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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Green Box to Financial Literacy

Posted by Orrin Woodward on April 11, 2017

People around the world wake up everyday with a goal to make money, money designed to help them stay ahead of advancing bills, inflation, and taxes. Few, however, have a plan to escape the Financial Rut and live their dreams debt free. Instead, most merely work to live and count the hours until the weekend to enjoy a few days of freedom until the grind returns. Why is this so? Why, in short, do so few people live their dreams without enslaving themselves within the Financial Matrix debt system? Lacking knowledge of how to escape the Financial Matrix, most people simply surrender to the financial circumstances that overwhelm them. Sure, some seek to save and others to invest, but few seem to do enough to break out of the Financial Rut, because they lack of Financial Literacy. Fortunately, the Green Box Financial Fitness Program, can change this. On one hand, it’s very difficult to save one’s way to wealth in the Tightwad quadrant, but on the other hand, it’s practically impossible to make enough in the Status quadrant to be secure. Indeed, it’s not until a person understands Financial Literacy, marrying making money (Offense), saving money (Defense) and how the Financial Matrix entraps people (Playing Field), will he truly enjoy Financial Freedom.

Financially successful people must synchronize Building (Offense) and Budgeting (Defense) to achieve Financial Freedom just like healthy people synchronize breathing in and out.  One without the other is results in catastrophe. Perhaps nothing confirms this truth as clearly as the 2009 Sports Illustrated article, which stated that 78% of NFL players were either bankrupt or under significant financial stress after only two years of retirement. Wait a minute. How can people who make millions wind up busted just a few short years later? To be sure, this sounds shocking at first, but with some reflection, it really isn’t that surprising. After all, these young men were trained in football, not Financial Literacy. Many go from penniless to the penthouse practically overnight, spending (and borrowing) money faster than it comes in. Sure, while they have the big contracts, they can afford to live in the Status quadrant, servicing their growing debt, but when the retire, many face an insurmountable financial dilemma, namely, how to support their lavish lifestyles without the big contracts. 78% of former NFL players, evidently, fail the test and are forced to sell or surrender assets they never truly owned.

Needless to say, these circumstances affect more than just NFL players, since anyone who achieves financial success is at risk without Financial Literacy. Which leads me to the real question that should be asked – why isn’t Financial Literacy sought out by all who aspire to achieve financial success? Naturally, I’m not surprised by the innumerable stories of Lottery winners falling back into bankruptcy, because they received no training on either Offense or Defense, but I am shocked by the amount of entrepreneurs who do not invest the time to learn the Defensive and Offensive principles necessary for Financial Literacy. Think about it. If one is going to promote the importance of building businesses and making ongoing incomes (which is all fantastic, by the way), why not also teach Financial Literacy to ensure the success is enduring rather than fleeting? What’s the point, in other words, of grinding day and night, merely to build castles in the sand and watch them wash away during the financial storms? To me, this is the height of folly and poor leadership.

Financial Fitness Pack

In consequence, the purpose of the Green Box Financial Fitness Program is to simplify the principles of financial success, teaching people how to stop spending when they should be saving (Defense) and stop saving when they should be investing (Offense). The dismal statistics, 99% fail at one or both of these principles, is mind blowing! Thankfully, the Green Box can change this and set people FREE. If the reader is tired of living in one of the sub-optimized Financial Matrix Quadrants, whether the Broke, Tightwad, or Status one, the Financial Fitness Program has the information and the Green Box community has the inspiration to help a person escape from the Financial Matrix!  Isn’t it time to change your family’s financial legacy, setting yourself free by helping others get financially free? The answer for me and my family is a resounding yes!

Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News | 15 Comments »

The Financial Matrix Scam Exposed!

Posted by Orrin Woodward on February 1, 2017

The Financial Matrix is a SCAM that fraudulently drains the wealth from hard working people. Orrin Woodward exposes the four quadrants of the Financial Matrix and how to escape the matrix by applying the principles of within the Financial Fitness Program Green Box.

Posted in All News | 59 Comments »

Whatever Happened to the American Dream?

Posted by Orrin Woodward on January 14, 2016

Writer Adam Levin shared some sobering statistics on debt and the loss of the American dream. Unfortunately, government cannot and will not supply the answers for these challenges. If anything, government debt is exacerbating the problems, not leading to the solutions. In reality, the only viable solution is for each citizen to learn financial literacy and escape the Financial Matrix. When enough people do this, then, and only then, will we be in a position to expect government to practice  financially sane principles also.

LIFE Leadership has the produce (Financial Fitness Program) to teach people the defense, offense, and the playing field for financial success. There is not better time than today to start your journey to debt-free.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

The American Dream

              The Vanishing American Dream

A great number of Americans are redefining the American Dream. That was the takeaway from a recent Credit.com poll, which showed that nearly one in four people between the ages of 18 and 24 defined the American Dream as being debt-free. Shockingly, that’s more than those who dream of owning a home.

The poll underscores something I have long suspected — there’s a great deal of nostalgia for a promise that increasingly and tragically looks to be further out of reach for newer generations. Once upon a time, the American Dream was a Technicolor affair, replete with two and a half thriving, college-bound kids, a dog or cat and not one, but two cars in the garage that were owned outright, or would be before they were ready for the crusher. Finally, and most importantly, for generations of Americans the American Dream was about owning a home.

“The value of homeownership is deeply ingrained in American public culture,” write William M. Rohe and Harry L. Watson in the introduction to their book, Chasing the American Dream: New Perspectives on Affordable Homeownership. “From early laws requiring landownership for the right to vote, to nineteenth-century homestead legislation, to contemporary real estate brochures, the ownership of a home has long been presented as a crucial part of the ‘stake in society’ expected of full fledged members of American communities.”

Now it appears that for millions of Americans, the American Dream is looking different. Our study found while 27.9% of respondents see the American Dream as retiring at 65 and 18.2% see it as owning a home, 23% view the American Dream as being debt-free.

How Did We Get Here?

The Great Recession affected all of us. The irrational exuberance of the mortgage boom and investment portfolios yielding 10% growth year after year led to a burst bubble, downsizing and various kinds of over-corrections. At the height of the boom, USA Today published a poll in which 81% of young adults said getting rich was their top priority (and 51% gave the same priority to becoming famous). Americans now face a new personal finance reality.

For millions, fame and fortune is probably out of the question absent a win on reality television. To them, financial survival equals success and the American Dream is about staying above water while the kids pile up an average $27,000 student loan debt, mortgages are upside-down, and not enough money is finding its way into retirement portfolios.

Today, more Americans dream not of affluence, but of basic financial stability. That’s what both retirement and freedom from debt have in common. When Americans dream of retirement and freedom from debt, they dream of being able to exhale. Homeownership is a little different. Rohe and Watson frame it as an aspirational component of American citizenship. Others believe that you haven’t really “made it” until you own a home. However, the failure to own a home is generally not a source of stress in the same way that drowning in debt and the inability to retire are.

In another section of the survey, in fact, we see just how important debt is to consumers. When we asked what financial goals are most important to respondents right now, being free of debt/credit card debt was at the top (33.4% of responses). The runners-up weren’t even close: Retiring at age 65 (11.6%), buying or paying off a car (11.3%), sending a kid to college (8.1%), buying a home (6.8%), paying off student loans (6.2%), paying off a mortgage (5.6% ) and buying a vacation home (3.2%). (And 13.8% had no response, for those of you doing the math).

Finally, the poll found that nearly one in six respondents felt that it was unlikely that they would ever be debt-free in their lifetime. That’s a troubling number and one we’re going to have to watch over time.

Are We in Denial?

This is all sobering news, but there’s further evidence in this study that most of us aren’t really grasping. An interesting contradiction in the data lies in the fact that the latent pessimism described above is not reflected in any age group when it comes to the question of whether the American Dream is within reach. In the study, 78% of respondents said that the American Dream was either within reach or they had already achieved it, compared to 17.7% who said that it wasn’t within their reach. Meanwhile, 55% said that the American dream wasn’t within reach for most Americans. That means a good portion of us are either overly optimistic about our own prospects, or overly pessimistic about the prospects of others. My bet is the former.

Here’s my takeaway: Most of us still believe in the American Dream — but the nature of that dream seems to be changing. Debt is now woven into the fabric of our society. While some debt is absolutely vital for a healthy American economy, the way many of us experience debt is anything but positive. We’ve all seen the statistics about record-breaking credit card and student loan debt. Those numbers are troubling for some and sources of enormous personal stress for others. Many of us don’t take the time to consider how this new financial reality has changed our expectations of what’s possible for each of us to achieve.  Even though we call these things dreams, what’s always been special about the American Dream is our ability to make them come true. When we’ve lost that, we’ve lost a little bit of what it means to be an American.

Posted in All News | 47 Comments »

Age of Fighting Sail: Chris Brady

Posted by Orrin Woodward on January 26, 2015

Author Chris Brady

Author Chris Brady

Chris Brady has done it again! How many home runs can a guy hit in a row anyway? His latest book Leadership Lessons from the Age of Fighting Sail (LLAFS) is simply brilliant. As everyone knows, I love history, but somehow Chris Brady found a portion of history that I had only studied briefly. Then, he proceeded to deliver leadership nugget after nugget while sharing fascinating stories I was completely unaware of.

Like the famous dictum, “facts tell but stories sell,” Brady sold the importance of leadership by laying out the severe complications and challenges that faced the captains of ships in the age of fighting sail. As I read the chapters, I realized that LLAFS is not just a great book in its own right, but also an excellent follow-up book to Brady and my New York Times Bestseller Launching a Leadership Revolution (LLR). For Brady adds color and depth to so many principles in his latest book that were merely touched upon in LLR.

For instance, Brady dedicates a whole chapter to the importance of hunger in world-class leadership and expostulates on the message by sharing how Horatio Nelson’s teenage decision made him the leader he was. All of which, by the way, I had never read or heard before. If the reader desires to learn leadership (while being entertained and inspired), then look no further than LLAFS. Indeed, when I completed the last chapter, I changed the hierarchy of my favorite historical leadership books, moving Brady’s to the top of the list.

I feel driven to share so many stories from the book, but I will hold myself back, for the way Brady crescendos the leadership principles and stories upon each other is masterful. The reader needs needs to experience this for himself without me spoiling the effect. Nonetheless, a quick look at the chapter headings, will convey the depth and scope one will experience when he reads the book. Just look at the leadership principles taught in LLAFS:

  1. The Lesson of the Ripple Effect
  2. The Lesson of Hunger
  3. The Lesson of Initiative
  4. The Lesson of the Front
  5. The Lesson of Discernment
  6. The Lesson of Concentration
  7. The Lesson of Decentralization
  8. The Lesson of Culture
  9. The Lesson of the Unfair Unload
  10. The Lesson of the Battle
  11. The Lesson of Legacy

Furthermore, inside each of the major leadership lessons are tidbits and side-thoughts that each deserve separate books from Brady. When someone has lived each of these principles the resulting book becomes ten times more valuable than just someone repeating verbiage he has read from others. Indeed, this is what makes Leadership Lessons from the Age of Fighting Sail a book that I will return to again and again.

I am so proud of the leaders within LIFE Leadership who have produced a series of best sellers over the years led by LIFE Coaches Tim Marks and Claude Hamilton. Chris Brady, not surprisingly, has just added another to the growing list.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News | 21 Comments »

Building a Leadership Culture

Posted by Orrin Woodward on December 1, 2014

Leadership Culture

Leadership Culture

The longer I am in the leadership field, the more apparent it is to me that creating a leadership culture is the key to longterm results in any company. Yes, a leader must be a top performer, but that, by itself, cannot produce longterm excellence. Indeed, only when the leader works on creating a culture of excellence will his/her company fulfill its potential.

Perhaps the simplest description of culture is to recognize the relation between the community’s culture and the leader’s expectation. Whatever the leader finds acceptable (believes, behaviors, and results) soon becomes the cultural norms for the organization. Therefore, when leaders do not like the current results, they must begin by changing their expectations and standard of excellence.

Unfortunately, most top performers seem to struggle with the jump into leadership because they do not understand how to effectively transfer their personal high standards into the community-at-large. This explains why so many top performers end up failing when promoted into leadership positions. Nonetheless, the good news is that every performer can become a leader through studying and applying the leadership soft-skills.

There are only four lens’s a person can wear in life (victim, follower, performer, and leader). If someone has worked hard to reach the performer lens, there is simply no reason not to continue progressing and put on the leadership lens. This is exactly why I (and my co-founders) formed LIFE Leadership, namely, to help people move up lens levels until they become effective leaders in the homes, communities, and companies.

Isn’t it time for the reader to become a leader and create a culture of excellence in your sphere of influence?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News | 20 Comments »

Ownership vs Loanership

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 17, 2014

The glory of Western Civilization was its protection of life, liberty, and property. Through an admixture of Biblical principles, Natural Law, and the English Common Law, America was gifted a solid foundation for people to enjoy a life of liberty with protection of private property. 

Today, however, this historic legacy is under attack. Perhaps the most significant attack is the one least understood by the people – the State supported Fractional Reserve Banking (FRB) system imposed upon society. What is this FRB system? In short, it is the State sponsored process whereby banks use customer deposits as a fractional reserve base for loans to third parties. Loans of deposits is not fraudulent, but when the State permits the bank to turn a $1,000 deposit into $10,000 worth of loans, then we have an ethical problem. 

Fractional Reserve Banking Creates Money

Fractional Reserve Banking Creates Money

According to Professor Thorsten Polleit of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, FRB, “means that a bank lends out money that clients have deposited with it. Fractional-reserve banking thus leads to a situation in which two individuals are made owners of the same thing. Fractional-reserve banking thus creates a legal impossibility: through bank lending, the borrower and the depositor become owners of the same money. Fractional-reserve banking leads to contractual obligations that cannot be fulfilled from the outset.”

Anyone ever heard of a bank run? This occurs when customers are concerned that the bank does not have enough money to redeem all the deposits of its customers. Of course, in the FRB system, the bank doesn’t have all the depositor’s money since it has loaned it out many times over. Only the minimum fractional reserve mandated by the State is retained to service potential depositor withdrawals.

In truth, every FRB bank is inherently bankrupt by the very nature of the State allowing only fractional reserves. Proverbs 11:1 states, “The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.” Alas, FRB is dishonest because it pyramids fiat money (dishonest layers of fake money) on top of the real money deposits. 

By studying the FRB system, one quickly realizes that it permits the banks to expand the money supply (leading to inflation and boom/bust cycles) by loaning the same deposited money to numerous other individuals and businesses. Somehow the banks profess to have the money on deposit for immediate withdrawal while, at the same time, providing the funds several times over to other parties. Banks, through the joys of the FRB system, can charge interest on loans that exist only on a computer screen or on a piece of paper not backed by real deposited funds. 

How, for example, can $1,000 of real deposits be converted into $10,000 of loans? This is nothing less than creating money out of thin air. Worse, this fiat money is dangled in front of instant-gratification consumers, who do not possess the moral strength to delay their gratification until they have produced enough income to pay cash for the desired item. Instead, they eagerly enslave themselves into the FRB system for the latest of Mammon’s creations.

Indeed, the number one method the FRB system captures people into its net is through the consumers desire to “own” a house. Whereas in 1900 there were only 5% of the households in America holding a mortgage, today that number has ballooned to over 37%. The rapid increase in the number of mortgages is responsible for FRB mortgage debt money becoming over 70% of the total USA money supply at its peak! No wonder the State and FRB system are constantly reducing the qualifications for home ownership because its the easiest way to ensnare people into usurious debt.

The State sponsored FRB banks needs the populace to remain in debt in order to fund the debt-based monetary system. This is not just my personal opinion on the issue, but is well-known, though rarely discussed, fact by those in power. For instance, Robert H. Hemphill, credit manager of the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, stated in 1939:

If all the bank loans were paid, no one would have a bank deposit and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It (the banking problem) is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.

Simply put, the entire system relies on people willingly enslaving themselves into the FRB system. Ok, I have ranted long enough. Is anyone interested in the solution?

Consumers, en masse, must reject the FRB model of increasing debt to “own” products. Instead, they must pay for goods today from production they earned yesterday.  Simply put, its time to build Ownership rather than Loanership. Laurie and I personally made the last payment on house in Grand Blanc in early 2003 and have been out of the FRB system ever since. It is LIFE Leadership’s goal, through sharing the principles in our Financial Fitness Pack, to help millions of others get free from the FRB system.

Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” No, I am not saying to sell your house and live like a hermit. But I am saying to eliminate debt in your household like a patient seeks to eliminate cancer from his/her body. As one wipes out debt, start paying down the mortgage principle down by restraining one’s urge to spend until it is paid off. 

LIVE DEBT FREE! Then, and only then, can a person experience both spiritual and economic freedom to follow God’s plan rather than Mammon’s commands. 

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News | 25 Comments »

Leaders Create a Virtuous Teaching Cycle Culture

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 14, 2014

Although anyone can be a leader, it is important to understand that leadership is rare. While most people wait for something to happen, leaders make things happen. In fact, true leaders cannot stand to sit on the sidelines when the team’s game, business, or purpose is on the line.

Indeed, what makes leaders different is the unceasing desire to improve and then to share what they learned with others. This quality of all great leaders is called the Virtuous Teaching Cycle – learning, doing, and then teaching. In a word, the best way to determine the quality of the leader is to identify the quality of leaders he or she is building.

I am so proud of LIFE Leadership for so many reasons, including the level of leadership developing throughout the organization. Despite not chasing after leadership credentials (since true leadership isn’t based upon titles, but rather the size of the community following the leaders), LIFE has produced two NY Times bestselling authors and several other bestselling authors in its first few years.

LIFE is poised to explode onto the mainstream leadership stage by simply serving people rather than chasing credentials. Recently, for instance, Inc Magazine announced their Top 50 Leadership list, using a complicated formula to measure the real reach and influence of each leader. The Top 50 list includes many great leaders, but only one organization had two leaders place in the Top 50 – LIFE Leadership.

This represents what makes LIFE Leadership different. For LIFE believes the true measure of leadership greatness is how many great leaders one serves. How was this achieved? First, by the Grace of God and his continual blessings in our lives and second by building a Virtuous Teaching Cycle where anyone desiring to lead can learn from those already leading at the highest of levels.

I believe over the next decade that the Virtuous Teaching Cycle will catapult many more LIFE Leaders onto the world stage as we create a servant-based leadership dynasty? How? By improving ourselves daily and sharing what we learn with others.

Western Civilization is suffering from a leadership drought. It’s not going to be fixed by government credentialists more concerned with padding their pocketbooks and power contacts. Rather, it’s going to take leaders willing to serve people within society. LIFE Leadership is a group of men and women who refuse to keep waiting for something to happen. Instead, we are  going to make it happen. Will you help? 

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News, Leadership/Personal Development, LIFE Leadership | 15 Comments »

The Federalist Era

Posted by Orrin Woodward on February 6, 2014

I am reading a fascinating book on the Federalist Era by John Miller as part of my new book for LIFE Leadership. Miller does a great job of showing the strengths of both the Federalist and anti-federalist positions. The Federalist wanted a consolidated government to end state induced chaos. This was the right course, but in their haste to ratify the Constitution, they permitted the Power Pendulum to move further into coercion than most understood. In fact, the Federal government immediately began usurping sovereignty from the states beyond its written limits. Sadly, this dispute between those who supported Federal sovereignty and those who supported state-sovereignty was not resolved until America’s Civil War.

What is surprising to me is that the issues fought over during the Civil War were clearly present as early as 1790! In fact, Alexander Hamilton, the leader of the US treasury, drove three key issues through Congress – Debt Assumption, The US Bank, and Protective Tariffs – that were all designed to move power from the states into the Federal government. Let’s  study the history and see what leadership lessons we can learn from the Founders experiences. Here is Historian John Miller’s explanation of Hamilton’s vision:

Federalist Alexander Hamilton on Government

Federalist Alexander Hamilton on Government

In they heyday of their power under the Articles of Confederation, some states had assumed part of the federal debt. Now, in 1790, Hamilton proposed to turn the tables by assuming the state debts. As he visualized it, such an assumption would serve as a double-edged sword with which to strike at the roots of state sovereignty. In the first place, it promised to bring within the orbit of the Federal government all the state creditors, the most influential part of the community; secondly, it would relieve the states of the necessity of levying taxes, for if the Federal government took upon itself the payment of all the debts, it must perforce have all the revenue – and possessing the whole revenue it came into possession of the whole power of the Union. Deprived of the support of their wealthiest citizens and unable to exert their authority by means of taxation, the states, Hamilton fondly imagined, would gradually wither away and their strength would be absorbed by the Federal government.

Interestingly, Patrick Henry predicted the North’s banking and manufacturing interests plan of action during the Virginia ratification debates. He outlined the North’s plan for consolidation of the states into the Federal government well before the Constitution was ratified when he argued, “Not satisfied with a majority of legislative councils, they must have all our property. . . This is a contest for money as well as empire.” Henry, surpassed all the other founders in his knowledge of human nature. He intuitively understood that human beings run governments; therefore, governments cannot be given absolute power without endangering the life, liberty, and property of society’s members. In the Founders haste to ratify the new Constitution, few, if any, stepped back from the precipice to ponder why one of the greatest leaders of the recent revolution was against the Constitution. Indeed, had they truly listened to the Anti-Federalist main issues, American history would be radically different. Unfortunately, one of life’s key lessons is that one cannot beat something with nothing. Although Henry clearly delineated the Five Laws of Decline opening within the proposed Constitution, he did not offer a viable alternative.

In consequence, shortly after the Constitution was ratified, the issues Henry pointed out reared their ugly head within Congress. John Miller wrote, “In November, 1790, the Virginia legislature sent a Protest and Remonstrance to Congress in which assumption (of the state debts) was pronounced to be ‘repugnant to the Constitution of the United States’ and the funding (protective tariffs) system ‘dangerous to the rights and subversive of the interest of the people.’” Alexander Hamilton was upset at Virginia’s state-rights stance and responded accordingly as Miller wrote, “This development strengthened Hamilton’s conviction that a decisive showdown struggle between Virginia and the national government was inevitable, ‘This is the first symptom of the spirit which must either be killed or it will kill the Constitution of the United States,’ he told John Jay. Instead of sympathizing with Hamilton’s eagerness to force a showdown upon Virginia, Jay advised him to wait for the healing effects of time and statesmanship to demonstrate the benefits of the Constitution.’”

As a result, the main undercurrents of the issues that led to open conflict in the Civil War – slavery, Federal usurpation of state sovereignty, and the unfair distribution of taxes and rewards (tariff and National Bank stocks) – were at work by 1790. Since Jay believed that time was on the Federalist side and eventually would overcome state resistance, Jay counseled Hamilton to pursue his policies with caution and patience (not an easy course for the aggressive Hamilton). Disastrously, however, time did not heal the riff between the North and Sought. Indeed, both sides rejected compromises and the injustices mentioned above continued until the Civil War ended slavery. Because the Founders did not address and resolve the inconsistencies inherent within the Constitution, their sons and grandsons died in droves in the Civil War fulfilling Hamilton’s prophecy as Miller wrote, “While Hamilton reluctantly agreed to hold his hand, he was never persuaded that there was any permanent solution to the problem short of carving up Virginia and other large states in smaller jurisdictions.” This is exactly what occurred in the Civil War when West Virginia separated from Virginia. Unfortunately, the others (Federal control over states, central banking, and oppressive taxation) were not ended. In fact, the Federal government invented new forms of tyranny as their funding grew and the realism of the anti-Federalist proved more accurate than the the idealism of the Federalist. American oppression grew to levels inconceivable by even the most fearful of anti-federalist.

The genius of Alexander Hamilton was to recognize the incompatibility between a nation with divided sovereignty. True, a nation can divide the spheres of sovereignty, but it cannot have two parities (Federal and states) responsible for the same sovereignty issues. Hence, the Constitution was created with the seeds of its own destruction. Curiously, the American Founders, although they studied the Roman Republic extensively, missed the main lesson to be learned from them. Indeed, the Roman Republic failed because of the divided sovereignty issues between the people supported  Tribunes and the aristocratic Senate supported Counsels. They both, in essence, attempted to lead Roman society and the political conflicts eventually led to civil war. In the Roman Republic’s example, Caesar resolved the conflict in the people’s favor against the Senate. Strangely, America followed a similar course in its divided sovereignty issue between the states and federal government. The political conflicts of 1790 were resolved in America’s Civil War of 1860 when Lincoln settled the disputed sovereignty in the Federal government’s favor. In both instances, the republics ended and the empires began.

I believe the main leadership lesson to learn from the above is that one cannot leave issues unsettled to pass onto the next-generation. Leaders address and resolved issues – that is what they get paid to do. Hence, when issues arise, one cannot pass the buck, hoping some leader in the future fixes the issues. In essence, this is why I created LIFE Leadership because I am sick and tired of watching America’s future be mortgaged through excessive government spending and borrowing at the expense of liberty, prosperity, and integrity. Leaders cannot sit back and wait for others. Instead, they must change themselves so they can play a part in changing society. What part will you play?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News, Freedom/Liberty | 16 Comments »

Ludwig Von Mises: Economic Truths that Endure

Posted by Orrin Woodward on April 13, 2013

I am in the midst of an ongoing study on the origins of society and continue to be blown away by the works of the Austrian economist, particularly Ludwig Von Mises. Few scholars have thought as deeply and as intelligently on subjects as diverse and yet so important as Mises. Not surprisingly, Mises was featured in my All-Time Top 100 Leadership Book RESOLVED under the courage category. I will be sharing a little of my research on society and what it requires to keep society free on my LeaderShift book tour. Oliver DeMille and I cannot wait to see everyone. I am attaching an article from one of Mises’ former students describing this great man.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Economic Truths That Endure
By Alfred Tella

It’s been thirty years since my graduate school teacher of economic theory died, and as I again look over his writings that spanned more than a quarter century, I am reminded how relevant they are to the issues of our day. Some truths are enduring.

He was a slight man with big thoughts. Original thoughts. He was a visionary. When he entered the classroom the students stood up out of respect. He believed economics was a science subject to laws, which he revealed with utter clarity and impeccable logic. A champion of free markets and individual liberty, he extended neoclassical theory in important new directions. He taught economics not as a narrow discipline, but as a comprehensive system rooted in philosophy, human nature, and social structure.

He revealed the requirements of prosperity and freedom, the pitfalls of interventionism, the intricacies of the price system, the workings of competition and the market process, and the social benefits of private property and free trade. He explained the causes of inflation and depression and the role of money, entrepreneurship and discovery in a dynamic context. Not least, his work was a devastating reply to the theories of Karl Marx.

His lessons remain a guide to present and future economic policies. Here are a few of his words.

“If taxes grow beyond a moderate limit, they…turn into devices for the destruction of the market economy. The more taxes increase, the more they undermine…the system of taxation itself.”

“The long-term and semi-public credit is a foreign and disturbing element in the structure of the market society. The financial history of the past century shows a steady increase in the amount of public indebtedness.  …Sooner or later all these debts will be liquidated in some way or another, but certainly not by payment of interest and principal according to the terms of the contract.”

“Selfish group interests may impel a man to ask [the government] for protection for his own firm. …The only effect of protection is to divert production from those places in which it could produce more per unit of capital and labor expanded to places in which it produces less. It makes people poorer, not more prosperous.”

“Profits…benefit the common man twice. First, in his capacity as a wage earner, by raising the marginal productivity of labor and thereby real wages…. Then later again, in his capacity as a consumer when the products manufactured with the aid of the additional capital flow into the market and become available at the lowest possible prices.”

“Politicians…pretend that their own approach to economic problems is purely practical and free of dogmatic prepossessions. They fail to realize that their policies are determined by definite assumptions about causal relations, i.e., that they are based on definite theories.”

A few of my old professor’s pronouncements went down hard with his students. I was fascinated with the blossoming of quantitative economics, but he would say: “There is no such thing as quantitative economics. All economic quantities we know about are data of economic history.” I sighed and went on to be thoroughly seduced by econometric modeling.

My teacher was a great man, a person of uncompromising intellectual integrity, a giant of the Austrian school of economics. He authored many pioneering books on subjects ranging from the theory of money and credit to socialism to economic epistemology and influenced a generation of economists. If his name is not a household word, his ideas have permeated popular thinking and become part of the conventional wisdom. His master work was Human Action (1949), which enlarged the field of economics by presenting a general theory of choice in all human action. It should be on every congressman’s bookshelf. Today there is an institute and university located in Auburn, Alabama which bear his name and nurture his legacy.

I am grateful to and miss my old New York University professor, Ludwig von Mises.

——-

Alfred Tella is former Georgetown University research professor of economics.

Posted in All News, Freedom/Liberty | 17 Comments »

All Grace Outreach: Ligonier Ministries

Posted by Orrin Woodward on March 3, 2013

All Grace Outreach

I watched a cool video this Sunday morning on RC Sproul’s Ligonier Ministies. RC is making a huge difference in the world by keeping the main thing the main thing – God’s glory. Ligonier is one of the ministries that All Grace Outreach supports because it is getting God’s word out to the people around the world. The LIFE Business give 100% of corporate profits of the LIFE Faith series to various charities selected by the LIFE PC. I love our motto, Have Fun, Make Money, and Make a Difference and this is exactly, by God’s grace, what we intend to do.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News, Faith, LIFE Leadership | 21 Comments »