Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show, heard on the radio and seen online at the http://www.thebusinessmakers.com. This Episode Number 336 of that show about entrepreneurs.
John: That's right, 336 times over all these years we've been talking about this extoling the virtues of our capitalistic, entrepreneurial system.
Russ: I think we've made some progress.
John: I think we have. I think we have, right. I think capitalism's no longer a dirty word. When we kind of first started it was -
Russ: Yeah.
John: It was kind of reviled.
Russ: Yeah, we probably should deserve some sort of recognition or award.
John: I would say a medal.
Russ: A medal?
John: A medal, yeah. I want a medal.
Russ: I would too. Good, all right.
John: Right.
Russ: And speaking of entrepreneurs, that EO Houston group; we always like to give them a shout out at the front end.
John: That's right; they're one of the four precursors of our show.
Russ: Yes they were.
John: It was because of those people, it kind of helped give us the idea that we ought to be catering to these folks.
Russ: You bet. All right. And here's today's lineup. First up we're going to do an extended Women Mean Business with Leisa Holland-Nelson talking to Gina Luna, CEO of Consumer Banking at J. P. Morgan. It will be an interesting exchange.
John: Yes.
Russ: And that's gonna be followed by a discussion on the topic of senior care, an exploding part of our economy. I'm going to be able to sit down and talk with Andrea Connally of SCS & Associates. But first, that's right; it's time for the BusinessMaker's School of Business, perhaps the most important segment of our show attributable to bringing and upgrading the understanding of capitalism.
John: That's right because we have all this information and most of it's true. Some of it we make up, but not that much. And we think that it's just as good a curriculum as you'll find anywhere else because some of the curriculum you get in colleges and universities - It's so skewed toward the left that it might as well be not true.
Russ: That's right. And I think the parts of our school of business that aren't true might be better than the parts that are true.
John: That's right and that's why we design the curriculum.
Russ: That's why we do it.
John: It's definitely more interesting.
Russ: And we kick it off each week with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And today's quote comes from Arthur C. Clark, the British science fiction author.
John: Oh yeah, the science fiction guy, yeah.
Russ: And this will give you something to think about.
John: Okay, right. Okay, I'm ready.
Russ: "Two possibilities exist. Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
John: That's right. That sounds pretty bad.
Russ: But it's true.
John: I mean if we are alone in the Universe, who cares?
Russ: I don't care.
John: Do you care if there's anything else out there?
Russ: I mean, it's okay with me if it is.
John: Yeah, it's either way. I'm not terrified.
Russ: Well good.
John: I think Clark was - He was probably -
Russ: Well we would call and complain, but -
John: He was probably drinking heavily when he thought that up.
Russ: He probably was, but he died like three years ago so we can't complain directly.
John: No, okay, well he's finding out. He probably has already found out -
Russ: He probably has.
John: whether he's alone or not.
Russ: That's right. All right, and that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this November week in business history?
John: Okay this week in business history, 1793. That's like four years after the French Revolution got started, 1789. Jean Sylvain Bailly - he was the first mayor of Paris - was guillotined. He was involved in a big riot in the Champs de Mars which is out there by the Eifel Tower. And it was brutally put down. It made him unpopular because he -
Russ: Because he was so brutal in putting it down?
John: That's right, yeah. And they finally caught up with him and guillotined him in 1793.
Russ: Wow.
John: Yeah, right. And we all know about the guillotine. It was actually named after the inventor, Guill O'Tine, and Irishman who had too much to drink and decided it would be a good way of -
Russ: That's right. It must've been quite a scene though.
John: Well yeah, 'cause there were howling mobs. You know, cowling, yes.
Russ: You know death is not fun anyway, whether it's a guillotine or the howling mobs.
John: It's even worse if you get your head cut off and there's howling mobs. There are better ways to go.
Russ: There are.
John: That's right. There's better ways of existing - checking into the wooden Waldorf than being confronted by howling mobs.
Russ: That's right. I agree.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1800, John Adams, the first President to move to into the White House.
Russ: Wow, nice digs.
John: Well, not back in those days.
Russ: Well probably not.
John: They were still working on it. And Washington D.C. was like a muddy swamp. After the Articles of Confederations failed, of course they had the Constitutional Convention and one of the compromises they had to make was where to locate the capital of the United States. Of course the Northerners wanted a New York or Philadelphia or Boston. The Southerners wanted it
Russ: Atlanta.
John: in Charleston. You know Atlanta wasn't around then I don't think. Maybe it was a little hamlet or something. So they decided to have it between the North and the South which is why the picked the District of Columbia.
Russ: But still, the White House was probably better - It might've been bad, but it was probably better than everything else.
John: Well they didn't have any HBO there.
Russ: They didn't? Come on now.
John: No Direct TV.
Russ: Forget it _____, let's go on.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1841 life preservers made of corker patented by Napoleon Guerin of New York City.
Russ: That's good.
John: Yeah, life preservers.
Russ: Life preservers are a good thing.
John: That's right, especially if you want your life preserved.
Russ: That's right.
John: Actually that mayor of Paris probably could've used one.
Russ: He could've used a life preserver.
John: He could've jumped in the Seine River and swam away.
Russ: That's right.
John: All right, this week in business history in 1863 Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.
Russ: Wow, and as we all know -
John: You know, it was an incomplete delivery because he didn't have the zip code. There were no zip codes back in those days. But actually we all know the dedication of the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg -
Russ: And quite a speech.
John: Yeah, it was only what? One hundred and some words? And the guy before him got up there and spoke for two hours or something. And nobody remembers what he said. The whole Gettysburg Address, if you go to the Lincoln Memorial -
Russ: It's on the wall there.
John: It's on the wall there along with his second inaugural which is considered one of the best political speeches ever written and given.
Russ: Cool.
John: Now here we go. This week in business history in 1865 the revolving firearm patented by Smith and Wesson came out right after the Civil War got started. Anyway the Northern Army had access to those weapons so it worked out pretty good.
Russ: For them.
John: Yeah, for them. This week in business history in 1896, the power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation.
Russ: Now that's some serious hydropower.
John: It's hydropower and since there was no Environmental Protection Agency or anything like that, nobody cared about any fishes, fishies that might -
Russ: Right that are caught and killed by it.
John: get caught in the apparatus. And they were able probably to complete it pretty quick. Okay, this week in business history in 1904 the internal combustion engine is patented by J. F. Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts, and the safety razor was patented by King C. Gillette.
Russ: Wow, in the same week.
John: Isn't that unbelievable? I'm sure there was some initial confusion when people started shaving with the engine and trying to drive with the safety razor. Back then I'm sure they got it all sorted out.
Russ: Yeah they probably did. In fact the internal combustion engine is kind of dissed these days as being old. Not because of carbon emissions, but just, my God, 100 years? Can't you guys do something better?
John: Is this still all we got? No some things last a long time.
Russ: Yeah, there you go.
John: This week in business history in 1956, Buddy Holly actually made his final recording for Decca Records in 1956 in Bradley's Barn. He was in town to appear for a disc jockey festival and not too long after that he died in a plane crash.
Russ: Too bad. Too bad.
John: And then there's Peggy Sue. This week in business history, 1969 Wendy's Hamburger opens.
Russ: Wow, the home of the square hamburger.
John: Right, and Wendy - I saw her on TV. She's now doing the commercials and she's had a few hamburgers.
Russ: But isn't that actually his daughter?
John: She says she is.
Russ: Yeah, and you don't think she is, hey?
John: Well, why wouldn't she be?
Russ: Yeah, maybe.
John: Sixty-nine. He named the restaurant after his kid.
Russ: That's right.
John: So say she's born in 69 or 68 -
Russ: She'd be 42 now.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: That's probably her.
John: That's probably her.
Russ: We need to get her on the show though.
John: Yeah we probably should.
Russ: Yeah we should.
John: This week in business history in 1971 a Japanese company named Buesacom - they're in the calculator business and they decided to approach a firm, Intel which is short for Integrated Electronics, and they wanted a dozen chips to handle the calculators' different functions. Intel decided to put all twelve functions into one chip and revolutionized computer power.
Russ: Yeah, and Intel was -
John: The miniaturization of electronics.
Russ: Right, and Intel was very young then and putting semi-conductors in calculators was pretty new too in '71.
John: Yeah, right. And they called them microprocessors for very good reason, 'cause now they can do thousands of functions. Hundreds of thousands - I don't know -
Russ: Yeah, millions.
John: Millions in just one chip. Incredible. This week in business history President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of the Alaskan Pipeline.
Russ: Now you didn't tell us the year, but let me guess.
John: 1973. This week in business history -
Russ: '73.
John: Yeah, 1973.
Russ: Yeah and we're debating now on another pipeline from Canada down to the Gulf Coast. It will offer tens of thousands of jobs and probably reduced energy costs because they're taking out that heavy crude out of Canada and shipping it down here to where we can refine it.
John: And a lot of people don't like it because -
Russ: Only because there's going to be a pipeline and they think that - If they knew how many pipelines that were across the United States -
John: Yeah, what's one more pipeline?
Russ: We don't have very many - I mean, nothing's error free, but this -
John: No, nothing is error free, except this show.
Russ: That's right. But this is going to be good for America. It's going to help us separate ourselves from the other foreign guys that we get power from. And it's just good, good, good. Even the trade unions are on our side.
John: Hey, you don't have to debate me.
Russ: They're on our side.
John: 'Cause there's _______ ________. 'Cause there are union jobs to be had out of them.
Russ: It's really a quandary for Obama though because you've got the environmentalist on one side and unions on the other.
John: Yeah right, so which way's he gonna go?
Russ: I think he's -
John: He voted "present" like he was a Senator.
Russ: I think he's gonna go with -
John: It's too complicated.
Russ: I think he's gonna go with the unions. I hope so.
John: This week in business history in 1977 the hundredth millionth U.S. built Ford comes rolling off the assembly line at the Mahwah plant in New York.
Russ: Is that possible? A hundred million?
John: Hey, why not?
Russ: Or is that -
John: Well look - the _______ was a Model T. That was in the early '20's.
Russ: Twenty's yeah, so this is -
John: It's now '77 - 50 years.
Russ: So it was 50 years later. If you make a couple hundred thousand each year, I guess it is. No, it's gotta be more than a couple hundred thousand.
John: Well, yeah -
Russ: It'd be like a million every year.
John: Well who cares.
Russ: All right, let's go on.
John: This week in business history in 1981 the space shuttle program, Mission STS, utilizing the Columbia, marks the first time a manned space craft is launched into space twice.
Russ: And that program worked pretty well.
John: It did. You know, except for the two catastrophic crashes. This week in business history in 1993, the U.S. House of Representatives approves a North American Free Trade Act.
Russ: And that was good.
John: Yeah it was good. It was during the Clinton Administration. He was for it. Al Gore was for it.
Russ: Al Gore defeated Ross Perot in debating it.
John: The famous debate.
John: They had that picture of Smoot-Hawley, remember that? It was a good debate.
Russ: It was good.
John: This week in business history in 2004 Kmart® Corporation announces buying Sears Roebuck for $11 Billion dollars, naming the newly merged company Sears Holding Corporation. But I'm thinking, why did that they do that?
Russ: Well, I don't know. We need to talk to them and see whether it's been a good thing or a bad thing. We don't know right? And that wraps up today's history lesson.
John: Yeah it does.
Russ: It was a good one. All right, and that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is that part of the show - It's a vocabulary lesson. I pick a word and John has to tell me what the meaning is.
John: You've got that right.
Russ: You ready?
John: You bet.
Russ: Ineptocracy.
John: Ineptocracy. Democracy is a form of government like say, where the people vote or the people have a say. Theocracy is more of a religiously-based government. And what's this one called?
Russ: Ineptocracy.
John: Okay this is a form of government that cannot accomplish anything. It's just run by total incompetence and the outcome is a pure disaster.
Russ: I'm going to give you a win. So ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls.
John: Thanks. It's two weeks in a row I got it right.
Russ: It's actually a little more complicated. It's a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
John: That sounds very familiar.
Russ: Doesn't it?
John: Hmm. If anybody out there in radio land can help us out.
Russ: Where we've heard of this.
John: Where we've heard of this. Far be it from us to experience this kind of thing. But it does have a similar -
Russ: Ring to it. And that brings us to dumb moments. Do we have a dumb moment?
John: Well this is a good moment and a bad moment. Australia has passed controversial carbon pollution tax. It's called an historic day. Many cheers, back slapping, cigar smoking, you know. And it's a tax for companies that send carbon out into the air. That's basically what it is. That's a good thing. It's a bad thing for Australia because it's going to make their economy -
Russ: Yeah, slow it down.
John: It's a good thing for us because hopefully we'll be able to see how bad it is and avoid passing something like that here. It's going to take a while to see how bad it is. So hopefully we'll never have it passed here because we'll have a new government. The ineptocracy will disappear and whatever is next, whatever is better will appear.
Russ: Well that's good.
John: It's a dumb moment for Australia, but it's a good moment for us.
Russ: Well let's put it on the calendar to circle back and see how well they're doing.
John: Assuming we're still on the air.
Russ: Yeah, a year from now. All right and before we wrap up today's school of business it's time once again for Mr. Greg Price.
John: Here he is. He's sitting down here. Here you go. Pull up a chair. There you go. A-one, and a-two, and a-
Russ: All right, and that wraps up today's school of business. Stay tuned in. Up next, Leisa Holland-Nelson's Women Mean Business session, an extended session today with Gina Luna, the CEO of Consumer Banking at JPMorgan Chase. And then that's gonna be followed by my interview of Andrea Connally, founder of SCS & Associates, a consultancy totally focused on senior living. This is the BusinessMakers show heard on the radio and seen online at the businessmakers.com.
