Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. And this is that show that celebrates those that work for the company but features those that makes the company work.
John: And those are the people who take the risks and have the stamina and actually make these companies the backbone of the U.S. economy.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Yeah.
Russ: And they have no fear of failing either, man. They just barge right in.
John: Well I think, I think that's what motivates a lot of these guys.
Russ: That's right. Absolutely. But before we get to today's line up I want to tell you about the new PDQ Meetings product that we are using here at the BusinessMakers. It is an online face to face multi-user communication platform that is so cool, efficient and effective. We have had up to 5 of our staff on the system at one time. All up close and looking at each other and hearing each other very very well. It is effective communications. Go to PDQMeetings.net and check it out. And here is what is on the show today. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, we are going to revisit our interview from back in 2006 when John and I had the founder of ProMark Drumstick Company Herb Brochstein on the show. Herb is the man who has sold drumsticks to Ringo Star, Phil Collins, Buddy Rich and almost any other famous drummer you can name. And a drumset to Elvis Presley before Elvis was big. And then for our featured guest segment I am going to sit down with a guy who right out of High School became bass player with a funk band that opened for several of the big names in the late 80's and 90's. And that experience, in a round about way, ultimately lead him to playing a major role with Apple Computer. And then IBM, where he was named a master inventor and holder of 11 patents. He is known throughout as a technology visionary, all of this keep in mind without any college. And most recently was chief architect of open source at BMC Software. Today he is going to share with us the details of his very cool and avaunt guard company. I am talking about William Hurley, the evil genius, known far and wide as Whurley. And he is going to open up on his new start up, Chaotic Moon Studios. But first... That's right. It's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business. And this is not your business as usual school.
John: We do the real world ground work out there.
Russ: You bet. And we kick the School of Business off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And this is a first because this is a quote from Dr. Joyce Brothers.
John: Ah, yes.
Russ: "Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after."
John: That's right. I agree with her. I mean you see that right now with the Congress.
Russ: Well yeah, the government's doing it right now.
John: Right, they were talking about one bill the other day about it's only $10 billion. Well if you don't have the money to begin with -
Russ: Right.
John: I mean ten billion's a lot of money.
Russ: That's absolutely right.
John: So, anyway, it's ridiculous. Yeah, okay.
Russ: All right. Okay and that brings us to This Week in Business History. So what happened during this March week in business history, John?
John: All right we're going to start off in 44 BC. This week in business history, March 15, also known as the Ides of March.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: Which Julius Caesar was warned about, at least in the Shakespeare play it's brought up and Shakespeare probably got his information from some of the old Roman histories out there.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: But Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome thought he was a god -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - he was made god for a day due to his military triumphs, etc. etc.
Russ: Right, right.
John: But he began believing it that it was a full-time occurrence.
Russ: Yep.
John: But he found out he wasn't a god after he was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus Gaius Cassius Elongius Decimus Brutus -
Russ: Yeah.
John: And several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
Russ: Wow.
John: And he was stabbed about 24 times.
Russ: yeah, you don't get this stuff at regular business school.
John: Nor would you want to get it at business school.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in 1493, Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first new world voyage.
Russ: My goodness.
John: And said that - his first words were, "You're never going to believe where I've been." Okay. Right.
Russ: [Laughter]
John: This week in business history in 1830 the New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever. Only 31 shares traded.
Russ: My goodness.
John: You imagine today if it - just 31 shares were being traded?
Russ: Right.
John: This week in 1861, Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas who replaced Sam Houston who was evicted from the office because he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
Russ: That's interesting.
John: Yeah. And -
Russ: Because he's, he's such a big hero in the history of Texas, Sam Houston. I mean he's the -
John: Right. Right but you know there's this hue and clamor for - it was just kind of emotionally stoked -
Russ: Right, right.
John: - for the, you know, the Confederacy to secede from the United States government.
Russ: Right. He didn't like that.
John: And he refused to go along with it.
Russ: Yeah, that's cool.
John: And good for him.
Russ: Yep.
John: This week in business history in 1881 Barnum and Bailey's greatest show on earth opens.
Russ: Oh.
John: That's 1881. Most people, I would think, if you didn't pick that date -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - this time and date. It's like actually March 18th.
Russ: Yeah.
John: That they would think that Barnum and Bailey Circus was like later in -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: In, you know but it's 1881.
Russ: 1920 or something, yeah.
John: Or like early 1900s or something.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: But no, nope. 1881.
Russ: Cool.
John: This week in business history in 1892 on March 15th the first escalator was patented by inventor Janet Reno.
Russ: [Laughter] Janet Reno?
John: Yeah, she's been around a long time. You know, she - everybody thinks she started out after she went to law school -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - but actually before that -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - she invented - I'm just kidding. The guy's name was actually Jesse Reno -
Russ: Might've been a grandfather.
John: - from New York City. Could have been a great-great grandfather.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: It could have been no relation whatsoever.
Russ: Right, wow. Escalator in 1892, though?
John: I know.
Russ: Goodness.
John: And that business have escalated into a huge industry, you know.
Russ: [Laughter] Wonder why they never had escalator pitches like they have elevator pitches, you know?
John: Well you got to watch out. See an elevator it's just going up and down.
Russ: Yeah, you just ride.
John: You just stand there. You just ride. I mean it's kind of idiot-proof.
Russ: Yeah, you got to pay attention.
John: Unless, unless the elevator's cables snap. But with escalators, you got these moving steps.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, they're moving up an incline so you're going uphill, number one.
Russ: You have to pay attention.
John: And the steps, they vary their heights, you know -
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: - so if you don't watch what you're doing -
Russ: Yeah, I know.
John: - you can, you can really get -
Russ: No, I know. I've, I've ridden on an escalator before.
John: All right. This week in business history in 1950 FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program begins.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: And we don't know who was on it but we hope they caught the guys.
Russ: I hope they got those first guys buy now.
John: Well -
Russ: Sixty years ago.
John: - well if not, maybe these people are dead anyway.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, death is a pretty good way of eliminating crime.
Russ: It is, it is.
John: You know, especially if it's criminals that are doing the dying. Okay, this week in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as Secretary of the Communist Party.
Russ: Well, Khrushchev's the one we grew up talking about and knowing about.
John: I know, yeah. Remember that time he was pounding his shoe in the U.N.?
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: And, like said, "We will bury you,"?
Russ: Right. Told us all of our grandchildren would grow up under communism.
John: Yeah, right. And that's turned out to be maybe somewhat -
Russ: Well, this might be panning out, now, right?
John: It may be panning out, yeah, socialized this, socialized that.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: You know, it's a slippery slope.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1971 the Rolling Stones leave England for France to escape taxes.
[Music: "Tax Man"]
Russ: Oh yeah that was back when England had, you know, had these escalating rates that got up to around 99 percent.
John: That's right.
Russ: Didn't it?
John: That's right and it's amazing how conservative liberals get when it's their own pocketbook getting raided.
Russ: Right, right.
John: This week in business history in 1985 the first Internet domain name is registered. Symbolics.com.
Russ: My goodness, 1985.
John: I know.
Russ: Somebody knew, wow, you had, wow.
John: I know. I didn't think the Internet was around then.
Russ: Well, it was and, and there was forward-thinking people that -
John: I mean I - when did you first hear about the Internet? Of course, you were in that business, you probably -
Russ: Yeah. It was probably 1990, 1991.
John: Yeah, right, yeah. That's when I first started hearing about it, too.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: This week in business history in 1991 it was a lucky day for Laurene Powell -
Russ: Yeah.
John: Because she married Steve Jobs.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: And she's now very wealthy.
[Music: "Going to the Chapel"]
John: This week in business history in 1992 Farm Aid 5 started out as a benefit concert in 1985 -
Russ: Right.
John: - in Champagne, Illinois to raise money for family farmers in the U.S. Now what prompted a lot of this was there were these farm movies that came out. One with Sally Fields and one with Sissy Spacek -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - about all the trouble farmers have.
Russ: Right.
John: And then so they decided to do these concerts.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And they had these women who played in these movies - they would testify before Congress -
Russ: Right.
John: - about how things - they say we must have more -
Russ: The actresses would? [Laughter]
John: - yeah right. That's like having Gary Cooper, who played Lou Gehrig -
Russ: Yeah. Testifying. [Laughter]
John: Talking about inducted in the Hall of Fame for baseball or something.
Russ: Congress and Hollywood shouldn't mix.
John: I know. That's right and it's - and it happens all the time.
Russ: Yeah.
John: How many times you see a famous actor -
Russ: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
John: - or actress testifying before Congress because they played somebody in a movie. Right.
Russ: I remember sort of the compassionate appeal of Farm Aid back then, particularly even before '92 when people were telling me, "Aren't you concerned for those people?" I went, "Yeah, but I'm also concerned for the business I'm running right now," which is - it was a computer reseller and margins were just - everybody was dying and going out of business.
John: Oh yeah.
Russ: And I thought we ought to have a computer reseller aid.
John: Computer aid. Yeah. Yeah, computer reseller aid.
Russ: Yeah, yeah. [Laughter] Let's raise some money and give it to us, too.
John: I know. Why the farmers get all the money, man?
Russ: [Laughter] That's right.
John: Yeah. Okay. This week in business history in 1995 the Beatles song "Baby It's You" with late John Lennon as lead singer is released. It's the first single in more than 30 years.
[Music: "Baby It's You"]
Russ: Yeah.
John: Finally this week in business history in 2008 former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer some would say got his just desserts.
[Music: "Lady Marmalade"]
Russ: Yeah.
John: Had to resign after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute that he brought down in Washington, D.C. I think that governor's mansion is cursed.
Russ: Yeah, must be. I don't know, but I, but I recently saw this special where the actual head of the organization that rented out prostitutes to the governor implied that he was a quite regular customer.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Yeah, it was I mean, like, every week.
John: I think it's whatever someone does in their private life's their own business.
Russ: Yeah.
John: But occasionally, if you do enough bad things -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - it's going to be known and -
Russ: Well plus he was out busting these rings as well, right? I mean he was -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - he was known for that. So -
John: Well if you look at all the people he destroyed as Attorney General -
Russ: Yeah.
John: If you remember back in those days when he was going after the head of AIG and then the head of the New York Stock Exchange -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: - none of those people that he publicly vilified -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - ever went to trial.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: Because there was never enough evidence to convince a judge that these people were guilty of anything.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: So, anyway. He got his.
Russ: All right and that wraps up this morning's history lesson.
John: Can't control what happened in history.
Russ: That's right.
John: All you can do is talk about it.
Russ: That's right. That's right.
John: Okay.
Russ: And therefore, now it's time for the Jargon Challenge Round.
John: The Jargon Challenge Round.
Russ: Yes, that's our new name for this part of the show.
John: Okay. The, the Jargon Challenge Round.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay.
Russ: It's more properly named. We used to call it Navigating Business Jargon but since it's always presented in this contest format -
John: The contest format, yes.
Russ: - it should be - The Jargon Challenge Round.
John: Put's a little suspense in this show.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Yeah, okay.
Russ: And that's also our vocabulary lesson because it's where we do our best to share with our audience all the new techno-speak and acronyms and we do it where I go out and select a word and then I say the word. And then John is challenged with coming up with the definition.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Are you ready?
John: I'm ready. Go ahead.
Russ: Okay. This -
John: Lay it on me.
Russ: - this morning's word is a noun. It's a two-word noun and it's very easy. You ready?
John: Yeah.
Russ: Password fatigue.
John: Password fatigue.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. For every website, if you want to get too far into it, you need to register for it, right? And in order to register for it, you need a username and a password.
Russ: Right.
John: Over time, people forget their password.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They have to come up with a new one.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And sometimes, you just run out of stuff to make up your password. And you become so fed up with it, you decide not to register on the website.
Russ: [Laughter]
John: Or you tend not to go back to it because you're so worn out by having to remember all these stupid password. I mean, they're not stupid because you got to have them because you don't want your identity stolen but enough's enough, you know?
Russ: I'm getting worn out just hearing it.
John: Well that's right.
Russ: I think we got a winner ladies and gentlemen.
John: Okay.
Russ: The short definition is mental exhaustion and frustration caused by having to remember a large number of passwords.
John: There you go.
Russ: It's something I don't think our brain was built to handle and yet we're being challenged to handle it, right?
John: Yeah, right. I, I had that happen to me this morning. As it turns out, I had not been to this site in a long time.
Russ: Yeah?
John: And they canceled me.
Russ: Yeah.
John: So I had to go back on and re-register.
Russ: Re- yeah.
John: And then I get - go through all these little things, you know, they ask me four questions -
Russ: To remember your pet's name and your -
John: Yeah, my - where my mother was born -
Russ: Where your wife's born.
John: - something like that. And then I finally get on there and the site is down for repair.
Russ: [Laughter] Now, one solution to password fatigue is just use the same password everywhere.
John: You don't want to do that. You don't want to do that.
Russ: You don't want to but it does eliminate password fatigue.
John: I know but if someone knows the password -
Russ: You're dead!
John: - you're dead meat. All right, man.
Russ: All right and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business it's time for that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price. A one and a two and a-
Russ and John: A one and a two and a-
Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. It's a pretty fair assessment that the US population will be getting older. So when we talk about the Blended Workforce, we need to set a baseline of understanding:
Blended workforce. With the US population getting older, the Gen X and Millennials find that they have to work with the Boomers. And, (let's keep this between us) they will be financial responsible for us. Now for a young man of 52, I find that quite interesting. I hope the young people are ready to take care of me and my fellow Boomers. At present, the ratio of US workers to pensioners is about 6:1. In Europe is 4:1. By 2025 Europe will be at 2:1.
Blended work styles. With young and old working together you will find challenges in the workplace whereby the younger generation will be multi-tasking, enjoying personal time and taking care of an ever growing older group of parents and relatives. Thus challenging them like they never expected.
Blended world. As the world shrinks more and more of us are ever dependent upon other workers from other parts of the world to complete our jobs. It's pretty routine for me to have conversations with European or Asian counterparts on a regular basis about business here in Houston.
Recent studies estimate that there are 42 million independent workers in the US. This is about 31percent of the workforce. So what does all this mean?
In the US it means major changes for the young folks of the working world. And major changes are in store for business owners in the next 25 years. Shortages of talent, math/science personnel, technical personnel, accountants, etc. are coming and fast. Talent challenges will be the norm and where will you find the workers? Workers will become more virtual and they may indeed become part of outsourcing relationships due shortages in talent and expertise.
The best way to take advantage of such talent is by using technology to ensure collaboration, communication and support of virtual workers. If you are not looking at technologies that embrace this success, don't be surprised if your competition leaves you behind. It's time to adopt a strategy for the future and shore up those gaps.
To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. And be sure to check out the new mobile ready website at PKF Texas.com - PKF Texas, The Fit That's Right!
Russ: Alright and that wraps up this mornings School of Business. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com.
