Category Archives: Freedom

A Leadership Development Empire

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Community and Leadership, Freedom, Inspirational, LIFE Leadership

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Orrin Woodward is an expert in leadership. He, along with his business partner and co-founder of the-life-business George Guzzardo have developed a passion for leadership development.

I was learning about the concepts of leadership development as I was making my way through college so I had a pretty clear picture of what real leadership was as I was seeking employment. In my first year of teaching I was placed in a charter school in the inner city of Milwaukee. Just like any college graduate, I was excited to start my career and I didn’t care where I taught as long as I could get a job. I went into it with high expectations knowing I finally had the opportunity to work with professionals who cared about what they did, worked hard and supported their co-workers and students. What I didn’t anticipate was the lack of leadership in the building.

The-life-business founder George Guzzardo recently wrote an article referencing the new Orrin Woodward future best seller Leadershift.

Guzzardo says, “leadership includes qualities like vision, integrity, morality, competency, work ethic, hunger, and servant-hood. Those qualities can be applied to our personal lives, professional lives and our businesses. Looking around the world can you recognize the void in leadership? An entrepreneur always looks for a void to fill and there is no greater void than leadership.”

This void was evident when I started working for this school. It is lack_of_leadershipalways expected that administration would be the first line of support when it comes to leadership. We have all witnessed in business what happens when leadership is lacking. Accountability suffers, tension and pressure rises, support is minimal, passion is non-existent and laziness sets in. For a first year teacher, the most difficult task is finding a system that works for you as you develop relationships with your students while creating an environment for growth and learning. When leadership from the ‘top down’ doesn’t exist it makes it nearly impossible for your system to work.

This particular school was K-12. I taught physical education and health and was responsible for creating the health curriculum for the elementary branch because there was nothing in place when I was hired. I remember very clearly a situation that happened between myself and the assistant principal. I was entering the door of a 5th grade classroom ready to teach a topic to the students. Because of the demographics of this school, I was constantly challenged with behavioral problems and fighting. After the first couple of weeks I knew what to anticipate each day as I entered the doors of these classrooms. This particular class was extremely difficult and of course I had no support from the classroom teacher. As soon as I came in, the classroom teacher would leave the room and take their prep with little communication about what was going on with the students. Long story short, a fight broke out that day between two boys while I was teaching. I took the necessary steps to try and de-escalate the situation before the fight happened but it was too late. According to their peers, these boys were going at it all morning and it only took an unfamiliar face to give them a reason to ‘finish the job.’ I called down to the office immediately to get help from security and administration to get these boys removed from the classroom. As soon as security came and took them the assistant principal had the nerve to stand in front of my class and announce to the students that I was a first year teacher who didn’t have much experience working with inner city youth. To get information about why the fight broke out, she did a question/answer session with the rest of the students to get details on what happened with the two boys. I was fuming with anger as I stood in the back of the room watching this all unfold. Not once did she communicate with me to get information, she failed to call in the regular classroom teacher to get her perspective on the situation and worse she put this image of me as an ignorant, inexperienced teacher in their heads. Working in a school like that requires thick skin and a very strong demeanor. I was finally starting to develop that with these kids and with just a few words she destroyed my ability to teach these students. I knew they would never give me the attention and respect that was needed to be their teacher and ultimately that’s exactly what happened for the entire semester. Each time I went into that classroom I was fighting for respect and each day I left I was defeated all because of the lack of leadership displayed from that administrator.

I don’t think I need to list all the things that were inappropriate and unprofessional with this situation, it is clearly obvious. And the reason I share this example is because it’s proof that when leadership is lacking, it affects everyone and everything.

LeadershiftNot only do we need leadership back in our schools, our churches, our local businesses and our families, we need leadership back in our country. The leadership in our country is obsolete, that too is obvious. But instead of griping and moaning about what isn’t getting done in the White House, we need to instead point the finger back at ourselves and ask what we are doing to affect change in our own lives.

The title of Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille’s new book, Leadershift: A Call for Americans to Finally Stand up and Lead gets me excited. George Guzzardo says, “leadership happens when a group of men and women recognize the need for their involvement and take responsibility.”

The-life business is all about taking information that makes a difference in people’s lives and sharing it with others for the purpose of affecting change. Partner that with the TEAM training system which focuses on the development of leaders and you have what I like to call a leadership development empire. Guzzardo states, “There has never been a more important time for a leadership movement.” There is a void in leadership everywhere we look. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Will you join forces as 10’s of thousands of people carve their piece out of the leadership development empire that will soon change millions of lives?

Blessings,

Kristen

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A Leader’s Journey: The Race

21 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Freedom, Inspirational, LIFE Leadership

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I have been blessed with the opportunity to associate with brilliant minds such as Orrin Woodward and George Guzzardo. These days it is hard to find men and women who share a common vision and purpose for the future but in the LIFE/TEAM I am constantly surrounded by people such as this. A little over a week ago we had a monthly leadership seminar where Bob and Tina Rasmussen and George and Jill Guzzardo shared their wisdom with over 1,000 people. There were so many key nuggets that I was able to take from that meeting but the clincher for me was a poem that touched my heart that Bob shared at the end of his talk. I believe this poem is an exact reflection of the success journey and I want to thank Bob for sharing this and being a living example of a finisher in LIFE:

The Race

by: D.H. Groberg

“Quit! Give up! You’re beaten!”
They shout out and plead.
“There’s just too much against you now,
This time you can’t succeed!”

And as I start to hang my head
In front of failure’s face,
My downward fall is broken by
The memory of a race.

And hope refills my weakened will
As I recall that scene;
For just the thought of that short race
Rejuvenates by being.

A children’s race – young boys, young men
How I remember well.
Excitement, sure, but also fear;
It wasn’t’ hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope;
Each thought to win the race,
Or tie for first, or if not that,
At least take second place.

And fathers watched from off the side,
Each cheering for his son,
And each boy hoped to show his dad
That he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they went,
Young hearts and hopes afire!
To win, to be the hero there,
Was each young boy’s desire.

And one boy in particular
Whose dad was in the crowd,
Was running near the lead and thought
“My dad will be so proud!”

But as he sped down the field
Across a shallow dip,
The little boy who thought to win,
Lost his step and slipped.

Trying hard to catch himself
His hands flew out to brace,
And mid the laughter of the crowd,
He fell flat on is face.

But as he fell, his dad stoop up
And showed his anxious face,
Which to the boy so clearly said,
“Get up and win the race!”

He quickly rose, no damage done,
Behind a bit, that’s all –
And ran with all his mind and might
To make up for his fall.

So anxious to restore himself
To catch up and to win,
His mind went faster than he legs;
He slipped and fell again!

He wished that he had quit before
With only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now;
I shouldn’t try to race.”

But in the laughing crowd he searched
And found his father’s face,
That steady look which said again,
“Get up and win the race!”

So he jumped up to try again,
Ten yards behind the last –
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought,
“I’ve got to move real fast.”

Exerting everything he had
He gained eight or ten,
But trying so hard to catch the lead,
He slipped and fell again!

Defeat! He lay there silently
A tear dropped from his eye
“There’s no sense running anymore;
Three strikes, I’m out, why try?”

The will to try had disappeared
All hope had fled away;
So far behind, so error prone,
A loser all the way.

“I’ve lost; so what’s the use,” he thought.
“I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad
Whom soon he’d have to face.

“Get up!” an echo sounded low.
“Get up and take your place.
You were not meant for failure here.
Get up and win the race!”

With borrowed will, “Get up,” it said,
“You haven’t lost at all.
For winning is not more than this –
To rise each time you fall.”

So up he rose to win once more,
And with new commit,
He resolved that win or lose,
At least he wouldn’t quit.

So far behind the others now
The most he’d ever been
Still he gave it all he had
And ran as though to win.

Three times he’d fallen stumbling,
Three times he’d rose again,
Too far behind to hope to win
He still ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner
As he crossed first place,
Head high, proud and happy,
No falling, no disgrace.

But when the fallen youngster
Crossed the line, last place,
The crowd gave him the greater cheer
For finishing the race.

And even though he came in last
With head bowed low, un-proud,
You would have thought he won the race
Just listening to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said,
“I didn’t do so well.”
“To me you won,” his father said.
“You rose each time you fell!”

No matter how tough the race gets, will you have the courage to finish it?

Blessings, Kristen

Reading is Essential for Leadership – George Guzzardo

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Community and Leadership, Freedom, LIFE Founders, LIFE Leadership

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Anyone who knew me even 5 years ago knows that reading was not my strong suit. I only bought books in college because they were required but very rarely even opened them. Before then I relied heavily on Cliffsnotes and maybe only read a couple books cover to cover during my conveyor belt of education. Required reading turned me off because it never dealt with issues that I was actually interested in. And because of this I had no interest in reading for pleasure. When I got started in the-life-business I was told that reading 15 minutes a day was essential to developing as a leader. As you can imagine, that was not music to my ears. Every time I picked up a book I had flashbacks of the terrible titles I was required to read in high school and college and couldn’t keep my focus past the first couple of pages. Interestingly enough, I started to pick up titles such as, Personality Plus, The Slight Edge and The Magic of Thinking Big. All of the sudden I caught myself getting through chapters at a time without even picking my head up to look at the clock. From that point on I knew there was something to this personal development stuff. While it certainly didn’t happen overnight, now I can say that I enjoy reading and look forward to it and often read 3-4 books a month.

One of the best examples I have been able to learn from is LIFE founder George Guzzardo. From what I have learned about George, he too struggled with reading in his earlier days. And over time, as he studied the top 5 books, titles on economics, relationships and history, George has gained a widespread popularity in the TEAM as being named ‘the professor.’ George’s thirst for new knowledge from reading has developed a hunger in so many others. It’s very inspiring for me to see a man who I believe has so much wisdom already but yet still has the humility to pick up another book and continue to learn more. I don’t think there is any better example to learn from than George Guzzardo in understanding the power of reading. Please check out Orrin Woodward’s blog to learn more about George and some of the impact he has made as a lifetime learner.

 

How have men like Orrin Woodward and George Guzzardo impacted your life? How has the the-life-business helped you become a lifetime learner? We would love to hear your feedback!

Blessings, Kristen

Mental Fitness Challenge – Resolution #1 – Purpose

19 Saturday May 2012

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WOW! The newly launched Mental Fitness Challenge is taking the world by storm. The-life-business promises five-star, world class information from the best leadership minds on the planet. And in just over 6 months the LIFE founders – led by #6 leadership guru Orrin Woodward – and his team have proven their word with action to the community!

With the launch of the Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) came the launch of Challenge Groups where small groups of 8-16 people gather every other Tuesday night to discuss resolutions from Orrin Woodward’s Resolved book. The 13 resolutions are areas in which each of us can resolve to change over time as we strive for excellence. In the MFC, these 13 resolutions comprise the wheel of categories for us to grow as we strive to live the life we’ve always wanted.

This past week living rooms, offices, churches and dorm rooms were filled across the United States and Canada in small groups where Resolution #1 – Purpose – was discussed. Purpose is the foundation of our lives – it is our mission. Please listen to this short 2.5 minute interview that Sean Willard recently had with Orrin as he sums up what purpose is:

Inspirational and Motivation Speaker of South Africa –  Sean Willard interviews New York Times Best Selling Author – Orrin Woodward

What a powerful example of what it means to have purpose in one’s life. The Mental Fitness Challenge resolves that everyone discover their God-given purpose in LIFE. As I was able to sit and listen in the group discussion I attended I couldn’t help but feel blessed in knowing we are making an impact by helping others think, talk and discover their purpose. That night, Josh, a new member of the LIFE/TEAM said, “without a purpose we become selfish. We live life only for ourselves not serving others. With purpose it gives us a reason to serve and make a difference.” I couldn’t agree more!

If you attended a challenge group, what key points did you take out of the discussion on Purpose?

Blessings, Kristen

Where Do You Get Your Information?

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in Freedom, LIFE Leadership

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I spent the afternoon with a group of hungry leaders discussing the newly launched Mental Fitness Challenge that Orrin Woodward and the founders of the-life-business created. As we gathered in community enjoying each other’s company and bouncing ideas around, I couldn’t help but sit back and listen, thinking about how we arrived in this very moment.

As I study the media and what is going on in our world, I can’t help but be thankful for what the founders have gone through to get us to this point. Just to relay some statistics: the average American is watching 151 hours of television a month (that’s around 5 hours of TV per day in a 30 day month). Most Americans are spending on average 2.47 hours on the internet and 2.06 hours on their cell phone (this is outside of normal working hours) and 1.35 hours are spent listening to the radio. This begs the question, in a 24 hour day, if the average person is spending 10.88 hours a day using technology – not including working hours, who is communicating with and taking care of the children? Let’s look further, in a survey it showed that parents who work full-time spend just 19 minutes every day caring for their own children (ages 10 and up – during the most crucial time of their lives). While the numbers may vary slightly depending on the study you are looking at, the results are generally similar. This should cause concern after reading if it hasn’t already in what you have witnessed.

I was raised in the “latch-key” kid generation. As soon as I was old enough to walk home on my own I did. My parents were divorced so my mom was the primary care giver and needed to work in order to provide basic needs for my brother and I. So if it wasn’t going to a babysitter or a grandparents’ house we were going home to an empty house. Thankfully my parents instilled enough values into us that we didn’t do anything that was going to get us in too much trouble but the temptation was always there. In the earlier ages, we were not allowed to go outside for fear of ‘strangers’ that might see us kids home-alone. So instead, we just turned on the TV and blankly stared at the big black box until mom got home from work. 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours would pass and we wouldn’t move… basically being brainwashed by a bunch of advertisements and TV shows that were subconsciously sending inappropriate hidden messages into our innocent little minds. But in 15 years, technology has changed, lifestyles have changed and now ‘kids’ my age are having children of their own! Can you see where I am going with this? I think my point rests. Things will never change unless WE do!

Had I not been introduced to new information through the-life-business and the mental fitness challenge, I may have always believed that TV was a fantastic babysitter. I may have never recognized the value that reading plays in a child’s life. What we are doing is truly creating a revolution. Not just a leadership revolution but a lifestyle revolution. Since associating with the incredible TEAM community, I have seen young parents sell their entertainment center, get rid of cable and all the TV’s in their home so they never have the option of using the TV as a temporary babysitter. I have spent time with people in my organization who used to listen to 4-5 hours of music a day that sometimes led them to emotional breakdowns and self harm who have chosen to only listen to audios that would uplift them and only music that provided value in their life. I coach people who went from playing in sports leagues 3-4 nights per week with an after party each of those nights give up that lifestyle to spend 3-4 nights a week saving another couple from divorce or bankruptcy using the TEAM information system.

There is story after story after story of men and women who have chosen to change where they get their information so that they can live the life they have always wanted to live. The world’s media is tainted! No, worse, it’s flat out ludicrous! And if we don’t change the source of our information then the next generation will believe and live everything that they hear that the media is telling them. Actually, it’s already happening at a rapid pace. The only way we can change that is if we become the examples by living it (see Orrin Woodward’s recent blog post Give it Your Best) and we get out there and show these families, these teenagers and these children that there is an alternative way of living. I shutter to think about the world my future children will live in if we don’t go out there and share this information with every person we encounter. The-life-business and the mental fitness challenge is our gateway to a new way of thinking and a new way of living… it’s about time the world knows it exists!

Blessings, Kristen

To a Child – LOVE is Spelled T-I-M-E

10 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Freedom, Inspirational, Legacy, LIFE Leadership, Love, Relationships

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Susan M. Bianchi wrote a book on parenting and uses a time diaries survey to show the relation of how much time married mothers and fathers spend with their children. In an average week, a married father only spends 6.5 hours with his kids and married mothers spend 12.9 hours a week. With 168 hours total in a week, this seems to be a bit of a tragedy. This survey also does not take into account single parents who are working multiple jobs. While lifestyles have changed, the economy has changed and people have changed, these numbers paralyze me in to thinking that most kids are no longer being raised by parents – but TV, video games and cell phones.

If you are a parent reading this and you want more quality time with your children then I couldn’t lead you to a better resource than the-life-business. I have met countless people who have been able to walk away from their current professions to be full-time stay at home parents. Not only is one parent home but in many cases both parents are home with their kids. The amount of time it takes to develop an income stream through LIFE that can get parents time with their children is in many cases less time than it takes to get a Bachelor’s Degree. Would it be worth it? You tell me! Please watch this short but powerful video that shows how important T-I-M-E is in a child’s life:

 

 

Blessings,

Kristen

A Leadership Revolution for the Next Generation

16 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Community and Leadership, Freedom, Inspirational, LIFE Leadership

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One thing I love so much about the-life-business founded by Orrin Woodward is the impact it is making in so many people’s lives. We no longer have to fear what other people will think based on the mission and purpose of LIFE. It is so attractive that nearly every walk of life is a fit. Recently, the-life-business launched a new product called EDGE. The purpose of this product was to bring leadership to the youth in a fun and educational way. LIFE founder, Chris Brady says, “Let’s face it, if we adults need this information, how much more might our younger ones need it? Our world is bombarding them with inappropriate, incorrect, and incoherent messages and we need to fight back with the truth!” That is exactly what EDGE is designed to do. So with this in mind, I asked myself, how can leadership be brought to public education? The system has been knocked down in more ways than one and it is affecting our future generations.

Being that I have a degree in education (that is currently not being used) I was searching for ways that I would be able to influence teenagers with the assistance of the LIFE materials and the new EDGE audio program. About a month ago a request for proposals was sent out via e mail from the District Office where I used to teach (in Waukesha, WI). They were requesting ideas for potential summer school courses at the high school level that students could take for credit in their graduation requirements. I knew it was God’s timing that I had to obey and submit a proposal. The course was titled “Action Based Leadership.” The purpose was to influence and develop the next generation of leaders. Course requirements recommended were: community based leadership projects, mental fitness challenges, group book discussions and assignments using the book Launching a Leadership Revolution by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, guest speakers and community service involvement. The students would also be required to study the 8 F’s of LIFE (faith, family, friends, finances, fitness, following, fun and freedom) and present on one of the “F’s” they plan to grow in during the 5 week summer school course. While the write up was quick and the ideas barely planned, the proposal request was APPROVED!

So imagine the possibilities of bringing leadership to the conveyor belt system of education. Could there be a way that we expand beyond just teaching a summer school leadership course (that students get credit for) but taking it to more school districts and looking at a more long term leadership education program in public and private school education? Imagine the impact that can be made! The-life-business has opened so many doors to truly change this country. All it requires is each of us to play our part. The course will run from June 25th to July 27th for 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. For 16 hours a week at 5 weeks these students will understand the importance and their role in becoming a leader in the 21st century. I will reveal more details as the course is being created. As Chris Brady says, “Everyone will be called upon to lead at some point in their life. The question is, will you be ready?” It’s time to truly launch this leadership revolution and bring the next generation with us on our way to 1,000,000 people.

Blessings,

Kristen

Oliver DeMille Reviews Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE

26 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Community and Leadership, Freedom, LIFE Founders, LIFE Leadership

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, the chairman of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of Thomas Jefferson Education.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom. Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. 

Please take the time to read Oliver DeMille’s review of LIFE founder Orrin Woodward’s new book, Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE.

~Resolve to Read this Book~

By: Oliver DeMille (Feb 25th, 2012)

The freedom of any society is directly related to the quality of books that are widely read in that society. That said, there are some books everyone should read, like The Federalist Papers and Democracy in America.* And in a society like ours where we are desperate for more leaders at all levels, truly excellent books on leadership are vital to the future of freedom.

I recently read a book on leadership that everyone simply must read. It is Resolved, byOrrin Woodward.

I’ve read Woodward’s books before, so when this one arrived in the mail I put away everything else and read it straight through. It kept me up most of the night, and it was so worth it!

This is a fabulous book on leadership. It outlines 13 resolutions every person should make in our modern world, and gives specific helps on how to turn them into habits. Indeed, this book could be titled The 13 Habits of Success and Happiness for Everyone. The stories and examples from great leaders of history and current events are moving and uplifting. I literally have never read a better book on leadership than this one.

Woodward’s book is on par with the great leadership works like:

It is truly a revolution in leadership books.

The 13 resolutions are exactly what we need leaders to adopt across our society. They are applicable to family and home leadership, community and business leadership, and societal and national leadership. They apply to the United States and other countries, and together they form a blueprint for renewing America and innovating a new and better Western Civilization.

The book is divided into three parts: private resolutions, public resolutions and leadership resolutions. Each of the 13 resolutions build upon each other, and together they create an effective and motivating system of becoming a better person and leader. They help the reader improve in career and in societal impact.

This focus on societal leadership is both timely and profound. In the 1950s we experienced a major “leader-shift” in society. Before World War II, most communities were led by professionals—doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, etc.—and before that by big landowners and even earlier tribal chiefs. The management revolution started by Edward Deming and popularized by Ray Kroc changed the focus of leading society from professionals to managers. This was captured in William Whyte’s great 1956 classic The Organization Man.

By the 1980s another major leader-shift occurred, this time from management (“do things right”) to leadership (“do the right things”). The great transitional classic of this shift was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It outlined 7 habits that leaders needed in order to help their companies excel, and these habits became part of the mainstream language: for example, “Be Proactive,” “Think Win-Win,” and “Synergize.” Another great classic of this shift was Synergetics by Buckminster Fuller. The leadership revolution brought a whole new vision of what is means to be a leader.

Today we are witnessing a similar leader-shift, this time from leadership of organizations (“do the right things”) to leadership of society (“move society in the right direction”). Woodward’s Resolved is a seminal classic in this change. In fact, some of the early books in this change include Launching a Leadership Revolution by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey, and Primal Leadershipby Daniel Goleman.

Woodward is more than an author; he has actually put these 13 resolutions to work in his business leadership. For this leadership, Orrin Woodward was named the 2011 International Association of Business’s Top Leader of the Year Award. His bookResolved outlines how we can all become such leaders.

In Resolved, Woodward shares a host of ideas and effective means of using family, business and societal leadership to impact the world. For example, he shows how Gibbon and Toynbee taught the laws of decline that are now attacking our culture and modern free nations.

He shows the three types of freedom and why they depend on each other—and how the loss of one is actually a loss of all. He helps leaders understand how freedom and character are inseparable and at the root of all societal progress and therefore leadership. His model of “Leadership Legacy” alone is worth the price of the book, and adds a whole new dimension to leadership literature.

Woodward adds several other new models to the leadership genre. He shows how five important laws from science, economics and history (Sturgeon’s Law, Bastiat’s “Law,” Gresham’s Law, the Law of Diminishing Returns, and the Law of Inertia) are combing in our current world, and what leaders need to understand and do about these five laws—individually and collectively.

These five laws are already part of our mainstream culture, but the analysis of how they are working together and what future leaders must do about it is new, deep and profound. No leader can afford not to understand this cutting-edge thinking.

On a stylistic note, Woodward consistently uses fascinating quotes, ideas, stories, historical examples and even one equation in ways that make the reader see things in a whole new way. For example, he puts an intriguing new twist on Chaos Theory, the Butterfly Effect, a poem by Yeats, Systems Theory, the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, credit card usage, American Idol, the “TriLateral Leadership Ledger,” the IBM way, Aristotle on true friendship, and many other delightful references from every field of thought –all written in a highly understandable and enjoyable way.

After I read Resolved the first time, I placed it next to my work chair and each day I open it randomly and read the quotes or stories on whatever page opens. It is always uplifting. Here are a few topics I’ve studied in Resolved during such random reading:

  • Why courage isn’t pragmatism
  • Producers vs. Exploiters
  • A commentary on Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Principle
  • The common reasons 23 major civilizations in history declined, and how we can avoid their mistakes
  • The combining of mind, heart and will
  • Charles Garfield on Success through Visualization
  • Will Smith’s work ethic
  • Never whine, never complain, never make excuses—and what to do instead
  • Woodward’s 10 principles of financial literacy (Wow! Every American should study these.)
  • Five steps for effective conflict resolution—in family, business and beyond
  • How to really build business systems that work
  • Henry Hazlitt’s economics in one lesson—and how to really understand the economy
  • The conflict between creativity and realism in national leadership

There is so much more. In one example, Woodward quotes G.K. Chesterton after he was asked to write an essay on “What’s Wrong with the World?” Chesterton wrote simply: “Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton.” This, in summary, is whatResolved is all about. The rest of the book, all 13 resolutions, teaches us how to effectively become the leaders the world needs—and that we were born to be.

This book has articulated the leadership motto of the 21st Century: “It has been said that everyone wants to change the world but few feel the need to change themselves. Even a basic study of history, however, demonstrates that those who first focus upon self-improvement usually ending up doing the most good in the world.”

Gandhi taught the same sentiment when he said that we must be the change we wish to see in the world, and Woodward quotes Confucius in saying that those who want to improve the world must ultimately focus on bettering themselves.

Buddha is credited with saying that our purpose in life is to find our purpose in life, and then to give our whole heart and soul to accomplishing this purpose. Perhaps no generation more exemplified such leadership by example than the American founders, and Woodward discusses them and their words (especially Washington and Franklin) at length in showing us how to become the leaders we meant to be.

Woodward also shows examples of effective leadership from such greats as Sam Walton, John Wooden, Ludwig von Mises, and Roger Bannister, among others.

I could go on and on. Resolved really does, in my opinion, mark a leader-shift to a whole new level of leadership training for the new Century. If you are only going to get one book on leadership, this is the one. What a great book. Our whole society needs to study more about leadership, and apply what we learn.

Written by: Oliver DeMille

Idle Rich, Idle Poor, & the Burdened Middle Class

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Freedom, LIFE Leadership

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The Truth – Like it or Not! A MUST READ!!

Orrin Woodward LIFE Leadership Team

In 2011, reporter Stephen Marche pinpointed the painful paradigm of today’s static classes:

There are some truths so hard to face, so ugly and so at odds with how we imagine the world should be, that nobody can accept them. Here’s one: It is obvious that a class system has arrived in America — a recent study of the thirty-four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that only Italy and Great Britain have less social mobility. But nobody wants to admit: If your daddy was rich, you’re gonna stay rich, and if your daddy was poor, you’re gonna stay poor. Every instinct in the American gut, every institution, every national symbol, runs on the idea that anybody can make it; the only limits are your own limits. Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the world — just no longer true. Culturally, and in their…

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From Apathy to Dependence… Freedom Matters

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Faith, Freedom, Inspirational, LIFE Leadership

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“What if democratic voting isn’t the key to securing freedoms at all?  More pointedly, if it is, why have Americans lost their freedoms at an increasing rate since we inaugurated our full fledged democracy around the turn of the 20th century?” Orrin Woodward states in his article, The American Constituation – A Republic if you can keep it.

2012 is a year of new beginnings for some with hope and possibilities for many. But very few Americans recognize or even acknowledge the reality of their free country. While many are excited about a fresh new start, millions are facing fear and desperation and hanging on to only thin threads of hope.

About 6 months ago, the-life-business founder George Guzzardo gave a talk discussing a well known self-destructive cycle of democratic behavior. The cycle identifies eight stages of a process which demonstrates exactly how history tends to repeat itself. These stages are attributed to Alexander Tytler:

  • From bondage to spiritual faith;
  • From spiritual faith to great courage;
  • From courage to liberty;
  • From liberty to abundance;
  • From abundance to complacency;
  • From complacency to apathy;
  • From apathy to dependence;
  • From dependence back into bondage.

America 2012 finds itself in the seventh stage, from apathy to dependence.

America’s founding fathers were all men of great spiritual faith who had escaped political and religious bondage in Europe. It was that faith that drove them and gave them the courage to seek a new land of freedom and individual liberty, where they could design and build a nation where all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, chief among them the right to Life itself, individual Liberty and the right to individually define and pursue (earn) Happiness. It was individual freedom and liberty that gave every American the right and the motivation to create the most productive, prosperous and abundant nation ever known to man. And it is the earned abundance that would lead the wealthiest nation on earth into a state of complacency. Extended periods of peace and prosperity have resulted in American complacency and today, generations who no longer understand the foundations of our abundance, what it took to achieve it and what it takes to conserve or preserve it for future generations, are on the verge of losing it all.

Apathy is defined as an absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement; lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. Orrin Woodward states “With taxes increasing yearly, government regulations increasing monthly, the money supply increasing weekly, government bureaucracy increasing daily, government power increasing hourly, our national debt increasing by the minute and our freedoms waning by the second…” we are headed down a long dark slippery slope.

A short one hundred years ago, when our nation was building the infrastructure of the greatest nation on earth, our federal government and its budget was but a mere insignificant fraction of our country’s productivity and nobody was dependent upon the federal government for their personal well-being. Every man, woman and child was free to define and pursue (earn) their own destiny and no American looked to the federal government as their personal nanny. Today, an increasing number of Americans are now dependent upon the federal government for their happiness. “If given the choice, the majority of people will choose handouts rather than work” Orrin Woodward. Every national election is about what our federal government can do for us personally, not what we are able to do for ourselves as a result of individual freedom and liberty.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves”. Abraham Lincoln

United upon founding principles, we have stood as the world’s beacon of individual freedom and liberty for more than 230 years. But divided as we are today, the nation is collapsing. Though we are at war with many international enemies, no threat is greater than the threat posed from within.

The more I study history and learn from the-life-business founders, specifically Orrin Woodward and George Guzzardo, the more I recognize histories repeating trends. As Oliver DeMille states in his recent CD titled Freedom Matters, “I believe God created me to restore freedom back into this country. And I am not the only one.” I encourage anyone who wants to play their part in restoring America’s freedom to study the-life-business information. I believe God gave us this blessing to have a vehicle of reaching millions through truthful information and it may be this country’s only saving grace. Will you join us in the fight?

Blessings, Kristen