The following is an excerpt from Oliver’s recent book, The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

If freedom is to reverse the onslaught of American and global aristocracy, it will likely do so through the greatest freedom trend of our time.

This trend is revolutionizing institutions, organizations, relationships, society and even nations around the world. It is still in its infancy, and many have yet to realize its potential.

The experts tend to overlook it because it seems small. It will likely always seem small because it is a “bottom-up” trend with no “top-down” organizations, alliances, or even affiliations.

Truthfully, it isn’t even a single trend at all–it is thousands of small trends, all following a similar pattern.

Malcolm Gladwell called part of this trend “outliers,” Harry S. Dent called it the “customization” explosion, Alvin Toffler said it is the wave of “revolutionary wealth” as led in large part by “prosumers,” John Naisbitt named it the “high touch” megatrend, Stephen Covey called it the 8th Habit of “greatness,” Daniel Pink coined the descriptor “free agent nation,” and Seth Godin refers to it as “tribes.”

Others have termed it “social entrepreneurship,” “the new leadership,” “a new age,” and even “the human singularity.”

All of these touch on facets of this freedom trend, but I think the best, most accurate and descriptive name for it is the “mini-factory” model.

Modernism came with the factory–the ability to mass produce. This revolutionized the world–economics, governments, how we spend our time each day, what we eat and wear, relationships, the size and functions of our homes and cities, etc.

Today the mini-factory is changing everything just as drastically.

In ancient times the wealthy set up estates or fiefdoms to cover all their needs, and the masses worked to provide the needs of their aristocratic “superiors.”

In modern times the factory provided mass goods and services.

Imagine the impact on everything in our lives if each family could provide all, or even many, of its needs for itself–and do it better than kings or politicians ruling over working peasants or even corporations employing workers to produce goods and services.

Such is the world of the mini-factory.

How Does a Mini-Factory World Function?

For example, what if parents could educate their children better than local school factories, with the best teachers, classes and resources of the world piped directly into their own home?

What if a sick person had more time and motivation to research the cases of her symptoms than the factory doctors, and the availability of all the latest medical journals right on her computer screen?

She would also have holistic works, original studies, alternative and collaborative experts, and the ability to email the experts and get answers in less time than it would take to wait in the hospital lobby.

Ten friends would likely send her their experiences with similar illness within days of her mentioning casually online that she was sick. If she chose a certain surgeon, a dozen people might share their experiences with this doctor.

What if a mother planning to travel for family vacation could just book flights and hotels herself, without calling the “expert” travel agent? Maybe she could even choose seats on the flight or see pictures of her hotel room–all in her own home between her projects and errands.

Welcome to the world of the mini-factory. I purposely used examples that are already a reality. But they were just a futuristic dream when writers like Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt predicted them before 1990.

Technology has helped it, but the impetus of the mini-factory trend is freedom. People want to spend less time at the factory/corporation and more time at home. They want to be more involved in raising their children and improving their love life.

In an aristocracy, these luxuries are reserved for the upper class. In a free society, anyone can build a mini-factory.

What is a Mini-Factory?

A mini-factory is anything someone does alone or with partners or a team, that accomplishes what has historically (meaning the last 150 years of modernism) been done en masse or by big institutions.

If a charter school provides better education for some of the community, it’s a mini-factory. If it does it at less cost and/or in less time spent in the classroom, so much the better. A homeschool or private school can be a mini-factory.

Of course, if the charter, private, or home school does a worse job than the regular factory, it is a failed mini-factory.

If joining a multi-level company and building it into a source of real income serves you better than an employee position, it’s a mini-factory.

If downsizing from a lucrative professional job in Los Angeles to a private practice or job that pays much less but allows you twice as much time with your family and a more relaxed lifestyle in, say, Flagstaff or Durango and makes you happier, it’s a mini-factory.

Entrepreneurship, alternative education, the downshifter movement, environmental groups, alternative health, the growth of spirituality, community architecture, the explosion of network marketing, home doctor visits, the rebirth of active fathering, and so many other trends are mini-factories.

How do Mini-Factories Impact Freedom?

It all comes down to this: Big, institutional, non-transparent, bureaucratic organizations are natural supporters of aristocracy. Freedom flourishes when the people are independent, free, and as self-sufficient as possible.

I am not suggesting going backwards in any way.

Forward progress is most likely in a nation that is both well educated and highly trained, where big institutional solutions are offered wherever they are best and individuals and groups seek smaller solutions where they better serve their needs, where free government enterprise rules apply and there are no special benefits or perks of class (either conservative aristocracy or liberal meritocracy), and where government, business, family, academia, religion, media, and community all fulfill their distinct, equally-important roles.

Such a model is called freedom. It has been the best system for the most people in the history of the world, and it still is.

To adopt freedom in our time, either the aristocracy must give up its perks and voluntarily restructure society, or the masses must retake their freedoms bit by bit, day by day, by establishing mini-factories.

Mini-factories will be more successful if each person only does a few, and does them with true excellence.

Freedom will flourish best if there is no organization or even coordination of the mini-factories; if individuals, partners, families and teams identify what is needed in the world and in their own lives and set out to deliver it.

This is especially hard in a time like ours where the employee mindset wants someone to “fix” things (like the economy, health care, education, etc.), exactly when an entrepreneurial mindset is most needed to take risks and initiate the best and most lasting changes.

If real, positive, and effective change is to come, it will most likely be initiated by the people acting as individuals, small groups, and teams.

If it comes from the top, it will tend to only bring more aristocracy, and the day of freedom will be over for now.

Whatever your mini-factory contribution might be, consider that it will help determine the future of freedom.

Is it Worth the Challenge?

Mini-factories can be hard to establish and challenging to build. Many people fail once or several times before they learn to be effective.

But the type of learning that only comes from failing and then trying again is the most important in building leaders and citizens who are capable of maintaining freedom in a society.

Note that this very type of education is rejected in a training model of schooling, where failure is seen as unacceptable and students are taught to avoid it at all costs.

This mindset only works if an aristocracy is there to take care of the failures.

In a freedom model, citizens and leaders learn the vital lessons of challenges; failures and wise risk-taking are needed.

Starting and leading a mini-factory, and indeed all entrepreneurial work, is challenging.

Those who embraced this difficult path in history established and maintained freedom, while those who embraced the ease of past compromises sold themselves and their posterity into aristocracy.

In the long term, though, aristocracy is much harder on everyone than freedom.

What Will You Build?

As you consider what mini-factories you should support, start, and build, just ask what things could be done (or are being done) better by a small mini-factory than by the big organizations that try to control nearly everything in our world.

If it could be done just as well by a mini-factory, the change to the smaller entity can drastically promote freedom. If it can be done even better by a mini-factory, it is better for life itself!

The mini-factory is the new vehicle of freedom.

Take a mini-survey: What are your pet complaints? Government? Develop family government models. Health Care? Educate yourself on prevention and self-care. Education? Learn the principles of Leadership Education. Media? Start a blog. Entertainment? Develop a group of hobbyists who share your interests, whether it be Harley road trips, ice fishing, scrapbooking, etc.

You get the idea: Live deliberately, and do not wait for institutions to change to meet your needs.

Do not waste your energy or good humor on complaining.

Find a mini-factory that does it right and get behind it–or start one yourself. So many are needed, and they can bring the miracle of freedom!

The future remains unseen. It is the undiscovered country.

Many ancients felt that fate drove the future, but the idea of freedom taught humanity to look each to his/herself, to partner with others, and to take the risk to build community and take action now in order to pass on a better life to our children and our children’s children.

Today, that concept of freedom is waning–slowly and surely being replaced by a class culture.

Those who love freedom, whatever their stripe–be they green, red, blue, rainbow, or anything else–are needed. They need to see what is really happening, and they need to educate themselves adequately to make a difference.

The most powerful changes toward freedom will likely be made by mini-factories, in thousands and hopefully millions of varieties and iterations.

Aristocracy or freedom–the future of the globe–hangs in the balance…

Click here to learn more about the mini-factory trend and to purchase a paperback copy of The Coming Aristocracy. Click here to download two hour-long webinars with Oliver DeMille explaining mini-factories.

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.

Connect With Oliver:

By Kevin Mogavero

One of the best soldiers I met during my time in the Army was First Sergeant Zackary.

He was my First Sergeant during our deployment to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I’m sure you remember when we invaded Afghanistan and then, a short time later, we declared war with Iraq.

My unit deployed the day we declared that war, March 19^th, 2003.

This story takes place during the 3 weeks that my unit had from notification of deployment up to the day we actually deployed.

As the commander of this unit, I can share with you the kinds of things that go through soldiers’ minds during a time like this.

The first thoughts for most were reminiscent thoughts of the first Gulf War, which was fought to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi oppression, back in 1991.

That war was essentially over in just a few days.

Our soldiers, now, started thinking about the awesome power of the M1A1 Tank and how fast it was able to command the battlefield.

This brought a feeling of security, superiority and some form of ‘machismo’.

Then, reality of the deployment started to sink in.

The idea that we were going to be away from our families with no communication for some unknown time started getting heavy.

The only thing they would know about us is what they would see on the news.

Then we started getting our deployment issue equipment, which included: First Aid Kits, Gas Masks, Chemical Suits, Anthrax Vaccines and Bullet-Proof Plates for our vests.

As we went through the cattle-line to get our equipment and shots, the reality of war was clear and present.

Getting this equipment and going through all the pre-deployment briefings made us start understanding some potential ugly realities.

We started realizing the biggest difference between this war and the first Gulf War.

Back then, the dictatorship knew that we were not going to attack him, rather, we were just going to push his troops out of Kuwait.

This time, he knew we were coming for him.

We all believed that he had chemical weapons and, at this point, he had nothing to lose by using them… liberally.

Images of WWI soldiers tangled in barbwire, suffering the inhuman effects of mustard gas flashed through our minds.

Keeping my unit’s imagination in check, dealing with multiple family issues, getting our vehicles and payload equipment to deployment readiness, receiving and conducting strategic briefings, setting up systems for the families in case the worst happened to their solider and creating/conducting wartime readiness training made things a bit chaotic.

As I was driving at full speed in circles, First Sergeant Zackary came to me and said, “Ya know, Sir, I had a good friend in Special Forces.  He always said that when there were too many things going on at once and things seemed to be getting out of control, he would stick to their motto, ‘Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.’”

As a good Sergeant does, he always had the right words at the right time.

First, I slowed down the hurricane of thoughts whipping through my mind.

Then, I determined what the priorities were.

Finally, I was able to give a detailed priority list to my troops.

It was amazing to see how my unit changed from being a hive of busy bees to a well-oiled war machine in just a few days.

The one qualification I’ll make is that I had a unit of well-trained soldiers, who knew how to do what needed to be done.

First Sergeant Zackary and I had created an environment where they had a lot of autonomy and trust.

Once I stopped trying to make everything perfect, everything started moving much faster.

I did what my job required, and I did it well.

Then my troops stepped up to the plate and did the same thing.

I was amazed at how much faster things went, when I slowed down.

The rest of the pre-deployment and deployment went very smoothly.

First Sergeant’s cool demeanor was a great asset to the unit.

By slowing down, it was far easier to get everyone focused on opportunities rather than the question, “What’s coming next?”

What’s going on in your life, business, job, marriage, etc.?

Is there any place that seems like too much is going on or is just out of control?

Some place where you just can’t get things done that you want to get done?

Slow down!
Make things smooth!
This will make space for ideas. Use that space wisely!
Don’t use that space to just ‘stay busy’.

If you can find a good source of blogs, books and associations, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that you’ll find to implement in your business.

You’ll be amazed at how that will speed things forward in a far more predictable and controllable way.

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Kevin Mogavero is a co-founder of “Six Degrees of Leadership,” a personal development company that empowers people to live their purpose and passion by building “Social Capital.”

A graduate of West Point Academy, Kevin served six years as an officer in the U.S. Army Field Artillery. He held a combat arms leadership role for his entire career, except one staff position, during which he obtained a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Management. He also served in Iraq during “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Since the military, Kevin has worked for Honeywell as an earned-value analyst in the aerospace department, in Phoenix Arizona.

He started testing his leadership skills in the entrepreneurial world by starting several companies, to include a real estate company and a business mailing-address company. Kevin loves to serve people who have a yearning to create a better life for themselves and others. He is passionate about teaching people the importance of something that most take for granted: relationships.

Kevin lives in Phoenix with his wife and two daughters. Read and subscribe to Kevin’s Warrior Blog here.

The American framers overcame domination by an elite upper class by establishing a new system where every person was treated equally before the law.

This led to nearly two centuries of increasing freedoms for all social classes, both genders and all citizens—whatever their race, religion, health, etc.

During the Industrial Age this system changed in at least two major ways.

First, the U.S. commercial code was changed to put limits on who can invest in what.

Rather than simply protecting all investors (rich or poor) against fraud or other criminal activity, in the name of “protecting the unsophisticated,” laws were passed that only allow the highest level of the middle class and the upper classes to invest in the investments with the highest returns.

This created a European-style model where only the rich own the most profitable companies and get richer while the middle and lower classes are stuck where they are.

Second, the schools at all levels were reformed to emphasize job training rather than quality leadership education.

Today great leadership education is still the staple at many elite private schools, but the middle and lower classes are expected to forego the “luxury” of opportunity-affording, deep leadership education and instead just seek the more “practical” and “relevant” one-size-fits-all job training.

This perpetuates the class system.

This is further exacerbated by the reality that public schools in middle class zip-codes typically perform much higher than lower-class neighborhood schools.

Private elite schools train most of our future upper class and leaders, middle class public schools train our managerial class and most professionals, and lower-class public schools train our hourly wage workers.

Notable exceptions notwithstanding, the rule still is what it is.

Government reinforces the class system by the way it runs public education, and big business supports it through the investment legal code. With these two biggest institutions in society promoting the class divide, lower and middle classes have limited power to change things.

The wooden stake that overcomes the vampire of an inelastic class system is entrepreneurial success.

Becoming a producer and successfully creating new value in society helps the entrepreneur surpass the current class-system matrix and also weakens the overall caste system itself.

In short, if America is to turn the Information Age into an era of increased freedom and widespread economic opportunity, we need more producers.

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.

I searched for him half my life,
named with an uncommon sound.

I looked for him around the world,
but this person refused to be found.

Thankfully, I discovered him,
the good news is, you can too.

However, it won’t be easy,
as he reveals himself to just a few.

You can search our government assemblies,
and only hear legends from his past.

You can search our halls of learning,
reading quaint histories fading fast.

You can search our industrial complexes,
viewing his old portraits in the aisles.

You can search our sports arenas,
reading banners going out of style.

Everyone seems to know this person,
but most refuse his name.

I ceased my fruitless search,
hanging my head in shame.

In desperation, I searched within,
realizing his presence all along.

Since no one else will be him,
I can and will, to become strong.

I am now called responsible,
I am the man with the uncommon name.

My friend, you too have this choice,
for you can be called the same.

The search has ended.
The journey is done.

Who is responsible?
I am; You are; Everybody and everyone.

Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

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Orrin Woodward is the co-founder of TEAM, a leadership development and training company, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Launching a Leadership Revolution.

Named by the International Association of Business as a Top 10 Leadership Guru, he is dedicated to building leaders and entrepreneurs and promoting freedom and prosperity.

Orrin blogs regularly at Orrin Woodward. He lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida with his wife and four children.

Connect With Orrin:

A good book, I think, is distinguished by its ability to transport the reader to ‘somewhere else.’

By this, I mean more than pulp fiction escapism.

I mean a place of new thought, philosophical territory as yet unexplored by the reader, fields of new information, lands of epiphany, skies of new considerations.

One such book provoked in me a thought that surfaces occasionally in my frenzied mind: Width or Depth?

I have written previously in an article entitled Multum, Non Multaabout this concept.

Recently, though, several things have returned my thinking to this same great idea.

One of these pointers was the phrase I Tweeted a week or so ago:

Happiness lies not in getting what you want but in wanting what you have.

In a rushed society of more, bigger, faster, shinier, louder, fancier, more expensive, more expansive, more ostentatious – something must get crowded out.

Usually those ‘somethings’ are the little things.

And often, those little things might be the important things; irreplaceable moments with children, quiet moments in worship and prayer, moments of solitude in deep thought, casual moments with friends, moments of interaction with neighbors, and chance moments of every sort.

In a world that naturally and consistently nods its head in approval at the bigger steps and yawning appetite of MORE, the value judgment seems already made that the smaller stuff is somehow by its very nature less significant.

This might be a tragedy in that we notice the loss less and less as technology and the NEXT THING crowd further into our culture.

However, I am not suggesting a return to Walden’s Pond.

As has almost become a cliche, the truth is most likely somewhere between the extremes.

However, it is worth considering that more contacts, more tasks, more stuff, more engagements, more commitments, more more more might in the end just be less less less.

This article would have been better as a poem, I think, the very representation of saying more with less.

And as an illustration of the very concept that less may be better, I end.

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Chris Brady co-authored the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best-seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.

He is also in the World’s Top 30 Leadership Gurus and among the Top 100 Authors to Follow on Twitter. He has spoken to audiences of thousands around the world about leadership, freedom, and success.

Mr. Brady contributes regularly to Networking Times magazine, and has been featured in special publications of Success and Success at Home. He also blogs regularly at Chris Brady.

He is an avid motorized adventurer, pilot, world traveler, humorist, community builder, soccer fan, and dad.

Connect With Chris:

Here is a portion of the introduction from my new book RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE. George Washington focused on building his character every day. This is important for all of us. Have you resolved to grow personally and professionally? Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

By nature, young Washington had a fiery temper, but he developed an iron-willed discipline in order to check its excesses.

Richard Norton Smith, in his book, Patriarch, said,

“The adolescent Washington examined Seneca’s dialogues and laboriously copied from a London magazine one hundred and ten ‘rules of civility’ intended to buff a rude country boy into at least the first draft of a gentleman”.

The French Jesuits had originally developed the 110 Rules as principles to live by, and Washington’s methodical writing process helped him to adopt many of these maxims as his personal resolutions for life.

As Richard Brookhiser, author of Founding Father, wrote,

“His manner and his morals kept his temperament under control. His commitment to ideas gave him guidance.

Washington’s relation to ideas has been underestimated by almost everyone who wrote of him or knew him, and modern education has encouraged this neglect. . .

His attention to courtesy and correct behavior anticipated his political philosophy.

He was influenced by Roman notions of nobility, but he was even more deeply influenced by a list of table manners and rules for conversation by Jesuits.”

Character and self-mastery were his goals through living his guiding ideals of fortitude, justice, moderation, and the dignity of every human being.

For Washington, life became a series of resolutions to live by.

He wrote and studied many such maxims throughout his life. Here are two examples. (see appendix for more)

1. With me it has always been a maxim rather to let my designs appear from my works rather than by my expressions.
Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

2. Washington developed and studied his maxims repeatedly, becoming convicted of the correctness of the maxims, teaching virtue over happiness and duty over rights, resolving to live based upon the principles implied within them.

Katherine Kersten, in George Washington’s Character, asks:

“What would Washington have accomplished if happiness, rather than integrity and service, had been his life-goal?

Instead of suffering with his men through the snows of Valley Forge, he might have followed the example of Benedict Arnold, another Revolutionary War General.

Though brave and talented, Arnold valued his own well-being and prosperity above all else.

Out of self-interest, he plotted to betray West Point to the British, and died a traitor to his nation.

What can we learn from Washington and his contemporaries about character-building?

They teach us, most importantly, that “the soul can be schooled.” Exercising reason and will, we can mold ourselves into beings far nobler than nature made us.”

The ending quotation summarizes character-based training beautifully – “the soul can be schooled”.

Washington attended this class daily on his way to developing the nobility of character needed to unite the American colonies.

General Henry Knox spoke truthfully when he shared that it was the strength of Washington’s character, not the laws of the new Constitution, that held the young republic together.

In a tribute to his friend, Congressman Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee eulogized Washington, saying,

“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring scenes of private life.

Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting…

Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand.

The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues…

Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.”

Lee’s tribute testifies to Washington’s faithful application of his resolutions into his life, living his maxims both privately and publicly.

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Orrin Woodward is the co-founder of TEAM, a leadership development and training company, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Launching a Leadership Revolution.

Named by the International Association of Business as a Top 10 Leadership Guru, he is dedicated to building leaders and entrepreneurs and promoting freedom and prosperity.

Orrin blogs regularly at Orrin Woodward. He lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida with his wife and four children.

Connect With Orrin:

As a father I am constantly on the lookout for lessons, stories, experiences, and role models that will be edifying for the development of my children.

Several years ago, while he was still a surprising sensation at the University of Florida, Tim Tebow came onto my radar screen.

There was something attractive about his relentless drive for excellence, his incredible work ethic, his will to win, and his unflappable attitude.

I also appreciated his testimony as a Christian.

Watching Tim Tebow go from being the youngest winner of the Heisman Trophy to a number 1 draft pick in the NFL was a source of excitement for my young boys.

I felt comfortable allowing them to watch his interviews, read his book, and listen in to his exploits as he transitioned into the professional ranks.

Tim Tebow, a home schooled missionary’s kid who preaches at prisons and responds openly and honestly to crass questions from interviewers and critics alike, seemed the perfect role model for my children.

But something was amiss.

As Tebow put on his NFL cleats a disturbing chatter seemed to grow around him.

It seemed that the football “experts” were breaking their necks trying to see who could be more critical of young Tebow and his abilities.

They railed against his throwing motion. They railed against his accuracy. They laughed at Josh McDaniels, the then NFL head coach of the Denver Broncos who drafted Tebow in the first round.

And they even poked fun at his faith and his purity.

My children were learning hard lessons from this, but I guess that’s what role models are for.

“Why are they saying so many negative things about him, Dad?” “Those people sure are being mean to him.”

And on it went.

Then nearly a year went by before he got his real shot.

There were flashes of excitement in a couple starts his first season, but Tebow didn’t win the starting job and was sitting on the bench as the first five games of his second professional season rolled by.

Finally, however, Tebow had waited patiently and prepared in obscurity long enough.

His opportunity arrived, and just five games into the 2011 regular season, with the Broncos languishing at 1 and 4, Tebow was given his chance.

But nothing is that easy, not even in fairy tales.

Tebow’s play seemed to justify the claims of the critics. He missed wide-open receivers. He overthrew easy passes. He fumbled. He got sacked in the backfield.

He rolled up terrible statistics the likes of which no NFL quarterback could expect to post and still retain his job.

All the while the critics howled with their “I told you so’s.”

However, one thing Tebow did was win. In fact, his whole team seemed to start playing better. The defense stepped up to an unbelievable level.

Receivers started making stupendous catches. Running backs started nearly defying gravity. And Tebow himself seemed to come alive when the pressure was the greatest and pull victory out of the jaws of defeat – several times.

I am writing this article a bit early.

Althought Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos have won four out of the last five games, anything could still happen and they could end up at the bottom of their division.

Their near-miss wins could easily start turning to losses, and if that happens, I have no doubt whatsoever the critics will have a field day once again.

None of that matters, however, because Tebow has already proven something extremely valuable, namely, that while people talk about lack of skill they should never underestimate the power of will.

What Tim Tebow brings is leadership.

He has that special ability to energize a team of players to each perform at their very own personal best.

He inspires, instills confidence, and makes those around him believe that anything can happen if they just have faith.

While the statistics bemoan his performance, Tebow proves again and again that there are some components in victory that can’t be measured.

There are intangibles to greatness that come from deep within, that defy the odds and mystify prognosticators, and that just simply can’t be contained.

Leadership matters. Character matters. Attitude matters. The will to win matters.

Critics, however, don’t matter.

Tebow has shown all this and more.

I personally hope he keeps on winning in his unconventional way, in front of the NFL experts who so haughtily claimed “That’s not the way it’s done here.”

The world needs to understand that unconventional doesn’t mean wrong, inadequate, or below grade.

Unconventional just may mean revolutionary.

They said Tim Tebow wasn’t ready for the NFL. Perhaps the NFL wasn’t ready for Tim Tebow.

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Chris Brady co-authored the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best-seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.

He is also in the World’s Top 30 Leadership Gurus and among the Top 100 Authors to Follow on Twitter. He has spoken to audiences of thousands around the world about leadership, freedom, and success.

Mr. Brady contributes regularly to Networking Times magazine, and has been featured in special publications of Success and Success at Home. He also blogs regularly at Chris Brady.

He is an avid motorized adventurer, pilot, world traveler, humorist, community builder, soccer fan, and dad.

Connect With Chris:

Home Schools, the New Private Schools, and Other Non-Traditional Learning

The current national commentary on American education is split by a major paradox.

On the one hand, nearly all the experts are convinced that our schools must find a way to effectively and consistently teach the values and skills of innovation and initiative.

If we fail in this, everyone seems to agree, the competitiveness of U.S. workers and the economy will continue to fall behind other nations.

As Gary Shapiro wrote:

“Our nation is looking into the abyss. With a blinding focus on the present, our government is neglecting a future that demands thoughtful action.

“The only valid government action is that which invests in our children. This requires hard choices…

“America is in crisis. What is required is a commitment to innovation and growth. We can and must succeed.

“With popular and political resolve, we can reverse America’s decline…. America must become the world’s innovative engine once again; we cannot fail.”

And education is the key.

On the other hand, many of the top education decision-makers seem committed to only making changes when there is a consensus among educators, parents, experts and administrators.

They adamantly criticize any who take bold, innovative initiate to improve the situation.

In the meantime, they wait timidly, albeit loudly, for a consensus which never comes.

Because of this view, the innovative success of many parents in home schools, teachers in small private schools and other non-traditional educational offerings go unnoticed or undervalued by the national press.

The reality is, as Orrin Woodward put it: “If everyone agrees with what you’re doing, it isn’t innovative.”

The growing Global Achievement Gap in our schools, as outlined by Tony Wagner’s book of this title, presents an ominous warning for Americans.

We can change things if we choose, Wagner says, by adopting the following values and skills in our school curriculum: critical thinking, agility, adaptability, initiative, curiosity, imagination and entrepreneurialism, among others.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan quoted Wagner in Foreign Affairs:

“…there is a happy ‘convergence between the skills most needed in the global knowledge economy and those most needed to keep our economy safe and vibrant.’”

He also foreshadowed the decades ahead by quoting President Obama:

“The nation that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow.”

It is difficult to imagine our public schools meeting these lofty needs if our teachers are expected to be anything but entrepreneurial, innovative and agile, when they in fact work in an environment that discourages and at times punishes precisely such behaviors.

It is even more impossible to make the needed changes to our education system if we must wait for everyone to agree on a consensus of action.

Change always comes with a few courageous souls taking the lead, showing what can work, and helping others follow their innovative path.

The only way we’re going to see a burst of innovation and initiative in American education is to start paying attention to the myriad exciting educational innovations already occurring.

As Malcolm Gladwell suggests, the leadership right now in many arenas—including education—is occurring outside the mainstream, led by “Outliers” who just forget the experts and create new and better ways of doing things.

If you are one of these educational innovators—at home or in the classroom—keep taking the lead. You are the future of American success!

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.

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My good friend Randy Watterson sent me this article, What’s Luck Got to do with it? by Jim Collins.

In the article, Jim talks about the difference between a 1 or 2Xer (a person who meets or doubles the industry standard of success) and a 10Xer (a person who is able to obtain 10 X the industry standard).

What he describes is a leader’s ability to capitalize on your ROL, Return On Luck!

Luck?

Yeah, you know, luck, the stuff you didn’t really plan for, that shows up in your life.

There is good luck and bad luck.

Great leaders and Warriors are able to get a great return on luck in either case.

When a great opportunity comes your way, are you a “Zoomer,” as Seth Godin describes in his book Small is the New Big?

Do you default to “yes” when an opportunity presents itself, as Guy Kawasaki describes in his new book Enchantment?

In their own ways, they are talking about your ability to change.

To some, change is a threat.

To others, change is just business as usual.

You really aren’t all that special.

Just like everyone else, you will experience change and luck; the question is, what will your return on the experience be?

There are amazing stories of people who had “good luck” and capitalized on it, and then the rest who have had “good luck” and let the opportunity pass.

There are amazing stories of people who have had “bad luck” and were able to turn it around and capitalize on it anyway.

And then there are the rest who have had “bad luck” and used it as an excuse.

There are great examples of both in Jim’s Article.

On the other hand… you have people like David Heinemeier Hansson and Timothy Farris, two very successful people who give advice from the extreme opposite point of view.

They say you should make your default answer “NO.”

So, how can this be?

Two groups of wildly successful business people giving the opposite advice on the same topic.

Well, the conclusion of Jim’s article sums it up very nicely…

“After finishing our luck analysis for “Great by Choice,” we realized that getting a high ROL required a new mental muscle.

“There are smart decisions and wise decisions.

“And one form of wisdom is the ability to judge when to let luck disrupt our plans.

“Not all time in life is equal.

“The question is, when the unequal moment comes, do you recognize it, or just let it slip?

“But, just as important, do you have the fanatic, obsessive discipline to keep marching, to push the opportunity to the extreme, to make the most of the chances you’re given?”

Of course, the Warriors who are reading this do!

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Kevin Mogavero is a co-founder of “Six Degrees of Leadership,” a personal development company that empowers people to live their purpose and passion by building “Social Capital.”

A graduate of West Point Academy, Kevin served six years as an officer in the U.S. Army Field Artillery. He held a combat arms leadership role for his entire career, except one staff position, during which he obtained a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Management. He also served in Iraq during “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Since the military, Kevin has worked for Honeywell as an earned-value analyst in the aerospace department, in Phoenix Arizona.

He started testing his leadership skills in the entrepreneurial world by starting several companies, to include a real estate company and a business mailing-address company. Kevin loves to serve people who have a yearning to create a better life for themselves and others. He is passionate about teaching people the importance of something that most take for granted: relationships.

Kevin lives in Phoenix with his wife and two daughters. Read and subscribe to Kevin’s Warrior Blog here.

I flipped a coin. Seriously. My father and I were trying to decide which division of General Motors should be my “sponsor” during my co-op work experience while attending GMI Engineering & Management Institute (Kettering University today).  

The choice was between Buick and AC, and AC won the flip.  

Weeks later, at a new student orientation at AC’s headquarters in Flint, Michigan I met Orrin Woodward, a man who was later to become my business partner (of 17 years and running) and co-author of several best sellers.

That was turning point number one.

Once ensconced at GMI I was terrified. I wasn’t that in love with math and science and was truly outgunned by the smart people around me.

I thought Mechanical Engineering had more to do with machinery and motion than math, but the professors seemed to think differently.

So, out of fear more than anything else, I worked really hard and it paid off. One thing led to another and I realized I could probably shoot for a scholarship to grad school.

So for at least four years (GMI was a 5 year program) I planned on winning a scholarship to Stanford.  

My plan worked and I won the scholarship.

I also got accepted to Stanford. But I ended up attending Carnegie Mellon University instead.

The reason for this sudden shift is too much for this article, but when I arrived at Carnegie Mellon I found Terri Estes waiting there.

Soon she would change her name to Terri Brady.

This was turning point number two.

There are others in my life, but I am sure you get the point.

What may seem like little decisions at the time can have massive and lasting impact on the course of our lives.

We change direction and go down a road from which we can never return.

The interesting thing about major turning points in our lives is that they are not always obvious.

Let’s face it, we make thousands of decisions a year.

Some that seem major sometimes don’t turn out to be.

Some that seems minor can sometimes change the course of our lives forever.

It is sometimes impossible to tell if the next decision will be a big one, leading to a turning point, or just another miniscule moment that will soon be lost under the dust of time and faded memories.

The lesson? Choose well at each decision. Never underestimate the potential of tiny things having big ramifications.

The lesson within the lesson?

There really aren’t that many major turning points in life.

If you don’t believe me, map out your own life by moving backwards through your circumstances.

How did you end up living where you’re living, working where you’re working, married to whom you’re married, etc.?

If you trace it back, you’ll likely find somewhere between 3 and 10 major turning points in your life, many of which you couldn’t have seen coming.

An observation on these lessons: The most successful people (such as my buddy Tim Marks) seem to make decisions the quickest and with the least amount of angst, but then stick to those decisions with more tenacity than others.

To me this is a strange paradox, but I’ve seen it demonstrated so many times I believe it to be the rule.

Conclusion: Turning points are rare but significant in your life.

Choose wisely from the myriad of choices proffered to you each day, as any one of them could have unforseen and lasting implications.

However, it is not necessary to become parlyzed or burdened by the decisions you’ll face.

Perhaps the worst thing to do is overanalyze. Go with your gut, pray for guidance, and stick to the directions you choose.

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Chris Brady co-authored the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best-seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.

He is also in the World’s Top 30 Leadership Gurus and among the Top 100 Authors to Follow on Twitter. He has spoken to audiences of thousands around the world about leadership, freedom, and success.

Mr. Brady contributes regularly to Networking Times magazine, and has been featured in special publications of Success and Success at Home. He also blogs regularly at Chris Brady.

He is an avid motorized adventurer, pilot, world traveler, humorist, community builder, soccer fan, and dad.

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