Russ: Good morning. This is The BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is that show about the private sectors, the innovators, those people that played absolutely zero role in the economic meltdown and continue to get sort of bopped around in anything that the federal government thinks is a solution.
John: That's right. They're trying to pick winners and losers. If you're in the right kind of business, chances are you'll get a tax cut or something down the road.
Russ: Right. But we know that entrepreneurs will prevail. And before we get into this morning's show, we want to remind you all about a cool upcoming event on our home base right here in Houston, Texas, and that is the Museum of Printing History 2010 Gala is being held September 24 at Hotel ZaZa. So you got one week to get in on this cool event. Keynote speaker Ralph Blumenthal, award-winning New York Times journalist, and yours truly, both of us here.
John: That's right.
Russ: John Beddow and Russ Capper are going to be the MCs of the event.
John: That's right. It'll be a good time. The museum's a very distinctive landmark, and we think everybody will have a good time.
Russ: Yeah. Just go to PrintingMuseum.org and click on MPH 2010 Gala link, and arrange to join us and be there. And here's our lineup for this morning. We've got a classic entrepreneurial success story, told from the perspective of having successfully reached the finish line because my guest is going to be Don Nigbor, the somewhat recently retired cofounder and former CEO and chairman of Benchmark Electronics, Inc. That's the company that executed rapid growth in what was a brand-new sector back in the '80s and '90s, the category known as contact electronic manufacturing. But first - That's right. It's time for The BusinessMaker's school of business. And this is not business as usual school.
John: No, it's a much better business school.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Right.
Russ: And another reason this is not business as usual school is because The BusinessMaker's school of business is powered by Champion Energy Services.
John: Oh, yes.
Russ: And they are the company that is known for total authenticity and transparency in billing. You look at your bill; you know what you're paying with Champion.
John: I know. Think about that.
Russ: Yeah, and compare that to the alternative.
John: I mean, electricity is electricity. If you just imagine you open up your bill and you can understand it. You don't have to have an interpreter. Okay.
Russ: That's Champion Energy Services. All right. And we kick off the school of business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day, yes.
Russ: And today's quote comes from Dorothy Neville. "The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
John: That's right.
Russ: Wow.
John: That's right. Sometimes people talk one sentence too long.
Russ: That's right.
John: And that's what gets you in the most trouble.
Russ: Absolutely. All right. And that brings us to this week in business history. So what happened during this third week in business history?
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1780, Benedict Arnold, an American general in the Revolutionary Army, conspires with a British major, John Andre, to hand over West Point, which is a strategic location back in those days to the British, for promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British Army. Benedict Arnold is very interesting because he was a hero.
Russ: On our side.
John: On our side in the Battle of Saratoga, which was the first major American Revolutionary victory for us, the Americans, and he had a lot to do with that. But he never felt he got his due credit and everything. And at West Point, of course West Point overlooks the Hudson River, right. And across the Hudson River was this big chain that kept the British ships from getting up into the further regions of the Hudson River.
Russ: That was high technology back then.
John: That's right. And he negotiated with this British general to release the chains.
Russ: Whoa.
John: And he was found out like in the last minute. I mean, it could have been a disaster. Okay. Next up, in 1789, this week in business history, the first Supreme Court, the Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by George Washington, the president, establishing the Supreme Court as a tribunal made up of six justices who serve on the court until death or retirement, as part of the checks and balances.
Russ: Yes.
John: You have the Congress; it has checks on the president. The president has - the executive branch has checks on the Congress. And the Supreme Court has checks on the Congress and the president of the United States. Congress has checks on the Supreme Court because the Senate has to confirm the appointments by the president, so, I mean, it all works together and that's how that is.
Russ: Yeah, and the only checks we have are our microphones right there.
John: That's right. We have no money checks here. We'd like some checks and balances here, okay. Now, this week in business history, in 1984, the birth date of the inventor of the Thermos bottle.
Russ: Whoa.
John: Okay. The Thermos bottle back in 1842, invented by James Dewar, was born in Scotland.
Russ: He also invented Dewar Scotch, I guess.
John: Well, maybe had something to do with that because they needed something to carry their scotch around in.
Russ: That's right.
John: All right. This week in business history, in 1849, the first commercial laundry is established in Oakland, California.
Russ: Interesting.
John: Yeah, you want to take your clothes and -
Russ: So before that everybody had - did their own.
John: Had to wash their own clothes.
Russ: Yeah, finally there was a service. Cool.
John: Yeah, so if you had too much starch in your shirt before this happened, you'd just yell at yourself. Okay.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: All right. This week in business history, in 1930, Ray Charles is born. All right. This week in business history, in 1948, besides me being born that year, okay -
Russ: That's right. This week, right?
John: Yeah, this week in business history I was born, yeah.
Russ: Yeah. Wow.
John: Honda starts its engines. It was on this day that Honda Technical Research Institute officially became the Honda Motor Company, motorcycles, later cars, lawnmower engines, you name it.
Russ: Okay.
John: All right. This week in business history, in 1949, I'm 1-year-old right now, Bruce Springsteen is born.
Russ: So you're a year old than the Boss.
John: I'm a year - the Boss. I'm a year older than the Boss. This week in business history, in 1954, the first FORTRAN computer program was run.
Russ: FORTRAN, wow.
John: You probably know more about that than most people.
Russ: That's the only programming course I ever took was FORTRAN on punch cards. It was a - you were so much further away from the activity of the computer in those days, you know, when you used to punch cards and use - and were a programmer in Fortran language. Interesting. Cool.
John: All right. Okay. This week in business history, in 1960, the Twist by Chubby Checker, hits number one. This week in business history, in 1961, I Love Lucy's last episode.
Russ: The last episode?
John: Yeah.
Russ: That's 49 years.
John: It ran - well, it kept running out of plots because the basic plot was Lucy was always concocting some scheme so she could play with the band or dance in the band or be part of the show. She always wanted to be in the show. One of the things that helped the demise of the show was the divorce of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Russ: Yeah, kind of hurt it.
John: They had a falling out.
Russ: Although there's been subsequent husband/wife shows that they didn't let the divorce stop them, like Sonny and Cher.
John: No, they didn't. Yeah, that's right. Sonny and Cher.
Russ: Just keep on going.
John: Keep on going. Okay. This week in business history, in 1973, Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome, battle of the sexes.
Russ: What a show that was.
John: It was a PR stunt.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And very interesting, you know, Bobby Riggs, he defeated Margaret Court, who was a very good tennis player, in another promotional match.
Russ: Before this one?
John: Before this one. And Billie King knew she had to put a stop to it because she didn't like how - she felt that Bobby Riggs was denigrated women's tennis.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And he was pretending to be this big sexist pig.
Russ: Right. But actually really enjoying the money he was making, right.
John: Oh, yeah, he was making every sort of -
Russ: More money than he'd ever made before.
John: Yeah, because back then it was more of an amateur sport.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: I mean, Riggs didn't stand a chance. It's like the Germans marching through Belgium and Billie King - Billie Jean King won the 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. All right. This week in business history, Dire Straits tops the charts in 1985, "Money for Nothing". That was a good little song.
Russ: Money for nothing, our wish, all of our wishes. We would love to make money for nothing.
John: Money for nothing, yes. Yeah. Okay. This week in business history, in 1985, Ted Turner sells out. His media empire is swallowed by Time Warner. And he had a very combative relationship because he was on the board of Time Warner.
Russ: Right. Right.
John: And there were a lot of things they did that he didn't agree with.
Russ: That's right. All right.
John: Okay. That's it.
Russ: That wraps up this morning's history lesson.
John: That's it. That's all I got.
Russ: Incredible job. An incredible job as usual. And that brings us to the jargon challenge round. This is that part of the show, which is also known as our vocabulary lesson, where I go out and find a new word, technospeak, acronym, something that's sort of not official. In fact, I'm sticking with those words that have been rejected by the Oxford English Dictionary today.
John: Yeah, somebody's got to stand up to those Oxford people.
Russ: That's right.
John: And we're the ones - we're just the ones to do it.
Russ: We can do it.
John: So we take their rejected words, and we give them life.
Russ: And we do it in a contest format. John does not know the word.
John: That's no jive. I do not know what word is going to be thrust out into the public.
Russ: I choose it, and I say the word, and John guesses the meaning. No wagering, please.
John: Yeah, void where prohibited by law.
Russ: This morning's word is espacular.
John: Espacular. Oh, wow. I know what spackling is. That's the stuff you put on the wall.
Russ: It's a tough word.
John: Espacular. There's spectacular.
Russ: Now I think you're warmer with spectacular.
John: And spectacular is like when something is so unique and so monumental.
Russ: Right. You're warm.
John: Okay. Espacular is when it's also special, so it's especial.
Russ: Hold your calls, ladies and gentlemen. We have a winner.
John: All right.
Russ: It's especially spectacular. Wow.
John: Okay. All right.
Russ: That was impressive the way your mind works, John. We can all learn something from you.
John: Yeah, my iron logic.
Russ: That's right. That brings us to dumb moments. Do you have a dumb moment to share with us?
John: Yeah, this is incredible. You know, there's all these organizations around the country, you know, trying to solve the hunger problem.
Russ: Right.
John: You know, people are hungry, kids are hungry. I'm getting a little hungry too. I haven't had breakfast yet. All that being - and all kidding aside, some people would lead you to believe there's a real problem out there, and, you know, there probably is, but we don't know what the extent. So it always surprises me when I see something like this. This happened in Georgia. And the DeKalb County, the wise officials of DeKalb County, are suing a local farmer for, guess what?
Russ: What?
John: He's growing too many vegetables. He's being sued.
Russ: Sued?
John: He's being sued $5,000.00. This guy, his name is Steve Miller, and he lives on a farm. He grows fig trees. He's got fig trees, broccoli and cabbages, all kinds of stuff. And he's spent 15 years growing these crops to give away and sell to local farmers. DeKalb County code enforcement officers began ticketing him for growing too many crops for the zoning. It's not zoned to grow stuff.
Russ: Okay. It's a zoning violation.
John: All right. Having unpermitted employees on the site. So he stopped growing vegetables this summer, and the charges were put on hold as he got the property rezoned. However, two weeks later, his attorney said the county began prosecuting the old charges saying he was technically in violation before the zoning. So they're going to fine him $5,000.00 just for growing stuff. And then we got -
Russ: Growing food.
John: So the next time you hear, you know, we don't have enough to eat around this country and the food banks need this, and the food banks need that, just remember, you know, there's people out there growing this stuff already.
Russ: Great story. All right.
John: All right.
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.
[PKF Texas: The Entrepreneur's Playbook]
Russ: All right. And that wraps up this morning's school of business, powered by Champion Energy Services. Stay tuned in for our interview with Don Nigbor, cofounder and former CEO and chairman of Benchmark Electronics, Inc. You're listening to The BusinessMaker Show, heard here and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.
