Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is that show about those people that make business happen.

John: That's right, Russ. They make business happen mainly because they're such - it's such a talented group of people. They're the artists, the athletes of the free enterprise system. A lot of these people not only gravitate into business but they gravitate into creativity and all the things that make our economy sing.

Russ: Real, real cool. All right. Here's what we've got lined up for this morning. First up, Bill Sherrill, the founder of the University based entrepreneurship program that is ranked number one in the United States for 2010. I got to tell you John I've been all over the country visiting these things. I've visited the Arthur Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson, the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurship at USC and it is just incredible that Bill Sherrill and the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston is ranked number one in the nation by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.

John: That's right. Not only is that school doing well but the entire Bauer School Business is growing by leaps and bounds. They're actually building a micro campus inside the main campus at U of H. So they're really making a statement there.

Russ: Wow. That's cool, real cool. Then that's going to be followed by Raphael Alvarez, founder and CEO of Genesys Works. This is the company that is totally focused on enabling economically disadvantaged high school students to enter and thrive in the economic mainstream. So we've got to applaud what they're doing over there.

John: Yeah. I've toured that facility, by the way and some of the kids.

Russ: Oh man, it's impressive.

John: Wonderful place.

Russ: You bet. But first - that's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business. This is not your business as usual school.

John: No, no, no. You can say all the things you want about the entrepreneur schools here, the entrepreneur schools there but you talk about the bang for the buck that our students get. It's immeasurable.

Russ: But you do get real world grass roots type education and that's what we're - that's our hallmark. That's our brand. That's what we're all about. We're powered by Champion Energy Services.

John: What a great segue. I hadn't really thought about that but we've got our own power company.

Russ: You bet. We're not messing around over here. We champion entrepreneurships so it only made sense that Champion Energy Services -

John: The championing.

Russ: - was - yeah. Was - it's just all so compatible.

John: Yeah. Someone's got to champion the champion, the championing and power the championship nature of who we champion.

Russ: That's right. Champion Energy Services is led by that guy, Scott Fordham who's been on the show and they produce an invoice for their customers that makes sense.

John: It's not in Greek or Latin.

Russ: That's right. You can read it. You can compare it to others.

John: It's like when Gutenberg invented the printing press and allowed the whole world to see the - read books because before it was just for the privileged few.

Russ: Just like that. That's Champion Energy Services.

John: Got to love them. We love them.

Russ: All right. We kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: Today's quote comes from Pablo Picasso.

John: Oh well, hey, wouldn't you know?

Russ: Yeah. Here it is.

John: That's right. Okay.

Russ: "Everything you can imagine is real." Works for me.

John: Especially you take the drugs he used to take.

Russ: [Laughs] That's right. You can really imagine a lot.

John: It's real, baby.

Russ: That brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened in this October week in business history, John?

John: Okay, this week in business history 1858 this is a good example of first if you do not succeed try, try again because the eighth time for Roland Macy of starting a business after many business failures he hit the jackpot with a department store named Macy's.

Russ: Whoa. Whoa, cool.

John: But he failed all these other times. He just couldn't make it click.

Russ: He hung in there, kept trying.

John: Which goes to show just because you fail once.

Russ: That's right.

John: Then Thomas Edison who we talked about last week.

Russ: He failed a lot.

John: That's right. He said, "I succeeded by failing."

Russ: Well I'm going to start thinking that way. All these things I keep failing at they're just steps, right?

John: They're just steps. Hopefully you'll live to try - the failure part so you can enjoy the fruits of the failure. Some people never make it there. They die and they become as miserable failures.

Russ: That's right. Hey one more.

John: If the just lived a little longer they'd be -

Russ: One more connection to Macy's in the BusinessMakers last week's featured guest Chloe Dao, the winner of Project Runway started her first job in New York City was at Macy's.

John: How about that.

Russ: So all this stuff connects together, right?

John: It's like there's linkage.

Russ: There is.

John: There's much linkage. Okay, this week in business history in 1881, again one of the most influential artists of the 20th century is born in Malaga, Spain. We're talking about none other than Pablo Picasso.

Russ: This morning's contributor to the quote of the day.

John: The quote of the day. How -

Russ: More linkage. This is all connected.

John: How odd. A lot of linkage here, man. The more linkage than you'll find at a sausage store. Now his worry - he had over like 50,000 paintings, drawings and engravings.

Russ: What a prolific guy.

John: Now unfortunately a couple of his important paintings went to the bottom of the sea when the Titanic sunk.

Russ: Oh yeah, I saw that.

John: Because Kate Winslet, remember, had those paintings in her - and she's talking about, "I got them cheap," and her soon to be husband says, "They'll never amount to anything." But it's too bad.

Russ: Too bad, yeah.

John: I know. It's too bad they couldn't have gotten those back instead of that stupid necklace, the heart of the ocean of whatever.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1904 the New York City Subway opens at 2:35 in the afternoon. That was quite a visionary project.

Russ: No kidding, yeah. I tell you it was high tech and it was below the ground so it didn't disrupt.

John: I know. Move people around.

Russ: Whoa, 106 years ago.

John: 106 years ago. You could ride for a nickel. It did help enhance the crime rate of New York City, LA run.

Russ: Yes, it did. It helped those guys a lot.

John: Helped the - I know, the crime business really. If I would have invested in that, in crime futures.

Russ: What would they do without the subway? The mugging?

John: The mugging schools because these guys had to teach these guys how to mug people on the subway. Anyway, okay. This week in business history in 1929 the great crash, stock market crash in 1929. October 29th, 1929. Over time people were buying stocks on margin.

Russ: Oh so that one wasn't caused by a subprime mortgage scandal?

John: No but something equally as insidious because people were borrowing money to buy stocks and that worked fine as long as the stock prices -

Russ: Stock stayed up.

John: Stock ______ - when the stock crashed and the stocks went down and you couldn't cover the loan and bingo.

Russ: What a mess.

John: What a mess. This week in business history in 1955 not one of my favorite James Dean movies, Rebel Without a Cause but that opened and he died in a car accident a couple weeks before the movie came out.

Russ: Well it's interesting you say it that way because there weren't that many James Dean movies literally.

John: There were only three and it was one of my - he really chewed up the scenery on this. Have you ever seen the movie?

Russ: No, I don't think I've - I think I've seen bits and pieces.

John: It's very, very tedious.

Russ: Mostly with just him being on the screen?

John: Yeah. He's an angst ridden teenager. You get tired of that.

Russ: Yeah, grow up.

John: I think the best movie he was in was Giant.

Russ: Giant.

John: Whoo, did you see that?

Russ: Yeah. It's one of my favorites.

John: Oh that's right.

Russ: He - many people say that that character he played, Jett Rink was patterned after this guy Glenn McCarthy -

John: Glenn McCarthy, a wild cat oil guy.

Russ: - which I met when I first came to Houston in the '70s.

John: Oh really? Yeah. He was quite a character. Okay, this week in business history in 1955 the birth of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Russ: Wow, happy birthday Bill.

John: All right. Happy birthday.

Russ: It makes him 55.

John: Make him 55 and he's still going strong and still advocating high taxes for everybody because he's got his money.

Russ: That's right. Yeah, what does he care?

John: What does he care? I guess stupidity gene runs in a lot of - it doesn't matter how rich you are. There's still - looks in the subcutaneous layer of your thought process. Okay, this week in business history in 1966, a pretty good tune, Last Train to Clarksville was the first single, first album to reach the number one in the U.S. -

Russ: By the Monkees.

John: - for the Monkees. Speaking of great songs this week in business history in 1973 Gladys Knight and the Pips had their number one song, Midnight Train to Georgia.

Russ: Woo-hoo.

John: Woo-hoo. Now the thing is about this, Gladys Knight, what a set of pipes. I mean that woman can belt out a tune.

Russ: I know. I agree.

John: She's still good. She's still out there singing. I've always had trouble though. I never could figure out what a pip was. I've looked it up in dictionaries and there's really no satisfying definition of that word.

Russ: Well maybe now on the Web you could do some searching.

John: Pip. Yeah, well I haven't done it in awhile but maybe I'll do it. But what is a Pip? Do you know a pip?

Russ: Well if a listener - if you know the answer just go to our Website and the contact page and send us an e-mail.

John: Yeah, we're interested. We'll give you credit for it if you -

Russ: It may become a word of the day.

John: It could. It could.

Russ: Yeah, that's a good point.

John: Okay, last but not least, this week in business history in 2005 George Ballas the inventor of the WeedEater was - he was one of our original guests on the BusinessMakers Show.

Russ: Yeah, and what - we were so proud to have him. He is quite the inventor. I always remember a focal point of the interview was that you were the guy that remembered one of the sponsor activities that ______ _______ sponsor -

John: I think he was the only sponsor because they could not get anyone to sponsor Richard Nixon. He was -

Russ: It was the -

Russ: He was box office poison. It was after he had resigned and was interviewed by -

John: And in disgrace, by the way. Nixon didn't resign, it was in disgrace.

Russ: And was interviewed by - what's the guy's name? Frost, David Frost?

John: Yeah, David Frost.

Russ: David Frost and was sponsored by WeedEater.

John: Now they've made a movie of that and a Broadway show and it's somewhat inaccurate.

Russ: Because they don't have anything about WeedEater.

John: Well not only that but the - the liberals still hate Nixon even though Nixon himself was a very liberal president.

Russ: Yes, he was.

John: He started the Environmental Protection Agency. He tried to enact wage and price controls. He did all that stuff and they couldn't stand him.

Russ: Right. I understand.

John: Anyway.

Russ: All right. Now that brings us to navigating business jargon also known as our jargon challenge round and also known as our vocabulary lesson.

John: That's right. It was pip. Is that the word?

Russ: [Laughs] Yes, this morning's word is pip. I'm not going to tell you if it's a noun, a verb, an adjective. No.

John: Or an acronym.

Russ: That's right.

John: Perceived in the intellectual perception.

Russ: Perceived intellectual [laughing] -

John: Perception.

Russ: All right. The way this works is I get to chose a word or make up a word and he's challenged to come up with the meaning. No wagering please.

John: Yeah. Void where prohibited by law.

Russ: This morning's word is zitcom, C-O-M.

John: Zitcom?

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay, all right. I know what it is. A sitcom is a TV show where it's a situational situation and it's episodic and every week -

Russ: Right.

John: A zitcom is for these little teeny bopper kids and it's the same concept _____ _______ targeted audience.

Russ: All right. Hold your calls ladies, gentlemen. We've got a winner.

John: All right.

Russ: Zitcom, a television sitcom aimed at -

John: I'm back. I'm back baby. I'm back.

Russ: - or featuring teenagers.

John: Because the past couple of weeks I haven't been doing so hot.

Russ: That's right.

John: I'm back. I'm back baby.

Russ: All right. That brings us to dumb moments. Do you have one for us?

John: Yeah. Occasionally we have to look into the future. I mean nobody can predict the future. Nobody I know can predict the future and nobody can predict the future but occasionally we come across a situation which could be a future dumb moment or not. Okay?

Russ: Yep, you bet.

John: So I came across this item and this could be a future dumb moment because we all remember Starbucks several years ago kind of got into things other coffee. They got into the movie business. They got into helping to produce records.

Russ: A little monkey business in there.

John: Yeah, all that monkey business. What -

Russ: Yeah. Well I would say that the music and movie business was kind of like monkey business for a coffee company.

John: For a coffee company? You have to make profit quote. Well it looks like now they're going to - then they got away from that and the original CEO came back in and got them kind of refocused. But now it looks like they're going to be selling beer and wine. They're going to become like a bar.

Russ: I'll drink to that.

John: I'll drink to that. Yes. It's - they're going to serve regional wines and beers and an expansive plate of locally made cheeses served on china. They are redesigning their stores which is a good thing because every now and then you need to freshen up the look. But I think this could be a bit of a mistake.

Russ: It certainly could going from a stimulate focused set of products -

John: To a bar.

Russ: - to a depressant. It's going to be interesting in there.

John: They're going to kick all the drunks out at midnight or something.

Russ: Drinking tequila shots and coffee.

John: I know. That's just - I think people go there - one of the reasons why people go there is a good meeting place where you don't have to drink because not everybody wants to drink all the time.

Russ: People are getting drunk and hitting on you and stuff. It's going to be a different environment.

John: Well I've seen a lot of the people that hang out at Starbucks and I don't think you'd want to hit on too many of them. I'm just kidding. I don't know. What do I know? I digress. But I'm just saying this could be - when you mess around with your core product and this is pretty much - this is a big mess around with your core product.

Russ: Yeah, it is. I'd say so.

John: So we'll have to keep our eye on it. We may be proved wrong. This may -

Russ: We might, yeah.

John: Is this going to be like a Starbucks Bar and Grill?

Russ: Really. Right. We will see.

John: Or the Starbucks Dew Drop Inn. I don't know. We'll see.

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. So let's welcome Greg Price.

[PKF Entrepreneur's Playbook]

Russ: All right. That wraps up this morning's School of Business powered by Champion Energy Services. Stay tuned in for Bill Sherrill, founder of what is now called the Wolff Center of Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston, ranked number one this year by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review and he's going to be followed by Raphael Alvarez, founder and CEO of Genesis Works. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.