Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is Episode Number 338 of that show that focuses on the private sector, the entrepreneurs, the small businesspeople that make it happen.

John: Yeah, and these small businesspeople sometimes create huge companies. I mean, the recent passing of Steve Jobs makes me think that anybody who starts a business in their garage has the potential to turn it into a huge, international, public company in a short amount of time.

Russ: No question.

John: And when you think about that, I mean, the time it took, I mean, you know, 30 years, you know, 20 - 30 years.

Russ: Absolutely. I get in discussions -

John: Compaq Computers the same thing.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah, yeah.

Russ: I get into discussions all the time about the difference between entrepreneurship and small businesses -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - and I just describe it like this: that entrepreneurs are guys that are really focused on making it big as fast as possible.

John: Yeah.

Russ: A lot of small business people were, and still are, but in the meantime, you know, have a viable entity that's doing well.

John: Right. Well, not everybody's in business to grow their company.

Russ: That's true.

John: They're in business to make a living -

Russ: That's right.

John: - or in business because they love it so much but don't really have the burn to make it huge or make it grow fast, and -

Russ: Right, but -

John: - we've learned marketing our journals to these people, the journals for fast-growing companies, the people that run fast-growing companies.

Russ: Speaking of fast growing companies, what's up that, you know, the FastTech 50?

John: That's right. The FastTech 50 is coming up this coming Tuesday, November 29th, and you're playing a big part in it. It's not just the FastTech 50 luncheon now; it's a technology conference, and you're gonna help us kick it off with the CEO leadership forum.

Russ: Right. I'm looking forward to it, got a major lineup of CEOs but -

John: Yeah, yeah.

Russ: - but there's more than even my CEO panel in the contest.

John: Right. We have Erik Qualman, who's the godfather of social media, and he's written a couple of books, and he's gonna be talking at the FastTech 50 luncheon, and then later, we'll have a VIP session that people can go to if they want to pay the money. Some of them do, and they'll be able to talk to him and autograph his book, and then you'll be able to get some preview chapters of his new book that you won't be able to get any - we're gonna get those chapters before Amazon does.

Russ: Wow.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Well now, do you actually autograph his book, or does he autograph the book -

John: Well, he's gonna autograph my book, and I'm gonna autograph his book.

Russ: [Laughter] That's good. That's good.

John: I'm just kidding. I don't have a book. By the way, you just go to BusinessJournals.com/Houston and you can register.

Russ: For FastTech 50.

John: For FastTech - for all the events of FastTech 50.

Russ: Cool, cool. All right. Speaking of entrepreneurs, our shout out to the EO Houston group, the group of entrepreneurs that -

John: Absolutely.

Russ: - play a role here in the community, and kind of, get together, and do good and help each other out.

John: And they're the classic example of what we were talking about earlier about entrepreneurs, most of them - the people who are labeled entrepreneur actually do want to grow their companies.

Russ: That's right, absolutely. All right.

John: Right, right, yeah.

Russ: And here's our lineup for today: first up, I sit down with Ray Thompson, a partner WPNT. This is that upper-end communications group. I had him on the show probably three years ago. Back then, we talked about different kinds of crises that hit the media, and they coach and help people handle those appropriately. There's an abundance of crises nowadays, so I think it's a good time to be in that business, probably.

John: What, the media business or the advisory?

Russ: Well, the crisis coaching for the media business.

John: Yeah, yeah. Actually, there's solutions to a lot of the problems in media can be handled by uttering, like, three or four sentences, you know?

Russ: Right. [Laughter]

John: You know?

Russ: That's probably true, too.

John: Yeah.

Russ: All right. And then, that's gonna be followed by another interview with Cliff Kurtzman of My City Rocks.

John: Oh, yeah.

Russ: This time, he's gonna be talking about EO Houston and the whole EO organization. So...

John: Right, okay.

Russ: A lot going on.

John: Mm-hmm.

Russ: But first - that's right.

John: All right.

Russ: It's time for the Business Makers School of Business.

John: You bet.

Russ: And we kick off the School of Business each week with the Quote of the Day.

John: The Quote of the Day.

Russ: And I find this one particularly interesting. It's by Alexis de Tocqueville.

John: Right.

Russ: He was the French Political Thinker that lived at -

John: I've heard that name before.

Russ: - 1805 through 1859.

John: Yeah, mm-hmm. Absolutely, and his book is still as relevant today as it was when he -

Russ: Right.

John: - back when he wrote the thing, yeah.

Russ: It's called Democracy in America. He came over here and studied what we were doing and offered, kind of, advice as well as criticism.

John: And some warnings, warning shots.

Russ: Well, that's what this quote's all about.

John: Yeah, right, yeah.

Russ: Here it is, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

John: That's right. That's what's going on right now and started, I guess, back in the '40s - the '30s and '40s, you know?

Russ: Yeah, well, they keep increasing the size of the federal government by taxing us more and more, taking our money, and then they dole out our money to try to get _____.

John: But they don't dole it out to the same people who paid into it.

Russ: Oh, no - no, they don't. They, they -

John: I mean, some of does in the form of road repairs and security, you know, and education, things like that.

Russ: But they mainly dole it out into those big categories that will help reelect them.

John: That's right, yeah.

Russ: So they can get more money. Wow, it's a viscous, scary cycle that -

John: It's like the government is, like, one huge cocaine peddler. That's right. They get -

Russ: Right. [Laughter] It's kinda like it is.

John: That's right, crack, crack.

Russ: Or it's kinda like a Ponzi scheme, too, you know?

John: That's right. No, it's not "like" a Ponzi scheme.

Russ: [Laughter] Alright. And that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this week in business history?

John: Well, we have a whole plethora of diverse elements comprised of our This Week in Business History, and we're starting off in 1874. Hard to believe, Winston Churchill was born in 1874, and if I'm not mistaken, I think Queen Victoria was still the queen then.

Russ: My goodness.

John: I think. I'm not sure, but man, 1874 and he's well known for guiding England through their World War II crisis which he did a pretty good job, you might say.

Russ: He did. He did.

John: But he had mistakes. I mean, anybody who lives that long is gonna make mistakes.

Russ: Yeah. Well, he would be 137 today, I think.

John: That's right. He would not be very coherent.

Russ: Right. [Laughter] That's true, too.

John: He wasn't very coherent. He did like to smoke cigars, and I mean, how can you be bad if you smoke cigars, right?

Russ: Absolutely.

John: Okay. This week in business history, the first V8 engine is patented. It's back in 1902.

Russ: Wow.

John: It happens, you know, we all know that it happens inside cylinders. The pistons compress a combination of the fuel and the air, and there's a spark plug, and it causes, you know -

Russ: Well, and there are those that are saying it's a little bit wrong that the internal combustion engine is still the primary driver of travel.

John: Yes. That's right, yeah.

Russ: And a V8, 1902, man, that's 109 years ago.

John: Yeah, the design came from a Frenchman with a background in art, of all places. So, anyway...

Russ: Huh, cool.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1967 the first human heart transplant, Lewis Washkansky, a 53-year-old, receives the first human heart in Capetown, South Africa and received the transplant from a woman, 25-year-old Denise Duvall, who was in a car accident. The surgeon was Christiaan Barnard who performed the whole operation.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Well, I still remember the news story when it happened.

John: Oh, yeah, right.

Russ: I thought, "Man, how odd is that?" But the interesting thing is that Dr. Christiaan Barnard did some training in the US, right here in Houston, knew these guys here, Dr. DeBakey and Dr. Coolidge, who both really took that work and carried it forward a lot, and it's kinda common these days.

John: Yeah. Well, a lot of things are, you know, when they first happen...

Russ: [Laughter] Yeah, yeah.

John: Whoever turned over the first V8 engine probably had some trepidation, you know?

Russ: Right, right, right. [Laughter]

John: So, anyway, I do think that it is amazing just how fast technology can grow after -

Russ: Oh, man, no kidding.

John: - after that first barrier is breached so...

Russ: Yeah, after they first bust open somebody's breastbone and take out their heart and replace it, yeah. [Laughter]

John: It's kinda ghoulish when you think about it.

Russ: Yes. Well, it is.

John: Yeah, yep. Okay. This week in business history, in 1972 Nolan Bushnell, who cofounded Atari and was actually a guest on our show one time -

Russ: A guest on the - you bet.

John: - that releases Pong, the first commercially-successful video game, and it was in a tavern. Where else are you gonna put a video game, the first video game? You know, you get people having a few beers, and of course, they're gonna stay there all night playing that stuff.

Russ: Well, as the story goes, the tavern kinda called him late that night and I think left him a message on his little cassette recorder, "Hey, this thing doesn't work." You know, and he went, "Oh, it must've broken." He said, "I didn't think it'd break because it's mainly digital electronics." So, he went in the next morning to check it out, and the problem was that the coin receptor was stuffed full of coins, and that's why it didn't work which is an indication that he had something there.

John: Yeah, we're gonna need a bigger coinage mechanism.

Russ: Right.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1977 Linda Ronstadt - remember her?

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: - hit Number 1 this week with her Simple Dreams album, and she did some cover songs, Blue Bayou, which is Roy Orbison, and It's So Easy, Buddy Holly. I don't know what her cover story was with the former governor of - now it's still the governor.

Russ: Yeah, now the governor once again.

John: Yeah, once again, Jerry Brown.

Russ: Governor Brown, yeah.

John: All right. So, anyway...

Russ: What's interesting about that -

John: Governor Moonbeam they called him the first time he was governor.

Russ: Now what's interesting about that Blue Bayou song is that there's a lot of football commentators that use that song now to describe a running back that just blew right by you.

John: That's right.

Russ: Yeah. So, it's just kinda interesting the way all these -

John: What do ya know, you cracked a joke. All right, okay, all right. This week in business history, in 1982 Michael Jackson's Thriller becomes a best-selling album all time, eventually, is released this week in business history.

Russ: Yeah, wow. And what year was that?

John: 1982.

Russ: Wow.

John: I remember when it came out. Yeah, I was in Pittsburgh, and I kept hearing about the video, and I'm walking down one of the main streets there in downtown Pittsburgh, and there's a little TV store, appliance store, and they had a player playing it. So, I had to stand there and watch it for -

Russ: And you probably learned it.

John: I did. I do it today.

Russ: That's how -

John: That's how I learned the Moonwalk.

Russ: Yeah, right, Right. Cool, right. [Laughter]

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1982 a dentist becomes the first human recipient of a permanent artificial heart.

Russ: My goodness.

John: Before that, all artificial hearts were temporary. They put them in the person's body until they could get a, you know, a transplant or something like that, but -

Russ: Yeah, yeah. This is heart day on the history list.

John: It's heart day. You gotta have a heart.

Russ: It must be Valentine's or something.

John: You know, it's too bad none of this stuff happened on Valentine's Day.

Russ: Right.

John: Then we could really have fun with it.

Russ: Right. Now, what was this guy's name?

John: Okay. His name was Barney Clark.

Russ: Yeah, I remember that, and he lived about -

John: Got the Jarvik 7 artificial heart, yeah.

Russ: And he lived, like, about three weeks, but the artificial heart then was like in something the size of a refrigerator.

John: Yeah, right. Well, no, no, the support system was the size of a refrigerator. The heart itself was not.

Russ: No, right. [Laughter]

John: Well, the thing they put into his body was fairly small.

Russ: No, that's true, but they get sucking the blood out.

John: Can you imagine trying to open up someone's chest and installing a refrigerator? [Laughter]

Russ: Well, I can't even imagine doing what Barney Frank or whatever his name was. [Laughter]

John: Barney Clark. [Laughter]

Russ: Barney Jarvik.

John: Barney Clark.

Russ: Barney Clark, yes, yes. [Laughter]

John: All right, let's move on.

Russ: All right, all right.

John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1988 Roy Orbison performs his last concert in Cleveland, Ohio. This week in business history 2001, you've probably heard of this company called Enron.

Russ: Yeah, I remember.

John: Okay. They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week in business history.

Russ: Wow, ten years.

John: And the long and short of it is they just tried to hide all this debt, and they keep it off the balance sheet, and they had these little companies on the side, and you know...

Russ: Fastow, the CFO did, and they really fooled people for a while in thinking they were an extremely dynamic, successful company.

John: Well, remember we had that banker, Walter Johnson -

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: - and he was talking about his finance guy/CFO who went over -

Russ: Yeah.

John: 'Cause they wondered why they couldn't get any business out of Enron, his bank.

Russ: Right.

John: And they guy came back and said, "Look, I spent a whole day over there, and I gotta tell you" -

Russ: I don't know what they do.

John: "I don't know what they do. Stay away from it." And they guy thought Walter was gonna fire him, but Walter didn't and thanked his lucky stars he - you know.

Russ: No, he didn't, no, no. Good story that - yeah, absolutely.

John: Okay. In this week in business history, in 2001 the true nature of the much hyped, much talked invention by Dean Kamen was revealed to the public. It was called the Segway Human Transporter.

Russ: Oh, and they referred to it as "It" for a long time.

John: It was "It," yeah, right.

Russ: And that was also 2001?

John: 2001, yeah, right.

Russ: Wow, ten years ago, wow.

John: Right. And, you know, every new product - every product that comes out kinda has a side effect. You know, sometimes it's positive; sometimes it's negative. I'd say in the Segway it was, kind of, a negative because people who used the Segway think they're morally superior. Do you ever see them riding around on one of those? I mean, you very rarely see them being used except for mall police and stuff like that.

Russ: You're taller, you know?

John: You're taller, but you know, you're just, you know, you're just with it.

Russ: Yeah, yeah. Well -

John: You can look down on people who actually walk or ride their bikes because you've got this stupid, little thing that, you know...

Russ: Right.

John: And somebody died. Didn't the owner -

Russ: Well, the guy that bought it, yeah -

John: Yeah, yeah, basically.

Russ: - bought the company did the off road version and fell off a cliff.

John: Fell off a cliff, right, so...

Russ: But what is interesting, ten years back now the "It" was, sort of, described as something that's just gonna change mankind forever.

John: Yeah, thought it was, yeah.

Russ: So, I don't think they -

John: Which is a probably lofty statement. [Laughter]

Russ: Yes, it is, and I don't think that they've ever hit their projections -

John: No.

Russ: - never even come close to them, and there's a lot of people that say, "Well, my god, if it's replacing walking, I thought obesity was a problem. We should be walking. We shouldn't be riding something where we can walk."

John: That's right. Which, you know, all these people who are complaining about obesity should think - you know, at least we're not all going around the town on, you know, Segways.

Russ: That's right.

John: People actually are walking.

Russ: That's right. [Laughter]

John: You know?

Russ: Burning calories, you know.

John: Okay, all right, that's it. That wraps it up, you bet.

Russ: Well, fantastic history lesson, as usual.

John: Okay. Well, I'm sorry I missed last week, but you know, things - sometimes things don't work out the way that you plan.

Russ: Yeah, but you had a family thing going on.

John: Family affair, yeah, yeah.

Russ: That's okay. We missed you, but -

John: Lisa filled in admirably, I hear.

Russ: You bet. She did a good job.

John: Yeah, okay, good.

Russ: All right. And that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round.

John: Ah, yes.

Russ: Where I go out and find a brand-new word and hide it from John all week until right now, and I say -

John: Till right now.

Russ: Yeah, I say it, and he has -

John: I don't even think you know the word this week.

Russ: Well, I don't. I'm trying to think one up right now, but I think I've got one, but the only thing that's wrong with it, it is a piece of cake. So, you will have no problem with it.

John: When I don't guess the word, you get this thing going that, "Oh, I stumped him. I know more than he does," kinda thing, but when I - and then when I guess it, it's not because, hey, I'm up to speed on this stuff, and I know it's hard for you to believe, but I'm actually at the same level as you are intellectually. No, if I guess a word, it's because it's a piece of cake; it's an easy word. Well, you know, I get kinda tired of hearing this.

Russ: Well, I could guess this one. Are you ready?

John: [Laughter] Yeah.

Russ: Extrapreneur.

John: Oh, extrapreneur.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Well, entrepreneur is someone who starts companies. Okay. Extrapreneur is someone who obviously does more than just start companies. I mean, they're involved in all kinds of things, and they have a lot of balls up in the air at one time, and also, an extrapreneur does and not only are they good at starting companies, but they're really multitalented and -

Russ: All right. I'll say, yeah, you got that right.

John: Okay, all right.

Russ: Although, I think it also -

John: Although, here comes the qualifier.

Russ: Yeah, it also could be another word for that often-used phrase serial entrepreneur.

John: Oh, right, yeah.

Russ: Could be, could be.

John: Yeah, could be but probably shouldn't be.

Russ: All right. We won't allow that.

John: All right.

Russ: All right. That brings us to Dumb Moments.

John: Dumb Moments.

Russ: And dumb business practices.

John: Dumb business - okay, this is, kind of, an ongoing dumb moment because the airlines and the government are making it increasingly more difficult for people to enjoy the flying experience, you know?

Russ: Right, right.

John: And I say the airlines are partial of this because, you know, baggage fees and stuff like this.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

John: But, you know, the government I guess - and I think the airlines probably have a hand in this somewhere, but the intrusive screening procedures are getting to the point where people don't enjoy flying.

Russ: Right, right.

John: And it's -

Russ: The long lines to go through it.

John: Well, yeah, and intrusive, and the pat downs and -

Russ: Full body scans, yeah.

John: Yeah, right, and then you've got to put all these things in those little 4 ounce bottles. I mean, it's ridiculous, and you've gotta take your shoes and belt off.

Russ: Yeah, and then you gotta put them back on.

John: Then you gotta put - yeah, it's even worse, you know, to put them back on. So, we've got an advisory because - and we don't think this is gonna cause a run on the airlines at all.

Russ: Right, right.

John: But here's what I do. If my destination is within four hours of where I live or where I - you know, I'm not gonna fly.

Russ: Drive time, you mean, yeah.

John: Four-hour drive time.

Russ: Yeah, well, that's a good idea.

John: Because you figure it's an hour - you know, you have to leave to go to the airport probably, like, two hours before your flight leaves 'cause you want to be there at least an hour and a half because you don't know how long the screening lines are gonna be. So, and then so that's an hour and a half, two hours, okay. Then you figure a four-hour drive equals, like, a one-hour flight. So, you're already - and then the one-hour drive from the airport. You gotta get your luggage, and by the time you add all that up, it's four or five hours to get all that done. Well, why just do - just throw all your stuff in the car.

Russ: They should disallow flights that are that close.

John: Well, I think we're gonna come to the point where it'll be illegal. When you leave the city limits in your car, like, 25 - 30 miles outside the city, they know you're trying to get around the airlines.

Russ: That's right.

John: So, the airlines will probably come and park -

Russ: They'll make it illegal to drive then.

John: Not illegal, they'll just, you know, charge you $50.00 to leave the city.

Russ: [Laughter] That's a good idea.

John: To get around, yeah.

Russ: We need that kind of regulation, don't we? [Laughter] Yeah, right.

John: But, anyway, it's just like the unintended consequences, and I'm for making these airlines - you know, you can only be in an airplane at 30,000 feet and something going off -

Russ: Blows up, yeah.

John: - blows up, yeah.

Russ: You don't want that to happen.

John: You know, but on the other hand, you know...

Russ: But the terrorists have not been infiltrating private cars yet, at least from what I know.

John: No.

Russ: So, at least you've got that part safe.

John: But I know a few drivers who qualify as terrorists.

Russ: [Laughter] Right, all right.

John: You know? The terrorist may be in other cars trying to, you know -

Russ: They might be.

John: Cutting in front of you and blinking their lights at night at you.

Russ: Oh, yeah. No, you gotta deal with that, too.

John: Yeah, right.

Russ: Okay, all right, all right. But before we wrap up today's School of Business -

John: Before, before, before we wrap it up.

Russ: Before we wrap it up, yeah.

John: Okay. What are we gonna do before we wrap it up?

Russ: We're gonna do the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: Ah, yes. I almost forgot.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And here's Greg right now. A one, and a two, and a...

Russ: All right. And that wraps up today's School of Business. Stay tuned in for our interview with Ray Thompson, a partner with WPNT, and after that, I'll interview Cliff Kurtzman talking about the EO organization. This is the BusinessMaker's Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.