Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

As our country faces economic challenges and continued political disarray, the call for leadership can be heard from the board rooms of America to the cabinet room of The White House. The call for leadership rings loud and clear from the street vendor to Wall Street.

When leadership is summoned, it must answer the call in a variety of forms. Leadership must arrive to answer the calls with answers to tough questions. It must be prepared to make tough, sometimes unpopular decisions, and it must recognize conscience as its greatest tool.

As the politics of party overshadows the priority of people, we see a decrease in the value of leadership. We see a lack of leadership in an era when it is most needed.

The cause of this void can be traced to its roots. It has always been my firm belief that all government, all security and all terrorism begins in the home. Our homes are a cultural and political entity all unto themselves. Each unique and each defined by its leadership. Some homes are dictatorships, while others are subjected to terror and violence. Some are democratic, where each member of the family has a responsibility in how that home is sustained. Each has a system of values and rules by which it governs, while others lack any values at all, witnessing an eventual breakdown in the family structure. As all leadership begins in the home, so too does it reflect upon our communities, our local, state and federal governments. It pours itself from the home into the board rooms of our companies and into the places of worship and faith where we seek our inner peace.

Leadership is the missing link in our current era. While Wall Street is pleading for help from a government to lead in the current crisis, both Wall Street and government alike lack the leadership to make the tough decisions to solve the abyss of economic uncertainty. As politicians talk of sympathy to the American family who has been displaced from their homes or the worker who has lost his job, I have yet to witness leadership. Someone, somewhere needs to explain the merits of fiscal responsibility. We need to get back to the common sense value of hard work and the tough reality that families, companies and governments, can not live beyond their means. It is necessary to trim costs, cut back and make sacrifices. Why then are multi-billion dollar corporations and Americans alike holding out their hands with the expectation of something from the government?

Let`s go back to the home for a moment. Our children have certain responsibilities that are all their own. They do some things that we reward with an allowance. We expect our children to do certain things that are their responsibilities to do. When they don`t, there are consequences.

The same is applied to the American people and American business. We are expected to maintain our responsibilities. When we work, we get paid and we have a budget from which to work. I have heard some suggest that credit is the undoing of the economic condition of the American family. While credit has been a symptom, it is not the cause of the disease. The cause is irresponsibility and living beyond one`s means. It is how the government has operated for years...spending money it simply doesn`t have and then trying to find a way to pay for it.

Leadership requires responsibility, sacrifice and a steady hand. It requires tough decisions for tough times and the truth about the ills of our nation.

When the government asks the American people, "how did you get into this financial mess", the people should reply like a child to its parent: "We got into this mess by watching you".

Let us take the responsibility of leadership upon our own shoulders. Let us stop looking to Washington or Wall Street for leadership and realize that in doing so we lose a fundamental truth about ourselves; that we know how to govern our lives, our families and our businesses better than the politicians on Capitol Hill.

Let us answer the call for leadership and empower ourselves while the "experts" sort out their own perpetual mess.

-Will Griffith, Chairman of the Board
THE GRIFFITH CORPORATION
 www.griffithcorp.com



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Will Griffith
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

I suspect we`re going to discover that before "leadership" is going to heed some sort of call, many existing conditions are going to first have to implode or be removed.

Half a century ago, we also had so-called negative campaigning, but it wasn`t as negative and didn`t get as far into people`s personal lives, and that of their families. Nowadays, it seems much of the voting population could care less about issues. They want to hear about scandals or pseudo-scandals.

Similarly, we have a threat to the nation by terrorism in various forms. The people who stand between us and that threat are in branches of the military or government agencies that are routinely under attack. Why would they risk their lives, only to be ridiculed or unsupported, or worse, thrown in jail?

Leadership isn`t at all the same as totalitarian dictatorship. Leadership rests on an assumption that all people in the organization truly want to achieve the same goal. More importantly, that the people within the organization hold most of the same values and concepts.

In a country now totally polarized, with those values diametrically opposed, we won`t see true leaders for awhile. Instead, we`ll mostly see opportunists.

There comes a point where a majority of people adamantly oppose the suggestions and expectations of a leader. From there, the amount of time spent arguing about the fundamentals of the proposition is so long it`s just a waste of time. And so most strategic leaders have other things to do.

In the situation we`re in today, national leadership has been mostly abandoned. The result is a rapid move toward local and community leadership, which will become fragmentation and isolation. Washington will continue to do whatever it wants, as a group of disconnected politicians. The rest of the country will pretty much ignore it all, coming together under local leadership.

I agree with you on every front. You mentioned the threat of terrorism and the men and women who stand between the American people and that threat. When I hear Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi I think of American complacency at its worst and the opportunists of which you make mention. I also feel for those who put their lives on the line to protect and serve the people of this nation in the midst of irresponsible rhetoric on the far left, as the issues are diverted and our money confiscated for redistribution.

In the absence of true leadership, the people will follow nearly anything that projects even the slightest degree of the hope or the evidence thereof.

Your perception of the national condition is accurate, and as always Mr. Landes, thought provoking.

Will Griffith
www.griffithcorp.com



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Will Griffith
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

When I hear or read the word "leadership" I reflect back a few years. I was in a factory in Indiana (heavy industry) and on the production floor the head of engineering was walking back and forth dragging a 20 ft chain, finally after several hours one of the production workers asked "why are you dragging that chain around" the response was "`cause you can`t push it. (the motive of the head of engineering is a whole different story)

I submit our "leaders" could learn a bit from that example.

At the end of the day if nobody is following you are not leading. I think we may be closer to anarchy than we think.

how long will the general population hold out hope?

My local government is as unaware as our federal government.

I agree until there is an implosion of the current "status quo"  the "True leaders" will not surface

should i file my income tax returns this year?

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Mr. Lindon, I am sure a great many Americans are asking that same question. However, as an Attorney, you know the answer to that one. So we continue to do our part, performing our civic and legal responsibilities to Uncle Sam and await the day when Washington values the fruit of America labor and innovation once again.  We will await the day when the rewards of hard work and the dreams of entrepreneurs are once again of value to the spoiled brat that is Capitol Hill.

To wtgg, the example you cited would, indeed, be a great lesson for our government to absorb!

Will Griffith
www.griffithcorp.com



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Will Griffith
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

Given that politicians believe there`s an unlimited amount of money that will flow into the Treasury each year, particularly at around tax time, it`ll be interesting to hear what actual amount of money arrives.

This will be one of the rare (if not only) times in US history where taxpayers will be paying their annual bill at the same time that politicians are talking about spending multiple times that number. It`s slightly possible that some larger than normal number of people might make a connection between their taxes and Congress.

Probably not...but possible.