Author Archive

LIFE Leadership: Wisdom For Families

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 14, 2014

My good friend Michael Hartmann sent me the best message on how he applied some of the LIFE Leadership principles within his family. This is another example of why I believe the true successes in LIFE Leadership are not just the people who reach LIFE Coach levels. Rather, the true successes in LIFE and life, are those who seek wisdom everyday to improve themselves personally and professionally. For when a person improves themselves, he/she makes life better for everyone around them.

In the early days, Chris Brady, Terri Brady, Laurie Woodward, and I, once we realized what an impact the leadership training was having within our small community, made a commitment to never stop learning and growing. Regardless of the size compensated community, we believed becoming a person of character was job one. Imagine the national transformations if everyone sought to gain wisdom like Mike and Tonya Hartmann have to become better leaders in all areas of life.

Do you have a story to share how LIFE Leadership products helped you respond with more wisdom than the scripts you learned? If you do please share them with me. Who knows, you might be the next story featured on my blog. This is Part 1 and I will post Part 2 later this week. What an inspiring story!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

The Mission

I have a hero in my life. His name is Kyle. He’s 14 years old stands 5’ 7” and weighs 115 pounds. Oh, by the way, he’s also my son.

Three weeks ago, Kyle was supposed to go on a mission’s trip to Copper Hills, Tennessee, through Keystone Community Church with the youth group and youth pastor. In a period of three months, Kyle raised over $300 in donations to cover his cost of his trip.

It was awesome to have Kyle find it in his heart to want to be part of a mission of higher purpose than I ever participated in when I was 14 years old. The opportunity to learn an incredible life lesson presented itself before the trip even began and is the inspiration for this blog. My profound respect for Kyle really comes from what happened the night before he left and how Kyle stood up to his greatest fear and how he learned a very valuable lesson that I’m sure he will carry rest of his life.

The Attack

I was out of town and leadership convention in Columbus, Ohio. My wife Tonya was with me but, due to an unforeseen circumstance, needed to leave early and was home Saturday night. I’m thankful that she was home because without her presence I don’t know how things might have turned out.

I called home at a break and talked with Kyle to see how he was doing. Tonya told me Kyle was really upset. He no longer felt excited about the trip. On the contrary, he was unsure of himself, trepid and anxious of the coming week.

I asked Kyle what was on his mind and out poured the unfiltered, emotion-filled dissonance:

“I’m quiet. I’m shy. No one talks to me. I have no friends. Please let me stay home. Please don’t make me go on this trip.”

Think back to time when you were 14 years old. That’s the onset of ninth-grade and, for all of us who survived those trying times of high school, you can probably empathize with how my son felt at this moment in time.

When feeling stressed, my natural reaction is one that was modeled to me from my father when I was an adolescent. Strict, straightforward, and blunt. There wasn’t much negotiation in the house in which I grew up. Maybe, some of the readers can relate to the“Because I said so” upbringing. This was my instant reaction:

“Kyle! You have been raising money for the last three months. We have been preparing for this very trip that entire time! The entire youth team and church leaders are expecting you to be there tomorrow morning. You need to suck it up, get a grip, and stop this doubt because you are going tomorrow. Make no mistake about it.”

Well, that went over as well as you can probably imagine. Kyle shouted back in the phone, “You don’t understand and you don’t care! I’m hanging up!”

And then he really did hang up.

The Turn Around

I immediately called back and Tonya answered the phone. My words were exactly this, “I think that went really well…”

To which Tonya replied, “What conversation are you a part of?”

I realized how insensitive and uncaring I was at that moment in time and asked to speak to Kyle again. While she was getting Kyle back on the phone, I meditated briefly and asked for wisdom & intercession, so that I would be able to share some of the leadership principles (that I have been studying for so many years) with my son to give him a different perspective and help him in his troubled time.

I started talking to Kyle and just offering perspective on what was truly happening here. I don’t know where you, the reader, may be spiritually, but here are some of our core family beliefs:

There is a God.
That very God created and calls each of us by name.
That we are meant for greatness.
That there are forces in this world that actively and constantly attack us and tear us down in order to stop us from achieving our true life mission and purpose.
Those very forces come out in full fury in the moments that we are about to accomplish some of our greatest achievements.

I shared the following conversation with Kyle to enlighten him on what was exactly was happening in his life:

“Kyle, you’re 14 years old and you are about to do something great. You are specifically going out to help a family in Copper Hills who, for whatever reasons, are living a life of poverty in this great nation. They need your help and it’s been on your heart for a long time to be part of this mission trip. What’s happening at this very instant is truly spiritual warfare. And you need to recognize it for exactly what it is: nothing more than a bunch of lies masquerading as doubt, fear, and worry.

“You see Kyle, you are about to accomplish something great. Something that you will look back on the rest of your life with pride and a sense of accomplishment, and the feeling and satisfaction of knowing that by your actions you made a difference in someone’s life.

“And what’s happening to you, right now, is you are under attack! These negative forces want to stop you dead in your tracks because they know that if you falter at this moment in time they will have secured a foothold from which to attack you and remind you of your ‘failure’ for the rest of your high school career and for the rest of your life. They want to prevent you from moving forward in a positive direction tomorrow and in the other opportunities you’re going to have in your future to make a difference.

David_Goliath

“At this very moment in time, you are facing your personal Goliath. And he looks big, and scary, and mean, and he is launching his insults and doubts at you. Your Goliath is shouting his lies at you and he wants to stop you right now. And here’s the real problem:You are listening. You are listening to the voices in your head that are calling you out, that are labeling you as someone less than you really are; that are creating a distorted reality which appears intimidating and it’s creating fear. You’re listening to the voice inside your head and that voice isn’t you. That voice is tripping you up before you get your foot out the door to do something great.

“And I promise you this: You can beat him. You can go to battle you can face your Goliath. And you will win. I know because I had to do this many times in my life. And every person who walks the earth needs to do this on a regular basis if they plan on accomplishing greatness with the time they’ve been given.”

I paused to let what I was saying sink in. I asked Kyle if he wanted to learn how to turn this around. Through a quiet voice, Kyle told me he did.

“This is how you go to battle: You need to stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. Action conquers fear. This Goliath is accusing you of being shy, of being quiet, of having no friends. He looks as if he is a giant and he’s intimidating. But I promise you this:Goliath is nothing more than a sheet of paper standing there with nothing behind his picture.

“You need to stop listening to yourself & start talking to yourself.”

“Kyle, you need to confront your Goliath. You need to be a man walk up to him and knock him over. And you do that by talking to yourself. You need to start using your mouth and your voice to silence his lies.

“Remind yourself right now that, ‘I am outgoing. I am funny. I make people laugh. People like to have me around.’

“Remind yourself how much your family loves you and that your mom and dad wouldn’t knowingly send you in an area that we knew would harm you. As a matter fact, I know only good will come out of this!”

“Kyle, start repeating those things out loud. That you are a winner. That you are a champion. That you have what it takes to go to battle and win! Kyle, you are 14 years old, a young man. You’re not a boy. And you’re not an adult yet. But God has placed you in our care so that we can help you along this battlefield and help you cross it successfully.

“I promise you this Kyle, from the bottom of my heart: If you choose to go to battle, you will defeat this Goliath and for the rest of your life you will remember tonight as the night where you learned one of the most valuable life lessons that you possibly can learn: You can battle Goliath and, when you do, you will beat him. Once you learn that lesson, your entire up-and-coming high school existence is going to be so much easier because this is so powerful.

“You can battle Goliath and, when you do, you will beat him.”

Posted in Family, LIFE Leadership | 31 Comments »

Western Civilization’s Debt Trap

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 11, 2014

Western Civilization is in the midst of a life and death struggle with its monetary system. The financial elites have bound society with the most oppressive monetary system ever created, where over 90% of the money supply exists through debt. This is a recipe for disaster as people, companies, and governments at all levels are chronically insolvent.

Money Supply Explodes Without Gold Standard

While reform of the total monetary system is essential, individuals should not wait for global reform to begin household reform. Indeed, the best thing for each person to do is launch a financial revolution where he lives below his means and wipes out ALL of his debt. This includes student loans, car loans, and even mortgages. In the process of wiping out out personal debt, one also reduces the money supply created by that debt.

It’s really a simple, but not easy choice. Does society want products and services so badly that it will sell itself into debt-slavery in order to obtain them? Or, on the other hand, can society learn to apply the three keys to wealth to its finances by taking a longer term perspective, delaying its gratifications for trinkets, and start leveraging the effects of compounding to its benefit.

Sadly, our society does the opposite today by viewing everything in the short-term, desiring instant gratification, and having compound interest work against them. LIFE Leadership has committed to play its part in helping people, companies, and governments get out of debt by applying the proper principles of financial management. Indeed, it all starts with the individual. When a person decides to end his debt-enslavement, he becomes the model for others to follow. The Financial Fitness Pack has already helped thousands of people terminate their debt and it can help others do the same. Are you sick and tired of running out of money before running out of month?

The financial debt matrix is real and continues to grow. Ignorance only imperils one’s financial health. British monetary reformer Michael Rowbotham explained the effects of the debilitating debt system upon Western Civilization when he wrote:

The reason for all this monetary scarcity and insolvency is that the financial system used by all national economies worldwide is actually founded upon debt. To be direct and precise, modern money is created in parallel with debt. The reason for the failure of economists to question patently invalid monetary data becomes clear – there is a total acceptance by them of the most extraordinary method for supplying money to the modern economy.

The creation and supply of money is now left almost entirely to banks and other lending institutions. Most people imagine that if they borrow from a bank, they are borrowing other people’s money. In fact, when banks and building societies make any loan, they create new money. Money loaned by a bank is not a loan of pre-existent money; money loaned by a bank is additional money created. The stream of money generated by people, businesses and governments constantly borrowing from banks and other lending institutions is relied upon to supply the economy as a whole. Thus the supply of money depends upon people going into debt, and the level of debt within an economy is no more than a measure of the amount of money that has been created…

If a monetary system is invalid or flawed, then the entire economy is based on the mathematics of error, and must be riddled with the effects. If the financial system upon which our economies are built is defective, and yet monetary considerations dominate our economic decisions, should we be surprised if the results are less than satisfactory?

The major role played by bank credit, which forms over 95% of the money stock in most developed nations, suggests that it cannot but be implicated in these trends. This is further suggested by the way that banking has literally become the focal point of modern economic management, through manipulating interest rates. The stargazers of Whitehall and the Federal Reserve hold their councils, trying to tread the non-existent tightrope between growth and recession by debating quarter percentage-points of interest rates. Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, engagingly describes his task in controlling the American economy through adjusting interest rates as a matter of ‘taking the champagne away once the party has started’. Businessmen around the world hold their breath, measuring his every word, wondering what he will decide. There could be no greater indictment of contemporary financial economics than this; that a fluctuating financial digit on a single computer system in a single street in a single country should have the ability to dominate the economies of an entire planet…

The past thirty years are almost unique by comparison with the previous three centuries in the lack of attention that has been directed at debt and the financial system. Throughout the eighteenth century, there were repeated calls for reform. During the nineteenth century, excessive banking was held by many to be directly responsible for the waves of appalling poverty that swept Europe and America during a period of increasing industrialisation and agricultural development. In this century, during the depression of the 1930s, the financial system effectively seized up and brought virtual collapse to the economies of the world in an age which was, perhaps for the first time, obviously wealthy, and in which technology offered people real freedom as well as material prosperity. One observer judged that over 2,000 schemes for monetary reform were put forward at that time – all with a common theme in their outright rejection of the debt-based financial system as it then operated. The same system continues to this day, modified in small details, but unchanged in principle; and the recent financial crisis in Asia shows the potential for collapse still exists.

However the issue of economic volatility through booms, slumps, crises, and collapses has never been the sole point of criticism. It is the long-term trends that a debt-based financial system fosters which are most destructive. The most obvious of these is declining personal solvency. Mortgages support over 60% (£420 billion) of the money stock in the UK and over 70% ($4.2 trillion) in the US. Housing-debt statistics for the UK and the US show that there has been a dramatic decline in true home ownership as mortgages become higher and ever more widespread. There can be little question that relying upon housing debt to supply money to an economy lacks economic and political justification. However, taken in conjunction with the marked rise in commercial debt, mortgages have a knock-on effect. In an economy where the price of goods is elevated by commercial debt and consumer incomes are deeply eroded by mortgage debt, there is a persistent and subtle advantage given to low-quality, mass-produced goods, and growth is fostered in this direction. The persistent decline in product durability and the growth-culture of a rapacious consumer society can be directly traced to the debt-based financial system…

The more one explores the broad impact of debt, the more apparent it becomes that bank-credit constitutes a dysfunctional form of money. An economy based almost entirely upon bank-credit and debt experiences an intense drive for growth, regardless of need or demand. Bank credit engenders financial dependence, injects instability and fosters growth-distortions, both within an economy and throughout the international arena.

Reform of the debt-based financial system is clearly not a minor issue. It is not a matter of fiddling around with taxes, incomes and allowances to make things apparently more equal, more efficient, or perhaps more straightforward. Changing the debt-based financial system involves gradually altering the very foundations upon which national and international economics is based. Monetary reform is concerned with attempting to determine a new principle for the supply of money to an economy – the purpose being to create a supportive financial environment in which more constructive economic trends are allowed to emerge, and in which more benign systems of overall economic management become possible.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Finances, LIFE Leadership | 19 Comments »

No Dream; No Guts; No Story

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 7, 2014

Here is a short segment from the LIFE Leadership Summer Convention. Cinderella Man is one of my favorite movies because it is based upon the true story of James J. Braddock. Don’t tell me the size of your obstacles, tell me the size of your dream! Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Claude Hamilton, Bill Lewis, Dan Hawkins, and George Guzzardo have dreams that power them past their obstacles. How about you?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in LIFE Leadership, Life Training | 10 Comments »

William Bradford on Property and Prosperity

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 30, 2014

Private Property and Prosperity

And Justice For All

The right to private property, as I discuss in my recently released Guinness World Record breaking book And Justice For All: The Quest for Concord, is an essential part of a working civilization. Without it, injustice and apathy quickly destroy the Six Duties of Society productivity. This isn’t just my opinion, it has been proven over and over again throughout history. For instance, the Pilgrims (a Godly group of Puritan separatist) attempted a communal approach to land when they first arrived in Plymouth, The catastrophic results nearly wiped out the colony.

Why? Because people quickly discover that regardless of how much work they do, they share in the rewards equally. This causes a Gresham’s Law decline in productivity as everyone seeks to do the minimum possible. However, because few work under this plan, famine and hunger result. For the past 20 years I have studied the effects of of compensation upon results. LIFE Leadership realizes that in a Compensated Community, the rewards must follow those who do the work. In other words, private property reigns.

William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth Colony discovered this for himself. In fact, he captured the challenge and response in his history of the settlement. Private Property is the only way that a person can reap what he has sown. If he does not work, he will not eat as Paul stated. Hunger, it seems, has historically been a great motivator for people to act. A modern equivalent is the statement that a timid salesperson has skinny kids. 🙂 If a person can eat without working, rest assured many people will follow Gresham’s Law and choose the same path.

Indeed, remember that someone always owns property. The choices are 1) private individuals with no monopoly of force or 2) the State with a monopoly of force. If feel much safer knowing private people own property, not only for the productivity gains, but also for the protection of liberty inherent within ownership. Private property tells the State to keep it hands off this private sphere. However, if the State owns everything then the peopler are merely serfs or slaves.

Leon Trotsky, the Russian communist, said as much when he cynically changed the Biblical admonition to work into “He who will not obey will not eat.” Simply put, allowing the State to own the land means the people are at the mercy of those in power. Therefore, those who hate private property inadvertently support oppression of the people and depression of the economy. Perhaps its time to learn from our Bradford’s history of the Plymouth Plantation.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

All this while no supplies were heard of, nor did they know when they might expect any. So they began to consider how to raise more corn, and obtain a better crop than they had done, so that they might not continue to endure the misery of want. At length after much debate, the Governor, with the advice of the chief among them, allowed each man to plant corn for his own household, and to trust to themselves for that; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. So every family was assigned a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number with that in view, — for present purposes only, and making no division for inheritance, — all boys and children being included under some family.

This was very successful. It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to plant corn, while before they would allege weakness and inability; and to have compelled them would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

The failure of the experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times, — that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.

For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort. For the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense. The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injustice. The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labour, food, clothes, etc., with the humbler and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect to them. As for men’s wives who were obliged to do service for other men, such as cooking, washing their clothes, etc., they considered it a kind of slavery, and many husbands would not brook it.

This feature of it would have been worse still, if they had been men of an inferior class. If (it was thought) all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them. Let none argue that this is due to human failing, rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.

These matters premised, I will now proceed with my account of affairs here. But before I come to other things I must say a word about their planting this year. They felt the benefit of their last year’s harvest; for by planting corn on their own account they managed, with a great deal of patience, to overcome famine. This reminds me of a saying of Seneca’s (Epis. 123): that an important part of liberty is a well-governed belly, and patience in want.

The settlers now began to consider corn more precious than silver; and those that had some to spare began to trade with the others for small things, by the quart, pottle, and peck, etc.; for they had not money, and if they had, corn was preferred to it. In order that they might raise their crops to better advantage, they made suit to the Governor to have some land apportioned for permanent holdings, and not by yearly lot, whereby the plots which the more industrious had brought under good culture one year, would change hands the next, and others would reap the advantage; with the result that manuring and culture of the land were neglected. It was well considered, and their request was granted.

Every person was given one acre of land, for them and theirs, and they were to have no more till the seven years had expired; it was all as near the town as possible, so that they might be kept close together, for greater safety and better attention to the general employments.

An excerpt from Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement; 1608-1650, by William Bradford, rendered into modern English by Harold Paget and published in 1909, originally titled Of Plymouth Plantation, reprint by Mantle Ministries: San Antonio, TX, 1988, pp. 115-116, 141-142.

Posted in Freedom/Liberty, Leadership/Personal Development, LIFE Leadership | 13 Comments »

LIFE Leadership Breaks Guinness World Record!

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 25, 2014

And Justice For All

When Ken Dunn (CEO of Next Century Publishing) informed me that Sammy Lee from Hong Kong had shattered the old Guinness World Records by signing 4,649 books during one book signing, I was impressed. For the previous mark was mid-2000’s and he nearly doubled that amount. Shortly afterwards, Chris Brady suggested that maybe we could break Lee’s world record with the release of my new book. I knew it would demand world-class levels in the process, people, and perseverance, but also knew LIFE Leadership was up for the task.

However, I didn’t just want to break the record, I wanted LIFE Leadership to smash it by topping 6,000 books signed. Of course, this wouldn’t be easy, especially when one considers that Mr. Lee took over 11 hours to sign 4,649 copies of his book. There is no way that I could sign 6,000 copies of my new book And Justice For All at that pace and still speak later in the day. Accordingly, if LIFE Leadership truly wanted to break the Guinness World Record, an interdependent leadership strategy was needed involving people, processes, and perseverance. In other words, not just working hard, but working smart was in order.

The people portion was the area I was least concerned about. With tens of thousands of active members and customers, I knew the people needed to break the record would be in attendance. However, it wasn’t just the number of people, but the quality of the people that made the difference. The LIFE Leadership Convention is filled with people trained on the best leadership information provided on a monthly basis. I believed the people would “buy into” the record-breaking strategy and discipline themselves to get their book signed quickly with few delays. Remember, time was of the essence because even at just 10 seconds per book, to sign 6,686 books would have required over 18 1/2 hours! No way could I have done that and still fulfilled my other responsibilities.

Guinness World Record Holder

This forced LIFE Leadership to develop a process to hit the 6,000 plus book signing target and do so in under 10 hours. This had never been done before. Undeterred, Chris Brady, Rob Hallstrand, and Michelle Turner planned a process to do what until that day had been impossible. These three studied the constraints in the people and process to improve the book ordering process. From the queue to order the book, to the line to get the book signed, to how the books were placed in front of me, everything was simply world-class. To say that the process achieved its goal would be an understatement. In fact, the old record was broken in under 4 1/2 hours without even taking a break.

Finally, the small part I played in the record was perseverance to serve the people and follow the process. I made a vow at the start of the signing to not remove myself from my chair until after the record was broken. Given the length of time required to break the record previously, I knew my bladder would probably be the weak link. 🙂 Nonetheless, by believing in the people and the process, I sat down and did not move until I had signed over 5,000 books. Even though I was legally allowed 5 minutes every hour that I could break to eat, drink, or use the bathroom, I wanted to beat the record without the luxury of a break.

After my first break, we pressed forward and blasted past 6,000 books on our way to our final count of 6,786 total books signed. This was a team effort and I would like to personally thank everyone involved. First of all, the people who disciplined themselves to follow the process flawlessly. Second, the office personnel for developing a world-class system to break the record. And third, a special thanks to Marc Militello, Neal Ruffner, and John Croyle for making the process fun and orchestrating the process and people through the line at record breaking speed. The Guinness World Record could not have been broken without your efforts.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank Michael Empric, the adjudicator from Guinness World Records, for investing his day in certifying the proceedings. Michael was a treat to work with and said this about LIFE Leadership’s process and people, ““What people often forget is the scope of organizing and coordinating a record attempt this large. The number of people in line was almost like being at a theme park, except instead of Space Mountain, all of these people were waiting in line to buy a book and have it signed by Orrin.” Michael went above and beyond by personally presenting the Guinness World Record plaque on the LIFE Leadership stage in front of a packed out Columbus arena. That was the perfect culmination for the record breaking day as it was a team victory.

LIFE Leadership Crowd – June Convention

In closing, leadership is the art of building belief. When people believe on the inside, a previously impossible task becomes possible. In this case, the impossible became possible once leaders believed and then developed the people, processes, and perseverance to finish. All of this, of course, inspired by the power of the dream. LIFE Leadership’s Guinness World Record performance proves that it is among the best of the best in the leadership field today. I am a blessed man to be associated with such a fine group of leaders on our way to changing the lives of millions of people.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Orrin & Laurie Woodward GWR Plaque

Guinness World Record Plaque

Michael Empric Presents GWR plaque to Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, LIFE Leadership | 41 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

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 Rule of Law in Western Civilization

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 6, 2014

Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.

Winston Churchill once wrote:

There are few words which are used more loosely than the word “Civilization.” What does it mean? It means a society based upon the opinion of civilians. It means that violence, the rule of warriors and despotic chiefs, the conditions of camps and warfare, of riot and tyranny, give place to parliaments where laws are made, and independent courts of justice in which over long periods those laws are maintained.

That is Civilization—and in its soil grow continually freedom, comfort and culture. When Civilization reigns, in any country, a wider and less harassed life is afforded to the masses of the people. The traditions of the past are cherished, and the inheritance bequeathed to us by former wise or valiant men becomes a rich estate to be enjoyed and used by all.

Today, this view is becoming increasingly ignored as the State seeks to gain more power over society. In the video below I discuss some of the ramifications of the Rule of Law on liberty in Western Civilization.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward – LIFE Leadership Chairman of the Board

Posted in Freedom/Liberty, LIFE Leadership | 17 Comments »

Thomas Woods – Meltdown

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 31, 2014

Thomas Woods – Meltdown

The Austrian business-cycle theory is the missing factor in today’s economic discussions. It connects the dots on so many seemingly disparate data points and explains systematically what everyone else is treating as isolated events. Unfortunately, the business-cycle theory is rarely discussed and almost never truly understood by today’s talking heads.

The Austrian School of economics is the only school that has developed a working model of how savings and investment needs work together to create the natural rate of interest. No where is there a need for the central banks Statist central planning interventions to artificially lower the interest rates.

This, in fact, is why the theory is kept from mainstream discussions because it places the blame for the Global Financial Crisis where it belongs, namely, on the State’s partnership with the central banks to run the banking system cartel. The banking cartel is designed to protect the fraudulent fractional reserve banking system from collapsing upon itself.

LIFE Leadership is set to release the first of my planned three book series on society and the State titled And Justice for All. The book will be available at the June Columbus major function. In the book, I describe how the State intervenes within society, allegedly to serve the populace, but actually to increase its power. I go on to describe how these State interventions affect society.

Justice for all is the goal of every righteous society, but the government must be restrained to perform only its intended functions to accomplish the assignment. Who guards the guardians? This ought to be the question asked by all concerned citizens to ensure the destructive Five Laws of Decline do not destroy the productive Six Duties of Society.

Here is a brief summary on the business-cycle and Thomas Woods excellent book Meltdown from the Mises Institute. I highly encourage everyone to read this book as it is the best simple description of the business-cycle theory.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward – LIFE Leadership’s Chairman of the Board

Austrian business-cycle theory is straightforward, for those willing to devote the necessary time to study praxeology. But therein lies a problem. The average person lacks the patience to read Human Action and Man, Economy, and State. How then can he acquire the rudiments of Austrian cycle theory and grasp why the theory is true? To set the question aside, on the grounds that it is unnecessary for the man in the street to bother with such matters, is a counsel of despair. If the public does not understand the economics of depression, there is little hope that we can avoid disastrous government policies. Unless the free market receives sufficient popular support, our economic future is bleak.

Woods supplies just what we need. With great clarity, he shows that the Austrian theory of the cycle is firmly grounded in common sense. Additionally — and here his skill as a trained historian comes to the fore — he shows that Austrian theory explains not only the Great Depression but other less-well-known economic downturns as well. When the government followed a “hands-off” policy, recovery from a downturn was rapid; when, as most notably was the case in the New Deal, government tried to take control, the economy sputtered.

The basics of Austrian cycle theory fall readily into place once one considers a fundamental point: the economy can grow only by producing more goods. An expansion of the money supply does not suffice. Efforts to get something for nothing, by the government’s deficit spending or by an expansion of the money supply, cannot produce lasting prosperity.

The speed with which an economy grows depends on the extent to which people prefer present goods to future goods. Other things being equal, people always prefer satisfaction in the present; but the extent to which this preference prevails is crucial for economic development. In order to obtain more consumer goods than are immediately available, people must postpone satisfaction by saving, enabling a greater production of capital goods to occur.

Look at it from the saver’s perspective. Saving more indicates a relatively lower desire to consume in the present. This is another incentive for businesses to invest in the future, to carry out time-consuming investment projects with an eye to future production, rather than produce and sell things now. (p. 67)

The extent that they are willing to do so determines the rate of economic growth.

The preference people have for the present forms the main part of the rate of interest: Mises called this the originary rate of interest. This rate registers the way people allocate resources between consumption and production.

Trouble arises when the government, by increasing the supply of bank credit, depresses the money rate of interest below the natural rate. Businessmen, seeing that money is available, invest in capital-goods industries, and the result is a boom.

Once the monetary expansion stops, the boom cannot be sustained. The entrepreneurs who expanded their production of capital goods need more money to sustain their projects, but not enough is available at an interest rate that will secure for them a positive return. In the absence of monetary expansion, the rate of interest rises, since time preference has not changed (or at least there is no reason to assume it has.) At the higher rate of interest that now prevails, formerly profitable enterprises now have to be liquidated. This process of liquidation is precisely the depression.

Posted in Freedom/Liberty, LIFE Leadership | 15 Comments »

Fire the Manager and Hire the Leader

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 22, 2014

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, when asked what made him great, responded, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” This simple statement concisely explains the difference between leaders and managers. Leaders acknowledge the present realities (where the puck is) but never forget the future possibilities (where the puck is going).

This is the key difference between leaders and managers. Whereas managers seek to organize the present resources of a company, a leader seeks to build the resources of a company by creating products, services, and systems that satisfy currently unmet needs in the marketplace.

Vision is tomorrow’s reality expressed as an idea today and leaders are the drivers that make today’s ideas tomorrow’s reality. Are you a leader actively sailing your ship to its future or merely a manager allowing the wind to blow you where it will? LIFE Leadership is about teaching people to seize the helm and sail! My advice is to fire the manager and hire the leader within.

The world has plenty of people capable of managing the results of your productivity, but is suffering from a dearth of true leadership. Despite having no guarantee of success, despite lacking all the relevant data and despite competing against bigger and faster ships, leaders still muster the courage to set sail upon the rough seas of free enterprise.

So what are you waiting for? Get out of the harbor of life and out onto the high seas. This is where the adventures, the learning, and the prizes are in life. Will everything go perfectly? Of course not! But refusing to leave he harbor ensures that you will never arrive at your port of destination. Leaders must leave home port to arrive at their future destination.

Perhaps you think the effort is not worth the reward. Only those who have not experienced the joy of sailing on the high seas could contemplate such a thought. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry described it best, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Personally, I yearn for the high seas that God has called me to and seek others of similar intestinal fortitude to take the journey with me.

Thus reminds me of Ernest Shackleton’s advertisement seeking men to be the first to journey to the South pole. The ad read, “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” Interestingly, there were no guarantees, nor huge bonuses, but just the challenge of doing something great together!

In fact, it’s the challenge of doing something that has never been done before that unites a team and steels their resolve to finish what they have started. At the Columbus LIFE Leadership Convention, on June 21 of 2014 (Saturday starting at 8am until every book is signed), LIFE Leadership will seek to do what has never been done before in the history of mankind.

With Guinness World Records™ staff officially tracking the proceedings, LIFE will seek to break the all-time record for Largest Book Signing. The goal is to break over 5,000 books signed in one sitting. Perhaps, if enough people participate, and my hand holds out 🙂 we can break 6,000 books signed!

In any event, leaders make events like this possible and I would like to thank all the leaders in advance who intend to play a part in making history in Ohio. Isn’t it time to fire the manager and hire the leader in your life?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Guinness Book of World Records Attempt

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, LIFE Leadership | 22 Comments »

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LIFE Leadership: Wisdom For Families

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“You need to stop listening to yourself & start talking to yourself.”

“You can battle Goliath and, when you do, you will beat him.”

Western Civilization’s Debt Trap

No Dream; No Guts; No Story

William Bradford on Property and Prosperity

Private Property and Prosperity

An excerpt from Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement; 1608-1650, by William Bradford, rendered into modern English by Harold Paget and published in 1909, originally titled Of Plymouth Plantation, reprint by Mantle Ministries: San Antonio, TX, 1988, pp. 115-116, 141-142.

LIFE Leadership Breaks Guinness World Record!

Ownership vs Loanership

Leaders Create a Virtuous Teaching Cycle Culture

The Rule of Law in Western Civilization

Thomas Woods – Meltdown

Fire the Manager and Hire the Leader