When did it become ‘cool’ to be an anti-patriot?  Certain things really get under my skin and being disrespectful to the flag or to those who have fought for our country is one of them.  I believe in Freedom, and freedom needs to be protected.  Now that is one role of the government that I DO support.  We need a military to protect and fight for those freedoms we enjoy so much.  BUT, generally speaking, the government just needs to stay out of my business. 
SO, I’d like to share some principles from a book called ‘The 5000 Year Leap’ written & put together by the National Center for Constitutional Studies.  Simply put, this book is AWESOME!  Heck, I wish it was required reading for all high school students.  It’s about ‘The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World.’

The 15th Principle, one of my favorites!  The Highest Level of Prosperity Occurs when there is a Free-Market Economy and a Minimum of Government Regulations.  Most of this is straight from the book. 
 The United States was the first people to undertake the structuring of a whole national economy on the basis of natural law and the free-market concept described by Adam Smith (who wrote a book in 1776 called The Wealth of Nations).  Among other things, this formula called for the following:
1. Specialized production – let each person or corporation of persons do what they do best.
2. Exchange of goods takes place in a free-market environment without governmental interference in production, prices, or wages.
3. The free market provides the needs of the people on the basis of supply and demand, with no government imposed monopolies.
4. Prices are regulated by competition on the basis of supply and demand.
5. Profits are looked upon as the means by which production of goods and services is made worthwhile.
6. Competition is looked upon as the means by which quality is improved, quantity is increased, and prices are reduced.

The Four Laws of Economic Freedom
Prosperity also depends on a climate of wholesome stimulation protected by law.  Reduced to its simplest formula, there are four laws of economic freedom which a nation must maintain if its people are to prosper at the maximum level.  These are:
1. The Freedom to try.
2. The Freedom to buy.
3. The Freedom to sell.
4. The Freedom to fail.

Proper role of gov is to protect equal rights, NOT provide equal things

By 1905 the United States had become the richest industrial nation in the world.  With only 5 percent of the earth’s continental land area and merely 6 percent of the world’s population, the American people were producing over half of almost everything-clothes, food, houses, transportation, communications, even luxuries.  It was a great tribute to Adam Smith.

Those are the values this country was founded on.  One person CAN make a difference.  You can teach those around you, your family, your friends timeless principles that we need to all follow once again.

All the best,

 
Tim Schmidt

Tonnie (my wife) and I were out in Vegas a few weeks back for one of our mastermind meetings. Our entire mastermind group (about 17 of us) decided to take a trip out to Las Vegas Motor Speedway and drive Indy cars for an afternoon.

Below is a video I took of some of my fellow masterminders driving. It doesn’t look like they’re going that fast… but they are! The one thing I kept thinking to myself when I’d hit the corners going 150+ MPH was, “I can’t believe they’re letting me do this!”

I figured it was going to be pretty cool… but I had NO IDEA just how cool it was going to turn out to be!

Tonnie and I recently returned from taking the whole Schmidt family to the Turks & Caicos islands for a pre-Christmas vacation. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!

Our youngest is 4 and he’s finally old enough to travel with. Don’t get me wrong, he is still a HUGE handful, but at least it’s do-able!

Here is a picture of the whole family on the beach. For those of you who are not completely in “the loop”, the red-haired kid is our German foreign exchange student. His name is Jan and he’s been living with us since August 15th, 2007.

We stayed at the Beaches resort and I’d say that everyone liked it a lot. They had a ton of cool kid activities and lots of great places for the kids to play and hang out.