Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show, heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. This is that show about those that make business happen, about those that make businesses, about those that hire employees and innovate.

John: That's right, and they're the ones that right now that are the talk of Washington. As the President addressed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently and has come up with some ideas that may or may not work, but at least he's addressing the fact that it's the small businesses and the entrepreneurs that are really making the economy go. So the light bulb's gone off finally in his head. Whether, you know, any good's going to come out of this I think remains to be seen.

Russ: Yeah. Well, you get some of those Congress people out of the way, like the election did, that seemed to help a little bit maybe.

John: Yeah. Yeah. And the government really has to step out of the way. I think the best help the government can give the business and free enterprise community out there is just really just stay out of the way.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: So we'll see.

Russ: All right. Before we get into the show we have to remind everybody that we have a huge event coming up to celebrate, our 300th episode.

John: Three-hundredth episode.

Russ: Yeah, 'cause on March the 10th, mark that on your calendar, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the brand new Tasting Room at City Center, which is not even open yet, an operation owned and operated by Jerry Lasco, a former guest, a two-time guest on the show. And at this event we're going to name the BusinessMaker of the Year.

John: That's right.

Russ: There's actually voting available right now on our site.

John: If you have any nominations we'd like to know who they are.

Russ: You bet. You bet. And we're also going to name the BusinessMaker Bootstrapper of the Year. We think that's a very special category and there's already some cool nominations there, as well as the BusinessMaker Rising Star of the Year. All right, but here's our lineup for today. Danguole Altman, co-founder and CEO of Vapogenix; it's an early stage pain management company. Pain management - pain's bad, you know.

John: I know.

Russ: But it's good. It's one of those things that's bad, 'cause it hurts, but it's good.

John: It's good for you.

Russ: Well, it is, because that's your body telling you there's something wrong. So if you didn't have pain you'd never know.

John: That's right. Well I, you know, maybe the pain - and a lot of people suffered from the recent financial collapse was good too; it might've taught us a lesson. Taught us that you shouldn't get mortgages.

Russ: Well, I don't think it did, but I think it will.

John: Well, it should've. All right.

Russ: I mean, I don't know whether it would-

John: All right, we'll see. History repeats itself in the financial markets all the time.

Russ: Well, that's true too. All right, but first - [Audio Cuts Out] - that's right, it's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business. And this is not your business as usual school.

John: No, it's not.

Russ: And we kick off the School of Business with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day, yes.

Russ: Staying in synch with Mr. P.J. O'Rourke, and this one's pretty cool. It goes like this, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it".

John: And prove it. Right. That's one of his best quotes. That's pretty cool.

Russ: That was in a book, Parliament of Whores.

John: This is one of his great, great, great, great epistles, yes.

Russ: All right, and that brings us to This Week in Business History. So what happened during this mid-February week in business history, John?

John: This week in business history, 1876, that was Custer's Last Stand, by the way, was 1876; Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray separately applied for telephone patents, and the Supreme Court eventually rules Alexander Graham Bell the rightful owner. But this is mired in controversy, and this is something that they don't teach you in grade school or junior high; they say well Bell invented the telephone.

Russ: Right.

John: Well, he maybe did, but he used technology developed by somebody else. And Elisha Gray is one of the prominent people who also worked on the same invention. So it's really up in the air, so to speak.

Russ: Still to this day.

John: To this day nobody really knows, even though Bell got the credit for it, what happened.

Russ: Isn't that interesting too, because you don't hear the story of Gray and how close it probably was that Gray could've been awarded the patent. And life is a series of fine lines-

John: See, but Graham had the name Bell, okay?

Russ: Yeah, that's true.

John: Gray Telephone, the Gray Telephone Company.

Russ: That's right, it worked better.

John: Bell Telephone sounds better.

Russ: Yeah, than Gray Telephone.

John: That's right. Gray, who wants a Gray - musty, Gray Telephone? I'd rather have a Bell Telephone.

This week in business history, in 1878, two years later, after Bell and Gray applied for the patent for the telephone, the first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones.

Russ: Eighteen phones, wow. That's the first exchange.

John: So 18 people out there must've had phones and they all talked to each other. You know, I wonder if they were like neighbors.

Russ: Well that could've been. I bet they were - you know, they were all landlines; there weren't any cell phones yet, right? [Laughter]

John: I don't think so. But, you know, maybe these are people who made their money in the gold fields out there and Knob Hill and could afford the luxury of being able to talk to each other without seeing the person you're talking to.

Russ: That's right.

John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1919 the United Parcel Service forms. A 19-year-old guy, kid, Jim Casey, and an 18-year-old Claude Ryan found the American Messenger Company in Seattle, capitalized with $100.00 in debt. Now $100.00 back then is like probably what, $10,000.00 right now?

Russ: Probably, yeah.

John: So the delivery car was a Model T Ford and they did merge with a competitor and form the Merchant's Parcel Delivery. And it just kept growing and growing and growing. They brought in another partner, Charles Soderstrom, later on, who helped manage their ever-growing fleet of delivery vehicles, and the thing just blossomed into UPS.

Russ: UPS had the CEO ______.

John: A couple of teenagers. A couple teenagers. I mean it's amazing. Okay, this week in business history, 1924, the IBM Corporation is founded by Tom Watson.

Russ: The Watson Family played a role through a lot of that early history, and Sun too along the way too.

John: I wonder how much the first shares went for.

Russ: Well, probably not a lot, but they probably grew into a lot. But they definitely grew into a lot.

John: This is where you'd really like to have a time machine and go back to 1924, but make sure you come back.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: Okay. This week in business history, 1941, the birthday of Gene Pitney, who was born in a town without pity in Connecticut. He really hated his hometown. He hated it so much that he castigated it in this song "Town Without Pity". He really had a bruised - he really got his ego bruised in that town, I'll say.

Russ: Boy, he did.

John: That's a sad song, okay? Okay, this week in business history, in 1954 the first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California. Now that is a strange group, let me tell you.

Russ: Well, they're kind of in some controversy right now I think, as always.

John: They've been mired in controversy. I mean the basic premise is that aliens from outer space started our culture.

Russ: Right. Right.

John: Is that pretty much it? Does that-?

Russ: Well, I don't know the details, but we all know that the leader, the original founder was a science fiction writer.

John: Right, yeah.

Russ: L. Ron Hubbard.

John: Hubbard, yes. Yeah, right. Okay.

Russ: But who are we to know? Maybe he knew things we don't know.

John: You know, a lot of people know things that we don't know. But by the same token, you and I know things that other people don't know.

Russ: They don't know, that's right.

John: So everybody knows things that other people don't know.

Russ: That's right.

John: If we could just get everybody together and share what they know-

Russ: On Facebook.

John: -then everybody would not know anything; everybody would know everything.

Russ: Everybody would know everything. That's our goal here on the BusinessMakers Show.

John: That's right. This week in business history, 1959, Fidel Castro names himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing the dictator before him, Batista.

Russ: We had a discussion about dictators last week, 'cause we were talking about, you know, Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak, that they get there and they never want to relinquish and they get themselves in trouble. Well look, Fidel, he's managed to hang in a long time.

John: Well Castro, you know, when he was - when he first overthrew the government there he was on TV, I remember seeing him on TV saying he believed in democracy and this, that, and the other thing. But he was a dyed in the wool communist because he's trying to get people to, you know, lower their guard.

Russ: Right. And boy, they did.

John: They did, and you know, we've been trying to get him out of there, but exploding cigars and landing troops there and, you know, if Kennedy just would've sent some air cover in there for those poor guys that did the Bay of Pigs we might've gotten 'em. But who knows? Okay, this week in business history, 1962, the Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their hit "Surfin Safari". Man, you talk about a group that just took off.

Russ: That's right.

John: I mean they had a great sound.

Russ: And they were young; they were teenagers, right?

John: They were young, right. And they were able to adapt their sound, you know, their music to new generations.

Russ: You bet.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1967, Aretha Franklin records "Respect". Okay, this week in business history in 1971, President Richard Nixon installs a secret taping system in the White House. Now a lot of people don't know, everybody thinks he's the first guy to do it.

Russ: He's not.

John: But LBJ had a taping system, JFK had kind of a rudimentary system there, and then so did his predecessors. But Nixon's notoriety with Watergate is what really exposed him with his taping system, even though he wasn't doing anything different than other presidents had done.

Russ: Right. Right.

John: This week in business history in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini orders Muslims to murder the Satanic Verses novelist, Salman Rushdie. He still has a price on his head, I think, although he's been out in public a lot. But, you know, this is a fanatical group of - you know, not all Muslims are fanatics like this, but this just goes to show you that, you know, we enjoy the First Amendment here, would be the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and all that in there, but there's some parts of the country that you say the wrong thing or you even look at somebody funny and they'll cut your head off.

Russ: Right. Right. This is kind of a tough book review too. But he took the religion to task in the book, right?

John: Yeah, I think he did. I've never read the book. I'm afraid to read it. I'm afraid somebody might see me read it and there'll be a price on my head, so I'm staying away from that one.

Russ: Good advice.

John: That and Ouija boards. After I saw the movie The Exorcist I stayed away from Ouija boards.

Russ: Away from Ouija boards.

John: Right, yeah. This week in business history, 1990, Perrier recalls 160 million bottles - 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, which is a cancer-causing agent according to some, are found in some of the bottles.

Russ: I remember - god, that was surprising.

John: Maybe benzene is what gave it that sparkle. Hey, it looks nice, but don't drink it.

Russ: That sparkle that kind of stuck with you afterwards.

John: Yeah, right, it's - and Perrier, is it real spring water, do you think?

Russ: I don't think any of them are, but who knows?

John: Right, okay. This week in business history in 2001 the first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

Russ: Now that's still a huge significant event that has all kinds of potential that is real interesting for the future.

John: You know, the first draft. It's very important in science, I know that.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: But does anything come of the-?

Russ: Well yeah, I mean I think that's where all these things that are being tested now with, you know, correcting-

John: Now is that the ACT test or the SAT test?

Russ: No. No.

John: All right, this week in business history in 2005, YouTube, the popular Internet site in which videos are shared and viewed by thousands and millions is launched in the United States.

Russ: 2005, bought by Google shortly afterwards and it's just unbelievable.

John: Yeah, right. Somebody made a pile of money.

Russ: Oh, absolutely.

John: You know, you've got the Huffington Post being purchased by AOL for a couple hundred million bucks. I wonder what's going to happen with that.

Russ: Right. I don't know, we'll see.

John: All right.

Russ: That wraps up our history lesson.

John: Yeah, a lot of questionable things here, you know.

Russ: Absolutely, from Alexander Graham Bell-

John: Salman Rushdie and Perrier.

Russ: Human genome.

John: We finally know what makes the water sparkle in Perrier.

Russ: That's right.

John: All right.

Russ: All right, and that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round, also known as our vocabulary lesson.

John: Yeah, I like this. I'm doing pretty good. The past couple years I'd say I've been getting at least half of them right-

Russ: I think you have been, yeah.

John: -without even hearing, knowing what the word is.

Russ: He never knows 'cause we do this by contract in a contest format, where I get to go out and find a new word, a new piece of jargon, an acronym, a technospeak, and then challenge John in all of his cognitive skills to come up and guess the meaning.

John: Cognitive. Cognitive.

Russ: That's right.

John: That's right. I like that word, cognitive.

Russ: Are you ready for today's word? Yeah, that's not the word, though. That's a real word.

John: Okay, listen - okay, go ahead.

Russ: All right, here's today's word: intellidating.

John: Intellidating, okay.

Russ: Intellidating.

John: Intellidating, okay. Dating is when you go out on a social occasion with usually someone of the opposite sex, although there are some who - you know, not that there's anything wrong with that. So intellidating is when you - it has to do with how smart the other person is.

Russ: Boom, we've got a winner already.

John: Yeah, you want to make sure you're as smart as the other person you're going out with, 'cause, you know, if one's smarter than the other it usually doesn't work out.

Russ: It doesn't work out. Yeah. All right, intellidating is dating that emphasizes intelligence, particularly by attending lectures, readings, or other cultural events.

John: That's right.

Russ: Yeah. All right, that brings us to Dumb Moments in Business. Do we have a topic to cover this morning, John?

John: Yeah, you know, I have - I had so many options to go for, but I've got to tell you, I think this year's Super Bowl in Dallas was probably one of the worst-run Super Bowls.

Russ: Not talking about the game.

John: The game - well, you know, then I'm a Steeler fan, so I'm a little chagrined that the home team didn't win, but the Packers deserved to win the game, no two ways about it. But the way - the mechanics of the process of running the Super Bowl.

Russ: Right, bringing in all that cold weather first.

John: Well, the cold weather had nothing - you know, but it did have those ice - well, you think Jerry Jones or the NFL would've consulted the Farmer's Almanac.

Russ: Right. Right. Yeah, it would've been so easy to do.

John: Yeah, I know, 'cause they're online now. But all that aside, 'cause it does have a roof, a retractable roof. But you had about a half a dozen people injured when ice slid off the roof.

Russ: Huge chunks.

John: Yeah, chunks of ice. Yeah, not just little icicles; these were chunks of ice.

Russ: Right.

John: And then later on they oversold - like an airline, like you go to the airline, "I'm sorry, we don't have your seat," you know, "Sorry about that". Well they don't have the seat at the Super Bowl. Now I don't know whether you've ever been to one of these or not. Have you ever been to a Super Bowl?

Russ: Yeah, I've been to one.

John: Okay, they're not cheap.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay, not only is the ticket expensive, but the hotels jack up the rates. I mean it's three or four days out of your life, 'cause you've got to stay there three days. You just can't go in and stay a night and leave; you've got to spend, you know, a considerable amount of time there.

Russ: Absolutely.

John: The restaurants jack up - I mean this is an expensive proposition. And then they say, "Sorry, we don't have your seat".

Russ: And you didn't know till you got there, right?

John: I know, they didn't know-

Russ: You're walking in and they scan your barcode and they go, "Ooh"-

John: And it's all because some fire marshal goes in there and says it's not safe to sit in these seats at the last second. You think they'd have the fire marshal there maybe a week ago? No, he's in there the same day.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay, then the halftime show, which was miserable.

Russ: But they didn't have a wardrobe malfunction this year. You gotta give it - that was okay.

John: No - right, they had a vocal cord malfunction, because the Black Eyed Peas, you know, they sound good on the radio, "Tonight's going to be a good night" you know, all that song sounds great. Get them live, totally different. Totally different.

Russ: But I think they had - I think they had an audio visual problem there too; there were mikes not working, and maybe that's what made them sound bad.

John: Well no, when the mikes clicked on I mean they just - they don't have good voices. Fergie does. Fergie was okay.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah.

John: Actually Slash, they had Slash, the guitarist from Guns N Roses; they should've had him there for 15 minutes. He was about the only talented guy on the stage. So anyway.

Russ: Yeah. Oh, there were some problems at this year's Super Bowl.

John: I know, you know, it's not like they - it's not like this is the first Super Bowl, you know, to work the bugs out. I mean this is Super Bowl 45. Okay, I think the manual is out there somewhere how to run a Super Bowl.

Russ: Exactly.

John: I'm glad. I almost went up there. I mean I was very tempted just to drive up there and see what I could get, see whether I could get a ticket or something.

Russ: Yeah. I think of those things that you just outlined, the biggest mistake was that they didn't refer to the Farmer's Almanac and check out the weather.

John: Well, there's two books, the Farmer's Almanac, and then there's Super Bowl for Dummies.

Russ: Right, they could've read either one of those.

John: How many of those Dummy books are out there, like 1,500 of them or 700 of them?

Russ: Actually if they had just consulted either one of those it would've been a much better show.

John: Either one. Right. 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.

[Entrepreneur's Playbook]

Russ: All right, and that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in for Danguole Altman, cofounder and CEO of Vapogenix. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen here online at thebusinessmakers.com.