Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show, heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. This is that show about those that most positively affect our lives.
John: That's right. These are the go-getters, the artists, the athletes in the free enterprise system that, you know, come up with the ideas, for the most part. I'm not saying that ideas don't come up in other parts of our capitalized system but a lot of them come up through individuals who have a moment where they think, "You know, I'm gonna try this," and sometimes they fail, a lotta times they fail.
Russ: Right.
John: Well, sometimes they make it.
Russ: Right.
John: Sometimes they fail and make it later on.
Russ: Right.
John: And then they're the engines of our economic recovery.
Russ: That's right, the engines of our economic recovery.
John: They are. They are actually.
Russ: As a matter of fact the only alternative to them bringing back our economy is the idea that -- that you and I have come up with, which - which we know would have immediate positive impact but nobody seems to be listening. Do you know what I'm talkin' about?
John: No.
Russ: Yeah, they sub - bring back a giving away mortgages to people who don't have any credit and don't have any money and don't have a home.
John: Well, I know.
Russ: And then they go buy a home.
John: Yeah.
Russ: And then the demand starts goin' up.
John: Right.
Russ: That way it cures the housing industry --
John: That's right because they're --
Russ: almost overnight.
John: Because everybody has a house.
Russ: Right, right and then --
John: And there's no economic pressure because they're getting the money for almost for free.
Russ: Right, you just get Fannie and Freddie and they'll cooperate. They've proven that before.
John: They're very cooperative.
Russ: Yeah, right, right, and then when these people that couldn't buy a house own a house and then the demand has gone up so much that the house is now worth more than the money --
John: And they go out and buy furniture --
Russ: They can. They can get it in a second!
John: and flat-screen TV's and I don't know what.
Russ: It isn't hard to put it in the garage. It doesn't permanently but it works about 10, 15 years
John: 10, 15 years. Well, yeah, right.
Russ: Yeah, then - and then if you're an elected official by then you're probably outta office and what the hell do you care?
John: There ya go.
Russ: Right.
John: What a great idea!
Russ: Right, so we offered --
John: So what was your ah-ha moment?
Russ: So - so we offered two solutions, here. Let the entrepreneurs do it or just go and do the subprime thing, you know?
John: Raise the minimum wage to --
Russ: That --
John: $1,000.00 an hour.
Russ: Yes!
John: You know?
Russ: Everybody will be rich!
John: Everybody will be rich, yeah.
Russ: But here on The Business Makers Show we know that it takes these --
John: As we return to sanity.
Russ: These people that create businesses that create jobs and that are the engines of our economy and, in fact, speaking of them, a shout-out, once again, to E.O. Houston, as we do every week.
John: Oh, yeah, right.
Russ: Now this E.O. organization --
John: They gotta whole gaggle of entrepreneurs.
Russ: Well, yeah, no, no kidding and --
John: A gaggle I'm talkin' about here, you know?
Russ: And this E.O. organization is not just your typical hey-let's-together-and-share-stories, I mean, it's a - it's a global thing.
John: Mmm-hmm.
Russ: They're extremely proactive, extremely helpful --
John: Mmm-hmm.
Russ: And so if an entrepreneur out there and you're feelin' kinda lonesome you ought to go join E.O. Houston
John: Mmm-hmm.
Russ: And so if an entrepreneur out there and you're feelin' kinda lonesome you ought to go join E.O. Houston
John: E.O. Houston, yes.
Russ: If you're here in Houston but they're all over the country.
John: Yeah, that's like a pyramid marketing almost.
Russ: That's right, that's right. It's very effective. Okay, also when we're talking about entrepreneurs, we like to always mention The Energy Makers.
John: The Energy Makers, yes.
Russ: Today there's a couple of guests on the show that are doin' some innovative things. I suggest going over to theenergymakers.com
John: Okay.
Russ: And on this show, first up, Kirk Coburn, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Surge Accelerator and that's gonna be followed by an update with Gaurav Khandelwal, the Founder and CEO of ChaiONE.
Russ: That's right. It's time for The Business Makers School of Business. Not your business-as-usual school by any stretch of the imagination.
John: No, I don't care whether that's a large stretch or a large stretch.
Russ: I don't either.
John: Because if it's somewhere in between.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Actually this whole show is kind of a stretch.
Russ: Yeah, it is.
John: It's a school of business as such that it is so ground - the ground-level down-to-earth curriculum learning --
Russ: Right.
John: that I don't think anybody even approaches how ridiculous --
Russ: And don't think they do, yeah.
John: the ridiculousness of this show.
Russ: I don't think they do, I don't think they do but there is substance there as well.
John: There's always substance, yeah.
Russ: But we kick it off with the Quote of the Day.
John: Quote of the Day, yes.
Russ: And I just had to go back to P.J. O'Rourke because he's --
John: Yeah, he's something.
Russ: Well and this one's kinda directed to those Occupy people, you know? I'm sure they would perhaps not agree with this.
John: You're right about -
Russ: Now it sounds like it but I think he said this about 20 years ago
John: Mmm-hmm.
Russ: And he goes like this, "You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money."
John: No, you just can't do it, you know?
Russ: Yeah, and so that's for all the Occupy Wall Street.
John: That's right.
Russ: The Occupy people all over the place.
John: Uh-huh.
Russ: We're not gonna give you any money.
John: Yeah, that's right. I don't think they really want the money.
Russ: You don't think they do?
John: I just think they wanna hang out this week and --
Russ: Get some attention and all that stuff.
John: Media attention.
Russ: That's right, that's right.
John: Okay.
Russ: All right and that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this October week in business history?
John: This week in business history, in 1797, the first parachute jump of notoriety - I guess there'd been others before - but this one was a hydrogen balloon, 3,200 feet above Paris.
Russ: Whoa.
John: And Leonardo Da Vinci thought of the idea of the parachute in writings and drawings. Another Frenchman jumped out of a tree with some umbrellas but it was the first real --
Russ: Yeah.
John: parachute jump.
Russ: It's one thing to have the idea; it's another thing to jump out.
John: And the guy's wife, the guy, Garnerin's wife, whose name is André-Jacques Garnerin.
Russ: Yeah?
John: His wife became the first female parachutist.
Russ: Wow!
John: Yeah.
Russ: What a couple!
John: And he died in a balloon accident in 1823 while preparing to test a new parachute so it wasn't the parachute that killed him.
Russ: Wow it was the balloon.
John: It was the balloon.
Russ: Wow.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Wow.
John: So.
Russ: All right.
John: Okay this week in business history, in 1846 is the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery.
Russ: How about that? Can you imagine it was the patient? That guy might've been -
John: Well, yeah.
Russ: He didn't have control. I was gonna say that might be braver than jumping out of a --
John: Now I like what it says here, too. This is understated. "Before anesthesia, surgery was an agonizing experience." Yeah.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, doing my taxes is agonizing but --
Russ: Yes, surgery.
John: "The surgeon had to hire strongmen to restrain patients from bucking."
Russ: Until anesthesia came along.
John: So look what the - so anesthesia drove the - the strongmen, the restrainers, outta business.
Russ: Oh.
John: The Amalgamated Brotherhood of Strong Restraining Men, you know, men restraining patients.
Russ: Lost their jobs.
John: Lost all their jobs, yeah.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah.
Russ: How cruel.
John: And most the credit for the anesthesia belongs to a guy named William Thomas Green Morton and he was a dentist and he began experimenting with ether. I guess he tried, you know? He used the ether so he could talk real funny.
Russ: No, that's helium.
John: Oh, that's helium.
Russ: Yeah, he probably - yeah, that's prolly what he did. He thought it would make him talk funny and it knocked him out.
John: It knocked him out, yeah, so, anyway, that's - that's quite - you know, 1840.
Russ: Wow.
John: 1846
Russ: Cool.
John: This week in business history, in 1867, the U.S. formally took possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for about $7 million, $0.02-an-acre.
Russ: Right. That was wasn't that also referred to "Seward's folly?"
John: "Seward's folly," yeah.
Russ: Right, right.
John: And that's not anymore.
Russ: No, that's a good deal.
John: It's a good deal.
Russ: Yep.
John: A lot of - unfortunately we can't take advantage of what's up there because of --
Russ: Because of --
John: environmental concerns.
Russ: the EPA.
John: The EPA, yeah.
Russ: All right, so, the Economic Protective Agency.
John: Yeah, Extortion Agency.
Russ: Yes.
John: This week in business history, in 1885, Baseball sets all players' salary at $1,000.00 to $2,000.00, $1,000.00 to $2,000.00, for the 1885 Season.
Russ: Wow.
John: Now that's - I don't know what the equivalent. Let's say there's been, what 100 percent inflation?
Russ: Well.
John: 200 percent?
Russ: Yeah, but I mean that was big money.
John: That was big money, yeah.
Russ: But it sounds like price control. The bad players got $1,000.00, the best players got $2,000.00 and everybody else was in between?
John: Right, I guess so.
Russ: Of course then probably nobody complained because it was probably really good money.
John: This week in business history, in 1919, Radio Corporation of America, also known as RCA --
Russ: Wow
John: was founded
Russ: 1919, yeah.
John: 19 - this week in business history in 1919.
Russ: That was a big --
John: Amazing!
Russ: Radio was huge then --
John: Oh, yeah.
Russ: and the corporation focused on it.
John: Well, it didn't start getting huge 'til a little later but --
Russ: Well, the potential huge.
John: It's not everybody hadda radio.
Russ: That's right, that's right, that's right.
John: That's tough to be in the broadcasting business when nobody can hear you.
Russ: Yeah.
John: It's like that thing if a tree falls in the woods and nobody's there to hear it does the tree fall?
Russ: It's kinda like that first --
John: Did it make a sound?
Russ: Yeah, it was kinda like - we know the answer to that because that first station that carried our show, you really could only hear it if you were--
John: In a car.
Russ: Or in the studio. If you were in there with us you could hear it. Sometimes if you were in a car, in the right place, you could hear it.
John: It's hard trying to find the right place.
Russ: That's right. You'd have to drive all over town and try to find it because it moved.
John: I know, yeah. It's the experiment - great experiment radio.
Russ: Right, yeah, right.
John: This week in business history, in 1931, Thomas Edison dies in West Orange, New Jersey, at the age of 84.
Russ: Wow
John: And he was a mentor of Henry Ford.
Russ: Yeah, wow.
John: And Henry Ford was an inventor in his own right.
Russ: Yeah, no kiddin', you bet.
John: This week in business history in 1926, the singer Chuck Berry in San Jose, California.
Russ: 1926.
John: 1926, yeah.
Russ: So, 74, so he's 85 now, wow.
John: Wow.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, he learned guitar as a teenager, moved to St. Louis, sang "Maybelline" and "Johnny B. Goode" and all that.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And he's kind of a temperamental guy from --
Russ: Oh, yeah.
John: from what I've heard.
Russ: I think he is.
John: Yeah but anyway he's still alive.
Russ: You can get away with it if you're him.
John: If you're famous.
Russ: If you're Chuck Berry.
John: If you're famous. Chuck Berry, a couple great tunes.
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, there ya go. This week in business history, in 1973, oil exports cut. It was a move that - it was a quite substantial move because there was this group called OPEC and they decided to reduce oil exports to Western countries because part of it was the Arab/Israeli thing --
Russ: Right, right.
John: I think and part of it was they just wanted to flex their muscle.
Russ: Right.
John: Of course if it weren't for, you know, American ingenuity and the West, those guys would still be drivin' camels --
Russ: Right.
John: as opposed to Rolls Royce's, --
Russ: Right, right.
John: you know?
Russ: Right.
John: Yeah.
Russ: But the - the cartel was very effective when they stopped
John: Oh, it was, yeah.
Russ: They like brought us to our knees.
John: Almost, well, yeah, it did!
Russ: Yeah!
John: Because we had that odd/even gas rationing
Russ: Yeah and there were long lines at gasoline stations and for a brief period they even made bit commercial establishments turn up in the summertime to turn up their thermostat to not run their air conditioners. They made us drive 55 miles an hour --
John: Well, no, they didn't.
Russ: Well.
John: The federal government played a --
Russ: Yeah, okay. Well, but it was without - without the cartel, the government wouldn't have asked us to do it.
John: That's right, you're right, you're right. Okay, this week in business history, in 1982, John DeLorean is arrested for drug dealing. He was trying to fund the - keep the survival going of the DeLorean, --
Russ: Yeah.
John: the car that was named after him.
Russ: But they don't teach you that at business school.
John: They don't, no.
Russ: When all else fails, --
John: It's called alternative financing.
Russ: I guess.
John: Yeah.
Russ: You're having trouble makin' payroll --
John: Yeah.
Russ: Just start dealing cocaine.
John: Well, the thing is these cars all had flux capacities, you know?
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: They were actually time machines.
Russ: You think he could've - he should've done something with that!
John: He could've gone back into time and actually going into the future, see how the stocks were going, you know, and come back --
Russ: But he didn't use it.
John: like they did in the movie.
Russ: That's right!
John: It's too bad he didn't, you know, too bad that movie didn't come out before he got into trouble.
Russ: Yeah, that's right.
John: All right, okay, all right, let's see what else we got here, okay, this is - this week in business history, in 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System is released.
Russ: Wow.
John: The Super Mario Brothers is --
Russ: One of your favorite games, right?
John: Well, oh yeah, yeah, yeah and they --
Russ: You still play it, don't you?
John: Not anymore.
Russ: Not anymore, all right.
John: I don't play games.
Russ: All right, okay, all right.
John: Okay the last but not least, this week in business history, in 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial closed down 733 points.
Russ: Yes, yes, I remember the day very well.
John: Oh, yeah.
Russ: That was when we knew we were in trouble. That was like - that like was like end of the thing that we were talking about at the very beginning of this segment. That's when it was obvious that subprime mortgages didn't work.
John: Yeah, we had to fall out, yeah, and if it just would've been the mortgages --
Russ: That's right.
John: we would've gotten out of it.
Russ: Yeah.
John: We would've come out of it.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And but what they did is they took those mortgages and turned them into investment --
Russ: Well, they had to.
John: instruments.
Russ: They had to do something with them because nobody wanted to keep them.
John: Yeah, so Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, you know, puts these things together and packages them up, puts a nice bow around it and sells it to Wall Street.
Russ: Yeah, and then they get big bonuses.
John: Yeah, Wall Street, they don't want 'em either so they try to sell 'em off to people and then they get these credit default swaps, which is like an insurance policy --
Russ: Right.
John: but it's just been a big mess. Now I think one of the benefits of what happened, though, it really exposed a lotta crooks.
Russ: Well it did but I don't think they get enough attention, you know?
John: The top crooks?
Russ: Yeah, and the cause doesn't get enough attention.
John: The thing is, yeah, there was some skullduggery in the final institution --
Russ: Yes.
John: amidst all this but the whole thing was precipitated by the Community Reinvestment Act, --
Russ: Yes.
John: which was passed decades ago and it's just back then, when it was passed, they weren't, you know, giving away money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back but one of the unintended consequences of that bill was, eventually, they wanted banks to make these --
Russ: Absolutely.
John: they call it a redlining and they were accusing these banks of not granting loans to people for racial discrimination purposes when actually most of the banks were not loaning money to these people because they couldn't pay it back.
Russ: Right.
John: And so that all changed with the Freddie - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and now we know.
Russ: You bet!
John: This doesn't work. Okay!
Russ: All right does that wrap up today's history lesson?
John: That's all I got.
Russ: Fantastic, all right, so that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round. This is that part of the show where I go out and find a new piece of jargon and come back in here and challenge John's --
John: Challenge, yes.
Russ: intellectual skills and cognitive ability --
John: And I challenge you to a word duel.
Russ: yeah, to come up with a meaning of a word he, most likely, has never heard before.
John: Uh-huh, yeah.
Russ: Ever, okay, you ready?
John: Yeah, go ahead.
Russ: All right today's word is buttlegging
John: Bootlegging.
Russ: No, buttlegging
John: Buttlegging.
Russ: B-U-T-T-L-E-G-G-I-N-G.
John: Okay well bootlegging was when they during the Prohibition.
Russ: Right, that's right.
John: They were bringing liquor from --
Russ: You're on heading on the right path, yeah.
John: Buttlegging is - I have no idea. Go ahead what is it?
Russ: You'll think it's so obvious, once I tell you, it's smuggling cigarettes, butts, cigarette butts.
John: Oh, okay.
Russ: Buttlegging, it's a good, man, yeah, and it happens a lot now because cigarettes are so expensive --
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: and the taxes on 'em are sky-high.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yeah, and as a result a lot of these governments that are taxing cigarettes, including our government and even local governments, city, county, state, and all that, the people are finding ways of getting cigarettes through alternative means.
Russ: It's called buttlegging, that's right, you're right.
John: And they've gotta go to Indian reservations or your local mafia chapter.
Russ: Yeah, they do a good job.
John: Yeah, they do.
Russ: All right, all right, and that brings us to Dumb Moments in Business. Do you have any to share with us?
John: Well, if you think the baggage on airlines are gonna get people riled up --
Russ: Yeah?
John: wait 'til you get a load of this.
Russ: Yeah.
John: The European Union is going to be charging permits to the airlines to fly from America - actually from anywhere - to Europe, so based on the carbon dioxide emissions, --
Russ: Oh!
John: there's gonna be a tax.
Russ: Okay.
John: and each airline is allocated so many credits but, of course, there are not enough credits to go around or to totally absorb, for lack fo a better word, all of the carbon dioxide that gets emitted --
Russ: Okay.
John: so eventually they're gonna run short on credits, they're gonna hafta buy credits --
Russ: To fly into Europe?
John: To fly into Europe.
Russ: Into Europe, yeah.
John: Now the problem is most of the carbon dioxide spent doesn't even happen in Europe, it happens in the United States.
Russ: Okay, so but they're kinda taxing you or charging you over the whole trip.
John: Yeah, so when you land, when the plane lands, they hafta pay for the entire carbon dioxide emission as opposed just to one part because when you fly to Europe, you're up in the for about an hour but you're flying from, say, New York, it's a, what, a 12-hour flight?
Russ: Yeah, it sounds like a business opportunity to me. We could make a huge aircraft carrier that could sit way out on the eastern side of the Atlantic and we would land these commercial jets and then they would fill up and go and then there would be a lot shorter tax wouldn't it?
John: I know, I know, yeah, but it's - it's coming, it is.
Russ: There ya go!
John: There ya go!
Russ: All right.
John: So I guess you can drive to Europe now.
Russ: Yeah, yes, yes.
John: Or take a boat.
Russ: Yeah, right.
John: Maybe the cruise business might pick up.
Russ: Might pick up.
John: Yeah.
Russ: All right.
John: That's it.
Russ: And that's it, all right, and before we wrap up to today's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: There ya go.
Russ: So let's welcome Mr. Greg Price on the piano.
Russ: All right and that wraps up today's School of Business. Stay tuned in for our interview with Kirk Coburn, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Surge Accelerator, followed by an interview with Gaurav Khandelwal, Founder and CEO of ChaiONE. This is The Business Makers Show, hear on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.
