Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. This is episode #285 of that show that champions entrepreneurship.

John: I like how you say "episode." You make it sound like we're The Cisco Kid or the Lone Ranger. I guess you could say this is episodic radio. Anyway, we're here to salute the entrepreneurs, the people who really work out there to improve the economy and really make the country.

Russ: You bet, and before we get into today's lineup, there's only 10 days left to enter PC Mall's Supreme Office Makeover being offered by their Small Business Network. You can win up to $17,500.00 of computer gear just by going to pcmallsbn.com/BusinessMakers. You register with the network and you enter to win. Pretty easy isn't it? Don't you think?

John: Hey yeah, just do it and get your office made over. Be a hero around the water cooler.

Russ: Absolutely, absolutely. All right, and here is today's lineup. First up, Melvyn Wolff, Chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway Company, Star Furniture, and namesake of the number one ranked undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the country, the Wolff Center of Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston. Then we're going to follow that by a BusinessMakers flashback featuring four university-based programs. First, Thomas O'Malley up from the Lloyd Greif Center of Entrepreneurship at USC. Then, Dr. Leonard Schlesinger, the President of Babson College from our interview when he was being inaugurated back in 2008. Then, Kenneth Morse, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and then we're going to finish up with Bill Sherrill, the Founder of the University of Houston's Wolff Center. But first, the BusinessMaker's School of Business, and what's so unique about it is that it's powered by Champion Energy Services.

John: Yeah, we have our own private electric company that we just carry. They follow us around wherever we go.

Russ: You bet.

John: Like as you always point out, there's no generators here. There's no gerbils or nothing. It's real, real power, man.

Russ: As you point out always at our School of Business, we don't have like a football team where we could have a stadium where a company would have naming rights to the stadium. So instead, we have a company that has naming rights to the school, the whole school.

John: The whole school, right.

Russ: The Champion Energy Services School of Business.

John: No luxury suites. No luxury suites though.

Russ: That's right.

John: This is just pure, hardcore education we got going.

Russ: You bet. Kind of, they're in synch with education in that their bills when they send you an electric bill if you're a Champion Energy Services customers, you can understand them.

John: Yeah, that's the key thing about the bill.

Russ: You bet.

John: Anybody can send a bill.

Russ: Right, right. (Laughter)

John: Anybody can receive a bill.

Russ: Yeah.

John: But very few people can understand the bill.

Russ: Right

John: And then that's where all the problems come with paying the bill.

Russ: That's right. At Champion Energy Services it's easy to understand.

John: It's not written in Greek or hieroglyphics. It is difficult to misunderstand.

Russ: Yeah, right. If you can't understand their bills then you shouldn't be listening to this show.

John: That's right. We'll leave it at that.

Russ: We kick of the BusinessMakers School of Business each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: Today's quote comes from Bill Lyon. "If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything." (Laughter)

John: That's right. That's like saying, "It's not the glass that's half empty or half full; it's who owns the glass that makes it important."

Russ: You've got that one right, okay.

John: I like that quote though. That's pretty good.

Russ: Yeah. All right, and that brings us to this week in business history. What happened in this November week in business history, John?

John: This week in business history in 1701, Anders Celsius was born in Uppsala, Sweden. He came from a long line of mathematicians, astronomers, and botanists strangely enough.

Russ: Okay, yeah.

John: He made several important contributions. He actually joined an expedition to determine the shape of the earth. I thought everybody already knew about that, but he was the first scientist who noticed the magnetic nature of the aurora borealis, but most famous for coming up with a temperature scale. The way he originally described it, 0 was the boiling point for water and 100 was the freezing point, but he reversed it. He changed his mind and now it is the other way around.

Russ: I think he reversed it because of that competing family, the Fahrenheits.

John: That's right. It's like the Montagues and the Capulets.

Russ: That's right, because their freezing number was the lower number, 32 degrees, and so he went, "Wow." He just caved in.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1837, American inventor and grandfather of the plastics industry, John Wessley Hyatt was born. He was born in New York. All of these guys are prolific inventors. This guy got into the sugar cane business, sewing machines. Successful entrepreneur, but there was a contest to see who could come up with a substance that was better and more environmentally sensitive than ivory in the production of billiard balls. He heard about this substance called Parkesine and he improved upon it, and later got into the hotel business.

Russ: They were worried about creating billiard balls that were more environmentally sensitive back then?

John: Well yeah, they were using ivory. You've got to kill an elephant for one of those.

Russ: (Laughter) For a seven ball, you had to kill an elephant.

John: Look, I think there's a lot of BS in this environmental business I think, but to kill an elephant just so you have -

Russ: So you can play a game of pool.

John: I mean that's a little - that's where I kind of put my foot down.

Russ: I understand, all right.

John: This is why he went into the hotel business later on.

Russ: Oh, Mr. Hyatt, yeah.

John: Well, he was born in 1837, the father of plastics, born in 1837. That's impressive, geez, yeah.

Russ: That's impressive, and he really didn't have anything to do with the hotel. He might have stayed in a hotel in his life.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1867, Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

Russ: Wow.

John: Yeah, right, yeah. He was born in Sweden. He was a chemist, engineer, armament manufacturer, and invented dynamite. He kept perfecting it so it would blow up more stuff. I guess he felt guilty after a while so he developed this prize, which at one time really had a lot of stature to it.

Russ: The Nobel Peace Prize.

John: Yeah, well there are other kinds of Nobel prizes too, but it's gotten so political it's more like a popularity contest.

Russ: Right.

John: All right, this week in business history in 1891, the banjo was patented by Hobart C. Middlebrook of Rapid City, Iowa. He was actually traveling to Alabama and he wanted to put something on his knee, and he invented the banjo.

Russ: Of course, Alabama with a banjo on my knee.

John: Yeah right, cool. Okay, later on in 1927, the first patent for a snowmobile was granted. It went to Carl J.E. Eliason of Sayner, Wisconsin. He had a bad foot and he couldn't keep up with his pals on treks through the snow.

Russ: So he just invented the snowmobile.

John: That's right, yeah.

Russ: Cool.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1936, the first issue of Life Magazine was published and Henry Luce got the idea. He bought the name of this magazine. It was kind of a failure. It was not a very popular magazine, but re-launched the magazine as a picture-based periodical. Some of the most famous photos that were ever made have shown up in Life Magazine.

Russ: I remember it was a popular periodical in my family's home back in the '50s when we were kids.

John: Oh yeah. You couldn't wait for the next issue.

Russ: Right, right.

John: Yeah. This week in business history in 1940, Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz, who was the creator of Woody Woodpecker the cartoon, knock knock. I think Walter Lantz was one of these former Disney guys who got kind of fed up with Disney and went out.

Russ: Opened up a competing entity.

John: Yeah, right. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I think it is.

Russ: It's a good story even if it's not, yeah.

John: (Laughter) Yeah, don't let the facts get in the way. All right, this week in business history in 1940, the birthday of Tina Turner [Break in audio]. This week in business history in 1963 John F. Kennedy assassinated. Nobody really knows for sure how it happened or who all was involved.

Russ: But they've identified several entities who might have really been interested in taking the life.

John: Some say the mafia. Some say it was the Cubans. Some say it was a government conspiracy, Lyndon Johnson. The thing is what's really fed all this conjecture is the Warren Report, which really glossed over a lot of stuff, and just a poorly investigated event in American history.

Russ: I'm sure we have lots of members in our audience who weren't around in that period of time since it was quite a few years ago, what 47 years ago? But you remember don't you?

John: Mm-hmm. Oh, it was huge. It consumed the whole Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah, I was in junior high. I was sick that day. I really was. I was sick. I was sitting in bed. The t.v. was on. I was reading magazines and stuff like that. Boom, Walter Cronkite comes on.

Russ: Yeah, yeah, huge.

John: Huge is an understatement.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1963 the 29th Heisman Trophy Award goes to former BusinessMakers guest Roger Staubach.

Russ: That's right.

John: Now, that year the Navy played in the Bowl game and lost to Texas. Staubach was on his balk all night.

Russ: Yeah, because he kept getting sacked you mean?

John: Oh, he kept getting sacked. Yeah, it was a terrible game, but they still gave him the Heisman Trophy anyway.

Russ: What was interesting about his interview is that he was being interviewed because he was the founder of the Staubach Companies.

John: Yeah, they were a commercial real estate company, right.

Russ: He played NFL football back when after your football career you still had to go do something to earn a living. That's why he started the STaubach Companies. These days, you don't have to do anything; your children nor your grandchildren have to do anything, if you're a Heisman Trophy winner particularly.

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

Russ: Yup. [Break in audio]

John: What's interesting about that is that he was from Seattle and he played guitar there all the time and sort of didn't get recognized. Then went to New York and played a little in Greenwich Village, which got him noticed by some of the English invasion guys and that's when he took off.

Russ: Oh right.

John: This week in business history in 1967, Arlo Guthrie released his landmark album, Alice's Restaurant. [Break in audio] This week in business history in 1969 the Rolling Stones started a four night gig at Madison Square Garden that led to what some say is one of the best rock and roll albums ever, "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out."

Russ: Yeah, it's a live album, just right there, wow, back in '69, geez.

John: This week in business history in 1971 a guy named D.B. Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airline into a raging thunderstorm. He had a couple hundred grand in ransom money. They never found the body, never found the money. They never found anything.

Russ: The found a few dollar bills along a river somewhere, but nobody knew was that planted there? Who knows?

John: He evaporated, yeah.

Russ: Yeah. Well, many think he certainly lived and he lived off of that money. I bet now if he's still alive he wished he had raised the ransom a little bit over $200,000.00 after living.

John: Or bought some Apple stock or something like that.

Russ: (Laughter) Yeah, my goodness. Think about it. This is 39 years ago, geez.

John: This week in business history in 1974 the Freedom of Information Act was passed by Congress over President Ford's veto.

Russ: That's kind of produced interesting results.

John: Yeah it has, it has. It gets misused quite a bit.

Russ: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, to me it seems like it's well-intended.

John: Yes.

Russ: But what happens is you'll get a couple of pressure groups that want to harass a political person, so they just file Freedom of Information requests on all of their stuff.

John: Right. One of the reasons why Sarah Palin said she resigned as governor is there was so much of that activity going on. She decided to say heck with it.

Russ: Right.

John: Anyway, this week in business history in 1976 the bands farewell concert at the San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom [Break in audio].

Russ: Nowadays those bands come back like a decade later again because they realize they're still -

John: Or they run out of money.

Russ: (Laughter) I know. Making money the working class way is kind of hard to do.

John: All right, this week in business history in 2005, the first partial human face transplant is completed in France.

Russ: Wow, I think that one is still a success these days, right? I think.

John: I guess if you're so disfigured like a wreck or a fire or whatever, I mean it's good to know the medical technology is there.

Russ: Right, right. I wonder if it will evolve like all of the others did. Now you can do it if you're not disfigured, but you just want to improve your face.

John: Yeah, right, yeah. I know a lot of people could use of those.

Russ: (Laughter)

John: All right. That wraps up this morning's history lesson.

Russ: Wow, we went from Celsius to face transplant man, all in one lesson. Whoo! Don't get this stuff at regular business school, do ya?

John: I know. That's why we're in business because we're doing what the other business schools will not do.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: We have the ground level approach to learning about business.

Russ: All right, and that brings us to the jargon challenge round.

John: Oh yes.

Russ: Also known as our vocabulary lesson.

John: Every school has one.

Russ: You bet. I get to go and select a word or make up a word, and I say the word. John does not know what it is.

John: I do not know the meaning.

Russ: And he's supposed to guess the meaning.

John: I mean I don't know the meaning before you say the word, so at times I will guess the meaning, but that's only a guess.

Russ: Or figure it out, just a guess.

John: Yeah, I do sometimes.

Russ: All right, and here is this morning's word. You ready? It's a noun.

John: All right.

Russ: Opportunivore.

John: Opportunibore. Okay, a bore is someone who is -

Russ: No, I didn't' say it correctly. Listen, opportunivore.

John: Vore, oh okay. Okay, an opportunivore is someone who is a serial seeker of things that will make - that will enrich the person's life.

Russ: I think you need a hint.

John: Okay.

Russ: This one kind of combines opportunity with a word like, say, carnivore.

John: Carnivore, yeah, someone that eats raw meat and flesh, yeah human flesh. So this is someone who destroys opportunities.

Russ: Okay, wrong. (Laughter) I can't get - it's a person who eats whatever he or she can find, particularly food that has been discarded. Anytime you see food, I'll eat it. It's just like if you're eating at home and you're cleaning off the kid's plate and they left half a hamburger and you're there, and you just start eating it. You say, "Well, you can't waste this food." That's why we're all obese here now. We need fewer opportunivores. So that brings us to dumb moments. Do you have a dumb moment to share with us?

John: Some of you have probably heard this already, but this still doesn't mean we can't cite it as a dumb moment. A couple of kids, 13-year-olds set up a little bake shop, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, and some city councilman comes by, calls the cops on the kids because they're operating without a license.

Russ: Oh man.

John: And they get shut down.

Russ: Shut down the guy that called. Man, come on.

John: I've seen the guy's picture. He's got no neck.

Russ: Lighten up.

John: Michael Wolfson. So anybody that's listening to this show that lives anywhere near in the lower Hudson Valley around Chappequa vote this guy out, all right?

Russ: Absolutely, absolutely.

John: I mean what he should have done, I mean he would have really made points if he would have paid the licensing fee for these kids.

Russ: Absolutely, that's what he should have done to teach them a lesson here to continue on.

John: Yeah. Anyway, it just shows you the idiocy of mankind.

Russ: All right, before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: That's right.

Russ: So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price on the piano.

John: Here he is. One and a two and a

[PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook]

Russ: All right, that wraps up this morning's School of Business powered by Champion Energy Services. Stay tuned in for our interview with Melvyn Wolff, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Company, Star Furniture, and namesake of the number one ranked undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the country, the Wolff Center of Entrepreneurship at the U of H, followed by four more leaders of entrepreneurship programs. You're listening to the BusinessMaker's Show heard here and see online at theBusinessMakers.com.