Following, Leadership, Orrin Woodward Life Business

How Do You Handle Setbacks?

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As many of you that read my blog know, I have a lot of contact with people that are on the journey of success. This gives me a great window to view how people react to failures. What has become very evident is that the way a person views his failures will ultimately determine his overall success. I have seen it both ways. I have seen the person who gets knocked down again and again but continues to get back up and fight for his victory. And I have also seen the person who doesn’t get knocked down but gives in to failure anyway because it looks like he is going to get knocked down. If you can take a hard look at how you view failures and get back up every time, then success is yours. As I talk about this, do not take this as me looking down on people who have failed. I know that the majority of people have never been taught the principles of success. I failed for 28 years of my life until I was exposed to the LIFE business and my mentor Orrin Woodward. That is why we need to talk about it, so we can learn to view it through the correct lens.

If a study was done of homeless people, I can assure you that we could find a person that endured the same circumstances and succeeded. Some had their spouse leave them, some lost their jobs, others made bad investments, and some fell into addictions. (The interesting part of my life is that I have personally seen all of these within my own family.) Instead of adjusting a behavior, making sacrifices, or fighting back, they just gave up. The successful person makes the necessary adjustments and moves forward. Hopefully, you have seen the movie Cinderella Man. It is one of the best examples of what I just explained. A down-and-out boxer goes through the Depression and loses everything. While many people around him gave up, he continued to fight for his family and eventually became the heavy-weight champion of the world.

When you take a shot, how do you react? Do you fall down in self misery, do you get back up but are scared to take another shot, or do you do what success requires? Get back up and move forward with even more conviction. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean you just bounce back up like a weeble-wobble and don’t feel the effects of the blow. I mean you gather yourself, look at what just happened, figure out what adjustments need to be made, and then move forward again. The FAA is in charge of studying airline crashes to determine what adjustments need to happen within the airline industry. Imagine if they reacted like most of us do when crashes occur. “Sorry, we just don’t know what to do. We are giving up.” Air travel would be non-existent because the safety of flying would have never improved. I know someone is reading this and saying, “Well, of course, they have to do that; it’s important.” What I would say to you is: “Aren’t your life and the lives of your family members more important?”

So what do we do? When we hit the TAR (things are rough), we need to be ready mentally. First, remember that just like with a plane crash, you can salvage something from every crash that will help you improve. Determine what caused the failure, put in a system to fix it, and move forward. Your plan might not be the total answer, but it will move you forward enough to determine the next piece of the puzzle. Albert Hubbard says, “A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience.” Second, be persistent. Most people don’t ever get to the lesson they need to learn because they are not persistent or willing to fail enough to get to the heart of the issue. Remember what the famous poet Rocky Balboa said: “It’s not how hard you can hit; it’s how hard can you GET HIT, get back up, and keep moving forward.” Third, recognize that you get what you picture. When you get knocked down and all you see is the negative, then that is what you will get from that lesson. If you take a second, give your head a shake, and continue to look at victory, then that is what you will get.

 Bill Lewis

 

 

Following, Leadership, Orrin Woodward Life Business

Be Encouraging by Removing Your Layers

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IT is quit amazing that one of the smallest parts of the body, the tongue, can have such a powerful impact on us and others.  The number of Proverbs and statements about the tongue are vast.

  • Death and life are in the power of the tongue  (Prov. 18:21)
  •  A soothing tongue is the tree of life  (Prov. 12:25)
  • The tongue is mightier then the sword ( ok I know its,pen, but the pen just writes what the tongue would have said )

Even though the tongue physically speaks the words it is the heart that creates the words before they are spoken.  Luke 6 :45  “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.   Since it is the heart that produces the words we use and the way we use them then we really need to solve the heart issues to become a true encourager to others.  You see what happens is we are living our life and words are spoken to us and about us.  Those words have a great effect on our view of ourselves.  We will start to build up protective layers around the fear in our heart that we are trying to protect.  As we speak, our words are affected by those layers.  When we build up enough layers we begin to speak from the layers instead off from our core self.  This can lead to creating blind spots.  These blind spots are areas that we don’t even recognize as causing issues in our life.

Let me give you a personal example of how layers affect your life.  My mom and dad were divorced when I was eight years old.  Not having a father figure produced some protective layers that I did not recognize until my 40’s.  Not having a father or any other male role model created a fear of  acceptance in me.  Now to protect that fear, I built up a layer of toughness and anger.  I was always noticing people that I thought were looking at me funny, reacting because of what I did ( lets use driving on the highway  🙂 or talking about me.  All of these were rooted in my fear of male acceptance.  I know this is true because one of my friends had the same issue and we were always looking for a fight.  One of my other friends didn’t have this fear ( layers )  and always thought me and my other friend were crazy.  By the way, he did have a great relationship with his father.  I think the layers we create are manifested based on our personality traits.  Choleric, melancholy, phlegmatic, sanguine.  The choleric’s layers become aggressive or angry; the melancholy becomes sarcastic or introverted; the phlegmatic becomes stubborn or recluse;  the sanguine becomes goofy or unaware of whats going on around them.  These are just some of the layers I have witnessed but there can be many more.  As these layers develop we start to hear everything filtered through those layers and speak from those layers.  Both situations will make it more difficult to build great relationships with people.  You have all experienced these conversations.  You say something to someone and there reply back to you has nothing to do with what you just said.  Now you have layers also and so you reply back with something that has nothing to do with what that person says.   Example, I was getting physical therapy and had to lay there and witness a half hour conversation about NOTHING! I thought I was going to go nuts.  Started off with ” My husband took me to that new restaurant” “Did you hear there is a food poison break out”  “My son was sick two weeks ago” “I think I’m going to train for a race.” “I just don’t like working out” both ladies were going back and forth and never acknowledged once what the other person said.  That was when I started praying that God would seal their lips shut.  God didn’t answer that prayer so I was forced to endure.  You see the problem with speaking from layers is that it means we aren’t really hearing the other person we are trying to achieve a desire of our own.

A desire may be defined as something wanted that cannot  be obtained without the cooperation of another person.  It is an objective for which a person can assume no responsibility, because it is beyond their control.  Reaching a desire must never become the motivating purpose behind behavior, because then a person is assuming responsibility for something he cannot fullfill on his own.  Encouragement by Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Dan alexander

 

Think about it for a minute.  The person that is best to talk to is probably the person in your life that has the fewest fears that they are trying to protect.  The less fears they have the less layers they have.   They can hear what you are saying, without filtering it through layers, and when they speak they are speaking from their core, not their layers.  When people speak from their layers their words seem like they are coated with the film of the desire they are trying to fulfill.  Some speak trying to make you feel worse about yourself so they can feel better, some speak in a way that they are fishing for compliments,  others speak in tones that imply to leave them alone, some speak in a way to try to convince you they know what they are talking about.  The list goes on and on but when you hit that person that doesn’t have layers it is like a breath of fresh air.  So how do we fix this.

The real key to fixing this is to eliminate the fears.  Once you eliminate the fear the layers go with it.  A lot of people try to fix these layers with technique or skill.  They will read books on how to improve their people skills but the core fear is still there and so their protective layers just change to a different type of protective layer.  Reading and self analysis can work but very few people are skilled enough to identify their own fears and layers.  The best way to identify and change them is by mentoring with someone who can help you see what you cant see.  I have been very blessed to have two mentors  (Orrin woodward – Life founder and Chris Brady – Life founder) that have helped me eliminate some of mine.  Once you have done this process you are now able to help others identify their fears, grow, and become better.  I wish you the best of luck on this very important subject.

God Bless

Bill Lewis

 

Family, Following

Trust

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I know this subject is talked to death but it is the most important one in developing any successful relationship.  Spousal, children and business partner relationships are all forged on the anvil of trust.  If the anvil is weak then the relationships will be forged in weakness and eventually fall apart.  If the anvil is strong then the relationship will be equally strong.   Think about when someone asks you, “Do you trust that person?”  That’s a strong question because it also speaks to your ability to evaluate people.  So, what we are going to dig into is a few ways that you could be losing trust?

Becoming trusted also requires reciprocity, awillingness on both sides to enter into dialouge and conversation.  It takes time, because while trust may sometimes be forged in moments of great drama, it is more likely to be formed by many small, moment-to-moment encounters.

Kouzes and Posner in

I believe the quote you just read is implying that most people think about trust from this perception.  When a big event happens and we display our trustworthyness that that is it but there is also the day to day events where you could be losing your friends trust.  Worst yet you could be losing trust with yourself.

Is your behavior predictable or erratic?

I would guess that most people wouldn’t expect this question to determine your trustworthyness but let’s take a look.  Think about the person you know that is always erratic in how they respond, how they feel, or how they act.  It becomes hard to know how they will behave so that makes us uneasy.  Consistency of action and reaction is what makes people feel secure with us.  Let me give you a personal example.  I was erratic with my mood. I would let situations control my reactions.  Someone would call me while I was eating and I would answer the phone and I sounded like that person just spit on my sandwich. “Helloooooooo!”  I am sure my tone sounded like, “What are you calling me for.  Don’t you know I am eating.”  I am sure it sounded like that because that was what I was thinking.  The next time they called me I would be like, “Hello :):):):):):):)”  sounding like, “I have been waiting for you to call.”  Now, after a few times of this teeter-totter that person just stopped calling.  Whether your in business, speaking to your spouse, or  talking to your kids no one feels comfortable with erratic responses.  What areas of your life are inconsistent?  The more inconsistent we are the weaker our bond will be with people.

Do you communicate clearly or carelessly?

What we are talking about here is do you make promises and then don’t keep them.  Do you do what you say you are going to do no matter what?  This one is interesting because the people that violate it the most don’t do so intentionally, however,wether they realize it or not, they are still causing the foundation of trust to crumble.  You see, when you tell people you are going to do something, be somewhere at a certain time, have something done, etc… in your mind you might have good intentions but to the other person it was a promise.  If a promise isn’t kept then the other person starts to lose trust with you in that situation.  If it happens enough times you might start to erode their overall trust.  The key here is under-promise and over deliver.  The next step is to start determining why you do this: Are you trying to feel involved, are you a people pleaser, do you over extend yourself, not plan enough, don’t have the skill to do what is being asked of you.  Whatever the reason is we need to identify and fix it before we damage relationships.

Are we forthright and candid or are we deceptive and dishonest?

Basically are you intentionally lying or are you telling the truth.  It’s shocking how easy it is to get to the point that lying seems easier then telling the truth but in the long run it creates more havoc.  I have seen people get to the point that they lie so much they believe their own lie.  This one will obviously destroy relationships.  We need to figure out why we do it.  Are we afraid of what the other person will think? Are we afraid of what we will have to face? Have we convinced ourselves that it is easier to lie then change the thing we are lying about?  Whatever it is I can guarantee you that the statement,”The truth shall set you free” is correct.  If it wasn’t the statement wouldn’t exist.

I have been very blessed to be able to associate with people like, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, who have shown me what it is like to totally trust someone.  Not only what they say and do but their motives as well.  I hope you are blessed to find someone who can help you establish a firm foundation of trust.

God Bless

Bill Lewis 

Freedom

Happ-i-ness

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At one point in my life, my definition of happiness would have been the person that had everything they want.  On television and in movies they always looked happy.  Most media outlets  portrayed them as being happy and everyone else seemed to agree with my opinion.  Now I am much older, more traveled, been exposed to many different people and have accomplished a lot of my original material goals.  I have changed my original opinion.

The magazine Psychology Today sent a survey to 52,000 people asking them to respond and tell them how they believed they would find happiness.  Most of the respondents said they dreamed of winning the lottery and it would fulfill their happiness.  Lets take a look at one story of a lottery winner.  A Pennsylvania resident won eight million dollars.  Within a year his wife left him, winning alimony and child support that would cost him one million dollars; his landlady sued him for 30% of the winnings and won in court; his brother and sister in-law were indicted and imprisoned for trying to hire someone to kill him.  I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound much like happiness.  The truth about the lottery is most of the winners end up bankrupt financially and end up bankrupt in their happiness account.

I know someone reading this is saying, “I would still like to have everything I want and find out for myself”.  I understand, I use to feel the same way when I read or heard “dumb” 🙂 people say the things I am saying.  Needless to say, that doesn’t change the facts.  Don’t get me wrong, money will eliminate some of life’s annoyances but money does not fill the void where happiness lies.  We all know a person or have heard about celebrities that have everything that life could offer but are so miserable that they end up destroying themselves.  Did you know that the number one profession for suicide is psychologist?  Why? Because they have seen and heard the depravity of the human heart.

You see happiness has the same middle-english root happ, which is also found in the word happening.  In other words, happiness depends on what happens.  We are happy if certain things happen to use; if they do not then our happiness vanishes like mist.  Isn’t it ironic that the middle letter in happiness is I.  Our state of happiness revolves around I, me, and my.

  •  Whats going to happen to me?
  • Whats going to happen to my family?
  • What is wrong with my kids?
  • What if I don’t succeed?
  • I wish my spouse would understand me!
This means that we are the greatest obstacle blocking the way to happiness.  When we are most focused on ourselves and what we want, that is when we are the most un-happy.  As soon as you focus your attention to others; what they want, what they need, that is when the amazing feeling comes over you.  A feeling called happiness.  A business guru once said,” You help enough people get what they want and by default you will get what you want.”  That does not only apply to business but to every area of life.  I have experienced this so many times in my life that I can not recount them all.  I am having a bad day, I don’t feel good, something is aching but as soon as I get focused on serving, I quickly forget about the things that are troubling me.  The really crazy part of it is the more I serve others the greater blessings I receive back.  As the old Hindu proverb states: “Help thy brothers boat across, and lo! thy own has reached the shore.”
The ultimate answer to the issue is when you know you cannot do anything without Gods help and put your total faith in Him.  Therefore,  if you are having a problem with marriage, kids, finances, relationships, figure out who and how to serve and you will experience the feeling of happiness.
God Bless

 

Family

Parenting Easy or Hard ?

55 Comments

Have you ever been walking through a store and noticed the many different ways that parents react to their children?  The younger children create many situations that are down right hilarious but as they become older you see a lot of reactions that are steamed from the roots they grew up with.  Ever notice kids seem to react and handle situations the same way the parents do?   The unfortunate part is that those reactions could have been different if we just had the right tools at our disposal when they were younger.  Now, I am not saying that it is to late to turn things around but it is much easier to establish good principles and habits when they are younger.  As parents it is hard to admit that we have created the roots that are producing the fruit.

The story goes – There is an apple tree in the backyard.  Every year the apples start to grow but then they fall off the tree before they become ripe and able to be picked.  The wife ask the husband if he can do something about this.  He thinks for a minute and then says, ” I got it.”  He goes to the store and comes home with some ripe, red, luscious looking apples.  He grabs a ladder, the fresh apples and a  staple gun.  After he attaches the apples to the tree he goes into his wife and says, ” Look, I fixed the tree.”

Obviously, a silly story but the point is good.  You cant just fix the appearance or the surface issues.  You have to fix the root system that is feeding the fruit.   Yes kids are born with a natural sinful nature but we determine a lot of what the root structure will be.  Lets dig in to a couple different areas that will help us develop better roots.

The first area we must look at is ourselves.  Being a parent is the hardest job on the planet but it can also be the most fulfilling.  One day you wonder if you could leave them at the grandparents for about 20 years and the day after that you couldn’t ever imagine not having them.  To be the best we can be, we have to get over our own idols that we might have.  The idol of comfort – this is hard or taking up to much time.  The idol of respect – they should respect me even when I am sinning and being a jerk. The idol of appreciation – don’t you know what I have done and the sacrifices I have made, The idol of success – I must have good kids so I don’t look bad. The idol of control – they are suppose to do what I say.  We have all displayed these idols on the surface. But the problem is if you have an idol in your heart then you aren’t focused on the only person who is really in control, God.

The second item we need to understand is that we shouldn’t be trying to get our kids to say and do the right things, from a mental standpoint.  We can’t just staple some good looking fruit on their forehead and think everything is ok.   We need to try and focus on where the issue started and that is in their heart.  They need to understand that they have a natural tendency to be ruled by their own selfish desires.  We need to help them understand that they are not trying to please us they are suppose to be obeying Gods law and growing to be more Christ like.  If they rely on him for strength then they can accomplish anything.  We can help them understand this process by displaying it to them.  Let them know where you have failed and ask for their forgiveness.  What a great example of humbleness obedience to God.

Some tools to help in this process is when something happens or goes the wrong way stop and talk to them.  Ask them some questions.

What were you thinking and feeling?

Why was that so important to you?

Do you think that was the right thing to do?

Does what the other person did control what you do?

What were you trying to accomplish when you did or said that?

Why did you become so angry?

What is that you were afraid of?

If we can get them to think through issues themselves then we are enabling them to do the right thing at all times, not just with us.   We need to give them principles to live by and explain to them that those do not change because of the situation.

There is a war out there.  It is being fought on the turf of our childrens heart.  It is fought for the control of their soul.  Be careful and continue to fight everyday.

God Bless

Leadership

Orrin Woodward Team / Life updates

36 Comments

Here is an update  One of the points that I love about free enterprise is the ability to serve customers and produce results. Businesses thrive when legitimate customer needs are satisfied.  All the rhetoric for a business is worthless, if the customers are not being served. Similarly, all the rhetoric against a business is worthless, if the customers are being served.

The LIFE TEAM is passing the customer’s test. In fact, based upon the first month’s data, LIFE has received a huge validation of its business plan. From the customer’s perspective, there is finally a company that provides world-class monthly leadership materials at a price that anyone can afford, especially with its three for free program.

The TEAM community has been serving leadership communities in network marketing since 1999. As part of our training, we created a CD of the week program, quickly establishing ourselves as the top community building organization in the US market. By 2000, we routinely hosted major functions with thousands of people in attendance. Indeed, many of the top leaders within network marketing have benchmarked our processes and systems to improve the leadership culture within their communities.

However, even with this solid foundation, nothing could have prepared me for LIFE’s launch. In its first 30 days, LIFE added over 4,000 new leadership subscribers! I’m not talking about sign-ups here, I am referring to people who signed up for our monthly subscription program. Let me explain the magnitude of these numbers. The LIFE business, in other words, has added more new CD and book subscribers in its first month than the TEAM community added in its best year!

Remember the saying, “In God we trust, all others must have data”? This data confirms something the LIFE founders believed in their hearts – that high-quality, low priced, monthly leadership information is a huge customer need in this intensely competitive marketplace.

However, don’t take my word for it. Try the products for yourself. Over 800 customers, people not involved in the LIFE business are enjoying the leadership information. Most of these customers sold themselves by listening to the leadership materials, eventually requesting a monthly subscription. That is the beauty of the model, members do not have to convince customers against their wills. Instead, members only have to provide the customers an opportunity to hear the life-changing information for themselves.

I want to congratulate all of the new pin winners for the month. So many amazing stories of growth and depth happening across the LIFE TEAM communities. With so much growth, there are more people receiving checks and progressing towards their dreams this month than ever before in the history of the TEAM’s community building endeavors. This can only happen when opportunity and preparedness meet.

One success story that I have witnessed first hand is my yacht captain, Bill Howard. Bill has been part of the TEAM community since 2005. In that time, he read and listened, changing himself from the inside out. Many criticized him, thinking him crazy to believe he could ever lead his own community. However, Bill understood that private achievements precede public ones and even though he wasn’t making big money, he was making big changes. In other words, Bill got himself right; the LIFE TEAM business got the opportunity right; and success was the result. Bill powered over the 50% level in his first month of LIFE, which means his bonus check will be nearly ten times higher than any check he has received in network marketing career. Oh, and by the way, he did this completely without my day to day involvement. In fact, I didn’t show a single plan for him, as he was fully capable of  building his own business thanks to the leadership training. All I can say is congratulations to a job well done!

In life, people are either part of the solution of part of the problem. The LIFE Founders have vowed to be part of the solution. Although governments think they can solve people’s problems by offering handouts, God utilizes a different method. God allows us to get in over our heads, so that He can teach us how to swim by faith. Unfortunately, many times this process is interrupted by well-intentioned people who throw life-jackets in the middle of God’s swimming lessons. I refused to throw Captain Bill Howard a life-jacket, for I knew that God was in the process of developing another champion swimmer. Captain Bill’s leadership community never threw him a lifejacket, for he was capable of swimming, but they did provide him with the encouragement, CDs, and books that changed his thinking, thus his life.

Don’t misread me, I am all for saving a drowning person. However, more often than not, we save a person who is fully capable of swimming with the right training. When we do this, we not only do not help, but are actually take away a person’s dignity and respect, communicating to them that they are not capable of swimming without us. How can a person become a producer in society when he hasn’t developed the ability to swim on his own? LIFE is teaching the leadership skills needed to let go of the life-jackets and start to swim. Western Civilization needs men and women who will swim against the currents of despair currently sinking our society. LIFE is our opportunity to restore our great countries, offering a hand-up, not a handout.

The LIFE business has a goal to change the world one person at a time. We understand that no change is possible until a person is ready. Our goal then, is to have the life-changing information ready when he or she is ready. Are you ready to confront and grow, becoming the leader you deserve to be? If so, then perhaps the LIFE TEAM is worth checking out. Listen to the CDs and read the books for yourself. This may be the opportunity you have been praying for. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

orrin woodward life leadership

The Shocking Truth about Orrin Woodward

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Anyone who is searching for information about Orrin Woodward and/or his business  Life Leadership (www.lifeleadership.com) has come to the right spot.  Over the past fourteen years of knowing and working with Orrin, many people have asked me about him.  Some have asked about his character and integrity. Some have wanted to know how he has set up his businesses.  Others just wanted to get a general feel for who he is as a man because someone they knew had hyped him up sooooooo much. Hopefully this article will provide a little insight on those subjects.

I was an engineer when I started this business; therefore, I am a very logical person, and so my thoughts and remarks will be based on some simple knowledge and the facts as I know them.  First of all, when digging into information about anything or anyone, it is very important to make sure to approach the process the correct way. When searching the cyber world to try to find information, it is important to look for facts—not just people’s opinions. Facts are hard to find in today’s world, but as the saying goes, “The facts are the facts.”  Now, researching a product is usually pretty easy.  The product worked, or it didn’t work.  Customers liked this about the product, or they didn’t like that about the product.  Even so, there are those who will only try to discredit their competitors so customers will go to their site and purchase their product instead.  When researching a person, however, those rules are harder to follow. Since the person is the product, people’s opinions are typically based on feelings rather than facts.  For instance, most people have a person in their life that gives them the cold shoulder for no apparent reason.  There are only two conclusions a person can come to in such a scenario.  First, either the one giving the cold shoulder doesn’t have all the facts (otherwise, it would likely be apparent why he or she felt that way), or second, he or she is unwilling to address, forgive, and move past the situation.  The interesting thing about forgiveness is when that person does something wrong, he or she will surely EXPECT to be forgiven, in spite of not being willing to grant forgiveness to others.  With this thought process established, the foundation is set for digging a little into the three areas discussed in the first paragraph:  Orrin’s character, his businesses, and Orrin as a man. The three are actually intertwined.

Character

An important beginning step is to define character because some people definitely have a skewed view of what that means.  Character has two parts: 1) the avoidance of doing something wrong (If a person is doing something that is wrong, then by default, he can’t be doing what is right), and 2) taking action to do what is right.  Orrin has been in business for nearly twenty years, and his businesses are based on developing relationships with people.  He tells people exactly what is going to happen when they decide to join his businesses.  Logically, if he wasn’t telling the truth, wouldn’t the tens of thousands of people who are following him figure that out and stop following him?  The fact of the matter is those people continue to follow him because his actions line up with his words.  There are some that have chosen not to associate anymore, and that is to be expected when building a volunteer business.  However, if Orrin was a liar, wouldn’t the masses and certainly those closest to him figure that out and stop associating?  Some might be thinking right now, “But that’s because the people closest to him get a special deal.”  That is a great lead into the business side of all this.

Business

The shocking part about the business model that Orrin has created is that it is based upon formulas, not personal agendas. In other words, individual results are based upon the effort put in and the level of personal growth, not who a person is friends with. Each part of the business, from the volume of products sold to the profits on the CDs, books, and meetings, is calculated using formulas, so everyone is operating on the same playing field.  Another key area to understand is that this is a business.  Consequently, as with any business endeavor, there is a cost associated with it.

  • There is an initial sign up cost that is less than $100.
  • There is a selection of monthly subscriptions available to assist with personal growth that range in cost from $50 to $200.
  • There is also monthly business training that costs less than $50.
  • Finally, there are monthly seminars that one can attend for less than $40.

The amount of expense compared to the return is off the charts, but it is still a business.  It will require money, time, and dedication, which is no different from any other start-up business.  The part that is different, however, is that it’s up to each individual to determine his level of commitment—and that can change over time.  Another unique aspect of Orrin’s business plan is that it includes a training system that teaches members the art and science of success. Each new member becomes part of a team of people who help mentor him through the process.  In fact, one of the biggest hindrances to success for many people is that because the start-up cost is so low, they treat the whole thing more like a hobby than a business.

The Man

The shocking part about Orrin Woodward, the man, is that he is not only driven to succeed, but he also desires to do so in the right way, based on principles. Indeed, if something is not based on principles, then Orrin refuses to function in that environment.  He is more driven to improve himself daily because he understands the principle of The Law of the Lid:  An organization grows to the level of its leader; therefore, Orrin continually attacks his own thinking in an effort to learn and grow.  With all of that said, he is human and, therefore, has made mistakes.  But his willingness to admit those mistakes and to do what he can to fix them is extremely impressive. In a world where people perpetually blame others, Orrin, instead, accepts responsibility and focuses on improving. It’s hard to not like someone like that.  His humility and his faith also separate him from the crowd.  In most organizations, the person that created it makes himself the supreme being of that company.  Orrin, on the other hand, usually takes a back seat in order to let others lead and receive the glory.  His goal is to surround himself with the best leaders, which takes a person who understands where he comes from and possesses a humble spirit that enables him to realize that one person doesn’t have all the answers.  On a personal level, Orrin has developed a successful marriage with his wife Laurie and raised four wonderful kids.

Closing Thoughts

In closing, the shocking truth is that for once in life, the hype does not live up to the man. It is simply very rare in today’s society to find someone who lives what he preaches and teaches. Going into business with another person requires a high level of trust, so the best kind of person to be in business with, is someone who lives the way Orrin does. He doesn’t just talk a good game; he also has the results to back it up.

  • Orrin Woodward is the coauthor of the New York Times, BusinessWeek, and USA Today best seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.
  • He is an honored alumnus of the esteemed Kettering University for winning Kettering’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
  • In 2013, Hachette Books (the second largest book publishing company in the world) will release LeaderShift by Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille on the Business Plus imprint. LeaderShift was personally edited and approved by Vice President and Executive Editor Rick Wolff, one of the most successful executives in the book publishing business.
  • In 2013 LeadShift is on the best sellers list of  the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Daily Globe

The final thing to consider is what the people in the organization are saying. Anyone who is going to work for a company, start a business, go to school, try to be a professional athlete, etc. doesn’t want to talk to people who tried it and quit; he wants to talk to people who are involved in it and are successful. Please read the comments after this article to get a good feel of what people think of this dynamic man Orrin Woodward.

God Bless

Family, Friends, Leadership

How we use Words

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Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose.  ( proverbs 18:21 )  For something that we do so often it is quit amazing how good we can be at times and how bad we can be at times.  We naturally lean to the negative side of using words and that is why it is so important to be working at the skill of words.  Yes, to a certain extent it is skill but it goes much deeper then just a skill and hopefully I can shed a little light on such a complicated subject.

Author Paul David Tripp says in War of Words,” Adam and Eve ‘s ability to communicate in words made them unique in all of creation.  They could take their thoughts, desires, and emotions and share them with each other.  They were like God; they could talk!  By giving them this ability, God was setting the shape of their lives.”

God has given us such a great gift and yet most of the time are words are more hurtful or self-fulfilling then they are helpful.  Why is that?  Have you ever made some of these statements and wondered why?

You make me so angry!

If you hadn’t ______ then I wouldn’t have _______

When ever you do that I just can’t control myself        ( blame )

I wasnt like this before I had children                      ( regret )

If it’s the last thing I do I’ll get you to respect me  ( threat )

After everything we have done for you ….             ( guilt )

Remember that thing you wanted if you do …. I’ll think about it            ( manipulation )

Our communication struggles are not primarily a struggle of technique but a struggle of the heart.  Our war of words is not with other people ; it is a battle within.   Have you ever been around someone who reads books and listen to personnel growth cd’s but there still seems to be something harsh about them.  It is because they have learned techniques and can say the right things but the music that their words make sound like an instrument that is out of tune.   If we are going to understand our trouble with words, we must begin with our  heart.  Our tongues are a restless evil because the ” heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?”  ( Jer. 17:9 )  Word problems reveal heart problems.  The people and situations around us do not make us say what we say; they are only the occasion for our hearts to reveal themselves in words.

If we want to get better with people we need to address the issues of our heart first.  That starts with the desires of our heart.   The desire for success at work becomes a demand of appreciation from the boss.  The desire to have enough money to pay the bills morphs into a lust for affluence.  The desire to be a good parent becomes a desire to have children who enhance my reputation.  We become motivated for the things that bring us pleasure and are angry at any one that stands in our way.

So techniques are important to learn but if you want your instrument to make beautiful sound then you must address the issues in your heart.  This is not an easy task because we are sometimes blind to the events that have caused us scares or we are blind to the issue that the scare has left behind.  Good luck on the journey through your heart.

Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, Following, Freedom, Friends, Fun, Orrin Woodward Life Business, Orrin Woodward Team

The Mental Fitness Challenge

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I wanted to wait at least a week until I blogged about the new mental fitness challenge that   the -team.biz chairman, Orrin Woodward, and the rest of the policy counsel recently released.  The MFC, as we call it, is the latest improvement that has been made to the-life-business.com.    To say that this has created some excitement would be an understatement.  The results of the launch have been amazing, click on this link to get some of the statistics.

The challenge is a process of helping us to improve ourselves from the mental side of things.  Orrin has studied the lives of three historical, great, Americans, and each one of them had resolutions that they worked on implementing into their life.  Orrin and Chris Brady decided that they should put together a system that helps people systematically walk themselves through that same successful process.

The challenge is great because it provides one of the most important item of success.  It tells you were you are at.  As the saying goes if you don’t where you are starting, it’s going to be really hard to get your destination.   You could be heading down a path that you don’t need to be heading down, just because you lacked the information of what path you are already on.  The test gives you a pretty accurate assessment of the things you need to improve on and the correct paths to get you there.

The other benefit of the test is it helps you focus.  You can walk outside and enjoy the sunlight but you can also take that same sunlight and shine it through a magnifying glass and light things on fire.  The same is true with our personnel growth.  We can just enjoy the fact that we are alive or we can light ourselves on fire.  We tend to naturally work on the things that we are strong at and avoid the things we are weak at.  After you take the challenge you will have a clear understanding of the areas you need to grow in and therefore keep you focused on the next thing you need to do to become better.

The challenge then gives you another very important step.  It gives you a way to improve in those areas.  Many test or self assessment items I have seen before just tell you whats wrong or do not have a very detailed way to help you improve.  This challenge is a very regimented systematic way to help you grow.  You have accountability partners and reminders on what you are supposed to be doing.  Most humans will experience a moment of motivation but when the feeling goes away we start to slip backwards.  The challenge is set up to keep you from slipping backwards and continuing to move forward.

Overall I know if people attack this mental fitness challenge and use it the way it was intended there is no way that they will not grow and become better.  This is not just my opinion I have seen this process done by the two people who put it together.  Orrin Woodward & Chris Brady exemplify what this challenge is all about and are a living examples of what you can do when you focus your efforts.  Hope you enjoy the mental fitness challenge video.

God Bless

Bill Lewis

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

Life Leadership