Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. This is that show that features those that most positive affect our lives.
John: That's right. Those are the artists and the athletes of the free enterprise system. Many of whom attended our big event the other day.
Russ: Absolutely. We're talking about the innovators and the entrepreneurs.
John: That's right and these are people who really are the backbone in the - both the backbone and the engine of our free enterprise system as well.
Russ: Yeah, they're -
John: Because they're the fastest growing companies. Look at all the companies in the United States, the small to midsize businesses are the ones that are really doing most of the hiring if there's any hiring going on out there and most of the growing if there's any growth out there. Most of the big companies are not hiring a lot of people these days.
Russ: Right. I think they're also the brain and the flag bearers of common sense.
John: That's right and it's a shame they don't get their due, but that's what we're here for.
Russ: Right. And not only were we here for that, but you've got your huge extravaganza planned.
John: That's right. We have - it's nearly a week of celebrating capitalism, entrepreneurship and free enterprise, BusinessMakers Radio Show, the official radio show of celebrated enterprise.
Russ: That's just in and we're awfully proud of that.
John: That's right. That's it. We're very proud of that and -
Russ: You said it was very contested wasn't it?
John: It was. We had to really fight them off with a cattle prod, electric cattle prod. But ultimately we convinced the decision markers.
Russ: We - I convinced myself.
John: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Russ: So proud. That's true. That's right.
John: We kick off the event on Tuesday, May 17 with the CEO leadership summit featuring Harvey Mackay, the New York Times Bestselling Author along with George Zimmer, he's been a guest on this show.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: And we also have Ric Campo who's been on this show.
Russ: Yes.
John: The President and CEO Camden Property Trust.
Russ: Right, right.
John: And there's gonna be a very effective lesson for anybody who wants to be a CEO or is a CEO to see how some of the more successful ones have handled the pressure of running companies these days.
Russ: Right. And what's the event date?
John: It's May 17th as I said before.
Russ: Okay, cool.
John: That's a Tuesday. It's a Tuesday morning event and then that's followed by, later that night, an event called Vintage Capitalism and we'll talk about that next week.
Russ: And here is today's lineup. We have had many lawyers on the show sharing specific expertice that was applicable to our audience in the past but never have we had someone talking about the business of the law firm, until today. Because we have the founder and former chairman of the very entrepreneurial law firm of Boyar Miller. We're talking about Bill Boyar. And then that is going to be followed by our own, Leisa Holland-Nelson who now champions the cause of women in business by her vignette called Women Mean Business. And she is going to be interviewing Jennifer Heard of Microsoft, who is going to be updating us with what Microsoft is doing. But first...But first that's right, it's time for the Businessmarkers School of Business and this is our public service to our audience, our hard work during the week, putting together curriculum that we think benefits business people.
John: That's right. Since we have this weekly pressure, we don't have any chance to really test this out on anybody.
Russ: That's right.
John: I mean we're winging it baby.
Russ: All right, and we kick it off each week with a quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And today's quote kind of falls in the category of an old saying. But it's a good old saying and here it is, "Being poor is expensive."
John: Being poor is expensive.
Russ: Absolutely it's expensive. You can't go participating in any volume purchase agreements.
John: No.
Russ: You can't - you don't really have any frequent flyer miles.
John: No. You don't have any friends really. [Inaudible Comment] [Crosstalk].
Russ: It's true, you don't [Inaudible Comment] [Crosstalk] poor people.
John: When people see you walking down the street they'll go to the other side or walk the other way.
Russ: That's right, that's right. So it does -
John: Yeah, you're right. It's a lonely life. That's a lonely life. There's no nobility in poverty really, it's -
Russ: Right, right. So as you -
John: As Bud Fox said in the first Wallstreet movie where he talked into his bad memory, "No nobility in poverty anymore."
Russ: That's right. So if you find yourself in that category you need to work to get yourself out of there.
John: Yeah, well that's a good incentive to get out of it, you know, no friend, no money.
Russ: Yeah, that's right. Right.
John: Of course last year you could buy a house. Jester. There was a period of time where it wasn't so expensive.
John: Expensive for the taxpayers.
Russ: That's right, you either go get a mortgage and then if you did it right, your house went up and you could go get a second mortgage and then you had lots of money.
John: Come on man. You were swimming in it. And then you weren't poor anymore. And so stuff weren't expensive. You could go buy stuff for your house and it just worked like clockwork. I know Barney Frank really had it down, you know, that -
Russ: And Chris Dodd, Chris Dodd.
John: And Chris Dodd, yeah. They were - They say -
Russ: They made it so that poor people could actually live like kings for awhile.
John: That's right. For awhile.
Russ: All right, okay. That brings us to this week at Business History.
John: All right, this week in Business History, we're gonna start in 1581.
Russ: Yeah?
John: Sir Francis Drake, he's called Francis Drake at this time, the Queen knighted him later on. Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world.
Russ: Wow.
John: That means he sailed around the world.
Russ: 1581. That went -
John: 1581, I think Queen Elizabeth was the queen then.
Russ: Yeah, well I think at least when he was going around it, when he got to the west coast here, he got a place to stay. There's that Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco.
John: That's right, that's right. And it probably worked out well for him.
Russ: Yeah, he probably visited the Wine Country.
John: That's right. That's right. He probably did. All right, this weekend Business History in 1803 is the first performance of Beethoven's Second Symphony in D. Okay, this week in Business History in 1902 the Texas Oil Company, Texaco forms.
Russ: My goodness. The man that wears the stars. Yeah, like to - yeah.
John: Yeah, the man who wears the star. He likes to come out and clean your windshield and check your oil and -
Russ: 109 years old now.
John: That's right 109 years old. This week in Business History in 1912 the electric starter first appeared in cars. Now wasn't that something? Cause because it was a hand crank deal.
Russ: Yeah, that seems awfully early for electric starter.
John: I know. I know, you thought maybe it'd be in the '20s, '30s. But they didn't have electric starters in airplanes. They had to grab that propeller blade and if you didn't do it just right you get your whole arm taken off.
Russ: Yeah, there was pressure in that, that's a lot of pressure.
John: That's a lot of pressure. All right, this week in Business History in 1912 the Titanic leaves with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet onboard headed for New York.
Russ: Wasn't DiCaprio a stowaway or was he on legally?
John: He - well, no, no, no, he got a ticket because he won it like in a poker game, something like that. So he didn't - no, he did not steal his way onto the ship. Okay, this week in Business History in 1916 the U.S. Senate agrees -wow, vote 82 to 6 to participate in World War I.
Russ: It's interesting. I wonder about the six that voted against it, you know?
John: And this week in Business History 1937 is the birthday of Colin Powell.
Russ: My goodness, so -
John: General, famous general, assistant to presidents, national security affairs, Secretary of State for Bush the Second and -
Russ: So he's 74 now.
John: He's 74, right.
Russ: He's doing pretty well for 74.
John: He's doing pretty well. Okay, this week in Business History in 1938 is the birthday of Jerry Brown Junior, Governor of California. He was governor twice in 1974, and then he's just recently elected.
Russ: Yeah, he was like a young governor and now he's like an old. He's 73 now.
John: Well, yeah. Well, yeah. He's 73, that's pretty old and he used to be called Governor Moonbeam cause he'd have all these crazy ideas that didn't work.
Russ: He was dating Linda Ronstadt and hanging out with all those rockers.
John: Linda Ronstadt. Oh yeah, if you're living in California, you're single, fairly good looking, [Inaudible Comment] [Crosstalk], you're the governor baby.
Russ: And you're governor. Man.
John: That's right, you're gonna get -
Russ: Can't get much better than that.
John: You're gonna scoop up some chicks along the way I think. Now the problem is he got reelected and everybody thought he would be a different governor, more astute and prudent with it, right? And in some degree he is cause he got rid of like 70,000 government issued cell phones, stuff like that.
Russ: Right, that's good.
John: But he can't stem the tide of disaster that's happening.
Russ: No, I don't if anybody could.
John: No.
Russ: Yeah, yeah, with what they've done historically.
John: But - right, you think - and Schwarzenegger, he started out good, but he - he -
Russ: Turned into a politician.
John: Well, he's married to a Kennedy. Every night he'd have to come home to Maria Shriver and that - and then she would just probably read him the riot act.
Russ: Browbeat him into -
John: I know. He would probably say, "Hey, I'm the Terminator, you can't do that." "Like hell I can't." Or Arnold, get back there and spend some more money. Okay, this week in Business History in 1943 U.S. President Roosevelt in an attempt to check inflation he froze wages, prices, prohibit workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby. It sounds a lot like Atlas Shrugged here. And bars rate increased to common carriers and public utilities. Now granted we were in a war and the government has to step in and control things, but it really didn't help the economy much.
Russ: Nope, it doesn't work.
John: Okay, this week in Business History 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg atomic spies are sentenced to death. Now that was very controversial because a lot of people didn't think they were spies. A lot of people think they got railroaded, it was a railroad job, but it's come out recently, fairly recently that they indeed did pass on those secrets to the Russians and got - it's what got us into the Cold War. They helped do it and they are Communist sympathizers and it's what happens.
Russ: They did it because they were Communist sympathizers or for money or both?
John: It's probably all of the above. I'm sure they got some money and, of course, if you've ever seen a picture of Ethel Rosenberg, she probably could have used some of that money in the beauty parlor, you know? She's - wasn't what you would call a real charmer. All right, this week in Business History in 1954 Elvis Presley records his debut single That's All Right. This week in Business History in 1954 TV dinner was first put on sale by Swanson & Sons. TV Dinner by ZZ Top
Russ: What an invention that was.
John: I know, I know. Yeah, they were -
Russ: Cardboard tacos would be in there.
John: Yeah, they were in aluminum and they had the foil over it. Ethan said they pop it in the oven and -
Russ: Back before we had microwave.
John: Now you do and every dinner's a TV dinner almost.
Russ: That's right, that's true. That's true.
John: All right. This week in Business History in 1964 the Beatles song Can't Buy Me Love goes to Number 1, stays there for five weeks. This week in Business History in 1980 Post-it notes was introduced and what an invention that was and that was kind of by mistake. Yeah, cause somebody -
Russ: As many of them often are.
John: Yeah, it was actually glue that 3M had produced that didn't work very well. And so they - someone got the idea, well, let's do this. Boom, Post-it notes. Okay. This week in Business History in 1991 Sam Walton, the billionaire CEO founder of Walmart dies of cancer at 74.
Russ: Wow, wow.
John: What an innovator he was.
Russ: Oh man, and it's - he's so successful that the whole brand is kind of shrouded in controversy quite often these days, but I go there when I want to buy something. Hey right, yeah. And the new generation stores are a lot better than the ones that, you know.
John: This week in Business History in 1998 Tammy Wynette, American singer dies. Her famous song was Stand By Your Man. Wow and her song actually made it into the world of politics during the Clinton era, right?
Russ: That's right. Hillary had to cut - think fast because.
John: Their marriage is more of a career move for each other than it's a love fest. It might have started out as a love fest, but she got on TV with Bill and she just said, "Look, I'm not gonna be like Tammy Wynette and I'm not the kind of person that will stand by your man and bake cookies."
Russ: But she actually did stand by him because it's a business thing.
John: Oh yeah, not just once but several times when things became...
Russ: Yeah, but - but - right, right.
John: That turned out not - she's just like Tammy Wynette actually.
Russ: All right and that brings us to the jargon challenge round, also known as our vocabulary lesson.
John: Oh yeah. All right.
Russ: And here's this morning's word, bike lash.
John: Bike lash. Bike lash is someone's riding a bike. And there's someone in a car that's - and I know how these people are cause I'm like this.
Russ: Yeah? Cause you're one of them.
John: Okay. I'm one of them. Not the biker, I mean I do like riding my bike, but when someone's riding your bike on a busy street, you're trying to drive your car and then how you gonna see these people all the time? You're looking out for traffic and everything and -
Russ: You've got a - you got a winner. All right, and that brings us to that moment in business. Do you have a story for us this morning?
John: Yes I do Russ.
Russ: Well, that's good.
John: All right, okay. This is from the London Telegraph. They're reporting that the European Union has decided to ban cars from cities by the year 2050.
Russ: Okay, it's 39 years from now.
John: Yes, by then - yeah, they'll be banned from London and all other cities across Europe in a master plan by the European Union to cut CO2 emissions by 60 percent. Now CO2 is what we breathe out. The plan also predicts and has in it an end to these inexpensive flights from Britain to the south of Europe and they want to cut about half of those trips. As a matter of fact, anybody who wants to travel more than 186 miles will have to do it by rail.
Russ: Or bicycle maybe.
John: Or yeah, well however else. Anything but a car.
Russ: A car.
John: A car or an airplane. Now there's a guy named Siim Kallas. He's the EU Transport Commissioner and he would - he wants people out of their cars and into alternative means of transport. And, "This means no more conventionally fueled cars in our city centers. Action will follow. Legislation will change the behavior." Now there's a group called the Association of British Drivers.
Russ: They don't like this.
John: They despise this and think it's gonna be a disaster for the economy and there's a Hugh Bladon, a spokesman for the British Drivers Association, he's quoted as saying, "I suggest he goes and finds himself a space in a local mental asylum. If he wants to bring everywhere to a grinding halt and to plunge us into a new dark age, he's right on track. We have to keep things moving. This man is off his rocker."
Russ: What a cool comeback.
John: So it's - we don't know if this is a dumb moment, but I think all signs point toward that.
Russ: I think they do too. All right and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PK Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price.
John: And this is a guy who's not off his rocker.
Russ: That's right.
John: He is a man and here he is right now.
Russ: That's right.
John: A one and a two and a -
Russ: A one and a two and a -
