Orrin Woodward, two-time NY Times bestselling author shares a great message on liberty, competition, and progress below. Orrin practices what he preaches, willing to go through legal disputes to ensure freedom for all rather than settle for profits without honor. LIFE Leadership is a model of free enterprise and leadership training par-excellence!
Plato and Aristotle
Ancient Greece is an excellent example of rewarding creators over credentialist. For they had little in the area of credentials, but only recognized results in the many fields they studied. Historian Michael Grant explains:
The Greeks like talking, and their climate (in which much daily life could take place out-of-doors) supplied sufficient and suitable space to talk: that is to say, to exchange and test thoughts and plans and ideas. They had leisure to engage in these activities – and leisure was a thing they prized . . . All this offered individuals the time and opportunity to give their best – outstanding individuals, that is to say. Here is something of a paradox. For if the collective, corporate city-state provided the framework and background for this lavish array of feats, they were actually undertaken and performed by a relatively few persons. Some forty of fifty of them created the classical Greek achievement. Without them, it would only have been a shadow.
In today’s ages of egalitarianism, where we attempt to suppress all differences, this paragraph becomes even more relevant. For one thing that is indisputably true is that everyone is created different. Each of us has different skills, talents, passions, and purposes. Not only shouldn’t this be suppressed, but it ought to be nurtured from birth. The greatest societies allow freedom for all because no one knows where the amazingly talented person will arise from. What society needs is enough freedom for the cream to rise to the top for the benefit of all.
Millions of people every year travel to Greek lands to study the amazing achievement of the 40-50 individuals, who were given the freedom to display their skills to the world. If Greece would have forced equality and punished those who dared to excel, then no one would speak of Greece and these 40-50 people would have lived and died like millions of other “ants” in all the other anthill ancient societies. Instead, the Greeks birthed Western Civilization and the ability to rise to one’s level of purpose, passion, and production.
I dream of a world where freedom fosters competition that rises the tide for all ships and provides the highest achievers the ability to bless society. LIFE Leadership was created to build a leadership engine for personal and professional growth for people around the world. I believe it’s time for people to stop playing it small in life. Instead, let’s use the freedoms God has blessed us with to leave our mark. Imagine, similar to the ancient Greeks, future generations reading, studying, and discussing the legacy you dared to live.
Sincerely,
