Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com, and this is that show about those innovators from the private sector who go out and make it happen.
John: That's right. We're talking about the private sector, you know. It's the people who lead the private sector employment - the entrepreneur, the business class - that is really saving the bacon in the economy.
Russ: No kidding.
John: If there's any saving to be done, these are the ones that are gonna do it.
Russ: Absolutely. And here is our line up for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback we're just going to roll back just a couple of weeks when the BusinessMakers Overtime team of Esther Steinfeld and Katie Laird reviewed tomorrow's Super Bowl. And then for this mornings featured guest segment I am going to be joined by Blair Garrou of DFJ Mercury to do another one of Blair's DealMakers series as he reviews FUZZYLUKE.com. That is the new iPhone application that connects your iPhone to your car diagnostics. But first... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business and this is not your business-as-usual school.
John: That's right. We need a blazer patch. We need like a coat of arms we could put on our blazer. We should have our own BusinessMakers School of Business -
Russ: School of Business.
John: - coat of arms -
Russ: There you go.
John: - and seal, you know.
Russ: All right, I like that. All right, and we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.
John: The quote of the day.
Russ: And this morning's quote comes from Channing Pollock, an American playwright, critic and writer of film scenarios.
John: Oh, is that so?
Russ: Yes, that's so and here's his quote: "The only good luck many great men ever had was being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck."
John: I agree with that.
Russ: And now it's time for this week in business history, so what happened during this February week in business history, John?
John: We're gonna start off with a dumb moment. This week in business history: In 1861, the politicians south of the Mason-Dixon Line decides to organize the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama, which resulted in total devastation of the South and 600,000 people - soldiers on both sides - died, so -
Russ: Yeah, it didn't work out very well.
John: Didn't work out very well, no. I'd say that was probably one of the premier dumb moments in American history.
Russ: Yeah, that's probably true.
John: Okay, this week in business history: In 1895, volleyball was invented by W. G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which is where I think basketball was invented.
Russ: Well, real close by.
John: Yeah, real close by and this guy created a new game that was first called mintonette as a pastime to be played by any number of players and then it took on some characteristics from tennis and some from handball. It was designed to be a sport less rough for the participants than basketball, but it was designed for the older members of the YMCA even though it did require a bit of athletic effort, so -
Russ: Yeah, I wonder if Mr. Morgan envisioned beach volleyball -
John: I don't think so.
Russ: - where they're playing like rock music with girls and guys.
John: Scantily clad -
Russ: Yeah, and bikinis and -
John: - bikinied women. It was in the -
Russ: Yeah, on sand and my goodness.
John: On sand. Right. This week in business history: In 1931, James Dean, the actor, was born in Marion, Indiana.
[Music: "James Dean"]
John: He was in about three movies: Giant, Rebel Without a Cause and another movie called East of Eden. And he died an early death in a car wreck. I didn't see East of Eden. Rebel Without a Cause was okay, but Giant was a great movie. It's probably the movie about Texas I think that's ever been filmed.
Russ: Well, and he was Jett Rink in that movie, wasn't he?
John: Yeah, Jett. Yeah, right.
Russ: Yeah, which is based on this Glenn McCarthy character.
John: Glenn McCarthy, the wildcatter, and -
Russ: Yeah. But anyway, James Dean now would be, what, 79 years old now.
John: Yeah, I guess he would.
Russ: That's interesting.
John: Okay, this week in business history: In 1940, the song In the Mood by Glenn Miller hits number one.
[Music: "In the Mood"]
John: Then two years later, this same week in 1942 he's awarded his first ever gold disc for selling a million copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo.
[Music: "Chattanooga Choo Choo"]
Russ: We like to feature Glenn Miller here, don't we?
John: Well, the nice thing about his music is you can hum it and you can understand the words.
Russ: But he was such an iconic leader connected with the World War II thing.
John: This week in business history: In 1942, the birth date of pianist and singer/songwriter Carole King.
Russ: Man, no kidding.
John: And she had this great album called Tapestry.
[Music: "I feel the Earth Move Under my Feet"]
Russ: Yeah, but she wrote all those other songs that other people did.
John: Yeah, right. Yeah, a lot of the rhythm and blues groups from the '70s.
Russ: I understand it was James Taylor that talked her into actually performing, and I think they perform together now.
John: They do. This week in business history: In 1943, shoe rationing begins in the U.S. We may see some rationing.
Russ: Yeah, I know.
John: Because the debt's up to $12 trillion right now.
Russ: Yeah, that's right. That's right. Wow.
John: This week in business history: In 1949, Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, opens at the Morosco Theatre in New York City. The play ran for 742 performances, won a couple of awards, the Pulitzer and a Tony Award, and made Arthur Miller and, of course, the main character, Willie Loman, household names. I gotta tell you, Arthur Miller has written some of the most depressing stuff.
Russ: Yeah, yeah. [Laughter] Now Willie Loman was a loser, right?
John: Well, yeah, and see, the thing is Arthur Miller really did not appreciate traditional American culture, free enterprise and this is such a negative look at the life of a salesman and, you know, salesmen are basically optimistic, cheerful people.
Russ: Right, they have to be.
John: Not Willie Loman.
Russ: He wasn't?
John: No, and - this week in business history: In 1955, The McGuire Sisters' song, Sincerely, goes to number one and stays there for ten weeks.
[Music: "Sincerely"]
Russ: I love that song.
John: I remember The McGuire Sisters.
Russ: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
John: This week in business history: In 1962, President Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba and the United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
Russ: Including Cohibas, right?
John: Well, yeah, but the thing is before he signed the ban he had a thousand Cuban cigars flown up.
Russ: You're kidding.
John: No, he had his own -
Russ: It's a true story?
John: True story, right. It's nice to have a president, though, who stands up for America and does not let a tinhorn dictator rule, and I could find some fault in some things that Kennedy did overall. The one thing you cannot fault him for was he was a cold warrior.
Russ: Boy, no kidding.
John: And if you remember his inaugural address where he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."
Russ: Oh, cool, cool.
John: And then also he - you know, we will bear any burden, pay any price to fight for freedom, you know. Those words are very stirring -
Russ: No kidding.
John: - and helped to rally the country.
Russ: They weren't the kinda words that politicians use nowadays 'cause they'd worry about what it would do for their reelection in the next term.
John: Yeah, right. But then you get to like Ronald Reagan who said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." He was probably the last politician that stood up for the country -
Russ: Who stood up. Yeah, there you go.
John: - and recognized evil when he saw it. Okay, this week in business history: In 1964, the birthday of Sarah Palin who ran as vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket with John McCain -
Russ: Forty-six years old this week.
John: Yeah, she's 46 years old and she's got some work to do. She's a work in progress but, again, she gets ridiculed a lot as do a lot of politicians who stand up for America and are for free enterprise and low taxes and so many of these people get criticized that you don't know whether the criticism is accurate or not because it's kind of a blanket treatment they give to anybody who -
Russ: That's a great - that's an interesting observation.
John: And so you don't really know whether Sarah Palin is a work in progress really or not. I personally think she needs to hone her skills.
Russ: Yeah, I do, too.
John: But her skills are prodigious. I mean the way she can capture a crowd and all that.
Russ: I agree. I do, too. Good observation.
John: But the story hasn't been fully written on her.
Russ: Okay, cool.
John: Okay, this week in business history: In 1969, the world's largest airplane at the time, the Boeing 747, makes its first commercial flight.
Russ: Boy, that was impressive. At the time, you had -
John: They're still around. Yeah.
Russ: Yeah, I know. You had the two-story cabin in there. It was mind-boggling to me that there would be a flying machine that big.
John: I know. Well, they are big 'cause you remember the Harrison Ford story about the movie, Air Force One.
Russ: Oh, yeah, right.
John: That thing's as big as an office building. He's finding all kinds of places to hide in, and I mean it's just amazing how big that plane was according to that movie, which of course movies never exaggerate anything.
Russ: No, no.
John: This week in business history: In 1971, the NASDAQ stock market debuts and is still churning along, baby.
Russ: The electric - the electronic market, man.
John: That's right. I know. A lot of startup entrepreneurial companies got on that exchange, and last time I looked, they had the highest trading volume of any stock exchange in the world.
Russ: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
John: This week in business history: In 1989, to gain deregulation, the World Wrestling Federation admits that pro wrestling is an exhibition and not a sport.
Russ: Well, and it seems like that admission didn't seem to hurt them very much, did it?
John: No, but I gotta tell you, it's not the same anymore, you know. My kids and I used to watch it and one of the best wrestling matches they ever had was there was a referee who was an honest referee.
Russ: Right. Sure.
John: And then they distracted the wrestlers and they substituted the referee with his evil twin who did a awful job of refereeing the rest of the match. At the end of the fight, they figured out it wasn't the original referee.
Russ: It was his twin brother.
John: It was an evil twin. It was an amazing storyline.
Russ: I thought, you know, it was always interesting how easily the referees were distracted, you know, and they would turn away and while they're turning away, the other guy would be doing something very illegal and he'd turn -
John: He'd pull out a lead pipe and beat the -
Russ: [Laughter] Right.
John: This week in business history: In 1990, the USSR Communist Party agrees to allow opposition political parties.
Russ: Which has sort of been turning back the other way again now, I think, but back then -
John: Yeah, right. Yeah, back then it was -
Russ: That was the Gorbachev years.
John: That was the death knell for the reds, you know, 'cause once they had an opposition, you know -
Russ: It was all over.
John: It was all over, yeah. This week in business history: In 1993, GM sues NBC alleging that their Dateline NBC news magazine program rigged a two-car truck crash to show that the 1973 and 1987 GM pickups were prone to fire.
Russ: Yeah, they rigged it with little rockets.
John: Yeah, little rocket charges. Yeah and that… because they couldn't get the gas tank to explode.
Russ: Yeah, it was just - it wouldn't explode no matter what we did, so we had to help it.
John: Yeah, I know. I know. It's just incredible. This week in business history: In 1999, President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
Russ: Oh, I remember that well, it was such a messy time.
John: Well, any time you have the president of the United States who commits perjury in a trial, he deserves -
Russ: Yeah, it's a serious offense.
John: It is and it's - everybody thinks it was about that Monica Lewinsky sexual escapade and everything and in a way it was.
Russ: Indirectly, it was, yeah.
John: It was, but really he was - he testified that he didn't fool around that much and then, of course, he did and was called on it by DNA and the dress and everything. I don't think he should have been removed from office for it, but it did hurt the Republican Party even though they acquitted him 'cause they had the elections soon after that and lost seats in both houses.
Russ: Right. All right, and that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson.
John: I live for this.
Russ: Well, you should and you do well at it.
John: I think I do pretty darn good considering I don't know the words or anything.
Russ: I know. This one's gonna be interesting today.
John: It's a pop quiz.
Russ: Yeah, John, by contract cannot know the word.
John: By contract, yeah.
Russ: That's right and I know the word because I select the word and I say the word and then John has to guess the meaning.
John: Yeah.
Russ: All right, this morning's word is a noun. Okay, you ready?
John: Person, place or thing.
Russ: You bet.
John: All right.
Russ: Vegangelical.
John: Okay, vegan is someone who's kind of a radical vegetarian type, right? And evangelical is someone who proselytizes in a very aggressive manner in some way, so -
Russ: Ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls. I think we've got a winner.
John: So vegangelical is someone who not only eats in a rather odd way but wants everybody else to do it, and these people are approached in such a way that they're somewhat humiliated and intimidated because they're not crazy like the vegan.
Russ: [Laughter] That's right. You got it. You expanded the definition very well and you're right, so we got a winner.
John: All right.
Russ: All right, and that brings us to dumbest moments. Do you have a dumb business moment for us this morning?
John: Yes, we do. As we all know, we're in the movie awards season, you know.
Russ: Oh, we are. You bet.
John: We've had the Screen Actors Guild and then you also have the Golden Globes. Well, in tribute to that we have a dumb moment, and it involves a movie that they were trying to make and not only was one person wrong about it - and these are people who are well known to this very day, you know, and all that.
Russ: Yeah, in the movie business.
John: In the movie business. Okay, the first one is MGM Executive Producer Irving Thalberg in 1936 -
Russ: Oh, so this is not about Avatar.
John: No, advising Studio Chief Louis B. Mayer. Now Irving Thalberg, they have a big award named after him in the Academy Awards 'cause he was such a great and he died at an early age, by the way. He said, "Forget it, Louis. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel."
Russ: Uh-oh. Okay. All right, I get the picture.
John: Okay, now the expert is none other than the great actor, Gary Cooper. Okay, remember him?
Russ: Yeah, absolutely.
John: Okay, and his quote was about this movie, "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling flat on his face and not Gary Cooper," right?
Russ: [Laughter] Yeah, okay. And the third one?
John: This is a director who was offered a percentage, 20 percent of the profits of the movie, but he demanded a flat fee and he said, "This picture is gonna be the biggest white elephant of all time." And Victor Fleming was a big-time director in those days. So anyway, we're all talking about Gone With the Wind.
Russ: Gone With the Wind. Wow.
John: So if you got an idea out there and you're an entrepreneur with a great idea or even if you're not an entrepreneur, there's people out there who will water hose your idea -
Russ: Boy, no kidding.
John: - sometimes not just because it's a bad - or they think it's a bad - they just do it to enjoy doing - inflicting emotional pain on people.
Russ: [Laughter] And those were three examples of really huge mistakes.
John: So if your idea gets water hosed -
Russ: Yeah, don't stop.
John: Think of Gone With the Wind.
Russ: There you go.
John: All right.
Russ: All right, and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: Now here's one of the most optimistic accounting professionals I know.
Russ: There you go.
John: And here he is, our own Greg Price.
Russ: On the piano.
Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. How does your firm handle mentoring junior team members? Do you have an established program or are your mentor relationships more informal?
There are several things to consider when establishing a mentoring program:
- Allow team members to self-select their mentor/mentee, being careful to avoid favoritism. This encourages a more effective relationship
- What kind of communication training should be provided to participants?
- The mentor and mentee should meet on a regular basis and set clear milestone goals
A mentorship program focuses on developing a relationship through self-disclosure, building trust, listening for understanding and providing feedback.
The benefits of a more formal program can include:
- Provide the tools to assist with succession planning
- A reduction in turnover and
- The development of team members leadership skills
To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas the fit, that's right!
Russ: That wraps up this mornings School of Business. Stay tuned in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback where we roll back two weeks when the BusinessMakers Overtime team of Esther Steinfeld and Katie Laird talked about tomorrow's Super Bowl game. And then for our featured guest segment where we have Blair Garrou, the managing director of venture capital firm DFJ Mercury back presenting another DealMakers series where he gives a real world snapshot review of FUZZYLUKE. You're listening to the BusinessMaker Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
