Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

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

Archive for January, 2015

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 »

The Financial Matrix and Personal Finances

Posted by Orrin Woodward on January 20, 2015

The Financial Matrix Debt System

High-paying longterm jobs are exiting North America at an alarming rate. Nonetheless, citizens of America and Canada seem unable (in some cases unwilling) to cut expenses. The latest numbers on American indebtedness (Canadian numbers are similarly dismal), both consumer debt and home mortgages, is staggering.

The latest GoBankingRates report found the average American is more than $225,000 in debt with little savings. The website identified (using the earnings, savings, and various loans) the “average American’s” (calling her ‘Mary Smith’) financial status.

GoBankingRates editor Jennifer Calonia stated that, “Mary is 37, the current median age of an American. She’s a non-Hispanic White, the largest demographic in the country, and she works in retail sales, the most common occupation in the United States”

Unfortunately, Mary’s pay and debt load is a train wreck in progress. Calonia noted, “Until we witness a much more dramatic return to permanent, long-term employment in the private sector, Mary Smith’s dire scenario, which leaves her drowning in debt and without adequate savings, will continue to play out, especially as more companies rely on temporary, low-wage work.”

According to the latest USA data, the real (inflation adjusted) median household income was $51,939 in 2013. However, one must remember that household income is the combined incomes from everyone working in the house. Basically, this means the average personal income is somewhere around $30k. Further, the total income has trended downward since 2007, falling 8% from the pre-recession peak of $56,436 and remains well below the 1999 record of $56,895.

In other words, household income, over the last 16 years, has actually gone down! Imagine working for 16 years straight only to receive less money than one did originally. To compound this pain, inflation has caused most other prices to skyrocket, leaving Americans bewildered and frustrated. This simply cannot continue indefinitely. Compare the average income of Americans with the average debt loads and a forthcoming financial disaster becomes apparent. 

Here is a summary of the average debt numbers.

  • Average credit card debt among indebted households: $15,263
  • Average credit card interest rate: 14.95% APR
  • Average mortgage debt: $147,591
  • Average outstanding student loan balance: $31,646
  • Average auto loan debt: $30,738
  • Only 59 percent of Americans have at least $500 in a savings account saved
Financial Fitness Pack

Financial Fitness Pack

LIFE Leadership has the Financial Fitness Program to help people across the world learn how to play defense and offense in order to break free from the increasingly oppressive  Financial Matrix. Few understand the difference between expenses and investments and, unfortunately, most people maximize expenses while minimizing investments. LIFE Leadership, in contrast, teaches how to build wealth for the longterm by slashing expenses and investing in your #1 asset – yourself. If you are looking for an escape path from the Financial Matrix, LIFE Leadership has is the fasttrack. I feel like Morpheus explaining to people trapped in the matrix the plan to set them free:

Morpheus: When the (Financial) Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who (he purchased a Financial Fitness Pack 🙂 ) had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the (Financial) Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth : ‘As long as the (Financial) Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.’ After he died, the Oracle prophesied his return, and that his coming would hail the destruction of the (Financial) Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those of us who have spent our entire lives searching the (Financial) Matrix, looking for him. I did what I did because…I believe that search is over. – (LIFE Leadership is here.)

Isn’t it time you learned the Defense, Offense, and Playing Field of finances so you too can break free from the Financial Matrix?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, LIFE Leadership | 20 Comments »

Life Leadership Reviews Financial Fitness Pack

Posted by Orrin Woodward on January 12, 2015

LIFE Leadership Reviews

The Financial Fitness Pack (FFP) is LIFE Leadership’s #1 selling product. There are several reasons for this.

First, it is a product that meets the citizens of the world where they are at. Financial debt is debilitating many people and without a plan to stop the bleeding, it will only get worse. In fact, the latest figures reveal that consumer debt (debt outside home mortgages) in America has reached the astounding figure of 3.2 trillion dollars according to Business Week. That’s $10,666 of debt for every man woman and child in the USA!

Second, people are waking up to the fact that the Financial Matrix is real. Debt is draining the productivity of all workers from ditch-diggers to doctors because modern society’s money supply is fueled by debt. Indeed, over 70% of the USA money supply is created by housing market mortgages. In other words, if every mortgage was paid off, 70% of the money supply would disappear, literally wiped out when house is owned outright. In the 1950’s the equity in houses in the USA was around 80%, now it’s less than 30%. This means that 50% of the value of all houses in the USA has been siphoned off in the last 60 years!

The Financial Matrix, in a word, is performing exactly as planned. The more people go into debt, the more money is created. Thus, the State and Big Bankers, using Keynesian logic, have wrongly concluded that debt is not only great for bank profits, but also the economy since it stimulates money production. Unfortunately, this economic canard (that more dollars leads to increased wealth) has a long life and only dies with society dies through the predictable boom/bust cycle. The State and Big Banks profit at society’s (the people’s) expense. 

Thankfully, however, reader is waking up to this reality. For just like Neo in the movie The Matrix, he is searching for the answers to why so many people are so far in debt:

Morpheus : I imagine that right now you’re feeling a bit like Alice… Tumbling down the rabbit hole? Hmm?

Neo : You….could say that.

Morpheus : I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees, because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth…. Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo : No.

Morpheus : Why?

Neo : Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my own life.

Morpheus : I know… exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there…like a splinter in you’re mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Neo : The Matrix?

Morpheus : Do you want to know…. what it is….? (Neo nods yes) The Matrix is everywhere. It’s all around us, even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to work, when you pay your taxes. The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth.

Neo : What truth?

Morpheus : That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison…for your mind….Unfortunately, no one can be… told what the Matrix is… you have to see it for yourself.

Morpheus opens a container which holds two pills : a blue one, and a red one. He puts one in each hand, and holds them out to Neo.

Morpheus : This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back…..You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up and believe…whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…..you stay in wonderland…and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Neo pauses for an instant, then reaches for the red pill. He swallows it down with a glass of water, and looks at Morpheus.

Morpheus : Remember…all I’m offering you is the truth : nothing more.

The Financial Fitness Pack

Life Leadership‘s Financial Fitness Pack (FFP) is the only product that covers the Defense, Offense, and Playing Field (explains the Financial Matrix) of finances. If the reader is sick and tired of throwing away thousands of dollars every month just to service existing debt, then perhaps its time to pick up the FFP and cut the ties of debt bondage. Laurie and I paid off our last mortgage payment in late 2003 and have lived free from the Financial Matrix (100% debt free) since that time.

What is the Financial Matrix?

I can answer no better than Morpheus answered (with just a few words added) it in the movie The Matrix:

The (Financial) Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around. What do you see? Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the (debt) system, that they will fight to protect it.

Do not fight to protect the Financial Matrix, but rather fight to free yourself from it by learning the Defense, Offense, and Playing Field of financial management. What do you have to lose besides your debt? 🙂

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, Freedom/Liberty, LIFE Leadership | 39 Comments »

Warren Buffet: Advice to Students

Posted by Orrin Woodward on January 7, 2015

Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is one of the wealthiest people in the world. He created his wealth through wise investment. Recently, I read an interview Warren Buffet did with CNBC. Not surprisingly, his advice is spot on for helping people get out of the Financial Matrix:

CNBC: “What is the one thing that young people should be doing about money?”
Buffett: “I tell them two things, generally. One is stay away from credit cards… The second thing I tell them is to invest in themselves.”

In a nutshell, his advice breaks out into two categories. 1) Live Debt-Free and 2) Invest in Yourself. This is exactly what LIFE Leadership teaches. First, learn the Defense of finances to get out of debt and then invest the savings to go on Offense in the number one asset you have, namely, yourself. YOU, in other words, are the greatest return on investment plan possible.

Unfortunately, although this is consistently followed by those who accumulate wealth and honors, most people do not follow Warren Buffet’s time-proven advice. This, in fact, is why the Founders of LIFE created the Financial Fitness Program – to help people hold themselves accountable to learn the defense, offense, and playing field (Financial Matrix) of finances. Indeed, associating with like-minded LIFE Leadership community members is vital to help a person wipe out debt (Defense) and use the increased cash flow to invest in further personal development (Offense). Great financial results, in sum, can only be accomplished by mastering both the Defense and Offense. 

In another interview, Business Insider asked Warren Buffet about the student loan bubble and he answered:

The best education you can get is investing in yourself. But this doesn’t always mean college or university. I have two degrees but I don’t have them on my wall, in fact I don’t even know where they are. I used to be afraid of public speaking, and I realized that I have to do that someday. I do have one diploma I display from Dale Carnegie’s Public Speaking Course and it only cost me $100.

Hmmm. It seems to me that Warren Buffet values a good return on investment and the two factors in the equation are the cost and quality of the education. In both categories, LIFE Leadership is at the front of the pack. High quality and low cost leads is what has made our Financial Fitness Program (under 100 dollars) the best selling product in our portfolio of leadership materials.

The Financial Matrix is real and a person can only set themselves free by learning the defense, offense, and playing field of finances.  Perhaps 2015 is the time to take Warren Buffet’s advice to set yourself free. 🙂

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, Freedom/Liberty, LIFE Leadership | 30 Comments »