Orrin Woodward"s Team: LIFE Press

LIFE Leadership Conventions

The LIFE Leadership Conventions are by far the best leadership information at the best price on the market. While others charge $500, $1000, and some even more, LIFE Leadership's price is $150! Why does LIFE charge so much less? Because Orrin Woodward said, "You cannot change someone's life until you get them around a bunch of people who have changed their life!" I LOVE that! If you want to change then associate with others who have changed.

LIFE Leadership is changing lives one person at a time and creating a LeaderShift that will impact people long after the founders of LIFE move onto another world.  The leadership information in the Mental Fitness Challenge, the new Financial Fitness Pack, and the ongoing subscriptions are simply fantastic. Any entrepreneur, who desires to improve his leadership, should get on a monthly subscription ASAP. Leadership change is tough and takes effort, but it is still necessary. Like Orrin Woodward said, "We don't promise easy, just worth it." Attached is a video about the LIFE Leadership Conventions.

LeaderShift Review by Clarkston News

Not much more needs to be said here. Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille wrote an instant classic with LeaderShift. Here is another 10% saying so.

Don Rush, Assistant Publisher for Sherman Publications, wrote an excellent review of LeaderShift recently in the Clarkston News. Don has won numerous awards for column, editorial and feature writing and I was very impressed by the level of detail and understanding he culled out of his first reading of LeaderShift.

I truly believe that any concerned North American, who invest the time to read the book, will finish it a different person than when he began it. The book teaches so much through the dialog and the reports of breakthroughs from different readers astounds even my high expectations of the book.

Oliver DeMille and I had a goal to help change the dialog away from more State/Force solutions and towards more Society/Persuasion solutions. Persuasion solutions require leadership while force “solutions” always resort to threat, intimidation, and losses of freedom. Thank you Don and the Clarkston News for helping create the LeaderShift! Here is Don’s article.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Don’t Rush Me I’m part of the ’99%’ and that’s a problem Which leads me to the new book, LeaderShift

 

May 15, 2013 – Just this weekend I heard/read the Internal Revenue Service was busted targeting groups critical of the government. According to one on-line blog I read:

“The IRS repeatedly changed the criteria it used for singling out nonprofit applications for further review, at one point looking at all groups hoping to make ‘America a better place to live,’ according to new reports Monday morning.

“The Wall Street Journal and Reuters both reported the IRS moved beyond giving a skeptical eye to ‘tea party’ and ‘patriot’ groups. It was also targeting groups focusing on specific issues including ‘government spending,’ ‘government debt,’ ‘Education of the public via advocacy/lobbying to ‘make America a better place to live,’ and all groups that ‘criticize[d] how the country is being run.”

I don’t know about you, but that scares me and it should scare you. Talk about a government/bureaucracy run amok! This is the first we have heard of this even though the powers that be knew about this a full two years ago (in May of 2011). Holy Mother of Tyranny, Batman, how did things go so awry?

It’s been a long time since teachers at Clarkston High School forced me to read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, then 1984 and then Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, so I will not draw any conclusions or connections there. Truthfully, that was too long ago and for important stuff I seem to have forgotten my memory.

However (coincidentally?), two weekends ago I finished reading the book, Leadershift by Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille. Which, in its own parablistic way explains the problem of a government bloated with money, credentialists and bureaucrats. It also offers an out of the box solution. Solutions only solved by, gulp, changing the Constitution and having taxes broke down like this: local, 4%; state 3% and federal 3% And, let me tell you since I read it, the gears in my head are turning.

It is not a work of nonfiction. It is fiction set in the not too distant future. The premiss, America’s government is broken and run by folks who want to protect their turf, and keep the status quo.

Shift back to recent developments about the IRS. Does anybody see any parallels between Leadershift’s antagonists?

I recommend folks get their hands on this book and read it. And, then get ready to re-read it whilst taking notes, so you can do further research to see if facts portrayed as such, are really true.

For example, in the book I read folks in colonial America were really involved with their local township — and if you were a voting member of the town and you didn’t attend, you could be fined. America’s founders, the authors contend, wrote the Constitution but messed up, because they just figured Americans would always be involved, know the issues, read the laws and ask questions . We don’t and this has allowed more and more power to be usurped by career Washington, DC types.

Which leads me to the headline, “I’m part of the 99% and that’s a problem.” First, while I may be included in the slack-festers of a few years ago who protested the “unfairness” of America (because I can be described by my wealth as a Hundredaire), I am not talking about these folks.

I am talking about the 99% of the voting population who doesn’t attend their local government meetings, or watch broadcast of said meetings, or even read newspaper accounts of local village, township, city or school board meetings. That’s a problem which I am a part of.

I’ve justified not attending local meetings because I used to cover tons of them as a young community newspaper journalist. And let me tell you, these meetings are boring and many times they left bad tastes in my mouth because of the pettiness found there. Like I said, it was my justification for not attending.

Crappy politicians are not born in Washington, DC or in Lansing, Michigan. They start out locally. Then the “cream” of the crop rise to county seats, and so on. I challenge everybody to call their county commissioner and ask them what they learned their first year in office. Here’s how you can tell if that person is honest with you or lying.

“It’s was great. It was democracy in action,” is what the liar will tell you.

“It was an education. The party leaders would come in and tell us how we were gonna’ vote,” is something I’ve heard personally from the mouths of county commissioners.

Do you feel warm and fuzzy now? You shouldn’t. I don’t. Back to Leadershift. Once you read it, your reading isn’t done. You will have to follow up by researching Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; the Federalist Papers (in particular Paper 51), 1913 in American history; Twilight of Elites by Christopher Hayes and anything about leadership.

Mentoring for Results

Two-time NY Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Orrin Woodward describes the importance of mentoring in this blog article. Orrin, along with his co-author Oliver DeMille have launched a LeaderShift and mentoring is a big part in finishing the job. Here is the article.

Mentoring as a Talent Scout

Oliver DeMille and I have been bantering back and forth on the importance of mentoring in building teams, cultures, and organizations to create the LeaderShift. The number one ingredient I look for in someone to mentor is hunger, for everything else can be taught, but hunger must be caught! As Oliver says, “Don’t require, but inspire.” I love coaching/mentoring people, but I refuse to begin until I am convinced a person would proverbially “eat nails” to gain and apply wisdom. LIFE is a business of gaining and applying wisdom into the 8F’s of life. Are you willing to “eat nails” to gain wisdom? If you are, then, as Zig Ziglar used to say, I will see you at the top. Here are some thoughts Oliver and I developed on the subject.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

A mentor who understands powers of decline that are at work in the world knows that he must become a talent scout to maximize his impact as a leader.

Everyone has the potency to become a genius, but because of the laws of decline, statistically few people are willing to pay the price to really tap into that genius. Recognizing this sad fact, mentors should be careful to target their effort to those who will actually do something with it.

The story of the young man who had read the mentor’s book—and his friend who hadn’t—illustrates this point very well. A mentor who spreads his focus between 12 protégés, when only two of them are actually acting the part of a tenacious leader-in-training, is actually being less effective than he could be if he put his focus toward just the two who were both ready to work and worth his time. Of course, he needs to mentor a number of people to find the two protégés. Or better still, ten or twelve protégés.

It’s kind of like the saying, “A bird in the hand is better than two in the tree.” Three mentees who are truly fighting for their dreams are better than 10 who are flitting around hoping to find an easy road. Good mentors must learn to recognize the right kind of mentee—one who is really willing to walk the rocky, uphill path to success. In other words, good mentors must become Tenacity Scouts.

One mentor shared the following story:

“I’m often approached by people who want me to mentor them, but I’ve learned that my time is precious, so I don’t waste it on people who won’t really value it as they should.

“Once, a young woman came up to me at a book signing I did in her neighborhood. She wanted me to be her personal mentor. I immediately said no, as was my practice, but told her I could recommend some good books. She took the sticky note with three or four titles on it and she walked away, sadly. I thought that was the end of it.

“A few months later, my assistant told me there was a girl from Arizona on the phone for me, could I take it?

“It took me a few minutes to recall who this girl was, but when I realized it was the girl from the book signing, I was shocked.

“She told me she had read the titles I had given her, plus the biographies of two of the authors, and she had some questions for me.

She asked if I had an hour or two to discuss the books with her. I had a busy schedule that day, so I had to decline, but we scheduled a call for the next evening.

“When we discussed the books, I discovered that she really had read them all—quite thoroughly. There were some things she didn’t understand, and even a few we disagreed on, but it was an interesting conversation, to say the least.

“When we finished discussing the books, she had just one more question for me: wouldn’t I please reconsider, and agree to be her mentor?

“When I saw how hard she would work, not only to pursue her own success by reading great books, but also by persistently seeking out the mentor she wanted, despite obvious obstacles, I knew should was going to be successful someday, and I wanted to help get her there.

“Long story short, I said yes, and over the years I’ve found her to be one of my most dedicated and successful mentees and associates.”

Mentors should remember to focus their time and energy on those mentees who are really willing to take advantage of it. This means learning to recognize the signs of real tenacity.

If a mentee is easily deterred from achieving what she wants on the small things—such as reading a book, doing the basic work of success, or seeking out a good mentor—she is very unlikely to stick to her dreams when the real challenges come up; and they will come. Mentors should look for diligence, tenacity, ingenuity, initiative, optimism, and vision in perspective mentees. If they don’t have these qualities, they probably won’t choose to be in the 10% who really matter, and that 10% is where great mentors should put the power of their focus. Of course, the best way to find out is a person has the right traits is to give them a chance—put them to work!

Breaking Out of the Subways of Life

This is one of Orrin Woodward's articles that ought to be shared as many times as possible. So many people are stuck in the subways of life, but with the right mentorship and plan they could break free. The LIFE Leadership community is making an impact on a huge scale by launching a LeaderShift into Western Civilization. If the reader is stuck in the subway, perhaps it's time to start climbing.

Joshua Bell is America’s greatest living violin player. This “poet of the violin” enthralls audiences around the world with his breathtaking mastery of the violin and the stage. Bell is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and orchestra leader. His summer appearances included the premiere of a new concerto for violin and double bass by Edgar Meyer performed by Bell and Meyer at Tanglewood, Aspen, and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition, Bell appeared at the Festival del Sole, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg, Saratoga, and Mostly Mozart festivals. He kicked off the San Francisco Symphony's fall season followed by performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston, Seattle, Omaha, Cincinnati, and Detroit Symphonies. Fall highlights included a tour of South Africa, a European tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and a European recital tour with Sam Haywood. In 2013, Bell will tour the US with the Cleveland Orchestra and Europe with the New York Philharmonic as well as perform with the Tucson, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras. Bell’s first recording was released when he was eighteen, and now he has over forty CDs released, including the Grammy-nominated crossover recording Short Trip Home with composer and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, as well as a recording with Meyer of the Bottesini Gran Duo Concertante. Bell also collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on the Grammy-winning spoken word children's album Listen to the Storyteller and Bela Flecks' Grammy Award recording Perpetual Motion. Highlights of the Sony Classical film soundtracks on which Bell has performed include The Red Violin, which won the Oscar for Best Original Score, the Classical Brit-nominated Ladies in Lavender, and the films Iris and Defiance. In addition, Bell has been embraced by a wide television audience with appearances ranging from The Tonight Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, The Charlie Rose Show, and CBS Sunday Morning to Sesame Street and Entertainment Tonight. In 2010, Bell starred in his fifth Live From Lincoln Center Presents broadcast titled: "Joshua Bell with Friends @ The Penthouse."

Other PBS shows include Great Performances – Joshua Bell: West Side Story Suite from Central Park, Memorial Day Concert performed on the lawn of the United States Capitol, and A&E’s Biography. He has twice performed on the Grammy Awards telecast, performing music from Short Trip Home and West Side Story Suite. He was one of the first classical artists to have a music video air on VH1, and he has been the subject of a BBC Omnibus documentary. Finally, Bell has appeared in publications ranging from Strad and Gramophone to The New York Times, People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue, USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, GQ, Vogue, and Readers Digest among many. In 2007, Bell performed incognito in a Washington, DC subway station for a Washington Post story by Gene Weingarten examining art and context. The story earned Weingarten a Pulitzer Prize and sparked an international firestorm of discussion which continues to this day. To say that Joshua Bell has achieved international fame in the musical world would be a serious understatement. Why do I tell the reader all of this? Have I suddenly joined the Joshua Bell fan club? Although I certainly enjoy his music, I have another reason for sharing his story. In an interesting social experiment, Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten proposed that Joshua Bell play his violin incognito in the Washington Metro subway. It’s one of the busiest sections of the subway and would ensure many subway users heard the greatest living violinist. The video is embedded below.

For forty-five minutes on the morning of January 12, 2007, concert violinist Joshua Bell stood incognito on a Washington, DC subway platform and performed classical music for passersby. "No one knew it," explained Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten several months after the event, "but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made." Weingarten came up with the experiment to see how ordinary people would react. And how did they react? For the most part, not at all. More than a thousand people entered the Metro station as Bell worked his way through a set list of classical masterpieces, but only a few stopped to listen. "Some dropped money in his open violin case (for a total of about $27), but most never even stopped to look," Weingarten wrote.

I thought about this scenario many times over the last year and it finally hit me why this was so fascinating to me: People are so busy, busy, busy surviving that few ever notice the beauty around them. The subway passengers walked right by the most beautiful music played by the best violinist on his million-dollar Stradivarius violin. One of the anonymous emails circulating about this incident asked, “If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?” What finally sunk in was, out of context, greatness in life is ignored. Joshua Bell, in context, is the greatest living violinist, but out of context, he is just another musician attempting to make a buck in the subway. Joshua Bell, in other words, had to get out of the subway and onto the Metropolitan stages before his talents and gifts were recognized by the world. In the same way, many people, with talents and gifts, are playing beautiful music in their chosen fields, but no one is noticing. The subways of life keep people so busy that they never stop to notice the beauty around them, including the beauty and talents of those around them. Imagine if Joshua Bell only had this forty-five-minute window in the subway to determine whether he was any good with the violin. He may have labeled himself as a poor player because no one was interested! One of the keys for success is to never take advice from someone who does not have the results one desires! How, in other words, can a subway person tell you anything about the Metropolitan? My whole purpose in life is to create "Metropolitan" stages across the world where people can reveal their talents.

Study the leaders in the LIFE business and see how each had amazing talents that were hidden in the subway environment. It wasn’t until they climbed out of the subway that others recognized what they had within them. For instance, Chris Brady was a process engineer in a factory. The world wouldn’t have experienced his amazing blend of humor and teaching in the factory! Tim Marks was an engineering supervisor. The world would have missed one of the best implementors of the PDCA process I have ever met had he stayed in that position. Claude Hamilton was in the Canadian military. His leadership gifts and orchestration ability would have been hidden from the world had he not chosen to climb. Significantly, each of these LIFE Founders had Joshua Bell talents, but people didn't seem to notice his greatness when living in the subway. LIFE gives people a chance to climb out of the subways of life onto the Metropolitan stages. However, climbing is never easy, and few will consistently and persistently climb up and out. Nonetheless, I love the fact that everyone is given an equal opportunity to move up, if he or she so chooses. In truth, this is all anyone should ask for from life: a chance. When I was shown the stairway out of the subway, that was all I needed. Laurie and I took it from there, and we climbed relentlessly until we reached the Metropolitan.

We have dedicated our lives to go back into the subways of life on “search and rescue” missions to find other people who want out of the subway but do not know where the stairway is. This thirty-one-minute video (I know it's long for today's media age, but it has essential lessons for life) was recorded live in Visalia, California at one of the three LIFE Leadership Conventions. It shares the key lessons I learned through meditating on the Washington Post social experiment with Joshua Bell.

If the reader loves what he does, then become a LIFE customer and enjoy world-class leadership training to help out in the stairway climb. If the reader has no plan to get out of the subway, then become a LIFE Member and be one of the best students of someone who has made it out of the subways of life. I wish you all the success you earn on your climb. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Perseverance and Resilience

The ability to persevere and be resilient through the various challenges that life throws at a person is an essential character trait to develop on the journey to success. Orrin Woodward, the two-time NY Times bestselling author has a proven track record of both perseverance and resilience. This article is his thoughts on the resilence soft-skill. Congratulations to Orrin and Oliver DeMille for the success of LeaderShift and I cannot wait for the follow up book.

The fourth leadership soft-skill, according to the Center for Creative Leadership, is resiliency – the ability to bounce back from adversity. Resiliency is essential for any leadership endeavor because any worthwhile activity is filled with setbacks and disappointments. However, with resiliency, leaders are strengthened by the setbacks because the obstacles force them to make the needed changes to overcome and win. In the process, the leaders become better personally and professionally, which in truth, is the real reward for the leadership journey anyway. Unfortunately, many would-be leaders fall for the fallacy that leadership should be easy or they must not be cut from the leadership mold. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, it’s only when a potential leader realizes how poor his current leadership abilities are, through experiencing numerous failures, that he exercises his resilience by confronting reality, making changes, and pressing forward.

One of the biggest lies, propagated throughout our culture, is that people are either naturally gifted at leadership or naturally ungifted. This dreary belief system has deluded many good people, who tried to lead and failed, to surrender their responsibility to lead in life. Indeed, I believe many of the world’s greatest potential leaders were never developed because they swallowed this whopper of lies. Nonetheless, the LIFE Business rejects this dismal world-view; teaching instead, that everyone has leadership abilities when hunger and courage are added to the LIFE training system of reading, listening, associating, and implementing. There are hundreds of examples of men and women, who didn’t believe they could lead, who now, through their faith and convictions, lead hundreds, and some thousands, of people.

Leadership isn’t chance; it’s choice. Consequently, resilience is displayed when a person chooses to get back up after the world has knocked him flat on his back. If a person chooses to stay down, he shouldn’t blame the program, plans, or Providence; rather, it’s in the lack of purpose that ultimately leads to the lack of resilience. Several years back, I developed a quote to capture the essence of resilience, “A person either hates losing enough to change, or he hates changing enough to lose.” I HATE losing and when life knocks me down, which it has many times, I use the “down” time to reflect on what I can learn from this failure and why I need to get back up and run again. This is the KEY to leadership! Develop the plan; get knocked down; learn the lessons, get up and run again! PDCA. How simple to understand and yet how difficult to implement.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Mises Institute's Blog Reviews LeaderShift

The Mises Institute's Blog recently reviewed LeaderShift. Oliver DeMille and Orrin Woodward share cutting edge political structures in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Furthermore, their explanation of the Five Laws of Decline ought to be required reading for every business executive attempting to turnaround his or her company. Here is the review.

It’s time for power to go back to where it belongs; to the people. With politicians and the business elite making all our decisions for us, we are losing our freedoms each and every day, and our standard of living goes down with that loss.

LeaderShift, by Orrin Woodward & Oliver Demille, is a call for people to stand up and become who they need to be in order to take back our freedoms and prevent it from being lost again. It in no way supports Republicans, nor does it support Democrats; it supports the American people (and Canadian if you read it from my perspective).

It is written in the form of a business parable about the United States, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is just for Americans. There are a number of proposals put forth in the book that could drastically change the way we run our society, and the principles behind them can be applied to any country.

It all starts with the Five Laws of Decline; If these laws are not addressed in the frame-work of a company or a nation, they will become its undoing. LeaderShift will go through the details of how they apply to a nation, but the reasoning will become obvious as you go through them.

1. Sturgeons Law - 90% of everything is Crud (this includes workers, leaders, politicians…) This means that 90% of the people running for office (and being elected) can’t be counted on to do the right thing. Thankfully the other side to this law is that 10% of the people out there are good leaders. We just need to allow them to come forth.

2. Bastiats Law - People will do the least amount of work possible to satisfy their wants. This means that if someone can get what they want without doing anything or by getting someone else to do it for them, they will.

3. Gresham’s Law - When bad behavior is rewarded, more will occur; The good ones will be driven away. Through this law, If you need to be corrupt to get ahead in an organization (or country) those that aren’t corrupt will not even enter the field; if they are already involved, they will likely leave. They do not want to be bad people, and will not be part of something where they feel they will need to do something wrong. At the same time, Those that don’t mind doing something wrong will be much more likely to do so since they will be rewarded for it.

4. The Law of Diminishing Returns - There is always a point where increased quantity produces lower quality. If something grows too big, it will become very inefficient without any significant changes to cope with the growth. When a government gets to a certain size, anything more they do actually wastes more and more resources.

5. The Law of Inertia - An object at rest stays at rest; an object in motion stays in motion. This law ties all the other ones together. If the first four are in motion, it becomes very hard to stop them and even hard to turn them around.

There is no doubt that these laws are in effect in our nations today. It doesn’t matter who is in power, nothing ever really seems to change no matter what is promised during the elections. Whether it’s Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives, These laws are in effect.

Things keep getting worse because the people in power, or those in control, want it this way; it doesn’t get worse for them. Most people who want things to get better don’t know how to talk to people in a way that will make them understand – it often comes across as elitist and caring only for the rich. I have the same problem when I talk to people about this; they seem to think I don’t care about the poor because I speak in the same language as the books I got the information from, not in the language of the general population.

The book explains this idea very well:

“The problem is that business leaders are accustomed to using the language of elitism, so the people in the nation end up thinking that the 10 percent are trying to take away democracy and freedom. The truth is exactly the opposite. The 10 percent are really just caring, regular citizens who happen to have business leadership skills. But as long as they talk like elitists, many of the people won’t trust them.

The irony is that the real elites, the ones who want to increase the divide between themselves and the masses, have learned through history how to speak the language of democracy. They are actually more like aristocrats than elitists, but they are educated on how to sway things so they end up winning.”

What if we could get people interested in caring for themselves and their future? What if we could get people to see the truth, and not blindly be maneuvered by the elites; the 0.001 percent who actually control things?

What if we could significantly limit the power of our governments to tax? What if there were a set amount to be divided among the different levels of government; forcing them to take from each other if they wanted more instead of taking more and more from the people every time they wanted to do something? What if they could be limited to only doing what the people can’t do for themselves?

What if we were able to force the government to balance the budget and not hurt our future or that of future generations? What if an automatic election could be called if the budget wasn’t balanced? Would the worry of losing their position force them to do what ‘s right?

What if we were able to get rid of our fiat money system that lets the government print what it wants, with the burden put on the lower class who has no means to protect itself from inflation?

What if Senators were appointed by the states or provinces, helping to insure the federal government couldn’t encroach on their territory and responsibilities? What if most of the power and money were given to the cities and towns, to be spent in the areas that matter the most to that local population?

What if all non-military government meetings were open to the public, and broadcast on cable TV?

What if you could help make a difference?

Read LeaderShift!

All Grace Outreach: Making a Difference

Orrin Woodward and the rest of the LIFE founders are making a difference. All Grace Outreach (AGO) is supporting Christian ministries across North America. Indeed, the percent of funds that flow to actual charities is a testament to how efficient the LIFE company is run. Here is an article from Orrin's site describing 2012 numbers.

All Grace Outreach

I am happy to report a blessed banner year for All Grace Outreach (AGO) in 2012. While many charities are struggling, AGO nearly doubled it fundraising thanks to a growing LIFE business. Another amazing attribute of the AGO charity is the percent of funds that actually reach the charities, thanks to the volunteer efforts of the board and LIFE Training staff. AGO is a non-denominational Christian charity that focuses on spreading the gospel message and serving those in need. LIFE gives 100% of its AGO Series (a monthly book and CD) corporate profits to help fund the charity. In addition, the LIFE community gives generously at conventions during the Sunday morning worship services.

Several years back, Tim Marks, Chris Brady, and I had numerous conversations on how to build the AGO charity properly. AGO is not a church; consequently, we developed several principles to operate by. For instance, although man may divide Christ’s church into denominations, we know that Christ unites all Christians on the Cross by His sacrifice. In other words, we will not go by our denominations in heaven, but merely as servants of the King. Hence, AGO gives to charities supported by Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, and others. Accordingly, AGO’s goal is to support charities that advance Jesus Christ’s Kingdom by fulfilling the Great Commission.  The entire AGO Board would like to offer our thanks for all of those who made 2012 such a blessed year.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Throughout 2012, All Grace Outreach continued its mission of impacting and improving the lives of children both locally and globally and funding Christian outreach efforts throughout the world. It was a phenomenal year for AGO. We feel humbled, honored, and blessed to have been able to touch the lives of so many struggling people as we spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Our fundraising efforts for 2012 brought in $397,760 (a 95.5% increase over 2011). The operating expenses for the year totaled $6,110, of which $3,968 was used for booklets that are handed out for free, with the remaining for accounting, banking, and office items. Donations totaled $344,850, with the remaining $46,800 designated for donation to various charities in the 1st quarter of 2013. As a result, 98.5% of the funds were, or will soon be, distributed by AGO to organizations that focus on spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and/or assisting women and children. Following is a list of some of the organizations that AGO supported in 2012. We pray that God will use all donations for His glory and renewed hope and a better quality of life for those in need.

• A New Beginning Pregnancy Center
• Founders Ministries
• GAP Ministries
• Ligonier Ministries
• PLNTD
• Pregnancy Care Centre
• Samaritan Center
• Wisdom for the Heart
• Zoie Sky Foundation

AGO does not employ any paid staff and runs completely on volunteer labor. Words cannot express how grateful we are to all those who have contributed their time, talent, and effort to advance our cause. We look forward to what God has in store for 2013. May His love and grace abound to all those who thirst and hunger for His love.

God Bless,

All Grace Outreach

LeaderShift Hits #2 on Wall Street Journal Bestseller List

Orrin Woodward's and Oliver DeMille's runaway bestseller LeaderShift hit #2 this week on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list. LeaderShift describes how the Five Laws of Decline (FLD), first articulated in Orrin Woodward's Top 100 All-Time Leadership Book RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE, is destroying Western Civilization. In fact, every Western Society that collapsed did so through the effects of the Five Laws of Decline; therefore, any turnaround proposed by political leaders must account for and check the FLD.

Are you concerned about America, North America, and Western Civilization's liberties? If so, then read LeaderShift and learn the FLD and how to check them within free societies. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country. Here is the latest WSJ top seller list.

LeaderShift Hits #2 on Wall Street Journal

LeaderShift: New York Times Bestseller

Congratulations to Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille for officially making the NY Times Bestseller list with LeaderShift. For Orrin, this is the second time he has made the NY Times list (Launching a Leadership Revolution co-authored with Chris Brady was his first) and it's Oliver's first time making the list. LeaderShift is receiving rave reviews from all who are concerned with the growing State and shrinking liberty of North America.

LeaderShift also made the bestselling list for the Canadian Globe & Mail, Publishers Weekly, and the Wall Street Journal. This is an impressive first week since the April 16th release of LeaderShift. If you haven't read the book, I encourage you to pick up a copy at your local bookstore or online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

The booksigning tour from Orrin and Oliver was also a smashing success. With several locations surpassing 1,000 people in attendance, Hachette told Orrin it was one of the best book signing tours they have initiated.

LeaderShift Hits the New York Times Bestsellers List

Liberty or Leviathan

Here is an article from Orrin Woodward's archive that explains the reason for his, and Oliver DeMille's book LeaderShift. This is a right/left issue, this a concerned citizens from both sides of the aisle who are witnessing North American freedoms dissipate. Something must be done and both Orrin and Oliver do not believe Washington can fix themselves. Instead the people must launch a leadershift and reclaim responsibility for our government just as the founders expressed in "We the people . . . " 

In one corner we have the Right. They claim that America needs a huge military/industrial complex to protect our country. Strangely, in order to do so, it is claimed that it requires military personnel in a hundred plus countries and military bases in 63 of them! Isn’t this a costly endeavor when a nation is going broke? In addition, the military complex provides gun-boat diplomacy (open your markets or else) for large corporations to sell merchandise protected by the military paid for by the shrinking middle class.

In the other corner is the Left. They claim that America needs a bigger government to regulate those greedy capitalist who are exploiting the people. Although I agree with the assessment, the answer – more government power – only allows the greedy business people to buy the greedy government, thus the power to control their markets. Plus the bigger government requires even more tax dollars (similar to the Right and military complex), leaving the citizens reduced to mere serfs at the beck and call of numerous regulations.

What if both the Right and Left were a Hegelian maneuver of thesis, anti-thesis, leading to the inevitable synthesis of larger State power and control, regardless of which side wins an election? What if, in other words, the Right/Left dichotomy isn’t even the real battleground? America was founded on limited government bound by the Constitution to ensure the beast never escapes it clearly delineated powers. Oh how far we have traveled from this ideal.

Today, whether one votes Right or votes Left, what a person actually votes for is less freedom and more Government/Big Business/Banker control. Until the citizens change the framework of the debate for Right/Left to Freedom/Tyranny, nothing will change. Asking money-hungry Government (it takes money to get elected) to regulate money-hungry Big Business is like asking Al Capone to regulate prohibition. History has provided endless examples of the illicit partnering of Big Business and Big Government to feather their nest at the expense of the citizen’s freedoms and pocketbooks – Federal Reserve, Income Tax, Railroads, Savings & Loans, etc.

Let’s change the debate this electoral season. Let’s start asking our candidates how they intend to reduce Big Government. By reducing Big Government, it will automatically reduce the ability of Big Business to buy the power needed to set up monopolies, thus ensuring true free enterprise for the benefit of all citizens. Free enterprise is the only system where the consumer has the choice to vote with his money and support or withhold these if not happy.

Why give government this control when they have proven repeatedly they are incapable of withstanding the bribery of Big Business? Let’s put the power back in the citizens hands where it belongs. Idealist? Maybe, but what is the point of getting involved unless we have ideals to shoot for? Time is short, America cannot continue on its present path of fiscal insanity, power lust, and ethical wasteland forever.  What part will you play in the restoration of the American Dream?

As of today, I am officially no longer a Republican or a Democrat. I am now going under the long forgotten term called American. I refuse to allow our political pundits to divide us any longer. Americans must unite around freedom not fight around force. In my opinion, each citizen has a moral responsibility to stop dividing between the false dichotomy of Right/Left and start uniting around the true division of Freedom or Tyranny. I choose Freedom, how about you? Sincerely, Orrin Woodward