepreneurs talking about other notable entrepreneurs and then for our featured guest segment, the winners and the sponsors of the Houston Fast 100. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at the businessmakers.com.