Emmitt Smith has always been one of my favorite athletes. His body may have been smaller than most other football running backs, but his heart was much bigger.  Emmitt set the goal early in his career to break the all-time rushing record.  This NFL video classic captures the essence of pursuing a dream as well as any video I have ever seen!  There are so many incredible points for leaders in this video that I had to post it in its entirety. I would almost say, that if this video doesn't make you cry, that you are not in touch with your dream & quest for excellence! Watch the video to see what I mean. Please add your comments and feel free to add to the list of major teaching points below. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

On your quest for excellence, you will learn to apply some of the same principles to accomplish excellence.  You will also run into the some of the same challenges that Emmitt did.  For example:

1. Many will minimize you and your abillity to accomplish your dream. - During the NFL draft many critics said Emmitt was too slow to play in the NFL.

2. When you succeed, many will minimize your contributions by saying anyone in your situation could do it. - Critics stated that many NFL backs could lead the NFL in rushing if the had the offensive line of the Dallas Cowboys.

3. You will learn to play hurt on the way to your dream.  If you cannot play hurt, you cannot accomplish big dreams. - Emmitt separated his shoulder in a key game, but refused to go out because the season was on the line.

4. You will learn to refuse to read your own press clippings. - Emmitt never allowed his growing success to change who he was or his discipline to continue.

5. You will be blessed with great teammates to support you on your journey. - Emmitt has encouraging teammates who believed in his vision to break the record.

6. You will develop a sense of historic imagination to carry you through the daily grind. - Emmitt had studied the greatest backs and knew the magnitude of the historic quest that he was undertaking. 

7. You will learn that many who start the journey with you will not finish it with you. - When Emmitt set the record, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin were both retired.

8. You will learn that excellence requires sacrifice, but it is worth the price. - Emmitt maintained a strict regimen of eating, exercising, and self-denial to accomplish excellence.

I watched this video the other day and shook my head in disbelief.  How is it possible that the best leaders in our country, that are elected to maintain our national freedoms, are allowing us to sink into the bondage of debt?  This is not a little issue, it is the difference between a free & prosperous America or police state.  When a country cannot pay its bills, it is no longer free and must do the bidding of its masters.  It takes personal discipline to live debt free and it takes national discipline to be debt free as a country.  The Founders of this great nation knew the evils of debt and eliminated our national debt.  Ernest Hemingway had a line in one of his books that asked how someone went broke.  The answer was, "Slowly at first and real fast at the end."  This is America right now.  We have slowly been going into debt and now we are speeding towards bankruptcy. 

Recently, a two trillion dollar loan was given by the Federal Reserve.  Two trillion!  That loan is guaranteed by our tax dollars!  I am disgraced by the lack of discipline of our "leaders" in Washington.  If we do not do battle quickly with the bondage of debt, our children and grandchildren will do battle with the bondage of their masters.  This is not a joke and history has never shown a bankrupt nation that did not go through a revolution.  The sad state of our education leaves most people blind to the realities of our current situation.  Educate yourself through books like The 5000 Year Leap, The Creature from Jekyll Island, and The Coming Economic Earthquake.  There are many more, but that is a good start.  Debt matters and if anyone tells you that it doesn't, then tell them to read the history of nations.  We can and must make a difference through education and leadership.  Watch the video and start studying!  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Here is a powerful message by Randy Forbes on the historical foundations of the United States.  Many of the political ideas that formed the U.S. Constitution were captured from European thinkers like Locke, Montesque, Cicero, Plato etc.  Locke's ideas were, in the main, a watered down version of the thoughts flowing from Oliver Cromwell's protectorate.  Ideas of inalienalble rights given by our Creator, that law is from a higher source than man, and even the division of powers because of man's falleness - are all based upon a Biblical understanding of man and God.  We don't have to agree with each other to agree to read the books for ourselves.  The worst thing to do is to take a soundbite and repeat it until you believe it.  That is not education, but propaganda.  Educate yourself by reading the books that formed the ideas used by the Founders of America.  Anything else is just plain mental lazineness.  American's cannot afford to be lazy any longer. God Bless, Orrin Woodward