Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at The BusinessMakerss.com. This is that show about the working class, about the innovators, about those that make our economy what it is.

John: That's right. The entrepreneur class, they're the ones that create, design and build the economy.

Russ: You bet. Here's our lineup for this morning. Our guest this morning is fashionista, Project Runway winner, QVC retailer, owner of a hot fashion boutique and entrepreneur extra or-dinar, Chloe Dao. But first.... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakerss School of Business. This is not your business as usual school.

John: That's right. It's one of the most downloaded business school curriculum on the Web and no one else is really doing it quite like we do.

Russ: Well that's for sure and one - just one of the things that clearly separates us from all the rest is that we're powered by Champion Energy Services.

John: That's right.

Russ: It's exclusively our relationship at least for now in the business school arena. It might change some day. They might - who knows?

John: I hope it doesn't. We'll run out of power and then what do we do?

Russ: Well they're good. They're -

John: I guess fire up the gerbil treadmills again.

Russ: But they're strong enough they could also power the Harvard Business School and the BusinessMakerss School of Business probably.

John: That's true.

Russ: I mean they're unique. These are the guys that you can look at your bill and tell exactly what you're paying and compare it to the alternatives.

John: That's right. It's very easy to read and very easy to understand. You don't have to have a Harvard degree to try to understand it.

Russ: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. All right, we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning first with the quote of the day.

John: The quote of the day.

Russ: This one's by Louis L'Amour. "Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content."

John: That's right. He was a living proof of that. A very prolific author, a real student of the Wild West.

Russ: All right, that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this October week in business history John?

John: Well this week in business history, 1797 - there's a commercial, the most interesting man in the world. This would probably be the most - the bravest man in the world.

Russ: Bravest man in the world, 1797.

John: The man's name is Andre Jacques Garnerin and he jumps from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris for the first parachute jump.

Russ: Wow, what a celebration. So man. Do we know did he survive?

John: I think he did, yeah.

Russ: Well that's good. That's even better still.

John: He was attached to a parachute to a hydrogen balloon and ascended all that distance, 3,200 feet and he clambered into the basket, severed the parachute from the balloon. He failed to include an air vent at the top of the prototype.

Russ: So it was pretty rocky.

John: It was pretty - he landed shaken but unhurt.

Russ: That's great.

John: About half a mile from the balloon's take off site. So I guess the wind - you know, you've got to have that air venting in there.

Russ: Oh yeah, to keep it steady. So from there we've gotten very sophisticated parachutes. We even have the golden parachute evolved from this invention, too, right?

John: That's right. But unfortunately he didn't have one of those because -

Russ: He didn't have one.

John: He died in 1823 in a balloon accident while preparing to test a new parachute.

Russ: Oh my goodness. All right.

John: This week in business history in 1846 the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery.

Russ: Whoa. Now maybe this guy might have been braver than the past guy, the patient that said, "Yeah, give me a shot."

John: Before the anesthesia surgeons had to hire strong men to restrain the patients from bucking while they were being cut open. William Thomas Green Morton - he was a dentist studying medicine and he began experimenting with ether.

Russ: Whoa if you can call ether an anesthesia. Bad stuff, man.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1867 the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for about $0.02 an acre totally about $7.2 million.

Russ: It was a good real estate deal.

John: The whole thing was twice the size of Texas, by the way. The whole thing was championed by William Henry Seward and he was roundly criticized by all quarters and little did people know what we were getting up there.

Russ: They called it Seward's Folly is what they were -

John: Seward's Folly and he was quite the forward thinking man.

Russ: Boy, no kidding.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1885 baseball begins setting players' salaries at $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 for the 1885 season. Now in today's money that would probably be about $3,000.00. I don't know. It would probably be about what, $100,000.00 or something like that.

Russ: Probably, yeah, which still is peanuts compared to what these guys get.

John: The peanuts were probably worth more than -

Russ: They get that much every time they step up to the plate.

John: I know. I don't mind these people making all the money they get. A lot of people tell you -

Russ: I don't mind.

John: I don't care what kind of money they get. I really don't care. I don't care how much money the owners make. The thing that bothers me is I wish they would at least pretend to be happy. They're not. They're always complaining. I mean making that kind of money why would you be so upset over -

Russ: Good boy.

John: Just be happy.

Russ: They should make that a requirement _______ _______ _______ ______.

John: Okay. Look at this week in business history 1919 the Radio Corporation of America now referred to at RCA was created.

Russ: Wow. That was the famous dog was an employee of RC -

John: Yeah, I think that came a little later. The CEO or somebody high up in that organization -

Russ: Had a nice dog.

John: - was in Europe with his wife and saw the painting in an art gallery.

Russ: Oh really? That's the way that that evolved?

John: Yeah.

Russ: So there might not even really have been a real dog.

John: Right. It may have been. Well it wasn't a real dog because it was a painting.

Russ: Well maybe there wasn't a real dog that was -

John: Well it could have been a fig - a guy could have been painting off his imagination.

Russ: Right. Boy, that disappoints me.

John: His Master's Voice was the name of the painting because he was listening to the Victrola.

Russ: That's right.

John: This week in business history in 1931 Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history dies in a parachute jump in Paris. Oh wait, I got it mixed up with the other one. Okay, no actually he did pass away.

Russ: In 1931?

John: In 1931, West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old. Born in Ohio. Little formal schooling and was very good friends and kind of a mentor of Henry Ford. This week in business history in 1926 singer Chuck Barry is born in San Jose, California. Now the really weird thing about this he was born before Thomas Edison died.

Russ: So they overlapped briefly.

John: They overlap.

Russ: Wow, Chuck Barry, so he's 84 years old.

John: If he's still alive.

Russ: I think he is.

John: I think he is. Then we all know about the song Maybellene -

Russ: Yeah, his big hit; his first hit.

John: - and Johnny B. Goode.

Russ: You bet.

John: A string of hits. Okay, this week in business history in 1964 one of the worst songs in recorded history in Rock and Roll reaches number one. I guess there weren't any songs out that week.

Russ: What was it?

John: Do-wah-diddy-diddy. All right. This week in business history three years after that, three years after Manfred Mann in 1967 Broadway musical Hair premiers on Broadway.

Russ: Wow, what a controversy that was because there was like a ten second version of nudity on the stage.

John: The nudity, right. Then not only that there's a song which is so inaccurate. I don't even - it's got a nice catchy tune to it, The Age of Aquarius because peace and love and understanding. That never happened.

Russ: That's true, too.

John: When the moon is in its second house and Jupiter is aligned with Mars and peace and understanding -

Russ: Automatically would overwhelm the earth, right?

John: Yeah.

Russ: It didn't do it.

John: It didn't do it.

Russ: All right.

John: I don't know what they were thinking. I guess they were thinking about all the money they were making.

Russ: That's probably what - why it was -

John: "Well gee, if we're doing well maybe" - okay, this week in business history in 1973 oil exports are cut which affected the economy obviously throughout the decade. All these Arab nations later after that decided to reduce oil exports and then after that they decide to declare an act, an outright embargo which really put the economy, U.S. economy in the downward death spiral.

Russ: Man, was it ever painful. There's so many young people that don't - that can't fathom that happening but man -

John: You had to use odd/even gas rations which means if your license plate had an odd number you go every -

Russ: You could go get gasoline. If it didn't you couldn't. If it was an even day then you had to have an even number. Even when -

John: People were actually getting accosted at the gas pump and violence and -

Russ: Yeah, because even when you're -

John: And worse.

Russ: Even when you're odd or even came up there was still a line that might take an hour to get through.

John: Then you'd get to the gas pump and they'd be out of gas.

Russ: Yeah. Then they'd limit you to ten gallons and all that made people want to continuously fill up. It was ________.

John: The worst part about the whole thing Jimmy Carter who was president at the time was on 60 Minutes a couple weeks ago saying he was one of the best presidents.

Russ: Right.

John: Like this never even happened.

Russ: In the summertime we were having to turn up the thermostats in our offices. Everybody was sweating to death.

John: I know.

Russ: Then in the winter you had to freeze to death.

John: You had to wear a couple layers of -

Russ: It was tough times.

John: It was tough times. I hope we don't have to go back to that.

Russ: Boy, I do, too.

John: All right. This week in business history entrepreneur Maven John DeLorean - this was in 1982 - is arrested for drug dealing. Now he was the guy that helped General Motors develop the muscle car called the GTO and he became one of the youngest ever general managers of the Chevrolet. He was a good looking guy.

Russ: He was a go-getter.

John: He was a go-getter. He married Cristina Ferrare, the model. He was a real hipster.

Russ: Boy, he was.

John: Unfortunately he was caught trafficking in cocaine because as good as a DeLorean car looked it wasn't a very practical car and they weren't selling many units.

Russ: So he had to start selling cocaine.

John: So he had to finance his debt service with his cocaine _______.

Russ: He had to diversify a little bit and it didn't work out very well.

John: It didn't work out. Sometimes you get into a line extension that is beyond your ability to manage and the DeLorean -

Russ: That's right. That's the lesson here.

John: - branded cocaine.

Russ: For those of you who can't imagine what the DeLorean car looked like boy, it was unique with a stainless steel body.

John: Well if you want - if you're not familiar with the DeLorean rent the movie Back to the Future because the time machine is a DeLorean. With a flip - instead of an internal combustion engine it has a flux capacitor. That's the only difference. That's the only difference and you can go time travel.

Russ: Right. Besides that it's the same vehicle.

John: The flux capacitor.

Russ: That's right.

John: That's a great movie.

Russ: Yeah, it was.

John: Okay, this week in business history in October 23, 1997 George Simjian - nobody knows who this guy was but this guy was probably one of the most premier inventors. He had more than 200 patents to his name. He passed away this week in business history.

Russ: In 1997, wow.

John: Now here's a guy who was born in Turkey, of Armenian descent and educated in the Middle East and France and then moved to the U.S. when he was 16. When he was a young man he patented self-focusing camera and a color x-ray machine. Then in the '30s he founded Reflectone, the first of three companies intended to develop his inventions. This guy invented an early flight simulator, sold a bunch of them to the U.S. military and -

Russ: He was born in Turkey. Wow.

John: His last invention was the flux capacitor.

Russ: [Laughs] No, it wasn't.

John: It says here he passed away but he was last seen climbing into a DeLorean and never seen again.

Russ: All right. Well he was a very prolific inventor that we don't talk about much.

John: He died in 1997 at the age of 92.

Russ: You can hear it on the BusinessMakerss Show but probably not anywhere else.

John: Yeah, all right. There you go.

Russ: So that wraps up this morning's history lesson?

John: That's all I got.

Russ: We went from a parachute to a flux capacitor to this prolific inventor. All right. That brings us to the jargon challenge round. This is that part of the show that's our vocabulary lesson.

John: That's right. Every school has a vocabulary lesson.

Russ: That's right.

John: We do, too.

Russ: That's right. The way we do it is we go out and find new acronyms, techno-speak, new jargon and do it in a contest format. I get to choose the word or make up the word and John is challenged to come up with the meaning.

John: Because I don't know what the word is and that is no jive. I really have no idea what you're going to come up with. But I'm doing pretty good this year at guessing the meaning.

Russ: You have been. All right, you ready for this morning's word? It's an adjective. We've normally been having nouns lately. Today's an adjective. Okay, you ready? Numeronymous. I think I should spell it for you.

John: Yeah.

Russ: N-U-M-E-R-O, numeronymous, N-Y-M-O-U-S.

John: Okay, numero. It has something to do with numbers.

Russ: Right.

John: Mist is when you can't see very far because of a fog.

Russ: No, it's M-O-U-S. It's Numeronymous.

John: Oh okay, so it's -

Russ: Like anonymous.

John: Oh anonymous. So you don't know your numbers. You're a CEO who doesn't know your numbers.

Russ: Wrong but you were going on the right path. This one was real tough. It describes - the word describes a phone number where their numbers also spell out a word or phrase like 1-800-GO-FEDEX or 1-800-BusinessMakers. That brings us to dumb moments in business history. What do you have for us this morning John?

John: Somebody once said that, "The problem with capitalism is capitalists."

Russ: Yeah, all right. Okay, fair enough.

John: Here's an example of what happens when the wrong capitalist is put in charge of something.

Russ: Okay.

John: The Sony Corporation was promoting the release of their video game - this was about a year ago - entitled God of War which is a - actually God of War 2. They had God of War 1 and it was so successful they had God of War 2.

Russ: Which I'm sure you play all the time.

John: I just got done playing it before I came here. Actually I got it in my car. I play video games while I'm driving.

Russ: That's good. That's good. It helps you pass the time in the traffic.

John: Yeah. I pretend I'm a Greek God and throw fire bolts around. Anyway, the game is based on Greek Mythology and they describe it as an adult rated fast paced blood bath.

Russ: Right, my kind of game.

John: Now if that isn't an invitation -

Russ: Boy.

John: We talk about all these great products our entrepreneur guests make. It makes people's lives better. I don't know how a video game which is a fast paced blood bath is going to - great for society, but anyway. Sony hosts a party at the foot of the Parthenon -

Russ: To celebrate this new game.

John: Yeah. It's a launch party. Here's what happened at the party. Guests were invited to pull live snakes from a pit, be fed grapes by topless hostess and reach inside the still warm carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat to eat offal from the stomach. Now offal, that's O-F-F-A-L. Those are parts of a goat or a cow most people don't want to eat.

Russ: Yeah, but you could at this party.

John: Yeah, you could but yeah. No one's ever prohibited you from eating like a tongue or a heart or a spleen. Most people don't want to eat those. Anyway, so that's how they celebrated the God of War 2, a fast paced blood bath.

Russ: The only thing wrong with capitalism is the capitalists.

John: Yeah, right

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

[PKF Entrepreneur's Playbook]