Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is episode number 315 of that show that features those that most positively affect our lives.

John: That's right, Russ. These are the artists and the athletes in the free enterprise system without whom our economy would be in far worse shape than it is now, even though there are signs of it growing in some areas, but without the entrepreneur class we'd be a dead duck.

Russ: You bet. Now we can't talk about entrepreneurs here without doing a shout-out for E.O. Houston, Entrepreneurs Organization Houston. Check it out. All right, here's our lineup for today. First up John Beddow, the leader of Hanes and Boones clean tech practice group, formerly also the chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and now host of the soon to be launched EnergyMakers show. Scheduled probably to launch on June 29th from TheEnergyMakers.com. That's gonna be followed by an interview with Connie Barnaba of Barnaba & Associates talking about mergers and acquisitions, but first, 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. It's actually more than anybody could possibly imagine because we take no tuition, we don't have a marching band, we don't spend any money on student activities.

Russ: No textbooks.

John: No textbooks. It's just pure unadulterated k knowledge.

Russ: That's right. [Laughs] We kick off that knowledge base with the quote of the day. This one seems appropriate to me, another one of those Winston Churchill quotes. "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

John: That's right. Everybody's equally miserable. This is a fine example of it what's going on now. It's not pure socialism yet but it's getting there.

Russ: It's trying to get there it feels like.

John: And there's not enough money to solve everybody's problems.

Russ: No. Absolutely. All right, that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this June week in business history?

John: Well this week in business history in 1840 Samuel Morris patents the telegraph. He was motivated by the death of his wife. It took a long time to get the information to him ‘cause he was traveling at the time, and he thought, gee, there's got to be a better way of me getting this kind of news ‘cause I want to start dating right away or something. So anyway, he was heartbroken and all that I'm sure. I'm sure he didn't want to date right away, but you never know what's gonna cause someone to come up with an idea.

Russ: Right, and this is before Twitter and Facebook and texting and all that, before the telephone.

John: Before the face recognition system in Facebook, which may kill that whole thing off. People are leaving in droves. I'm not gonna be using it.

Russ: I'm not gonna let ‘em see my face.

John: Well yeah, I don't blame you. Okay, this week in business history in 1867 the first barbed wire was patented by Lucian B. Smith of Ohio. Well that's helped with the cattle industry, livestock industry.

Russ: Yeah. There you go.

John: Good invention. This week in business history in 1876 Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer was wiped out by thousands of Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho Indians. Was not a pretty sight. All the bodies were mutilated. When you got in an Indian fight you died.

Russ: And he started it didn't he?

John: Well yeah.

Russ: It's terrible to lose a fight but it really -

John: I mean Sioux Indians were told, “Hey, you move to the Black Hills of the Dakotas and we'll leave you alone” while they discovered gold there and so much for that. Although Louie Lamoure the famous western author once said that the Indians broke just as many treaties as the U.S. government did, but what really did Custer in and his troops was the technology. They had these spring shot single shot rifles and the Indians had the Winchester repeating rifles in some instances.

Russ: I wonder how that happened, how they got better weapons.

John: Well ‘cause the government was the control over the military and the Indians could buy from the entrepreneurs who were out selling arms in the west.

Russ: The government standardized and was trying to hold down costs.

John: Spreading the misery around like Churchill said. Can't get more misery than getting wiped out by a bunch of Sioux Indians, that's for sure. All right. This week in business history in 1983 the first Ferris wheel premiers at Chicago's Columbian Exposition. The original Ferris wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. Pretty long name there. It was a landmark for this exposition and that's been around, I mean downtown Houston right by the freeway there's a Ferris wheel. Okay, this week in business history in 1938 the federal minimum wage guarantees workers $0.40 cents an hour. Now it's up to like $7.00 an hour or like $5.00 an hour.

Russ: I think so, but every time we ever talk about it we always _____ . If it works -

John: Yeah. Make it $100.00 an hour.

Russ: Right. Make everybody rich. I mean that would be successful socialism.

John: Yeah. Give everybody $1 million. Print the money. Why not? Okay, this week in business history in 1948 Columbia commits to the 33.3 RPM albums phasing out the 78's as Dr. Peter Goldmark at CBS finally gets around to demonstrating the long playing record.

Russ: Yeah, if you slow it down it'll play longer.

John: That's right. Yeah. A very simple prospect there. This week in business history Hop Along Cassidy becomes first network western on NBC.

Russ: Now what year was that?

John: That was 1949 and -

Russ: Right after you were born and right before I was born.

John: There you go. This week in business history in 1963 the Beatles formed Beatles, Ltd. to handle their income tax. They had to incorporate.

Russ: Yeah. They had a pretty high rate over there back then I think wasn't it in the -

John: Yeah. British movie stars moved over here. This week in business history in 1963 President John F. Kennedy visits West Berlin and gives his “I am a Berliner” speech out in front of the Berlin Wall.

Russ: Yep, and they liked that over there.

John: Oh they did. The fans went wild. The East Berliners liked it too. Of course they couldn't show their enthusiasm. This week in business history in 1969 150,000 people attend the Newport 69 concert and Jimi Hendrix got $120,000.00 to appear there. That's pretty good money back then.

Russ: Back then it was huge. These days I think they exceed that.

John: A rounding error in somebody's _____ _____ . This week in business history in 1970 President Nixon signs the 26th amendment lowering the voting age to 18.

Russ: What do you think of that?

John: I think if you're old enough to shoulder a weapon and fight in our wars you've got to be able to vote. I don't have any problem with that. I wish the young folks were more intelligent when they voted. I don't think they know anything. That's the problem.

Russ: Well they're distracted by a lot of other things.

John: Yeah, videogames and Facebook. Okay, this week in business history 1977 the Trans Alaska pipeline goes into operation. The oil came in one end and came out the other at Valdez and the rest is history. This week in business history last but not least in 2004 spaceship 1 becomes the first privately funded space plane to achieve space flight.

Russ: Oh yeah. That _____ _____ _____ .

John: It's becoming more and more. They're selling seats on these things now. For a couple hundred grand you can spend five minutes up in the - you don't really go out into outer space, but you do reach a smidgeon of space.

Russ: Right. So what do you think of that? That's the whole thing in shutting down the shuttle. It's time for free enterprise. We're big free enterprise guys, but it seemed a little weird to cut down on NASA, but maybe it is okay.

John: Yeah. I think high science is one of the legitimate functions of government.

Russ: Yeah? Well we'll see.

John: Like the Manhattan Project and all that. I don't know. I'm kind of ambivalent about the whole thing to be honest with you. Okay. Go ahead.

Russ: All right, so that wraps up the history lesson.

John: Hey, 14 gems.

Russ: All right. I appreciate it. Good job as usual, and that brings us to navigating business jargon, also known as the jargon challenge round, also known as the vocabulary lesson. It seems like we could come up with an additional title, but that's all we got right now, and this is where I -

John: One of the greatest risks in radio broadcasting ‘cause I don't know the word.

Russ: [Laughs] That would be good. John doesn't know the word. I get to go out and choose the word. These are brand new words generally speaking and we have to do it in a contest format. I just put John on the line by saying the word and he guesses or uses his broad vocabulary already to figure out the meaning. This morning's word: himbo.

John: Himbo.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Hobo is a destitute. They used to call them bums back in the Depression. They used to ride on trains.

Russ: That's right. I'll give you a hint. You're going in the wrong direction.

John: Okay. Himbo. How do you spell it again?

Russ: H-i-m-b-o. Think of what word it might rhyme with.

John: Well B.O. is body odor, so it's body odor, male body odor.

Russ: [Laughs] No. All right, you've already missed it but I'll give you another hint anyway. This is a good word. What about “bimbo”?

John: Oh, okay.

Russ: What's a bimbo?

John: A bimbo is a female tart. Okay, so a himbo is a male tart.

Russ: That's right. There you go, a man who's good looking but unintelligent or superficial, kind of like a trophy husband, boy toy, all those things. There's times you and I get confused as boy toys, don't we?

John: Yeah.

Russ: Trophy husbands. I hate to embarrass -

John: Women have been playing with my head for a long time. [Laughs]

Russ: And that brings us to dumb moments. What kind of dumb moment have you come up with today?

John: Well there's a company called Hanes Tours. They're a Michigan bus company and they oversold the bus just like airlines do. Instead of asking the people in the bus if they wanted to give their seat up for a feel like the airlines do, instead of doing that they took the extra passengers and crammed them in the luggage compartment underneath, you know how they open up the doors on the bus? They gave them pillows and mattresses.

Russ: You get to sleep on the bus. [Laughs]

John: Your sleeping berth.

Russ: Right. You're kidding.

John: Met with John Distai by the U.S. transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. That's an agency probably hasn't done a damn thing for -

Russ: Somebody woke ‘em up. "Hey look, look what this guy's doing."

John: So anyway, Ohio State patrol officer found six people in the luggage compartment of the bus that was traveling from Michigan to Clyde, Ohio and it was reported that the driver told the officer, "Hey, there's no room in the bus for more passengers. What am I gonna do?"

Russ: [Laughs] Great story. All right, before we wrap up this morning's School of Business it's time for the very popular PKF Texas, entrepreneurs playbook. So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price on the piano. All right, that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in for our interview with John Beddow, now the host of the EnergyMakers show and John, as you know we've probably had probably 15 to 20 percent of our interviews here on the BusinessMakers show have been in the energy category.

John: That's because we're in the energy capital of the world. It's half the economy.

Russ: And because energy is critical for the future and there's kind of some other countries that have discovered it like China and India.

John: Right. Actually China has surpassed the U.S. as the largest energy consumer.

Russ: Oh, totally, and the demand is through the roof. So what it takes is innovation once again to solve this and that's what Paul is gonna be talking about and covering the whole spectrum from the traditional fossil fuel world to energy efficiency products to the new magical search for a game changer.

John: Keep looking. That's all I can say.

Russ: No, we need it.

John: What I'm saying is fossil fuels for the foreseeable future that is also known as our lifetime is still gonna be the main producer.

Russ: Totally.

John: Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't be out there looking for alternative means of turning on our lights every day, but in my opinion I think that it's being oversold to the public as an imminent technology that's gonna save the day, which it isn't.

Russ: Absolutely and you're right, the fossil fuel energy is so far superior and energy efficient to anything else, but then again the demand, my goodness, it's scary what's gonna happen.

John: Then we should quit broadcasting. We should lead by example.

Russ: That's right. Turn the power off and save it right now. [Laughs] We're sucking energy through plugs throughout the United States with the radio.

John: Look, there's some chi-coms over there that need our energy, so let's cease our broadcast and help them out over there.

Russ: We're using electricity right now. Let's pull the plug. All right. You're listening to the BusinessMakers show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. Stay tuned in for our interview with John Beddow, the new host of the EnergyMakers show followed by an interview with Connie Barnaba of Barnaba & Associates.