Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

This video describes me as a senior engineer at GM, working my way up the corporate ladder only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall. So glad I fell into Networking, Free Enterprise and Win-Win principles! Freedom is a leadership choice.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNI–ULZ-dM]
I have spent the last several years studying the scams, schemes, and cons perpetrated on the American masses through the use of coercion.  Being a NY Times Bestselling leadership author, I cannot sit by idly and watch Americans lose their freedoms without speaking up. No scam can last unless backed by a monopoly of force/coercion.  Government is the only true monopoly of force available in any society.  Coercion requires force, which involves either government intervention or mafia type tactics.  Free enterprise businesses, like Network Marketing, cannot be a scam, since people are free to come and free to go, they will simply leave and the scam will collapse.  In fact, LIFE Leadership is a model of free enterprise where people are free to grow or free to leave.

Government scams like social security, income taxes, and fiat money inflation, to name just a few, take advantage of the masses, since the masses are forced to participate against their will, whether their needs are being met or not.  Learning and defending American freedoms, against the encroachment of coercive government interventions, has become a key educational plank in my readings, writings and speeches of late.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzKAe6mvjM4]

Scams coerce participation

If someone attempts a scam, without the power of coercion, it will not last.  For example, if someone attempted to sell a property for twice the market rate, perhaps a clueless customer would fall for it, but it couldn’t last as the market will quickly identify the offending party and avoid any business dealing with him.  But who can avoid business dealings with an all pervasive government?  Who can opt out of social security?  Who can opt out of excessive taxes?  Who can opt out of the government’s fiat money?  Scams require force to continue the scheme over the long term.  I have spent years of my life, studying and calling out scams to help educate Americans on the work cut out for us to eliminate the government supported scams through the American system of representative government.

In fact, Murray Rothbard, the late Dean of the Austrian School of Economics, the economics school with the best track record in predicting the effects of government intervention in free economies, stated:

But, above all, the crucial monopoly is the State’s control of the use of violence: of the police and armed services, and of the courts—the locus of ultimate decision-making power in disputes over crimes and contracts. Control of the police and the army is particularly important in enforcing and assuring all of the State’s other powers, including the all-important power to extract its revenue by coercion.

For there is one crucially important power inherent in the nature of the State apparatus. All other persons and groups in society (except for acknowledged and sporadic criminals such as thieves and bank robbers) obtain their income voluntarily: either by selling goods and services to the consuming public, or by voluntary gift (e.g., membership in a club or association, bequest, or inheritance). Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion, by threatening dire penalties should the income not be forthcoming. That coercion is known as “taxation,” although in less regularized epochs it was often known as “tribute.” Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State’s inhabitants, or subjects.

Many will call Network Marketing a scam, but unless backed by government coercion, meaning people are not free to leave, Networking cannot be a scam.  On the contrary, Networking is the purest example of free enterprise left in the Western world.  People win or lost on their efforts, not government protection of the profession. Wherever you see someone producing long term sustainable results in Networking, you know that a leader is building a winning culture that works. Networking has been around for well over sixty years, and scams cannot last that long unless backed by some form of government coercion. In Networking, some will win, and some will lose, but that simply defines life, not a scam.

Gabriel Kolko, a New Left leaning historian, described why the US government intervened with business at the turn of the 20th century, “Ironically, contrary to the consensus of historians, it was not the existence of monopoly that caused the federal government to intervene in the economy,
but the lack of it.”

Big Businesses built huge Trust in each field, in an attempt to control market prices, squeezing extra profits from consumers in the scam, but it didn’t work. Big Business (Morgan, Rockefellers, etc), ended up running to Big Government,  using government’s monopoly of force to regulate industries and create extra profits for themselves.  This is a scam on every consumer in every field affected and why I cannot remain quiet.

I love my business relationship with Dallin Larsen and MonaVie, and I have friends in many other Networking companies. What I enjoy about our profession is the right for any company to create a better business model and compete in free enterprise.  There are no huge Trusts in Networking. Let the best company and community win period, without the aid of government to stack the deck in Big Businesses favor.  There are many great companies and leaders in Networking and the more we lift one another, the more the Networking tide rises for all in our profession. I don’t have to attack another enterprise in order to build my own. If you really believe in your Networking business, just build it, allowing your actions to speak louder than your words. Leaders will flock from around the world if you have truly created a better business model.  Any business that has been successful over the years, if not the decades, must be serving their customers in order to survive in a true free enterprise model.

Robert Kiyosaki – author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad
Network marketing teaches basic, critical life skills. It teaches people how to overcome their fears, how to communicate, and how to handle rejection and maintain persistence. This kind of education is absolutely priceless.  Here’s what I tell people: “Even if you don’t like it, stay with it for five years and you’ll be better equipped to survive in the real world of business. And you’ll be a better person.” The people who are successful in network marketing have a spiritual cause. They genuinely want to help better others’ lives. If you don’t have that, if you just want a paycheck, then work for the post office!

Success isn’t easy, but then again, neither is failure

When people call the entire Network Marketing profession a scam, merely because they didn’t succeed, it demonstrates their lack of understanding of scams and personal responsibility.  No one should teach that success in Networking is easy, since it’s not, but failure certainly isn’t easy either.  Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author, teaches that success in any field requires 10,000 hours of diligent study and action.  Anything less, and that person is still an amateur in his profession.  For someone to try Networking for several years, and then state it’s a scam, is simply a version of Aesop’s fables, sour grapes from an amateur fox who couldn’t reach the desired fruit.  For example, in high school, I wrestled in many tournaments.  I could not of imagined any wrestler calling the tournament a scam because he didn’t receive a medal.  The sour grapes wrestler would have been laughed out of the arena, since many do not win medals, not having at that moment, learned the skills and put in the hours to win at a tournament level.

Seth Godin is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Dip and Tribes
Network marketing works when it’s not about you. It works when it is about the customer. Not sort of about the customer as a way of helping you, not kinda about the customer when you imagine how they could act like you and become part of your downline. No, it works when it is generous and transparent and true. If someone buys from you because they are a friend or because it’s easier than avoiding you, that’s not about the customer. Here’s my dream for you: find a product and a price and a story that people choose to seek out. Discover a niche that people would miss if it disappeared. Offer an experience that’s about more than money, more than making a living and more than recruiting a new salesperson. When you bring joy and utility and trust to people (at a fair price), they’ll embrace you.

Anonymous Victims Online

In today’s society, people can write anonymously about their victimization, crying about their lack of results, claiming to be scammed from the Networkers (better wrestlers) who kicked their butts in free enterprise, while the victims claim it was rigged against them, even though others seem to be winning while they are whining.  If someone felt they were hurt, why not seek out the leaders of the company or community for resolution?  Doesn’t this sounds like the right thing, not to mention the honorable thing to do?  Rather than become Haters – post anonymously, hiding their identities as well as their real motives, assaulting the reputations of people that they don’t personally know, why not call the community leaders or the company to get the issue resolved?  This is why anonymous blog postings hold no value with me. If someone doesn’t feel strong enough about his opinion to state his real name, then why should I give his opinion any credence at all?  Any reputable company would serve the customer in a heartbeat.

I have personally been involved in several customer issues myself over the years, and they were amicably resolved.  I believe in customer satisfaction and have grown my business through the application of this principle consistently.  In fact, the TEAM initiated a email help system, similar to Amazon’s, to ensure all issues are resolved promptly.  If anyone leaves the TEAM unhappy, it wasn’t through lack of concern, but through lack of interest by the customer to address.  Perhaps, the real reason that many post in Networking are anonymous, postings that act as if they are upset at the company, are because they are from competitors, not real customers.  These are the bottom feeders of Networking, the parasite marketers, who, believing in a win-lose scarcity mentality, blatantly attack one company’s reputation for the alleged benefits supplied to their current company.  Sadly, this egregious behavior happens often, leading to much of the negative written online.  When the perceived opportunity for gain exceeds the applied character of those involved, parasite marketing will typically occur.

Free to Win & Free to Lose

In America, one is free to win, free to lose, and, even free to blame.  But unless one is forced against his will, a force that’s necessary for any real scam, one will look silly to blame his loss on anything but his own incompetence.  It’s foolish to blame others, who worked harder, applied themselves more, and developed the skills to win. Calling winners names, calling the tournament (profession) a scam, pointing fingers at others, all in an effort to salve a wounded pride.  This may take the focus off off his lack of skills temporarily, but it reveals more about the character of the sender of the toxic message than the receiver’s character.  It seems that ‘passing the buck’ is endemic in today’s society, but one of the goals of the Networking is to teach people personal responsibility.  Accepting responsibility is the beginning of all leadership growth. In Networking, unless the person was forced to attend meetings against his will, forced to buy materials without a buy back provision, why is he passing judgment on others for his lack of results?  The minute you blame others for your failures is the minute you surrender responsibility for your own life.  In the Team, we teach that freedom is a gift and we support your freedom to win, lose or leave, voting with your own feet.  The tens of thousands who are part of TEAM, were not coerced into joining, but joined freely by buying into the leadership culture.  The TEAM leaders win by serving customers, not controlling them, even offering a 30 day, no questions asked, 100% return policy for any items purchased.  No business would be foolish enough to publicly state that, unless they knew that 99.99% plus of their customers were happily served. All reputable Networking companies in our profession offer similar refund policies.

Stephen M.R. Covey is author of the New York Times bestseller The Speed of Trust
To me, the most interesting dimension of network market-ing is the focus on building relationships of trust. All parties must be able to trust one an- other, or nothing moves forward. Accountability, transparency and other high-trust behaviors clearly flow out of your character and competence, which in turn help to improve, solidify and create better relationships. Those relationships are powerful fruits that enable you to enjoy greater collaboration, a better reputation and shared accomplishment. When done well, network marketing is the speed of trust in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rtQ-IVcvAo&w=480&h=385]

Team – Leadership Development Engine

My friend, John Maxwell, a top selling leadership author, teaches that everything rises and falls on leadership.  In my business ventures, I have focused on improving people’s leadership levels, thus improving their results.  The many success stories achieved from this approach boggles the mind.  Literally thousands of couples have reduced debts, improved relationships, and freed up their time from the mundane tasks, to focus on the important ones, by applying the principles learned from the TEAM leadership system.  Does everyone get wealthy?  Of course not, not everyone will discipline themselves daily to achieve that level of success.  The key point is that those who do apply themselves, do achieve success.  Similarly, those who don’t apply themselves consistently have no right to blame TEAM for their lack of discipline or poor thinking. Dan & Lisa Hawkins, a mechanic and day care provider, Chris & Danae Mattis, a counselor and dance instructor, and Marc & Kristine Miletello, both teachers, to name just a few of the TEAM leaders, all started from different walks of life, but all have achieved success through changing their associations and their thinking.  Instead of sharing their stories for them, I let them speak for themselves in the following YouTube videos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iwvGzGpgs&w=640&h=385]

First Year 50 Million Dollar Leadership Company

Chris Brady and I co-authored of the number one Wall Street Journal best seller for two weeks in a row – Launching a Leadership Revolution. We also helped co-founded, along with several other leaders, a 50 million dollar plus leadership conglomerate.  Gladwell’s 10,000 hours sure paid off for both Brady and myself.  After five years, neither one of us had much success in Networking, but instead of quitting we chose to improve, leading to tens of thousands of satisfied customers.  One either hates losing enough to change or one hates changing enough to lose.  Brady and I chose to improve, as we hate losing, others may choose quitting, as they hate changing.  I support their choices, because I support the freedom to choose. Giving people the freedom to make their own decisions, and the freedom to live with the subsequent results is the American way.  If you win, you get the credit, but correspondingly, if you lose, you must take the blame.  This is what made America great, and what my parents, along with competitive sports taught me as a young boy.  No leader is good enough to make someone win against their will.  In the TEAM, we commit to providing the best leadership training available for the dollar invested, but you must commit to the personal growth and the actions necessary to convert the training into results. People like Hawkins, Mattis, and Militello applied the principles and changed their lives.  What you will do, is up to you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16BGmUCV16U&w=640&h=390]

What Scams have I studied to date?

If you found this site looking for my research into the coercion based scams that I have studied so far, here is a partial list to get started.

1. Social Security Scam
2. Fiat Money Scam
3. Tariff Scam
4. Democracy Scam
5. National Bank Scam
6. U.N. Scam

God Bless, Orrin Woodward