George Guzzardo - LIFE Leadership

LEARN HISTORY FROM LIFE

If we are smart we can learn from our past, if not, we will feel the pain of repeating the past until the lesson is learned. We can learn from the economic pain we are feeling today before the pain leads to a terminal condition. Similar conditions to ours existed during the period leading up to and after the French Revolution. Most of us know a little of the American Revolution, but still fewer know anything about the French Revolution.

Leading up to the French Revolution were emotions of anger and fear. Look over the conditions throughout the Western Civilization today and you will see these similar emotion’s ramping up. We haven’t gotten to the shortage of bread yet, but we have witnessed price gouging and government ineptitude. Up to the time of The French Revolution, the Monarchy had lasted three hundred years and survived years of war. Coming out of the Seven Years War and aiding the American Revolution, the Crown faced bankruptcy. Do you see any similarities with our current condition? In Europe, do we see the bale out to prevent the bankruptcy of Greece and Italy? Throughout revolutionary France, working people, shopkeepers, working house wives, traders, journeyman, all talked about who would lead the revolution.

The siege and collapse of the Bastille state prison in 1789, July 14^th, lead to the collapse of the royal authority. During this bloody affair, hundreds were killed or wounded. This ramped up quickly to a state of violent revolution to what is called the ‘Reign of Terror’. Political conflict became murderous. The National Assembly that was supposed to create order was replaced by a Convention that ultimately led to the trial and execution of Louis the XVI. Radicals such as the Montagnards and the Jacobins, which included Maximilien Robespierre, championed the people’s rights to cheap and plentiful bread. Robespierre was in historian Simon Schama’s words, “the Manifest leader of the revolutionary left.” These factions led followers of opposing groups to the guillotine. There was a revolution within a revolution. Terror became the system of government. More than a half a million people were arrested and tens of thousands were executed. Extremists took over and battled for power. No stabilizing force remained. The people’s hopes and dreams gave way to extremism and fratricide. When chaos and violence become commonplace, people begin to look for a savior. History books are abundant with biographies of how Napoleon Bonaparte’s force and control ultimately led to order.

How did an enlightened France fall? Some historians point to the metaphysical philosophies of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire before the French Revolution. Compare this to the philosophies ofJames Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay's championing of the ‘Bill of Rights'. In one blow, The National Assembly destroyed the feudal system that lasted for over a century with the theories of ‘The Rights of Men’.

Does anyone see the similarities in today’s modern world view? Russell Kirk said, “The Americans were men of political experience; The French Revolutionaries rejected the historical and political inheritance of their country, while the Americans declared that their revolution was fought to preserve their British heritage. Members of this natural aristocracy, which governed the Republic of the United States for almost precisely half a century, 1775 to 1825, thought of themselves as restorers of what was being lost – not as adversaries of the past.” The French Revolution was different. It was associated with a philosophical and ideological revolution very similar to what we are seeing across the Western cultures today. As we sever our historical roots we open up for the latest, greatest ideas of the day. The framers of the Constitution, and the Congress that approved the first ten amendments, were concerned more with preservation. The ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’ is a document of the Enlightenment. In the words of Dostoievski, “ To begin with unlimited liberty is to end with unlimited despotism.” The great historian, Lord Thomas Babbington Macaulay said, “ Which of the two candidates is likely to be preferred by a working man who hears his children cry for more bread?’ “When your society has entered on this downward progress, either civilization or liberty must perish. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth; - with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions.”

It’s a great opportunity to join Orrin Woodward and the LIFE leadership and personal development business. It’s time for a commitment to learn lessons from the past an apply those principles to the future. Let's not repeat the past. God Bless, George Guzzardo

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP

I am grateful for the recent book by Orrin Woodward, ‘Resolved, 13 Resolutions for Life’.  In that book, he brings to life, the character of George Washington, sighting his ‘Rules for Civility’. The nation needs this type of example. Because of that,  I felt the need to refresh our knowledge about the leadership and character of George Washington. His crossing at Valley Forge took place in December, across the freezing, ice jammed water in 1777 although most people know little of that event. 

In a recent survey, 65 % of college students didn’t know who commanded the American forces in Yorktown. Washington has been pushed to the back burner in the school systems across the country. His portrait has disappeared from classroom walls.  History textbooks have as little as 10% of the coverage of Washington that they possessed 40 years ago.  Author David McCullough said, “We are raising a generation of historically illiterate children.”  In 1960, 1.3 million people visited the estate at Mount Vernon.  In 2005 this number dropped to 950,000. Could it be that the man who led our country is no longer thought to be relevant?  With the drought in our countries leadership, Washington’s example may be more critical now than it was two centuries ago. 

Thomas Jefferson said, “He was the singular destiny…of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, the establishment of its independence, of conducting its counsels, through the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the world furnishes no other example.”

Here is a man who brings so much more to leadership than his military skills.  He excelled in fencing and became as comfortable on a horse as he was in a chair.  He had a wide range of reading interests from agriculture, farming, and religion, to politics, and government.  He believed in the free market system.  Washington said, “A people who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see, and who pursue their advantages, may achieve almost anything.”  His work ethic was off the chart.  He served at the front during the revolutionary war for 8 years.  He never took a vacation.  His personal commitment was unheard of. He maintained a single - minded focus on the cause of liberty, the welfare of his men, and the future of his country.  Historian David McCullough said, “Washington wasn’t chosen by his fellow members of the continental congress because he was a great military leader.  He was chosen because they knew him; they knew the kind of man he was, they knew his character, his integrity.” 

We can all learn from his acts of service to this country. Several books authored by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady list biographies that we can learn about Washington. Washington said, “It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity, but that its influence may be coextensive with the world, and stamp, political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”  

Character is the number one quality associated with leadership.  David Abshire said, “The heart of Washington’s leadership was pure character, it sustained the troops at Valley Forge.  It made the ratification of the Constitution possible.” Perhaps his leadership example is needed more now than ever before. What a better way to learn about him than to pick up a copy of ‘Resolved, 13 Resolutions for Life’, and make the study of his character one we should all strive for in the coming year.  God Bless, George Guzzardo  

 

 

 

 

YOUR LIFE CONSTITUTION

Do you appreciate the freedoms given to your LIFE?  Many of us do not realize that the single most important event in our lives happened in 1789. Most of us can hardly recall if we ever read the United States Constitution.  How did we ever get so far from the roots of something so special as the longest running Democratic Republic?  John Adams said, “The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place is, without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen.”  It’s also interesting that this new Republic was full of men who had never seen the inside of a schoolhouse and yet were extremely well educated in the area of Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics. The framers of the Constitution loved learning and they loved liberty.  Most of all, the men who framed the Constitution were men of character.  Names like Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, and Wilson to name a few men who are always associated with the highest of character.  How have we come to the point where the majority of the population mistrusts those in political office? Jefferson said, “The whole of government consists in being honest.”  What's needed is a leadership development system, character being the highest quality of a leader. The LIFE business encourages the development of leadership qualities like character.  

Clinton Rossiter said,  “The nature of government, like the nature of men, is a mixture of good and bad – “good” because it has been ordained by the law of nature to serve some of the most basic needs of men, “bad” because it can always get out of hand and turn arbitrary, corrupt, wicked, and oppressive.”  He goes on to say, “Free government rests at bottom on the moral basis of decent, brave, honest, liberty – loving, industrious, patriotic men.  Such men are the raw materials of free government, and there must be enough of them in every society to overcome the obstinate forces of dishonor, unreason, sloth, and cruelty.”  If indeed the Constitution is a contract between the federal government and the people of the states, doesn’t it make sense for us to be informed in this area?  When was the last time you reviewed the Constitution? The preamble of the Constitution describes it's purpose:

1. In order to form a more perfect union.
2. To establish justice (fair treatment).
3. To insure domestic tranquility.
4. To provide for the common defense.
5. To promote the general welfare.
6. To secure the blessings of liberty (freedom).

 Oliver Demille in his book, ‘The Coming Aristocracy’ says ,  “The new aristocracy uses the words “democracy” and “capitalism” almost interchangeably with “freedom”.  There is great confusion in this, as the masses tend to acquiesce to these definitions without examining them.”  Oliver, along with top leadership guru Orrin Woodward, is one of the biggest proponents of education of the mind in areas similar to what the founders had.  They both encourage working closely with mentors who can guide you to the right information. Structuring an education from the classics like the early founders had is also critical.  Government, no matter which party or philosophy is in power, cannot impose education or values from the top down. An opportunity to learn from the bottom up must be made available and should run parallel to the current education system.  The LIFE business provides a great opportunity for a self - developed education in the areas missing from our society today.  In the words of James Madison, “A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.  And a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”  Take time to get a copy of the Constitution, or Federalist Papers, or pick up the ‘Freedom Pack’ from the LIFE products. Learn and earn your liberty.  God Bless, George Guzzardo