Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. This is that show that's dedicated to those that did build it.
John: You're right. Not only did they build it, but they grew it.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: And they grew it into something that's important enough to be the main job creators in this country, which is the mid-size to small business market.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: And they're, yeah, those are the entrepreneurial companies out there that, you know, take a good idea and make it something that improves people's lives.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Yeah, so.
Russ: I worry sometimes, John that -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - that those that feel like we do on the free enterprise side don't do a good enough job of explaining how this works. Why it is so much better -
John: Yeah.
Russ: -not to tax people, not to burden small businesses -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - but to encourage them.
John: I think the reason why is people don't articulate it very well 'cause they're too busy working.
Russ: That's probably true.
John: You know, they're -
Russ: And the other side -
John: I mean, you take these pundits and these politicians, I mean they got a lotta free time on their hands.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They can, you know, opine, you know, to beat the band.
Russ: And they don't understand how it works, either.
John: Now they don't. No, they don't.
Russ: You'll see that in my quote for today.
John: Oh, the quote. Okay.
Russ: I can't wait, yeah.
John: Yeah, okay, well let's get to it, then.
Russ: Well, we can but before we do, I must finally inform you that I have finally -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - watched Atlas Shrugged, Part I The Movie.
John: Part I?
Russ: Yeah. Now I've read the book, twice.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And I saw bad reviews and I kinda know why the reviews were bad, too.
John: Yeah, mm-hm.
Russ: But still, you know, there were just some pertinent real, key scenes in there.
John: Oh yeah, yeah there is. And the Part II, I haven't seen Part II, but the producer had more time to do the movie and refine it -
Russ: Yeah, well -
John: - and do all that but be that as it may, it's - whether it's a bad movie or a good movie, it, you know, there's always something in there that's gonna resonate.
Russ: Well and this one seems to be so focused and pertinent on the times we live in.
John: Oh yeah, right, yeah I know.
Russ: And the discussion about the equalization of opportunity bill -
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: -that was going before the -
John: Dog-eat-dog legislation. It's another one, yeah.
Russ: Right, right, right. You know, they don't, the other side, doesn't get it, you know?
John: No.
Russ: And then there's a line in the movie about people should be paid according to their needs.
John: Their needs, right, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it all makes sense sooner or later because your civilization will collapse around you.
Russ: Crack.
John: And wonder what happened, you know? That's -
Russ: I worked at a company one time where the leader would pay people if they came in with a hardship story, you know, he would give 'em a raise.
John: Wow, based on hardship?
Russ: And just based on needs. I needed a new flat-screen TV, you know.
John: You know there used to be this TV show a long time ago, I remember it when I was a little kid. It's called "Queen For A Day".
Russ: Oh, I remember Queen - yes.
John: And what they would do, they would bring these three or four women on there. They would have these hard-luck stories. They'd be bawling, you know, right there on the stage.
Russ: The washing machine's broken. I can't -
John: It flooded the house, I, you know, my husband left me is a, you know, and all this -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - and so they give all this loot to this woman that has, you know, has the worst thing happen to her.
Russ: Exactly.
John: And that's kinda, you know, what we're talking about here only that's a -
Russ: "Queen For A Day," I -
John: "Queen For A Day," yeah.
Russ: - I've not even known anybody who knew that.
John: Oh yeah.
Russ: So I'm proud to even bring the -
John: How would you like to be queen for a day? That was the way the show would start.
Russ: And the way, and you had to have a tear-jerker story. You couldn't ____ ____.
John: Yeah, and then they'd put a crown on her and -
Russ: Yeah.
John: - a ermine robe and put her on a throne.
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: And she'd be crying and -
Russ: Yes.
John: Next day she gets the tax bill for all that loot she got, yeah.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: 'Cause you gotta pay taxes on all that stuff. Yeah, all right.
Russ: Absolutely. All right. We better get going. Here's our lineup for today. First up, John O'Dell and Michael Bloxton, co-founders of Cink.
John: Oh yeah, I met those guys.
Russ: Yeah, Cink is C-I-N-K.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And they talk about getting your sales organization in sync. This is kind of interesting 'cause it's a software company and there's a lot of software out there. There's CRM software. This is different. This is really focused on the salesperson, so if you're one out there that still depends on the effectiveness of your sales organization, you ought to tune into this. And then that's gonna be followed by an interview of Vincent Polito, the President of Total Energy USA, talking about an upcoming tradeshow conference right here in Houston.
John: That's right, yeah, we're a - right, yeah, we know about that one, too.
Russ: Now November 27 through 29, brining all forms of energy together. Real cool -
John: Yeah one big happy family.
Russ: There you go. But first -
Russ: That's right, it's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business. Not your business as usual school.
John: No, actually, we've got some pretty weird stuff on this show, you know?
Russ: That's right. That's right.
John: I gotta tell you. Just looking at this, you know, it's gonna be hard to do some of this with a straight face.
Russ: I know. all right and we kick off the School of Business each week with a Quote of the Day.
John: Quote of the Day, yes.
Russ: And having just seen Atlas Shrugged again, I have a whole boat-load of Ayn Rand quotes. But I'm gonna skip 'em today 'cause there's a better one I found.
John: Oh.
Russ: In last week's Wall Street Journal.
John: That's right, yeah I remember that. The title they had at the time, I don't know what - it's probably a re-print but it was George McGovern for Labor Secretary.
Russ: Well.
John: That was the name of the article.
Russ: Well, and George McGovern recently passed away.
John: Yes he did.
Russ: Just the flag bearer of many of the causes of the liberal side of the house.
John: Yeah, right he got religion after he got out of office, though.
Russ: Well he kinda did -
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: - because he had a lifetime ambition to buy and operate a small business, the Stratford Inn in Connecticut.
John: Yeah, like Bob Newhart.
Russ: Exactly.
John: Yeah, he was Bob Newhart before Bob Newhart was Bob Newhart.
Russ: Exactly. That's right, so George said, "I'm gonna be a businessman."
John: Yeah.
Russ: After the business failed - and businesses do fail -
John: Yeah, right. For all kinds of reasons.
Russ: - and businesses, yeah and businesses are hard to run and grow.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: And here is a quote from George McGovern.
John: Yeah.
Russ: My business associates and I also lived through federal, state, and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, et cetera." Then he went on to say, "While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements and reams of red tape."
John: Right, yeah.
Russ: By George McGovern.
John: I know, well he - it doesn't matter what political persuasion you have, if you start a business, you're just as susceptible to all that nonsense like everybody else -
Russ: Absolutely.
John: - and that's why a lot of liberals don't run businesses.
Russ: Right.
John: Some of 'em do but they forget - they have short memories. Yeah.
Russ: And legislators don't understand this.
John: No.
Russ: It's precisely his point. After being in the Senate for so long, that the burdensome of the government bureaucracy rules and regulations is -
John: Yeah. I think the last sentence or whatever, or at least close to the last paragraph he says if he had known the damage he was doing, you know, at the time, he would've been a much better senator but not - 'cause he was for a lot of that stuff.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: Yeah, right, yeah.
Russ: Absolutely. All right. All right but that brings us to This Week in Business History. So what happened in business history?
John: Okay, this week in business history, 1929, the great crash, stock market crash. Day like no other on Wall Street, you know?
Russ: October.
John: All those buying on margin, stock purchases -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: - dried up 'cause, you know, all those loans got called in when the stock market crashed and nobody could pay anything, so -
Russ: Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
John: And it was a depression that lasted till World War II. It was prolonged in many cases by, you know, big government solutions.
Russ: Right.
John: To propose big government solutions that never worked out and just prolonged the agony.
Russ: All right.
John: But very similar to what's going on right now.
Russ: All right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1955, the birth of Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder, Bill Gates.
Russ: Wow.
John: 1955.
Russ: Forty-five, he's 57.
John: Fifty-seven, yeah, yeah. Got more money than he knows what to do with.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1962, Major Rudolph Anderson becomes the first direct casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was a U-2 pilot -
Russ: Right.
John: - and he was doing a reconnaissance flight over Cuba and shot down by a Soviet-supplied air-to-ground missile.
Russ: Yep. All right and it's interesting -
John: I mean a ground-to-air missile, excuse me.
Russ: - that's happened. Yeah.
John: Surface-to-air missile.
Russ: And just now Raul Castro is going to let Cubans travel out of the country -
John: Wow.
Russ: - you know, without exit visas, which is -
John: Geeze.
Russ: - which is an admission and a huge development.
John: Yeah, that's right.
Russ: It's like, "We're over here starving to death, maybe I ought to let people to leave the country and go get something to eat."
John: Yeah. It could bring a big wave of immigration -
Russ: It could.
John: - down in Florida.
Russ: It could.
John: This week in business history in 1969, the first ever computer-to-computer link established on ARPANET, which is a precursor to the Internet.
Russ: Yep.
John: Yeah, right.
Russ: That was the beginning.
John: That was the beginning.
Russ: Yeah,
John: Sixty-nine.
Russ: Right.
John: A lot of people think it was like the '80s.
Russ: Right.
John: This week in business history in 1974, the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman - people were predicting that Foreman would actually kill Muhammad Ali. I mean they were not joking around.
Russ: And he didn't.
John: They were pleading with Ali not to fight this guy.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Turned out they were mistaken.
Russ: Yeah, well that's also, I think, where rope-a-dope started.
John: Yeah, the rope-a-dope, right.
Russ: He wore him out.
John: That was a kind of a spontaneous, unplanned strategy that Ali, you know, he just thought, "Well I'll just let this guy punch himself out.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Hopefully he won't tag me in the meantime."
Russ: Yeah.
John: So he was leaned against the ropes and sure enough, Foreman punched himself out. He was nothing after that.
Russ: Yeah, No, no and Foreman, George Foreman has been a guest on The BusinessMakers Show.
John: That's right.
Russ: And Muhammad Ali has not.
John: That's right, right, right and I don't think he will be, either.
Russ: I don't think he will, either.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1982, Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States. They opened a factory in Marysville, Ohio and the Honda Accord was actually the first car produced there. This week in business history 1993, the great idea of the European Union - what a great idea that was - established the Treaty of Maastrict 1991, drafted by delegates and that was signed in the Netherlands in 1992.
Russ: Yep.
John: And looks like it's gonna fall apart in 2012.
Russ: Not looking too good for 'em.
John: Not looking too good, you know?
Russ: That's right.
John: It's an economic thing, you know, try to have a single currency.
Russ: Yeah.
John: What they wanted to do was create a United States of Europe.
Russ: Right.
John: Like the United States of America.
Russ: Right.
John: But there's so much diverse -
Russ: Right.
John: - economies and peoples and -
Russ: Yeah, they have a lot, a lot more challenges than we do with just our states' rights.
John: That's right. I know. I know, it's ridiculous. But anyway, they get an A for effort.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Okay, this week in business history 2002, Federal Grand Jury in Houston Texas indicts former Enron Corporation Chief Financial Officer Andy Fastow on 78 counts of all kinds of nefarious things, all related to the collapse of Enron.
Russ: Right.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Fast Andy.
John: Somebody should've asked why.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Remember that used to be their slogan, their advertising slogan, "Why ask why".
Russ: Yeah.
John: You know, that's why you oughta ask why 'cause -
Russ: There wasn't a real ____ there, apparently.
John: If you start naming the use of limited partners off the books after Star Wars characters, I think you've got -
Russ: Right, that's an indication.
John: - I think you - that's an indication that something's amiss.
Russ: Right.
John: All right, last but not least, this week in business history in 2008, Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States and right now he's up for reelection.
Russ: Yep.
John: So we'll see how that goes.
Russ: Yep.
John: Yeah. So -
Russ: And that wraps up today's history lesson.
John: Nine, the big nine, yeah. You go.
Russ: All right. Good, good history lesson.
John: Okay, all right.
Russ: As usual. Yeah, my favorite story, pertinent to the day we live in -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - is the formation of the European Union.
John: Yeah, right, yeah.
Russ: And I think some might've anticipated their struggles. I don't know if -
John: Well there's always growing pains, you know, but -
Russ: Yeah. Yeah, yeah that's right. That's what this is. Growing pains. And that brings us to the Jargon Challenge Round.
John: The Jargon Challenge Round.
Russ: This is also known as our vocabulary lesson.
John: That's right.
Russ: We've been getting some better words lately and you've been hanging in there and hanging in - they're tough.
John: I know, I know they're tough words.
Russ: It's gonna be interesting to see -
John: I haven't had one -
Russ: - if you can get this one right.
John: - I haven't gotten one right in a while, so -
Russ: Well, this - I think you're gonna get this one.
John: All right, okay.
Russ: All right, but please, no wagering.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Here it is. LOLbertarian.
John: That's Laugh Out Loudbertarian that's someone who laughs out loud constantly. Or constantly texts it every time they send something, it's LOL. LOL-this, LOL-that.
Russ: Okay, now you're close but not quite. Let me say that again, maybe I can say it better. LOLbertarian.
John: Burr-tarian. I have no idea.
Russ: LO-lobertarian.
John: Oh, Libratarian. I don't know. Go ahead.
Russ: Okay, it's a Libertarian -
John: Yeah.
Russ: - who's views are so extreme as to -
John: Oh.
Russ: - invite mockery.
John: Oh, okay.
Russ: LOLbertarian.
John: Okay, all right.
Russ: And there are some of those, you know?
John: Yeah, I'd say there's a lot of those.
Russ: Yeah, that maybe all of them are that way.
John: Maybe all of them, right.
Russ: All right and that brings us to Dumb Moments. What do you have for us today?
John: Okay, I couldn't decide on which one, so I'm gonna do both of these.
Russ: Okay.
John: This is according to a TV report I ran across. Woman named Susan Krantz, medical - she has a medical and business background. She had to go to the doctor and got the bill. She opened up a recent bill and she understood all the charges but there was one that stood out, for a charge of $50.06. She couldn't make it out, so she called the office. She was charged an extra office visit because she asked too many questions when she -
Russ: She exceeded the limit?
John: - she exceeded. So this is kind of an insurance thing, so you think, you know, I mean this is just a portend of what's gonna happen -
Russ: Right, well -
John: - down the road I think.
Russ: Okay what's the other one?
John: Okay, the other one. This is according to Christian Science Monitor. There's a Italian city called L'Aquila. There's a trial there. As a result of the trial, six scientists and a government bureaucrat were sentenced to six years in jail on manslaughter charges -
Russ: Yeah.
John: For their failure to predict a 2009 earthquake that left more than 300 people dead.
Russ: You're kidding?
John: Yeah.
Russ: This is serious?
John: Yeah it is. A serious stuff. It's according to Christian Science Monitor to date, I don't think there's been any successful way that, you know, consistent way that people can predict these things.
Russ: Right, right.
John: These poor schmucks are gonna have a prison term. They're members of a group called the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks and there was a trial in which they had - it was very emotional - where they brought these people in who lost loved ones and it is a tragedy.
Russ: Sure, absolutely. Come on.
John: I mean, you know, just - but you know, but to throw someone in jail for failing to predict an earthquake is pretty bad.
Russ: Wow.
John: And this could be the start of something, you know, they might arrest pundits for failing to predict the stock market or something.
Russ: Or weathermen.
John: Or yeah, what about weather people?
Russ: Yeah.
John: Weather, yeah, right.
Russ: Geeze. Lightning strikes somebody -
John: Yeah, hey, you didn't tell me there was gonna be a thunderstorm. All right. Okay, that's it.
Russ: All right. And before we wrap up today's School of Business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.
John: All right. Here he is, Mr. Greg Price.
Russ: Right, and that wraps up today's School of Business. Stay tuned in for our interview with John O'Dell and Michael Bloxton of Cink, followed by our interview with Vincent Polito, President of Total Energy USA. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.
