Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio, and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. This is that show about the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the producers, the employers, and the job creators.
John: That's right. They're the ones that make the economy happen in spite of all the barriers that get thrown up in front of these folks from time to time. And I'd say they do a pretty good job keeping this country going in such perilous times.
Russ: I agree. I worry, though, that they're losing influence, political influence -
John: Oh, I don't think - yeah, I don't think they have much influence other than the fact that there are just so many of them, you just can't -
Russ: Right. But they're being dissed everywhere.
John: That's right. If you're successful, forget it. Your vilified by the mainstream media and the occupied Wall Street crowd.
Russ: Yeah. I'm worried that nobody seems to understand or articulate how this thing works, that as you and I have shared before, we even think the have-nots, the poor people are better served by capitalistic system, I mean, clearly, in the long run, but probably -
John: Maybe we'll have to have an _____ deal where just the economy grinds to a half 'cause everybody just quits working.
Russ: I say so. I say. But in the meantime, we are working -
John: We're working.
Russ: We're working, and we're about those people that keep working. In fact, speaking of them, we're about the EO Houston Group.
John: That's right.
Russ: That group of entrepreneurs that's pretty serious about this whole system.
John: Oh, yes, they are. They are, and they've got a fine group of productive people there.
Russ: You bet, absolutely. All right. And here's today's guest lineup. I'm gonna be able to sit down and talk with Mr. Eric Elfman, the founder and CEO of Onit, a former guest on the show when he was founder and CEO of DataCert, a successful company. He also, I think, John, happened to be of all the 600-700 guest we've had on the show, he was the first high school dropout that we had on the show.
John: The first high school dropout. We've had a few.
Russ: Yeah. We had a total of three. I've got another perspective guess lined up that might make it to number four.
John: All right.
Russ: They're an interesting group, for sure.
John: Okay.
Russ: All right. But first [blank from 0:02:16 to 0:02:26] it's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business, where we go out and carefully select the day's lesson curriculum.
John: That's right. We've got our lesson plan ready go to. We think it's very unique in that it's more ground-level education than you get in those business schools that are flying up there at 30,000 feet. I'm not saying you don't need to have the lofty principles of business and the big-picture look, but sooner or later, you gotta get in the trenches.
Russ: That's right.
John: So we get you in the trenches earlier than any other business schools do, by far.
Russ: Yeah, and if we can't find enough ground-level curriculum -
John: We go underground.
Russ: Yeah. We do. We do. All right. And we kick it off each week, first off, with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And today's quote comes from Terry Pratchett, an English novelist and it's, "I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside the box."
John: Okay.
Russ: Now I think it might even apply to today.
John: Well, I never have liked that inside the box, outside the box.
Russ: Well, I don't think he does, either.
John: I know.
Russ: And that's his point.
John: I know. I think it's a good take on an overused metaphor -
Russ: All right. Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make a commitment. I'll never use it on this show, 'cause that brings us to This Week in Business History for you to tell us what happened at the very end of January and the beginning of February in business history.
John: This week in Business History, in 1850, the inventor of the box kite, Lawrence Hargrave, is born. He invented the box kite in 1893 in -
Russ: Thank goodness he did.
John: Yeah, and greatly improved the lift, the drag ratio of early gliders, and provided the structural rigidity and aerodynamic stability that made airplanes possible.
Russ: And I don't even think you see box kites anymore.
John: Oh, you see a few of 'em around.
Russ: Do you?
John: Yeah. Not much. People still fly the traditional kite, the diamond-shaped kite.
Russ: Yeah, but there's so many of those little new plastic design things and stuff.
John: Oh, yeah, right. It's a mess out there. It hurts my eyes just to - every March, you can see these kites up there. You see very few box kites.
Russ: That's right. That's right.
John: This week in Business History, in 1863, Sam Clemens becomes Mark Twain for the first time. How 'bout that?
Russ: Do you know why he did that?
John: Well, he spent a lotta time on river boats, and Mark Twain was a term they used when they were measuring where the -
Russ: The depth?
John: - the depth of the Mississippi River.
Russ: You didn't need like a Hollywood stage name as an author, did you?
John: Well, I guess he liked that name.
Russ: I guess so.
John: Nom de plume. It happens all the time.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. This week in Business History, in 1865, congress passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in America. It's about time, I would say. In 1865. And before that, they had passed a law banning the slave trade in the US.
Russ: So that was Step 1.
John: That was Step 1.
Russ: You could still own 'em, but you just couldn't trade 'em anymore.
John: Yeah, right. And they couldn't import the slaves, either, but took a war, 600,000 people died -
Russ: To get it right.
John: To get it right, yeah. This week in Business History, in 1876, Albert Spalding, $800.00, starts a sporting goods company, and he manufactured the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, golf ball, and football. Unbelievable. Now the thing is, $800.00 back then was worth -
Russ: Several billion.
John: Yeah, I would say that.
Russ: We could do the math if we really wanted to, but we don't want to.
John: We don't want to. I got enough problems.
Russ: Right.
John: This week in Business History, in 1884, the Oxford dictionary debuts, and the long, long story - you can go back in the archives and read about all the mayhem that took to get this -
Russ: Yeah. Weren't there even crimes committed and even murders.
John: People in prison and murder, yeah. It's just amazing how that thing -
Russ: And people don't appreciate that when they look up a word in the Oxford dictionary.
John: I know. Sometimes it's murder just picking up the book. It's like the thing weighs a ton.
Russ: Compared to searching online, it is murder.
John: Yeah, I know. Right. Okay. The thing is, when you use the print edition, you know you don't have pop-up ads coming up on your -
Russ: That's true; you don't.
John: Okay. This week in Business History, in 198, Scotch Tape is first marketed by the 3M company.
Russ: Wow.
John: And wonder why they call it Scotch Tape as opposed to say Aboriginal Tape or Australian Tape or -
Russ: I bet it was the marketing team liked a Scotch plaid.
John: Scotch Plaid. Well, I know, but it's still tape.
Russ: I know, I know.
John: I don't know. What the heck. Okay, this week in Business History, in 1954, Oprah Winfrey is born.
Russ: Wow. So we're talking, what, 46 and 12 is 58.
John: That's right. She had a rough upbringing. Her career was not successful early on, and was considered a mediocre talent in TV. That was living in Baltimore when she - or outside of Baltimore when she was doing this Dialing for Dollars movie show, and it was just awful. And then she decided to pick up and go to Chicago.
Russ: And how long ago was that that you -
John: That was back in 19 late '70s, I would say.
Russ: Okay. So she was pretty young back then. You were, too. My goodness.
John: Yeah.
Russ: What a coincidence.
John: Yeah. I used to be young, yes.
Russ: All right.
John: This week in Business History, in 1958, the US launches their first satellite, Explorer 1.
Russ: Well, our response to Sputnik, I think.
John: That's right.
Russ: It's like, wow. Finally we got one up there.
John: That's right. Yeah. Okay. This week in Business History, in 1959, the day the music died, on this day in -
Russ: We're not talking about the song. We're talking about the real day here.
John: That's right. That's right. That's when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed, when chartered Beachcraft Bonanza, crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff, and that big very famous song, American Pie, refers to that very day.
Russ: Yeah. So Don McLean might be the only person that benefit from the day that the music died, right?
John: You got that right.
Russ: Okay.
John: Okay. This week in Business History, in 1961, Houston voters approved bond to finance luxury dome stadium. So that was -
Russ: That was called the Astrodome. That was the beginning of taxing the citizens to build sports stadiums.
John: Oh, I think there's probably other examples of it around the country.
Russ: Before then, even?
John: Yeah. And we're still paying the debt on that thing.
Russ: Yeah. One of these centuries.
John: Yeah, right. 'Cause they upgraded it several times and had the _____.
Russ: Yeah. Now is that what prevents them from bringing it down now? We gotta finish paying for it before we can knock it down?
John: I don't have that much experience in math to figure that out.
Russ: All right.
John: Okay. This week in Business History, in 1962, Les Paul of Mahwah, New Jersey patents the electric guitar.
Russ: Well, that kinda changed -
John: Yeah, he changed the whole sound of music.
Russ: Now what - in my little simple non-music-oriented mind, what that did was it enabled one musician to play so loud and then like three or four musicians could really play loud.
John: Yeah, and then they could change the tone of the guitar.
Russ: Yeah, that could do all kinda _____.
John: Yeah, they could do all that, yeah. Just to drive people's parents - kids' parents -
Russ: Right.
John: - up a wall. This week in Business History, in 1971, Carole King's Tapestry album was released. It becomes the longest charting album by a female solo artist. She sold 24 million copies of that thing.
Russ: Wow. And that's a fantastic album.
John: Well, she was a songwriter, so she took all the songs that she wrote for other artists and decided to do it herself.
Russ: She was very successful as just a songwriter, too.
John: That's right. She had a pretty decent voice.
Russ: Yeah.
John: This week in Business History, in 1977, Radio Shack officially begins creating the TRS 80 computer.
Russ: Yeah, what an interesting step that was. At the time, Radio Shack, they sold transistor radios and maybe cassette players. For them, to make a computer, the whole mindset on a home computer hadn't matured yet in most of our minds, so it was quite a shocker.
John: Yeah, a real shocker.
Russ: It worked out okay for them, though.
John: Okay. Right. This week in Business History, in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff.
Russ: Wow. Now you're getting to the bummer parts of the -
John: Oh, man, yeah. Killed all seven astronauts.
Russ: Including the teacher, Christine McAuliffe.
John: That's right, yeah.
Russ: What a shocker.
John: I know. That's something. Well, we'll get to it in a minute. This week in Business History, in 1990, first McDonald's in Russia opens in Moscow as the world's biggest McDonald's.
Russ: I wonder if it's still open.
John: I don't know. They got those Putin burgers there.
Russ: They probably do now.
John: They probably do.
Russ: It probably depends on what -
John: They got his picture instead of Ronald McDonald, they have Vladimir Putin.
Russ: Right.
John: Okay. This week in Business History, in 1996, the 23rd American Music Award, Garth Brooks wins the 23rd American Music Award. Both his Friends in Lonely Place song.
Russ: What a song. That was - he like had a run for about ten years with that song and that album.
John: I know. He sang it to death.
Russ: Yeah. Now I think he's just kinda cruising.
John: He's cruising. He's living off those royalties.
Russ: Yeah.
John: So, okay, this week in Business History, in 2003, here you go, space shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Bad, bad week for -
Russ: Yeah, for space travel.
John: - for space travel.
Russ: Man.
John: Right. And it just goes to show you how dangerous it is.
Russ: Yeah. It's a risk-taking monumental endeavor.
John: I mean, everything in life is a risk, but -
Russ: But that ranks pretty high.
John: Yeah. You screw up there, it's unforgiving.
Russ: Yes, it is.
John: You screw up down here, you just pull off the side of the road -
Russ: Get your insurance card out.
John: Right, or call AAA.
Russ: Right.
John: This week in Business History, in 2004, an infamous wardrobe malfunction occurred when Janet Jackson was performing at Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in the US broadcasters adopting stronger adherence to censorship guidelines.
Russ: Yeah, I know. And that was - I was attending that Super Bowl. It was right here in Houston, Texas.
John: In Houston, right.
Russ: It's always been debatable whether it was malfunction. When you look at the role that Justin Timberlake played -
John: Justin Timberlake was in there, too.
Russ: He was in there malfunctioning it for her.
John: That's right.
Russ: But she wanted it to be malfunctioned, right?
John: Yeah, she was asking for it.
Russ: Yes, she was. I could tell. [0:13:24] And so does that wrap up today's history lesson?
John: I think it does.
Russ: Well, it was -
John: We started off with a box kite, and end with -
Russ: A malfunction. Well, they're all extraordinary, but my goodness, the two space tragedies, though, in one. Jeez.
John: That's amazing.
Russ: Tough week.
John: Tough week, yeah.
Russ: All right. And that brings us to Navigating Business Jargon. This is our vocabulary lesson that we present in really a context format where I get to go out and select a word every week, and John does not know what it is until I spring it on him right here. And he does his best, using all of his cognitive skills to come up with a meaning. Now today's word - we haven't done this in a long time - is actually it's a noun, but it's an acronym. I'll give you that much of a hint.
John: It's a noun. It's an acronym.
Russ: It's an acronym.
John: Okay, all right.
Russ: Okay? And the word - and I'll spell it for you, too, but the word is FOMO, F-O-M-O.
John: Well, I know what FUBAR means.
Russ: Well, that's a different word.
John: FOMO. So each letter stands for a word.
Russ: Right.
John: FOMO. For - I don't know.
Russ: I'll give you two hints.
John: All right.
Russ: The first two or Fear of.
John: Okay. Fear of more - I don't know.
Russ: I'll tell you what the last word - the last word O is Out. Fear of M Out.
John: Make Out.
Russ: No, no. I'll tell you what the third word is, too.
John: All right.
Russ: It's Fear of Missing Out.
John: Oh, okay.
Russ: You know, and a lot of people have trouble -
John: They don't wanna miss out.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They wanna be in on it. They wanna be in the loop.
Russ: Yeah. You know, when you see somebody getting kinda anxious, you can say, "Oh, you just have FOMO, man. Get over it."
John: Get over that FOMO.
Russ: Yeah. _____ word.
John: Yeah, I like that. This is good as duck shuffling.
Russ: Yeah, it is. No, that's a good one.
John: All right.
Russ: All right. And that brings us to Dumb Moments in Business. Do you have one or was this week just pretty cool?
John: Well, we have to go back to that cruise ship.
Russ: Oh, that cruise ship.
John: Death toll's up to 16.
Russ: Yeah, and counting.
John: And counting. The cruise ship captain did not really acquit himself very admirably.
Russ: No, he's not gonna win any awards, I don't think.
John: He's not gonna get any heroism - hero of the year award.
Russ: No, he's not. Is that what - but it's not about him.
John: Well, it's not about him. You can see maybe why the captain acted like he did when you look at what the executive committee of the cruise ship -
Russ: Oh, oh. So finally, we're gonna be pointing -
John: Well, they wanted to compensate the inconvenience to the passengers. Of course, because of what they did, they left out the people who died.
Russ: Yeah, they don't get anything.
John: They don't get anything. But the Costa Concordia Line offered people who were on the ship 30 percent off on their next cruise.
Russ: [Laughs] God. You're kidding.
John: No, no, no, no.
Russ: Well, I did hear that they also refunded their - and I think they didn't have to. I think they were gonna say, "If you look in the fine print on your ticket, we didn't guarantee anything."
John: Right, which is probably true.
Russ: Yeah, it's probably true.
John: But try proving - try standing up behind it.
Russ: Yeah. I would say that all of these tips so far are very feeble if they think that it's gonna hold back the onslaught of a little litigation that they're gonna be facing for those people. Holy smokes. And if you were on that, why in the world would you think you would even consider going on any cruise, much less one of theirs.
John: Any cruise. Stay on dry land.
Russ: Does the 30 percent only apply to the next cruise on that particular boat? Will they have to bring it back up?
John: I think that boat's kaput right now. That's gonna be a while before - that might be - it's like when your car stops in high water. It's relative - I mean -
Russ: It's over.
John: It's over, yeah. So, anyway.
Russ: Wow. That qualifies as dumb, sheesh.
John: Yeah, right. All right.
Russ: And before we wrap up today's School of Business, once, again, it's time for very popular PKF Texas, Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: And here he is, Greg Price.
Russ: Mr. Price. All right. And that wraps up today's School of Business. Stayed tuned in for our interview with Eric Elfman, the founder and CEO of Onit. This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio, and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.
