Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

Inc Magazine Top 20 Leader shares his personal, professional, and financial secrets.

  • Orrin Woodward

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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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Archive for November, 2011

George Washington – RESOLVED for Character

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 29, 2011

Here is a portion of the introduction from my new book RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE. George Washington focused on building his character every day. This is important for all of us. Have you resolved to grow personally and professionally? Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

George Washington - RESOLVED for Character pictureBy nature, young Washington had a fiery temper, but he developed an iron-willed discipline in order to check its excesses. Richard Norton Smith, in his book, Patriarch, said, “The adolescent Washington examined Seneca’s dialogues and laboriously copied from a London magazine one hundred and ten ‘rules of civility’ intended to buff a rude country boy into at least the first draft of a gentleman”.  The French Jesuits had originally developed the 110 Rules as principles to live by, and Washington’s methodical writing process helped him to adopt many of these maxims as his personal resolutions for life. As Richard Brookhiser, author of Founding Father, wrote, “His manner and his morals kept his temperament under control. His commitment to ideas gave him guidance. Washington’s relation to ideas has been underestimated by almost everyone who wrote of him or knew him, and modern education has encouraged this neglect. . . His attention to courtesy and correct behavior anticipated his political philosophy. He was influenced by Roman notions of nobility, but he was even more deeply influenced by a list of table manners and rules for conversation by Jesuits.”  Character and self-mastery were his goals through living his guiding ideals of fortitude, justice, moderation, and the dignity of every human being.

For Washington, life became a series of resolutions to live by. He wrote and studied many such maxims throughout his life. Here are two examples. (see appendix for more)

1. With me it has always been a maxim rather to let my designs appear from my works rather than by my expressions.
Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

2. Washington developed and studied his maxims repeatedly, becoming convicted of the correctness of the maxims, teaching virtue over happiness and duty over rights, resolving to live based upon the principles implied within them.

Katherine Kersten, in George Washington’s Character, asks:

“What would Washington have accomplished if happiness, rather than integrity and service, had been his life-goal? Instead of suffering with his men through the snows of Valley Forge, he might have followed the example of Benedict Arnold, another Revolutionary War General. Though brave and talented, Arnold valued his own well-being and prosperity above all else. Out of self-interest, he plotted to betray West Point to the British, and died a traitor to his nation. What can we learn from Washington and his contemporaries about character-building? They teach us, most importantly, that “the soul can be schooled.” Exercising reason and will, we can mold ourselves into beings far nobler than nature made us.”

The ending quotation summarizes character-based training beautifully – “the soul can be schooled”.  Washington attended this class daily on his way to developing the nobility of character needed to unite the American colonies. General Henry Knox spoke truthfully when he shared that it was the strength of Washington’s character, not the laws of the new Constitution, that held the young republic together.  In a tribute to his friend, Congressman Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee eulogized Washington, saying, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting…Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues…Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.”  Lee’s tribute testifies to Washington’s faithful application of his resolutions into his life, living his maxims both privately and publicly.

Posted in Freedom/Liberty, Leadership/Personal Development | 11 Comments »

Dreams, Dramas, & Creative Destruction

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 25, 2011

Dreams, Dramas, & Creative Destruction pictureJoseph Schumpeter, one of the top economist of the twentieth century, described in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy the principle of continuous improvement in a free enterprise environment, terming it Creative Destruction. Entrepreneurs are the key to this process, focusing on advancing products, processes, and systems in an effort to satisfy their customers’ wishes. I copied Schumpeter’s thoughts on the Creative Destruction process in blue and attached my commentary on how it applies in today’s networked economy:

Capitalism, then, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary. . . The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers, goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates.

Orrin Woodward: Change is a given wherever freedom is present. That is why free enterprise is the best economic arrangement for productivity. Neither crony capitalism on the right nor socialism to the left can hold a candle to the productive power of a free people in a free enterprise environment. Regretfully, few countries or companies in the world ever practice true free enterprise for long.

. . . the history of the productive apparatus of a typical farm, from the beginnings of the rationalization of crop rotation, plowing and fattening to the mechanized thing of today–linking up with elevators and railroads–is a history of revolutions. So is the history of the productive apparatus of the iron and steel industry from the charcoal furnace to our own type of furnace, or the history of the apparatus of power production from the overshot water wheel to the modern power plant, or the history of transportation from the mail-coach to the airplane.

Orrin Woodward: With freedom, entrepreneurs are always thinking of better ways to serve the customers. When a better idea is implemented, costs go down, quality goes up, and customer satisfaction is rewarded through increased profits for entrepreneurs.

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation–if I may use that biological term–that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in. . . .

Orrin Woodward: In free enterprise, old companies with old ideas will lose out to companies with improved ideas and execution. History is filled with examples of giant firms that fell when they stopped innovating for the future, defending the status quo instead. In the past, America was the envy of the free world because new entrepreneurs, with no money or special deals, could win through the power of better ideas executed upon properly. This is what Creative Destruction is all about – the termination of existing modes of production and services, replaced by better models. For example, think of how Blockbuster lost a ton of business to the newer ideas executed by NetFlix. Blockbuster lost because it was slow to adjust to the new rules of the game. Now NetFlix is suffering from the effect of Creative Destruction itself. Creative Destruction is always at work in a free economy.

Every piece of business strategy acquires its true significance only against the background of that process and within the situation created by it. It must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction; it cannot be understood irrespective of it or, in fact, on the hypothesis that there is a perennial lull. . . .

Orrin Woodward: Networking is long overdue for a gale of Creative Destruction that will improve the entire industry. When existing non-innovative companies run into this gale, they can respond in several ways.

The first, and best way, is to compete by developing better ideas, improving the value to all networking consumers. The second, and more common way, is to legally restrain or coerce potential competitors not to compete. This is the worst method, but sadly all too prevalent.

The third way, used when older staid companies refuse to compete in the marketplace, is to support sites who smear the new leaders. These leaders, if allowed to compete in the marketplace, would help to improve the entire industry. However, the older, more established firms view the new companies as competitive threats that must be destroyed or tamed. Therefore, if they cannot tame the new business through legitimate competition in the marketplace, then they must believe supporting an online smear campaign is their next best alternative.

. . . But in capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization (the largest-scale unit of control for instance)–competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives.

Orrin Woodward: LIFE is striking at the foundations of the old networking business model. It is taking the best examples of leadership, community building, and life coaching, and marrying them together into a digital age business. The benefits to the consumer are lower prices, higher rewards, and best value proposition, making the risk/reward ratios the best in the history of networking.

I have yet to see any legitimate criticisms of the LIFE business model and I am not shocked by this. How can anyone criticize these improvements on the current benchmarks in the profession?

1. LIFE is attracting numerous customers. In fact, one member had a customer sign up over ten customers in two days! You heard me correctly. I said a customer just signed up ten other customers so that he and several of his friends can enjoy their products for free through the three for free program.
2. LIFE has the lowest monthly subscription price on the market – ($50 to $125).
3. The leadership information is taught around the globe on the principles taught from two Wall Street Journal and New York Times best selling authors and Top 30 leadership gurus.
4. LIFE has meetings anywhere in the USA and Canada thanks to internet streaming technology.
5. LIFE flows close to 70% of the PV revenue back to its members (the highest in the industry to my knowledge).
6. LIFE has a 30 day no questions asked return policy. We want satisfied customers or your money back.
7. LIFE products already have thousands of satisfied users. Our best product is the changed lives of our customers and members.
8. The TEAM community building techniques have been benchmarked by nearly every other networking company, with many of the top networking leaders already customers of TEAM’s business building materials.

If any legitimate analyst would like to compare LIFE’s break-away compensation plan with any of the other break-away business models, then I am more than happy to do so. Show me any company that has a break-away compensation plan that rewards its members better? Since no other break-away pays up to 50% on the first type of bonus, I don’t think they really want to go there. In fact, it’s probably why they haven’t. In addition, when the older models pay 4% leadership bonus and LIFE pays 8%, I can see the need to deflect attention from that anyway they can. More telling, when the older models pay a 1% depth bonus and LIFE pays 4%, maybe the “no comment” policy is the right option. 🙂 Lastly, when the older models pays no depth bonus after three legs, but LIFE compensates another 2% bonus on six legs, it becomes clear why the cat has got their tongue. Another 1% is the reward for nine legs over with further bonuses continuing through eighteen legs currently.

I guess, in hindsight, it would be silly for anyone to belabor these non-flattering points of the older business models. For if someone honestly compared the many break-away compensation plans, he would then have to admit that LIFE’s plan rewards customers and members much faster and more lucratively than the older models do. Maybe that’s the reason why, when discussing LIFE, the criticisms spewed forth are either outright lies, half-truths, or plain old-fashioned gossip. I guess the LIFE founders should take this as a backhanded compliment to our business, since even would-be criticisms have said nothing valid against the business model itself. 🙂

I thank God I live in America, and on this Thanksgiving weekend, I pledge to create a business model that is win-win for our customers and for also for anyone willing to apply themselves to building communities. If at any time this proves too tough, he can always go back to customer status and enjoying the world-class products and the best prices on the market. Thankfully, as long as North America maintains its freedoms, the LIFE founders are free to apply our revolutionary strategies to satisfy our members and customers, knowing they will be rewarded or punished based upon the viability of our ideas in the marketplace.

The LIFE founders have resolved to learn from our previous networking experiences, vowing to creatively destroy any parts that we did not believe satisfied or exceeded the customers’ expectations. We plan on doing this through applying free enterprise principles in the marketplace, not feeling the need to resort to reputation assassinations of our former associates. Perhaps both sides would benefit from applying this highroad principle. Certainly, the consumers would benefit by enjoying the freedom to study the pros and cons of each potential business models on its merits.

A person only has so much mental energy. The question is: what is he investing it in – dreams or dramas? The more he fills his head with dramas, the less room he has for dreams. In truth, I have never met a dream achiever who invested much time in drama loving. Conversely, I have never met a drama lover, who invested much time in dream achieving. This is why I have invested my life in dream achievement and quickly identify and disassociate myself from the drama lovers of life. Victors love dreaming for it keeps their mind free from dramas. Victims, on the other hand, love dramatizing for it keeps their mind free from dreams. Whichever group you choose to associate with determines your future destiny.

If anyone reading this has a dream and desires to achieve it by helping LIFE TEAM apply the free enterprise creative destruction principles to the networking profession, then I welcome you. If anyone reading this wants to join the online agenda-laden purveyors of dramas, then I support your right to do so. I only request that you ponder this: why is it that one side uses its freedoms to create a new business model, which benefits the consumer; while the other side uses its freedoms in an attempt to destroy the new model, which hurts the consumer? When a person realizes the economic consequences of Creative Destruction upon the older business models, the fog is lifted and the truth is revealed. Ponder wisely. 🙂 Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Freedom/Liberty, Leadership/Personal Development | Tagged: , | 16 Comments »

A Message for the Leadership Remnant

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 23, 2011

The Book of ISAIAHAlbert Jay Nock was a thinker of immense proportions. Even when I disagree with him, he forces me to think through my foundational principles and beliefs. His article entitled Isaiah’s Job, discussing the remnant is a good example of this. Nock compares Isaiah’s life and God’s encouragement to him through a remnant people – who had not bowed their knee to Baal – to the need today for people who will lead, speak, and write for today’s remnant. Here is a portion of Nock’s article:

The prophet’s career began at the end of King Uzziah’s reign, say about 740 B.C. This reign was uncommonly long, almost half a century, and apparently prosperous. It was one of those prosperous reigns, however – like the reign of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, or the administration of Eubulus at Athens, or of Mr. Coolidge at Washington – where at the end the prosperity suddenly peters out and things go by the board with a resounding crash.

In the year of Uzziah’s death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. “Tell them what a worthless lot they are.” He said, “Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don’t mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you,” He added, “that it won’t do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life.”

Isaiah had been very willing to take on the job – in fact, he had asked for it – but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so – if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start – was there any sense in starting it? “Ah,” the Lord said, “you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it.”

Apparently, then, if the Lord’s word is good for anything – I do not offer any opinion about that, – the only element in Judean society that was particularly worth bothering about was the Remnant. Isaiah seems finally to have got it through his head that this was the case; that nothing was to be expected from the masses, but that if anything substantial were ever to be done in Judea, the Remnant would have to do it. This is a very striking and suggestive idea; but before going on to explore it, we need to be quite clear about our terms. What do we mean by the masses, and what by the Remnant?

As the word masses is commonly used, it suggests agglomerations of poor and underprivileged people, laboring people, proletarians, and it means nothing like that; it means simply the majority. The mass-man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses. The line of differentiation between the masses and the Remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either. . .

Orrin Woodward:
However, anytime one styles his message to the masses, it gets dumbed down to the point where it no longer contains the kernels of truth needed to fuel the remnant. Think about how much in education, leadership, politics, etc., has been dumbed down. In most cases, the real issues aren’t even addressed because the majority of the people cannot comprehend them. Is there any hope for America and the West if we continue to dumb everything down?

I have a counter-proposal. What if we grew the intellectual capacity of the people, rather than dumbing down the message for the people? Marva Collins has proven this model can work, teaching inner city kids Shakespeare, Plato, etc, through her unyielding love for her young community of students. What if we did that across America, Canada, and eventually the world?

Ok, sorry about that. I get a little carried away when I think about the condition of Western Civilization. Let’s get back to Nock’s Remnant:

. . . The main trouble with all this is its reaction upon the mission itself. It necessitates an opportunist sophistication of one’s doctrine, which profoundly alters its character and reduces it to a mere placebo. If, say, you are a preacher, you wish to attract as large a congregation as you can, which means an appeal to the masses; and this, in turn, means adapting the terms of your message to the order of intellect and character that the masses exhibit. If you are an educator, say with a college on your hands, you wish to get as many students as possible, and you whittle down your requirements accordingly. If a writer, you aim at getting many readers; if a publisher, many purchasers; if a philosopher, many disciples; if a reformer, many converts; if a musician, many auditors; and so on. But as we see on all sides, in the realization of these several desires, the prophetic message is so heavily adulterated with trivialities, in every instance, that its effect on the masses is merely to harden them in their sins. Meanwhile, the Remnant, aware of this adulteration and of the desires that prompt it, turn their backs on the prophet and will have nothing to do with him or his message.

Isaiah, on the other hand, worked under no such disabilities. He preached to the masses only in the sense that he preached publicly. Anyone who liked might listen; anyone who liked might pass by. He knew that the Remnant would listen; and knowing also that nothing was to be expected of the masses under any circumstances, he made no specific appeal to them, did not accommodate his message to their measure in any way, and did not care two straws whether they heeded it or not. As a modern publisher might put it, he was not worrying about circulation or about advertising. Hence, with all such obsessions quite out of the way, he was in a position to do his level best, without fear or favor, and answerable only to his august Boss.

If a prophet were not too particular about making money out of his mission or getting a dubious sort of notoriety out of it, the foregoing considerations would lead one to say that serving the Remnant looks like a good job. An assignment that you can really put your back into, and do your best without thinking about results, is a real job; whereas serving the masses is at best only half a job, considering the inexorable conditions that the masses impose upon their servants. They ask you to give them what they want, they insist upon it, and will take nothing else; and following their whims, their irrational changes of fancy, their hot and cold fits, is a tedious business, to say nothing of the fact that what they want at any time makes very little call on one’s resources of prophesy. The Remnant, on the other hand, want only the best you have, whatever that may be. Give them that, and they are satisfied; you have nothing more to worry about. The prophet of the American masses must aim consciously at the lowest common denominator of intellect, taste and character among 120,000,000 (now 300 million)people; and this is a distressing task. The prophet of the Remnant, on the contrary, is in the enviable position of Papa Haydn in the household of Prince Esterhazy. All Haydn had to do was keep forking out the very best music he knew how to produce, knowing it would be understood and appreciated by those for whom he produced it, and caring not a button what anyone else thought of it; and that makes a good job. . .

Orrin Woodward:
Nock is describing the joy of teaching hungry students. Joseph Haydn was a world-class musician and composer. Even at a young age, he displayed the aptitude, hunger, and joy of learning to develop mastery in his musical craft. I truly believe that the masses are the masses, not from lack of talent, but from lack of passion and purpose. This is the LIFE business goal, to bring passion and purpose back into people’s lives. By creating a leadership community, the goal is to reach people where they are at, teaching them principles, that if applied, would change their lives forever. We are on a mission to find the hungry masses, helping them to discover their God-given potential, passion, and purpose. Let’s return to Nock’s article:

. . . What chiefly makes it so, I think, is that in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity. You do not know, and will never know, more than two things about them. You can be sure of those – dead sure, as our phrase is – but you will never be able to make even a respectable guess at anything else. You do not know, and will never know, who the Remnant are, nor what they are doing or will do. Two things you do know, and no more: First, that they exist; second, that they will find you. Except for these two certainties, working for the Remnant means working in impenetrable darkness; and this, I should say, is just the condition calculated most effectively to pique the interest of any prophet who is properly gifted with the imagination, insight and intellectual curiosity necessary to a successful pursuit of his trade. . .

Orrin Woodward:
LIFE is a plan to reach the people with truth in the 8F’s, knowing that a remnant exist in the living rooms of the world; a remnant who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. This is the exact spot that Laurie and I were in. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired. We wanted changes and were willing to change ourselves if needed in order to accomplish it. The problem with the prophets to the masses today is they immediately start with a dumbed down message that only exacerbates the problems rather than solving them. In today’s battered economic conditions, people need real hope for the future like never before in America’s history. Real hope begins with changes on the inside before things can change on the outside.

Call me a dreamer, an idealist, a nut, or even a scam, but I will not cease doing what I know is right! A man with the facts is never at the mercy of a man with an opinion. I know first-hand what happened in Laurie and my life. To not offer the same opportunity to others would be selfish and wrong. I do not desire to create a political community that demands their rights. Instead, I dream of revealing to each hungry person the capabilities hidden inside of them as I discuss in the book, RESOLVED. In this way, they will demand more from themselves, becoming champions without having to demand anything from others, but simply an opportunity to perform.  Alright, back to Nock:

. . . One of the most suggestive episodes recounted in the Bible is that of a prophet’s attempt – the only attempt of the kind on the record, I believe – to count up the Remnant. Elijah had fled from persecution into the desert, where the Lord presently overhauled him and asked what he was doing so far away from his job. He said that he was running away, not because he was a coward, but because all the Remnant had been killed off except himself. He had got away only by the skin of his teeth, and, he being now all the Remnant there was, if he were killed the True Faith would go flat. The Lord replied that he need not worry about that, for even without him the True Faith could probably manage to squeeze along somehow if it had to; “and as for your figures on the Remnant,” He said, “I don’t mind telling you that there are seven thousand of them back there in Israel whom it seems you have not heard of, but you may take My word for it that there they are.”

At that time, probably the population of Israel could not run to much more than a million or so; and a Remnant of seven thousand out of a million is a highly encouraging percentage for any prophet. With seven thousand of the boys on his side, there was no great reason for Elijah to feel lonesome; and incidentally, that would be something for the modern prophet of the Remnant to think of when he has a touch of the blues. But the main point is that if Elijah the Prophet could not make a closer guess on the number of the Remnant than he made when he missed it by seven thousand, anyone else who tackled the problem would only waste his time.

For these reasons it appears to me that Isaiah’s job is not only good but also extremely interesting; and especially so at the present time when nobody is doing it. If I were young and had the notion of embarking in the prophetical line, I would certainly take up this branch of the business; and therefore I have no hesitation about recommending it as a career for anyone in that position. It offers an open field, with no competition; our civilization so completely neglects and disallows the Remnant that anyone going in with an eye single to their service might pretty well count on getting all the trade there is.

Even assuming that there is some social salvage to be screened out of the masses, even assuming that the testimony of history to their social value is a little too sweeping, that it depresses hopelessness a little too far, one must yet perceive, I think, that the masses have prophets enough and to spare. Even admitting that in the teeth of history that hope of the human race may not be quite exclusively centered in the Remnant, one must perceive that they have social value enough to entitle them to some measure of prophetic encouragement and consolation, and that our civilization allows them none whatever. Every prophetic voice is addressed to the masses, and to them alone; the voice of the pulpit, the voice of education, the voice of politics, of literature, drama, journalism – all these are directed towards the masses exclusively, and they marshal the masses in the way that they are going.

One might suggest, therefore, that aspiring prophetical talent may well turn to another field. . . So long as the masses are taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and Chiun, their images, and following the star of their god Buncombe, they will have no lack of prophets to point the way that leadeth to the More Abundant Life; and hence a few of those who feel the prophetic afflatus might do better to apply themselves to serving the Remnant. It is a good job, an interesting job, much more interesting than serving the masses; and moreover it is the only job in our whole civilization, as far as I know, that offers a virgin field.

If you are part of the leadership remnant, or desire to be; if you are hungry and willing to change; if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then LIFE is calling. It’s time for the leadership remnant to answer the call. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Faith, Finances, Freedom/Liberty, Leadership/Personal Development, Orrin Woodward | Tagged: , , , | 25 Comments »

RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE Reviews

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 22, 2011

RESOLVE book cover imageWith the release of my new book RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE, I have been eagerly anticipating the reaction of leaders around the globe. Writing a book is an arduous task, requiring many thankless hours of time alone to think and write a labor of love. However, when it’s released and respected leaders from around the globe share how the book inspired them, it makes all the effort worthwhile. Here are a several examples of the comments I have been hearing from top leaders.

Dana Collins is one of the top leaders in the networking profession. She is a student of leadership and is constantly learning. In fact, she was one of the keynote speakers at Art Jonak’s last MasterMind Event. Tens of thousands of people around the world are part of her community. She sent the Networking Times editorial staff the following email when asked what books she was reading:

Great idea, Josephine. I am reading “Resolved” by Orrin.
This book, I believe, will be a classic.
I bought a copy for each of my key leaders. Each week we have a call to discuss a chapter. It is a playbook for building a foundation in yourself that can build a tremendous culture in your family, team, and community.
Incredible book!
And btw, this is not a paid endorsement!

Best,
Dana

Oliver DeMille is one of the most respected educators in the country, having written the classic book, Thomas Jefferson Education. This book initiated a revolution in the home schooling movement. His talk at the LIFE major impacted thousands of people, being one of the highlights of the entire weekend! I have met few people who read more books than Oliver so when I received his thoughts on my new book, I was honored. When a principle-centered man and friend of his caliber is impacted that lets me know my labor wasn’t in vain.

Orrin,

Sorry I’ve been out of it all week. I got a really bad flu. Anyway, I’m
back. I love your new book. It is fantastic! A true home run! I love the
cover. Wow, that painting is so perfect with your title and message:
Resolved. You nailed it.

I loved each of the 13 resolutions. Perfect. In the perfect order. And it
builds on Benjamin Franklin’s and George Washington’s personal resolutions.
I loved that you included these in the appendices. This book is so
excellent. I really like the way each chapter emphasizes a resolution, a
character trait of leadership, and highlights of a leader who followed it.
It hits the reader on so many levels. This is your best work yet! It’s a
magnum opus. Wow!

I like that you used Lou Holtz. I’m a real fan of his stuff. And I once
again felt so connected to your work when I read the Will Smith chapter.
Will is a really great leader. He and his wife Jada use TJEd with some of
their kids and Rachel and I have been in their home and had dinner and
social events with them. Will had me speak to a group of his friends in his
home, and during the Q&A he talked as much or more than I did. Someone would
ask a question about TJEd and before I could answer it Will would say, “The
answer to that is on page XXX,” and he’d turn to that page in TJEd and read
the answer. He had the whole book underlined, highlighted and marked up in
multiple colors. He knew the page-by-page details of my book better than I
did. Anyway, Rachel and I had a similar experience with Will and Jada as
with you and Laurie—you both read my book and contacted us and eventually we
ended up at your home and speaking to your friends and discussing important
principles of freedom and education. I thought it was really cool that you
had him as your example of programming the elephant.

I really loved that you gave Sam Walton 2 chapters. What a great leader. I
think Steve Jobs bears a similar study—maybe a future writing project for
us. Also, the section on New England fiat money is brilliant! The 5 laws of
decline are wow! This book is just outstanding. As I said, another home run!

Well done!

I’ve only read this once through, so I’ll more to say when I read it
backwards and really try to milk out more detail. But I just had to gush to
you about how good this is! It’s fantastic. I just wish I had read it before
the Ohio speech so I could have it on my top 6 (7) book list. Oh well, next
time!

This book is just plain transformational! Thank for sending it! I’m so
excited to read it again.

Oliver

Have you read RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE yet? My goal in sharing the 13 Resolutions was to have a guide for character based living where one could refer back to the section that needs improvement. If you have already read the book, please comment on what chapters had the biggest impact on you. I would love to hear how the book affected your thinking and actions. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, Freedom/Liberty, Leadership/Personal Development, Life Training, Orrin Woodward | Tagged: , , | 25 Comments »

LIFE: Downside Risk & Upside Reward

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 21, 2011

When I worked at Delphi division of GM, I completed half the classes for a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Although I received good grades and enjoyed the classes, I stopped pursuing my MBA in order to build my own business.

Many thought I was crazy to quit my MBA, but I just had a feeling that it was time for me to build my own business rather than continue to learn about business. In truth, I was ready to implement some of the principles that I had learned along with continuing my education in “the school of hard knocks”. 🙂

One of the best principles that I learned through my MBA program was to examine any business by asking two crucial questions:

1. What is the downside risk?
2. What is the upside reward?LIFE: Downside Risk & Upside Reward

Simply put, if the downside risk was too great, then don’t do it, because it could capsize the entire ship. However, if the a person could handle the worst case downside risk, and the upside reward was big enough, then perhaps it was a business venture worth committing to.

It was these two questions asked and answered that led me out of school and into my own business venture. What is ironic today, as I look back on Laurie and my business ventures is the level of risk taken in our former business model compared to the risk today for someone joining LIFE Leadership. Remember, Laurie and I were dead broke even as an engineer and an accountant. In fact, we were beyond broke, having consumer debt amounting to over $30,000 when we started our networking careers!

With monthly expenditures to buy 100 points of volume in my old networking company requiring Laurie and I to spend $300 dollars or more, we barely endured. This was quite a blow to an already stretched budget. Along with the product purchases, the investment in CDs, books, and seminars (all of which I loved) totaled another $200 plus dollars per month. In other words, on top of a stretched budget, Laurie and I had to budget for another $500 dollars per month minimum! The downside investment nearly killed us for the first several years. Thankfully, Laurie and I are both long-term thinkers and kept the vision in front of us. However, many of the people we started with us did not have the same endurance, dropping out along the journey to success.

What kept Laurie and I focused was the upside reward, we figured we could make an extra $25,000 after expenses in a couple of years. It’s laughable now how much work we did in a model whose highest rewards topped out at 25% volume discount on total group volumes of $20-30k per month. I know, I know, this is sounding like one of those stories: we walked uphill both ways to school through heavy snow. 🙂  Even so, these are the facts we were dealing with.

I am not knocking networking. In fact, I am thankful that someone had created any opportunity for us to apply our sweat equity towards freedom. We had to make many changes, both personally and professionally to get the business rolling, but eventually, we made it happen. To this day, many people around the world utilize the LIFE Training system of building, called team approach to grow their businesses. I take this as a compliment for our years of effort in improving the upside reward compared to the downside risk for our entire industry.

Today with the LIFE Leadership business, the downside risk versus the upside reward is nothing short of revolutionary. A person can sign up for the LIFE and LLR subscriptions, and generate 100 points for $100.  This, in my opinion, is much better than some networking companies, where you buy commodity products at inflated prices, especially if a person can buy comparable products at Walmart and Target for significantly less. Networking should be world class, unique products, at a super value! Many networks provide this, but many others just markup commoditized products. When products are overpriced, it hurts our whole profession. In LIFE Leadership, a person can purchase the lowest cost leadership materials on the market.

How can we offer our material at the best price and yet have a compensation plan that pays 50% on just the first type of bonus? The simple answer is the founders desire to influence the world is greater than the desire to pad their pocketbooks. Imagine if we took world-class leadership materials and provided it at the lowest prices. Then, imagine taking 70% of all the revenue points generated and flowing it back to the people who helped LIFE Leadership launch the leadership revolution. Remember, in LIFE Leadership, your pay raise becomes effective as soon as you do. 🙂

So what is the downside risk in this model? Hmm, let me think. . . The downside risk is that you might not enjoy the leadership training from two best selling leadership authors and business partners. If at any time you do not see the value in the leadership materials, you have a 30 day “no questions asked” return policy. Certainly within 30 days, you could discover whether the leadership materials is helping you or not, right?

The downside risk is negligible. But what about the upside reward? With a compensation plan that pays out 70% revenue points to anyone who achieves a minimum of 150 points of business, the networking game is changed forever. For example, Laurie and I personally started a new leg on November 4th. It has already achieved the 20% bracket and is easily going to hit the 25% bracket later this week. It took me two years to hit the 25% bracket in my first company!

Why the huge difference? Because we have a digital age business, a compensation plan that rewards people at the low end, and founders who desire the wealth to flow to people who build the network, not found the company.  Another factor is the demand for quality leadership materials at an affordable price point. LIFE Leadership has already signed up hundreds of customers doing tens of thousands of points, making volume accumulation easier than ever before in my networking experience.

I have taken my share of criticism for not going along with the herd in networking. I have refused repeatedly to sell out my character for conveniences. This has cost me money, time, and relationships over the years, since, in my opinion, some of my former heroes chose to sell out rather than fight for what is right.  Anytime someone desires to change the rules of the future, he will be attacked by the protectors of the past. I have received, and will continue receiving personal attacks for changing the rules. However, although they can attack my reputation, they cannot touch my character. Better they criticize me than I be them. The only people calling LIFE Leadership a scam are fearful competitors or woefully ignorant individuals. 🙂 Make no mistake, I will never surrender my principles for peace. I believe that it’s more noble to create the new, rather than criticize the old, so LIFE Leadership is our opportunity to do so.

If you have ever tried networking and didn’t make it work, then welcome to the club. Millions of Americans and Canadians have tried networking and failed in their attempt. This doesn’t make you a failure unless you blamed someone else. LIFE Leadership has changed the risk versus reward ratio to such an extent that many are achieving success who previously only struggled.

For example, my yacht captain, Bill Howard, is already at the 40% bracket and just a sliver away from the 45% bracket (Update: Captain hit 45% the same day I posted this!). We were quickly calculating his bonus for this month at around $800. Remember, Captain Bill has been in networking since 2005 and has averaged $50 or less per month with his highest one month check around $250!  Like I said, LIFE Leadership is a game-changer.

Alright, it’s time for me to get back to work. I have promises to keep. It’s time to reach one million people with leadership truth in the 8F’s of LIFE.  A rising tide lifts all the ships on the water. Don’t you think it’s time to get your ship on the water? Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development | Tagged: , | 22 Comments »

The Baby & the Bath Water

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 18, 2011

Have you ever heard the quote, “Don’t throw the baby out with the dirty bath water?” I certainly have used this principle repeatedly over the years. Sadly, too many times, people do throw the baby and the bath water out because they do not understand fully the concept described in Chapter 5 of the new RESOLVED book – Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust (PDCA). Remember, anytime you throw out the baby, you also throw out your opportunity. It’s been my experience that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you can do it great. The key is to have emotional intelligence to persist while improving.

For example, every leader in any community carries two buckets with him. One filled with gas, the other, filled with water. Wisdom is determining which bucket to toss on the situation. If everyone is excited and things are happening then throw the gas bucket, firing up the situation even more. Conversely, if people are being stretched, don’t throw more gas onto the situation. Instead, throw water, helping the people to see that the dirty water will be flushed, leaving a clean baby with amazing potential.

The Baby & the Bath WaterHave you discerned which bucket to throw at the right time yet? If you haven’t, keep listening to the LIFE Leadership CD’s. Over time, you will develop the wisdom to apply the right principles at the right time and make a difference in your community. So let’s flush the dirty water and help the new LIFE baby grow into the fully grown life-changing business that it promises to be. Let’s build our LIFE Business on foundational principles that will stand the test of time.

When Laurie and I traveled with Chris Brady to Jerusalem, we toured the remains of the Herod’s temple. Their were foundation stones that were huge! Even the Roman’s couldn’t tear them down, so they buried them instead. This is the type of foundation that endures the passage of time.

I am elated with the launch of LIFE, not because everything went perfect, (although I am very happy with the progress) but because everything went. In the process of launching a new company, I fully expected issues that would need improvement and I have a full list of areas to improve. However, the goal was to ensure that none of the issues were game stoppers. Thankfully, none of them are. Volume is being tracked, legs are growing fast, and people’s lives are being changed. Subscriptions are increasing hundreds everyday. FIRED UP!

My commitment, as Co-Founder and Chairman of LIFE, is any area where we can improve will have the PDCA process applied to it. In the first 18 days, we have hundreds of customers, thousands of members, and many more of both on the way! We are going to build a world-class streaming video process that can go anywhere in North America. We will produce world-class content that will change the destiny’s of people, businesses, charities, and churches across the world. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, Orrin Woodward | Tagged: , | 17 Comments »

The Circle of LIFE

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 17, 2011

Chris Brady and I flew up to Atlanta for a 6 hour mastermind session on Tuesday. Here is one of many concepts that were generated from brainstorming together. Generating ideas with Chris Brady is like drinking water from a firehose – fast and furious! 🙂 I love our 17 year business partnership! LIFE Leadership is something special and I have never felt as good about community building as I do today. Laurie and I started a new leg 10 days ago and it is now over 10 levels in depth! LIFE Leadership is good because it helps people become good in their Circle of LIFE. Here is Brady’s article explaining what our products do in a person’s life. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

I had a very engaging conversation with my friend and co-author Orrin Woodward today.  As usual, we kicked around a ton of stimulating ideas and pieced together something that, in our estimation, will immediately convey greater understanding as to the purpose of LIFE Leadership.  (See the inset diagram).

The CIRCLE of LIFE picture

In each of the 8 F categories of Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, Following, Freedom, Friendship, and Fun, one can imagine a certain grade based upon how one is doing in that category. In the diagram the center represents horrible, as in, you are totally “stinking up the joint” (as my kids say) in a certain category. Working your way out from the center to the outer ring in any of the categories represents a stronger grade.  So someone with a dot near the outer ring is doing well in that category.  By connecting the dots on your subjective personal estimation of your life at this moment in each of the categories you can come up with a shape that roughly represents your life right now in each of the 8Fs.

Quite simply, LIFE Leadership supplies life-changing information to help you increase your score in each of the 8Fs.  The goal is to take someone from the not-so-good black shape represented toward the center of the diagram to the much improved (and happier, we would think) life represented by the red outline toward the outer ring of the circle.

Who doesn’t have at least a category or two, or three, or eight, in which he or she would like to have a better score? Who wouldn’t want to transform his or her life from the tiny blob (and who among us hasn’t felt like a tiny blob from time to time?) in the center to the big wheel (and who hasn’t wanted to be a big wheel at least once in his or her life?) toward the outer ring?

That’s it.  From little blob to big wheel.

But all kidding aside.  This CIRCLE of LIFE is the snap-shot diagram to which people can easily relate when it comes to understand the goal of LIFE Leadership and the life-changing information we offer.  We will help people learn and apply truth in each category and thereby improve their shape.

LIFE Leadership: Because leadership is for everyone!

Posted in Faith, Family, Finances, Freedom/Liberty, Fun, Life Training, Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) | Tagged: , | 14 Comments »

Philosophy of Freedom: Jacob Burckhardt

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 16, 2011

Historian Jacob Burckhardt is one of the best thinkers and historians of all-time. I love reading his thoughts on the historical process and the necessity for free people to create freedom loving cultures. This is what the LIFE business is all about. We teach people how to be free on the inside so they can help build a culture of freedom on the outside. Here are just a couple of segments (from Alberto Coll’s introduction) of Burckhardt’s book Judgments on History and Historians. Enjoy. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

The long-term trends and powerful impersonal forces all count, but so does the lonely genius—such as Luther or Michelangelo—striving to affirm his inner vision. History is full of broken trends that at one point seemed to stretch infinitely into the future but then moved in radically new and unexpected directions; many of these great historical surprises have occurred because of the force of human personality. In other words, there is freedom in the midst of necessity. Secondly, Burckhardt affirmed that the highest form of freedom is inward—that is, the freedom to maintain one’s soul and mind sufficiently detached from and independent of the ruling passions and conventional wisdom of the moment. Therefore, a society that aspires to be called free must defend those institutions, such as independent wealth and centers of economic and social power free from the state, that facilitate intellectual, artistic, and spiritual freedom. This view distinguished Burckhardt from the socialists, with their hankering after centralization, as well as from the liberal egalitarians, with their obsessive desire to destroy every vestige of privilege and inequality. Lastly, Burckhardt believed that a free society needs to guard against the demagogue—the “great man”—who in the name of the people would increase his own power and that of the state, and impose uniformity

Burckhardt found his ideal political community in the small city- states of Athens and Florence, where with varying degrees of success freedom had flourished together with high culture (literature, music, and the fine arts). The modern world, with its relentless march toward gargantuan cities in which human beings lead an alienated, lonely, stupefied existence anchored in triviality, vulgarity, and material satiety, frightened him. Yet he was too much of a skeptic to believe that there is a solution to this problem in the form of either a political ideology or a “great man” who could bring about a new renaissance. If there was a renaissance ahead, it would come about, Burckhardt surmised, as the unexpected fruit of the human spirit and the quiet work of a few individuals—“secular monks,” he called them—who did not care about power but cherished the characteristics of the culture of “old Europe,” foremost among these being the love of freedom and beauty. In the annals of Western historiography, few voices can match Burckhardt’s in his affirmation of the grandeur of the human spirit or his insistence on the irreducible nature of freedom as an end in itself.

Posted in Freedom/Liberty | 13 Comments »

LIFE Entrepreneurship & Opportunity

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 14, 2011

Leadership requires seeing things before others see them, believing in the future before others believe it, and moving in that direction before others will move. This is the path that new truths follow to enter the marketplace. In truth, however, isn’t a new concept. This has been the reception of new ideas for as long as human beings have populated the earth.

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stated that all truth goes through three steps.

First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Finally, it is accepted as self-evident.

Entrepreneurs, by definition, work within the first two steps, since by the third step the real opportunities are gone. So don’t expect raving fans when you get started. Don’t expect everyone to celebrate you as a hero when ridicule or violent opposition is the beginning environmental conditions for all revolutionary change.

Leaders create the future through better ideas and implementation. It takes courage, fortitude, and high adversity quotient in order to change the world. These qualities, and more, the founders of LIFE have in abundance! Chris Brady, Tim Marks, George Guzzardo, Bill Lewis, Claude Hamilton, and Dan Hawkins are leaders of leaders.

Remember:

The Christians went to the colosseum to be burned and eaten before Christianity became the established religion of the empire

That Ghandi was imprisoned repeatedly before India was allowed her freedom.

That America had to do more than just write a Declaration of Independence, it had to fight for years to make it a reality.

What does this mean for you? If you desire to make real change in the world, you will be opposed. The better your ideas, the more violently you will be resisted by the old order. Instead of being upset at this, take it as confirmation that you are on the right track. The establishment ignores you until it is threatened by your better ideas and execution. 🙂

Winston Churchill once said, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” In the same way, history will be kind to LIFE for we intend to make it! Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, Leadership/Personal Development | Tagged: , | 12 Comments »

The LIFE Business CD’s

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 12, 2011

I normally don’t do two testimonials from the same company, but this one is so over the top exciting that I had to share it. Bob Quillen is no stranger to success, having received three national awards in his home improvement business, but he is taking his game (and business) to a whole new level!  Bob rewards employees thousands of dollars and has a fantastic ROI when they listen to CDs. Imagine if every business owner in LIFE was as committed to his own personal development and leadership as Bob is for his employees personal growth! This video explains clearly why LIFE is taking America and Canada by storm.  The LIFE Business required 18 years of preparation, listening to tens of thousands of leadership CD’s, reading several thousand books personally to get our training and messaging right. Now, we are firing on all cylinders, launching the game changing business model called LIFE. Are you ready to change the world? Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmIXyrJ5-Y]

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development | Tagged: , | 10 Comments »