Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard hear and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. This is that show about the working class, the private sector, the innovators, the entrepreneurs.
John: That's right, Russ. It's our holiday - continuation of our holiday show.
Russ: That's right. This is episode 291, too.
John: Yeah; mm-hmm.
Russ: It's exciting times. And also make note of this if you're listening to this show on the radio in Houston, Texas only. Next week instead of being on January 8th, we'll be on January 9th at 6 P.M.
John: That's right.
Russ: If you're listening on the radio elsewhere in the country, just we're in the same place as always and most importantly, if you're listening on the web you can just keep listening on the web -
John: Yeah; right -
Russ: That's the easiest way to do it; yeah -
John: We're always on on the web. We're 24/7.
Russ: That's right.
John: That's right. We don't rest there either.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay.
Russ: And there always we have the unabridged version -
John: The full course curriculum of the School of Business.
Russ: Right; alright. Alright. Here's our lineup for this morning. First up, Kim Bellini, the founder of Learning RX. A real cool for-profit company that is really helping some people with learning disabilities. Then that's gonna be followed by Microsoft's Jennifer Heard. Once again focusing on using Microsoft technology to make your life better. This time showing how to manage a professional career along with managing parenting responsibilities with young kids still in school. And then we're gonna follow that by a flashback to one of our small business network show guests. The Small Business Network is a weekly webcast that we do in conjunction with PC Mall that features members of PC Mall's Small Business Network. Today we're gonna flashback to our interview with Scott Gerber, founder of Sizzle It and author of Never Get a Real Job, but first. That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business and this might just be the heart and soul of the show, right?
John: Well I don't know whether it's the heart and soul, but it's the silliest thing that we do on the show.
Russ: You think so?
John: Yeah; I think so, but it's good. It's good in many ways. I'd say primarily because we find out things that they do not - and relay them to our audience that you do not learn in your typical business school.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: As a matter of fact, most of the business schools we know of around the world aren't even teaching right now. We're the only ones out there actually -
Russ: That's right. School is still in session.
John: We're still in session.
Russ: Yeah; and it is powerful, the School of Business is powerful because it's powered by Champion Energy Services.
John: Well yeah, and that's the best part about it.
Russ: Now Champion Energy Services is one of these services that came along when deregulation finally hit and man, oh man, they focused on what customers want and that's reliable service and an easy to read and understand bill.
John: Right.
Russ: And on these bills -
John: You know it's a bill.
Russ: -- from Energy Service you know it's a bill and you know how it compares to other services. It's real easy to compare the rates -
John: I know; right -
Russ: -- of Champion Energy Services.
John: They're our favorite electric company.
Russ: There ya' go.
John: There ya' go.
Russ: 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, boy, I've been on this roll with Warren Buffet because he said some things that I like. I know that he has some philosophies that we don't agree with and here's this morning's quote from Warren Buffet. "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked."
John: That's right.
Russ: And it's kind of a Bernie Madoff thing of appropriate proportions. I mean he was doin' great until the economy went down. People said, "Hey, we need some of our money" and they discovered it wasn't there.
John: Well, ya' know, there's never been a Ponzi scheme that has ever worked.
Russ: That's right.
John: Over - I mean, from beginning to end.
Russ: Right.
John: I mean the end's always been a prison term.
Russ: Yes, it is.
John: But in the case of Ponzi himself, he got out of the country and became - worked in the finance department for Mussolini.
Russ: Yeah; and he got to brand that process.
John: I know.
Russ: He got to put his name on it. Now they might oughta' change it to a Madoff.
John: I mean, there's a play on words, but it's just his last name -
Russ: That's right.
John: -- 'cause he made off with a lot of billions of dollars.
Russ: That's right. Alright. And that brings us to this week in business history. So what happened at the first week of the year in business history?
John: This week in business history in 1496, Leonardo Da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
Russ: Gees.
John: Now he was a guy that was preoccupied with a lot of things -
Russ: Man.
John: -- but the vision of flying, manned flight took up a lot of his time and creative energy -
Russ: Yes, it did.
John: -- and even though none of his stuff really worked, one thing did and that was the hang glider -
Russ: Yeah.
John: -- that proved to be successful. He studied birds a lot, but for some reason a lot of these early flight pioneers did study the bird, but they - I don't know why they didn't get the curvature of the wing thing down because that's what really -
Russ: That was the secret, which was hard. It was hard to break that code back then.
John: That's right; yeah.
Russ: No; he was incredible -
John: Da Vinci code -
Russ: -- and he started really as an artist.
John: Yeah; right.
Russ: And he got into doing some big scale art that involved lifting heavy devices and he got into mechanics and all that stuff and man, what a guy.
John: Right. This week in business history 1836, man, we're skippin' 400 years here, but this week in business history Davey Crockett arrives in Texas just in time for the Alamo.
Russ: From Tennessee, right?
John: Yeah; from Tennessee and he came here thinking that the early Texas settlers versus Mexico had pretty much been settled.
Russ: Right.
John: He did not voluntarily come into fight the Mexicans.
Russ: He just showed up.
John: He showed up thinkin' everything was okay.
Russ: Well when I was like a kid, like before I was even ten the whole Davey Crockett movie thing -
John: Yeah; Fess Parker -
Russ: Fess Parker and the coon skin cap, man, was a happening thing.
John: It was happening. This week in business history in 1838 Samuel Morris makes the first public demonstration of the telegraph and that was quite a technological advance.
Russ: Huge; absolutely.
John: 'Cause before the telegraph they just had Pony Express and semaphores, ya' know.
Russ: Yeah; or yelling real loud.
John: Or yelling loud. What?
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. Now this week in business history in 1863 the four-wheeled roller skate was patented by James Plimpton of New York.
Russ: Wow; 1863.
John: It's quite an invention.
Russ: Huge.
John: In 1863 you didn't think something like that would have been invented that long ago.
Russ: Yeah; that would lead to roller derby.
John: Roller derby; and if it wasn't for the roller skates we wouldn't have that really cool song, I Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates; You Got a Brand New Key. Okay. Moving right along here, this week in business history 1888 the wax drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone in Washington, D.C. In 1888 the wax drinking straw.
Russ: So you think before that they just had like paper straws that would be good for two or three or four sucks and draws -
John: Maybe.
Russ: -- and then that was it.
John: I know. It really sucked to be a paper straw. No; I don't know. I'm just readin' this stuff. I didn't look into, ya' know. I mean I am interested in the Alamo and Leonardo Da Vinci -
Russ: But not the drinking straw?
John: Drinking straw, even though I used them.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Not the wax kind. They're now plastic.
Russ: Plastic; yeah.
John: But anyway, it's just a fun thing. Okay. This week in business history 1920 the New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for $125,000.00. Now a little known fact about all this, up till then and I think for a long time in baseball history, the pitcher who had the all time winning recorder percentage wise against the New York Yankees was none other than Babe Ruth. That's why the Yankees wanted him.
Russ: To get him off of the mound.
John: And they knew he was a superb athlete. I think they wanted to change his position so he could come to the plate more often.
Russ: Right.
John: But anyway, this also started what's known as the Red Sox curse. They went down to crushing defeat after crushing defeat whenever they would get into the pennant race.
Russ: To the Yankees mostly -
John: To the Yankees and other teams and people mainly blame the curse by trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees -
Russ: But it's been lifted now, right, 'cause the -
John: Well yeah 'cause the Red Sox have won a couple World Series and they won at least one that I know of.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1927 the Harlem Globetrotters play their first game in Hinckley, Illinois.
Russ: I bet that was interesting ya' know.
John: It was I know. I wonder if they - well the Washington Generals I don't think had been around then, but they had to have a foil. You can't have that kind of nonsense goin' on unless you have a straight man.
Russ: That's right.
John: And the straight men in this case were always a team with mediocre talent, but none the less. This week in business history in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson declares war on poverty and starts trillions of dollars leaving pockets of people who make money to those who don't make any money and -
Russ: And who need money, right?
John: Well, some of 'em need; some of 'em don't.
Russ: Well if they spend it they need some more.
John: They need more, right. Now the thing is I've always maintained, since I read these Census Bureau numbers about ten year ago that we've won the war on poverty. This is one government program that's been very effective.
Russ: You think so?
John: Well a large percentage of these people and I'm not saying there aren't people flat on their back or really destitute, but there's a huge amount of people, large percentage of them own their own homes, a lot of them own automobiles, some of them even own two cars. Some have cable TV or have satellite TV. Some of them even have swimming pools in their backyard.
Russ: I think capitalism is the most effective tool against poverty.
John: That's right and I think that's really the real reason why these people live well. Not because we've won the war on poverty although it is a fun thing to say when I give speeches to business groups -
Russ: Yes; I bet it goes over very well, too.
John: Yeah; they look, scratchin' their heads. But hey, they're Census Bureau numbers. I'm not makin' 'em up.
Russ: Alright.
John: Alright. Moving right along. This week in business history in 1966 the Beatles, We Can Work It Out. It goes number one and stays number one for three weeks.
Russ: Yep.
John: We Can Work It Out. This week in business history in 1971 the Globetrotters finally lose a game.
Russ: Wow.
John: 100 to 99 to the New Jersey Reds ending a 2,495 game winning streak.
Russ: So we had 'em earlier. In 1927 was their first game.
John: Right.
Russ: So here we are in 1971, a good 44 years later they finally lose?
John: They finally lose a game and the New Jersey Reds disbanded the very day after that. I don't know if it was the very day, but they reconstituted themselves as the Washington Generals.
Russ: Alright.
John: This week in business history, something that helped launch your little career that's turned into quite a career, Apple Computers was incorporated.
Russ: Wow; yeah. I mean what an incredible story that company is from beginning till today and the role that Steve Jobs has played and Wazniak who we had on this show, but man, these days it's all Mr. Jobs.
John: I know. Well he got into personal home entertainment devices. Who would have thought those things on your desks would kind of morph into that.
Russ: I agree. I agree.
John: The iPad, they still can't make 'em fast enough. What a genius.
Russ: Yeah; absolutely.
John: This week in business history in 1979 K-Mart pulls Steve's Martin's Let's Get Small for being in bad taste.
Russ: So they pulled that. It probably wasn't even a CD then, was it?
John: It was probably a video or something; yeah.
Russ: And they thought it was in bad taste 'cause it implied getting stoned.
John: Yeah; right.
Russ: Although Steve Martin is a pretty straight laced guy.
John: Yeah; he really is. He was jokin' -
Russ: He was makin' fun of it.
John: This week in business history in 1980 President Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Ya' know, I've gone back and forth on this and I tend to think it was probably the right call.
Russ: What was the specific issue?
John: I mean, I think the Russians invaded Afghanistan.
Russ: Oh yeah; that's what it was; yeah.
John: And it was a protest of that.
Russ: And boy, it was a slap in the face of the Russians because they were gettin' really ready to showcase ya' know -
John: Yeah; it was gonna be like Hitler and the Berlin Olympics -
Russ: Yeah; right.
John: There was a lot of __________ cry ya' know and I think a lot of that had to do was people realized that Carter wasn't a very good president to begin with.
Russ: Right.
John: But in this case I think it was probably the right thing to do. This week in business history in 1982 the Justice Department withdraws an antitrust suit against IBM that started back in 1950.
Russ: No kiddin' and I was there during all that. I mean I didn't show up in 1950. I was born and it kind of demonstrates that a lot of antitrust processes don't need to take place because the markets make 'em go. If you look at it, it was probably only about four or five years after that that IBM was in huge trouble, did a massive layoff, didn't hold a monopoly on anything.
John: I know. I know.
Russ: And it's the market -
John: Well most of these antitrust laws came up pre-industrial revolution and post-industrial revolution and it took change, it took a long time for businesses to morph and to change the way they do business and to introduce technology -
Russ: Now it doesn't.
John: -- but now it's at the speed of light and no law can catch up with that.
Russ: Right; absolutely.
John: And that's been the whole problem. The Microsoft thing was a perfect example.
Russ: Right.
John: Ya' know, if you don't like Microsoft then buy an Apple computer.
Russ: Right.
John: No one's forcin' you to use the Microsoft operating system -
Russ: Plus even what people look at is the giants of two years ago can get in trouble real fast. Look at Google. I mean, they're not in trouble. They're doin' great, but all of a sudden Facebook is just kinda' suckin' eyeballs over there at a rate far beyond what anybody ever expected to happen.
John: I know.
Russ: And there was a period where Yahoo dominated the world and there was a period where AOL dominated the world.
John: And it's a fleeting moment at best.
Russ: Right; absolutely.
John: Okay; alright. This week in business history in 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts the first female artist, Aretha Franklin.
Russ: Oh wow.
John: This week in business history in 1998 Sonny Bono, former rock singer with his then wife, now ex-wife, Cher, dies in a skiing accident at age 62. He went from rock star to a Republican congressman from California and I remember seein' him on TV -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: -- and I remember him back in the 60s and 70s thinkin' how did that guy in the 60s and 70s morph into this straight laced conservative, but. This week in business history in 1999 former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota and really turns the place upside down and inside out.
Russ: Yes, he does.
John: Yeah.
Russ: It was kinda' weird though. Course who knows. Politicians, my goodness. What - where should they come from. I don't know. Lawyers? Is it better that they are lawyers or former professional wrestlers?
John: I don't know. I don't think it really matters.
Russ: That's probably true.
John: You cannot - the fate of our way of life should not be in the hands of politicians.
Russ: That's right. Alright. So that wraps up this morning's history lesson.
John: Hey, that's enough isn't it?
Russ: From Leonardo Da Vinci to Jesse Ventura.
John: All right after New Year's.
Russ: There ya' go.
John: Okay.
Russ: Alright. And that brings us to the jargon challenge round -
John: Oh boy.
Russ: That's our vocabulary lesson -
John: Yeah; I'm gonna look pretty good here, pal. Lay it on me.
Russ: No wagering please.
John: No wagering. I don't even know what the word is.
Russ: You ready?
John: Okay.
Russ: Eye dotter.
John: Eye dotter.
Russ: Don't think of the iPhone. Don't think of the iPad or the iPod. Think of the eye dotter. Boy, you look stumped this morning -
John: I'm stumped. I'm stumped -
Russ: Alright. You're gonna kill yourself after you hear this. It's so easy. It's a fastidious, detail oriented person. It's the person that dots all the I's and crosses the T's. In fact, the synonym is a T-crosser.
John: Oh, if you woulda' said that I woulda' -
Russ: Well, I couldn't give you that kinda' hint. Alright. So we're startin' off the year with a loss.
John: Okay; alright.
Russ: And that brings us to dumb moments in business -
John: Okay. This is from the Washington Examiner. If you've ever been to New York City and wonder why theater tickets are so high or if you've ever been to the Lincoln Center where the tickets are really high, here's something you may explain all this. The average stagehand, this is according to the Washington Examiner, the average stage - this is a stagehand at Lincoln Center in New York City makes $290,000.00 a year in wages and benefits.
Russ: Goodness gracious. You're makin' this up.
John: No; I'm not makin' it up.
Russ: Gyod.
John: Yeah; this is stagehands in New York City's top performing arts venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and these are not highly skilled or technical jobs, but it's all a union thing. This is the average compensation of all the workers. They move musicians' chairs into place and hang lights. It's pretty bad. Across the Plaza at the Met, the Metropolitan Opera where the tickets are really outrageous, stagehands rarely broke into the top five - but a couple years ago a props master, a guy named James Blumenfeld got $334,000.00 that time including some vacation back pay.
Russ: What's a props master?
John: He moves props.
Russ: Okay; wow; $330,000.00 -
John: Part of the scenery. The guy gets a third of a million dollars a year for movin' a bunch of scenery around on a stage.
Russ: Well that explains high prices -
John: Good Lord.
Russ: Goodness. Alright. Before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's playbook and this guy does not belong to a union, right?
John: He probably makes more than a union stagehand -
Russ: He does well I'm sure.
John: I'm sure he does well for himself. Here he is.
Russ: Mr. Greg Price. A one and a two and a.
John: A one and a two and a.
Russ: Alright. And that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in for our interview with Kim Bellini, founder of Learning RX, followed by our discussion with Jennifer Heard, vice president of Microsoft and that will be followed by a flashback with one of our small business network guests, Scott Gerber, founder of Sizzle It and author of Never Get a Real Job. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at the BusinessMakers.com.
