Freedom: A Chapter From A Book By Dr. Zayd Abdul-karim

Chapter 9

Freedom “Expressing one’s full Freedom and God-given rights helps to preserve and protect the God ideals of our United States constitution. This means protection and hope for the rest of the world. Putting God first allows us to have that Freedom. The Freedom to do that, put God first, is the most valuable Freedom we have.” – Stanley El

Stanley El, President and Founder The National Society of American Business Owners Woodbury, NJ www.nsabo.wordpress.com

Sdescribing who and what Stanley is. I experience him as a

tanley is Mr. Extraordinary! Words cannot come close to

Master of Freedom and many universal Laws of Life. As you read this chapter pay attention to the vibration you feel as you connect with his Presence. Z: The first question I want to ask you is: How would you define the word Freedom?



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Stanley: You know, it’s one of those funny things because I grew up with this understanding of freedom being based on… I’ll call them human rights; human rights that the government gives us. The freedom to work, get a job and buy property and those kinds of things. Today, freedom means a lot more than that to me. Because it’s…we have this energy in us called Life that comes from God. The purpose of being in this world is to express the fullness of God. So to me freedom is just that… having the right, the privilege, the honor to allow God’s Life, God’s Perfection to express through you without interruption from outside forces or even your own human consciousness. So that’s how I look at freedom today. The individual’s obligation to become one with the Presence of Life in them; to allow that to flow through freely and express It’s Perfection. Z: Ok. And we appreciate that’s a perspective that you’ve come through or come to, through your life experiences. So I’d like to ask what were some significant experiences or incidents that helped you come to this perspective? I’m thinking particularly earlier in life if there’s something between the ages of 12 and 21 years old. What were some significant experiences, that you can recall, related to freedom? Stanley: Ok. For me, the best way to answer that is to start with how I originally thought freedom was, again based on human rights. I grew up in the Moorish Science Temple of America and our families were, the adults around us were always telling us that we were sons and daughters, children of God and we should be on this planet living just like that. And that was instilled in us from the time…gosh, we could understand the English language. The Moorish Science Temple, they always talked about the Higher Self. God or Allah, the term was used. So that part was instilled in us. At the same 170 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

time, socially speaking we always had…my father was in business, he was independent. Had a lot of aunts and uncles; everybody seemed to have some kind of something going on where they were independent of a regular job, and could control themselves. That independence kind of led us to grow up in this way that as early as possible you were working; doing stuff on your own. But, it also had a different effect because you were always taught that you had this independence and you were a child of God. I took it literally. I know everybody else was doing the same thing, but I can’t speak for how they took it. But, I took it literally. So every time that I would run into an issue; whatever it was…whether it be personal issues or problems as a child I would always get down on my knees and pray to God for assistance. It seemed like every time I did that I got answers, and permanent answers. I think at a very young age I asked God to give me…to make me smart in school. I wanted to be smart in school. Well, I ended up being a straight “A” student all the way through high school. (chuckles) And I knew that…I had prayed for that. So it wasn’t one of those things where I just…I may have had the intellect or whatever it was, but I knew that I asked that and I’ll always remember that. It was answered. By the time I was eight years old I was actually, not only a good student in school, but doing other things outside. Working independently; making my own money; and stuff like that. Getting involved in study, U.S. History on my own. Actually at the age of eight, I was doing things like sending letters to the capitals of every state in the United States Chamber of Commerce; and asking them to send me information. I never thought about what I was doing at the time. But that was something I wanted to do. And they responded.

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All of the state capitals, all the states in the United States were sending me information about their state, from their Chamber of Commerce… demographics and programs and this, that, and the other. That went on for a long time. I was real big in that kind of stuff and U.S. History; security like the CIA and that kind of stuff. I think it all was just me acting out whatever was happening within me at the time. Because I really didn’t know, I was just doing it. I was experimenting with a lot of things that were way beyond the average 8 year old or 10 year old or 11 year old. I don’t think anybody knew it. People just knew I was kind of a “bookworm” kind of person, but I was also very artistic in the sense that I would draw images. I loved to put together presentations and making them look beautiful for school. That went with me right on through high school. On the other side of that I began…probably around 11…12 years old…having different kinds of experiences. I would have this dream…and this really goes back farther than that…I would have two dreams consistently…and they went on for years. One is me walking down the street at night picking up pennies. It would be street lights and I would pick up this penny under every street light. And that just was the dream. I would walk to the next street, pick up the penny. Walk to the next street light, pick up the penny. And that was the dream for my entire youth. Then the other dream was me jumping up and down outside. You know, I’d jump in the air. Go up a couple of feet and come down. Jump up in the air…go up a couple of feet and come down. Jump up in the air higher, come down. Then I would take flight. Well those two dreams stayed with me almost my entire life…until I became an adult. I always thought they were kind of interesting because the feeling of flying was real. And the lights where these places were…it was a bright light like I was actually outside. 172 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

Around 12 to 13 years old, I began to have another type of experience. I would be laying down, so called dreaming, yet the dreams would be in full time. Unlike in normal dreaming where it might be future-past or some strange situation. If I’m sitting in this chair and I fall asleep, I’m dreaming that I’m sitting in this chair. I thought that was strange. That’s when I really started to get involved with metaphysics; metaphysical studies. And it wasn’t a conscious thing. Now, I want to make that clear. It wasn’t that I knew there was this thing called metaphysics out there. I was always reading stuff that was, like way far out, philosophical stuff. I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I just ended up…books would float into my hands. I never bought any of this material. It was always…some how, the books would get to me. And ah (pause) I would read them. Same with the metaphysical stuff. The philosophical stuff was first. Then the metaphysical stuff started appearing. And one of the books that I…first came across was called Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda. He was a fellow that went down to South America, Mexico…went somewhere with the Indians and got involved in all of these spiritual teachings that they had…and would have all these way out experiences. Well, those “way out” experiences were matching with what I was experiencing. So I began to understand that there definitely was something beyond (slight pause) what I was seeing and what I would call the physical outer world that we are used to every day. At a very, very early age; and started to kind of investigate more. Now mind you, my investigation didn’t go very far. I didn’t go to book stores or there was no computer to do internet searches. It was just me in my mind thinking, contemplating these things; that there’s more to it. Of course, that combined with the early teachings in the Moorish Science Temple that

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you were a child of God and this, that, and the other. Things were becoming more and more real to me, in terms of the understanding of whatever it was beyond. Because there were always stories being told when I was little about the Prophet appearing, disappearing; people walking through walls. I was even taught that at an early age that if you believed enough you could walk through walls. So my teenage years I was out there. Still a normal teenager, you know, but behind the scene in my own isolated way were all these experiences happening where these teachings were coming to me and I would sit and contemplate these things. As problems or situations would pop up, I knew where to go. In my mind, that same God that I’d prayed to for good grades in elementary school was going to be the same God that I went to, to address these problems. And that continued. It continued and became more of an active pursuit in my outer consciousness, if you ever want to call it that, to try and do more of those transcendental types of things. What I mean by that is, (chuckles) may sound strange to you, but, like astrotraveling. You know, taking yourself out of the body. Well, I actually started trying to do that stuff around 13, 14, 15 years old. I’d lay myself down and try to send myself out in space. And ah…you know…from what I could tell, I wasn’t really going anywhere; but (chuckles) it was kind of a cool thing to do. (laughs a lot) Actually, I had two buddies that blended into the same kind of thinking and we would all start to read the same kind of books. Again, the books would just show up. We weren’t going out to stores buying them. Somebody would have it in their house. Somehow, somebody would get a book from somewhere and we would sit down and read these things and share them and boom…you know, we’d try stuff out. You know, our medi174 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

tation…I was always around fasting and those kinds of things, because we were basically brought up vegetarian. Our diets were pretty much that kind of a diet. These others things were just me and my friends that really became more of trying to try these outer world transcendental type of activities like you know… astro-travel and sending your mind…visualizing space…trying to look through walls…you know, strange stuff. But for teenagers at our time, it was cool stuff to sit around and try to do. I graduated [from high school] at 17 years old. I decided not to go to college. I’d gotten accepted at a couple of schools, Rutgers University for Business Administration and Point Park for Architecture. I was very artistic but I was always very much in business type stuff. College prep…kind of thing. My tests were actually 50-50. It was 50-50 in terms of artistic ability and business administration. In any case, I didn’t go with either one. What I ended up doing was going into business with some friends of mine that all graduated around the same time. We started an entertainment promotion business. In the course of doing that, all of us were kind of in the same realm of believing in this impossible stuff…this invisible stuff. Every one of us… there were eight of us. Even though we were at different ages, we all had kind of the same beliefs. We ended up buying the book “Think and Grow Rich.” Each one of us had a copy and we read it on our own. We’d get together every Monday night and go through this ceremony of reviewing the chapters of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill; and then exercising it as a group. We did that! As 17 year olds, we started this business with a strobe light and a turntable. By the time we were 19, we had the largest discotheque in the state of New Jersey. We were working seven days a week. We had enough equipment to do at least three locations at one time. Lights

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and sound, I mean the whole bit. We were working our way up to the point of doing tours. We got picked up by Delight Record Company’s national promoter. He was taking us different places, New York and this, that, and the other. We also had friends that were going to college and they started hiring us to do things. We ended up touring the North East corridor through the college circuit. Of course, we attributed it to this exercise [Think and Grow Rich], because it just took off! That was pretty much it. It was those kinds of experiences at early ages that kind of (pause)…told me that we had…every individual had some kind of connection with some greater Power. And if giving attention to that, It would flow. And It did. We had the testimony of it. Now, at that time, we were starting to see the manifestation of it. Other elements did definitely intervene. It seemed like…I was the only one who really held firm to that because…I guess it was 19 when I had my first kind of crisis; personal crisis. We were successful at what we were doing with business, but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled as an individual. I remember getting home one night; we always worked through the night. It was the wee hours of the morning. I’m walking around and I expressed this to God, and said: “Look, basically I want to do whatever your will is.” And it was one of those, you know, crying kinds of things where I just needed to have that connection with God and be able to fulfill His will. And that to me was… what was happening inside of me that wanted to make that connection real. I wanted to know that I was fulfilling, consciously, whatever desire or plan God had for me. I submitted my entire life to Him, totally. At that point, everything changed. By the time I was 21, I was out of that group doing other things. Getting involved in the industry…really, really starting to stretch out in the meta176 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

physical teachings and information and the people who were involved in that. All of that accelerated its pace. I tried working a regular job and going to school for college. None of that happened. I spent a month in a commercial art school…had the job for a summer and all that went away. For 3 ½ years after that point, I just focused on doing as much as I could to learn as much about what it is God wanted me to do. Z: Wonderful. What were the major lessons from those experiences? Stanley: The major lessons? Z: Yeah, you gave us…I really like that you gave us the chronological view. You could go back to any one of those and say: what were the major lessons that came out of any of those experiences? Stanley: The biggest lesson was that I and every individual have a direct connection to a Higher Source. At that time I called that Source God. Today, I call that Source The Mighty “I AM” Presence. At that time, and during that course of time, God and the connection was there. I knew I could do things that were literally impossible, in the normal sense and course of things. And I did them! For example, after not working or holding a job for 3 ½ years I’m back at home living. My father is: “Boy, you need to get a job.” (laughing out loud) Because I wasn’t really getting involved…I was doing the entertainment stuff making a little bit of money but I wasn’t really out there pursuing it. I was more interested in getting into myself and understanding what was going on. What we had achieved and how to move this thing forward at that level. With this connection that I’d made a commitment to. And I know that by keeping that connection I could do anything.

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When my father said to me I need to get a job, I looked him in the eye. And this was unheard of, in our culture, growing up as a Moor because you were always told to respect your parents and your elders. I looked at my father and said: “I will do what I’m going to do. I know what I’m doing and I’m going to do it.” He didn’t say one word and left me alone…(chuckles) and from that point on, never mentioned it again. I went back to doing what I was doing. Now, I was doing positive things except that during that course of time I’d gotten involved in the performing arts. I was doing dance; African-American dance, modern dance, jazz… eventually advanced into bally. I was an artist doing a lot of art work. Painting murals in people’s homes, you know. Designing flyers, commercial stuff like that. Martial arts that I’d started at 17 accelerated because a lot of Buddhist, Hindu teachings was coming through that. That was actually helping me to understand a lot more of where I was going because of those teachings. Somebody gave me a book called: “Krishna: The Supreme Personality Godhead.” This thing was almost 3 ½ - 4 inches thick. It became my regular study because it was talking about the supreme personality, this being that had this ability to do all these phenomenal things. I was into that thing like… you know…it was the (pause) very breath I breathed. I was in it everyday. (chuckles) Because it was something I thought I needed to understand. And it was tapping into some of these experiences that I was having. The biggest lesson out of it was to keep that connection. I was doing it consciously. I got a job one time, Zayd. It was working at a newspaper doing ad layouts. I went to the job… ah, this lasted about a month. Didn’t really care for the job, even though I wanted to have the experience. I had an inven178 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

tory of things I needed to learn, to do what I wanted to do. I knew what I wanted to do. Always did! And I was pursuing it through this connection that I had. I went to this job and decided that I didn’t want to do this anymore. The whole thing with newspaper deadlines and all that kind of stuff. So I left the job knowing that there wouldn’t be an issue going to the next level. I had to let it go because I was not comfortable there. In my mind, the wisdom was: “Why are you here, if you don’t want to be in the job. You are holding this job up, keeping it away from someone who would enjoy having this job. You have no right to be here if you don’t want to be here. Open that job up for somebody else.” I said: “Ok, that’s what I’m going to do. If that’s the logic, then I’m out of here.” Within a week, I got a call from a national company to come in to work, making 15 bucks [an hour] as a freelance artist full-time. Within six months of that, I went to the Vice President of the company and said: “Look I want a full-time job on payroll as staff.” He said: “Fine, you’ve got it.” Within a week of that, I bought my first condominium; (laughing) first piece of property. Now granted, for 3 ½ years prior to that, I had no regular job. It’s not like I had an application to put jobs down I had worked for 3 ½ years. I was just doing the stuff that I mentioned. That one month the newspaper was the first job I had and I walked out of that job and got picked up and within six months of that bought my first piece of real estate. Z: So what was that about? Stanley: It was about that connection. You asked me about the lesson. The lesson was trusting that connection that I had so much that I was willing to use that wisdom…of course I knew



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I didn’t like that first job. And I said: “Look I’m holding it up.” I trusted that Presence to put me in the proper place by following the wisdom of the Law. The Law says: “Look, Stanley you’re not comfortable here. You don’t want to be here. You’re holding it up. You don’t want to be here if you’re holding this job up for somebody else. Leave it for somebody that would enjoy this job.” I trusted that Presence to put me in the right place and boom…done it. Walked and it took care of me…bam. I ended up being at Chein Industries, a national company, in the art department there. They were a manufacturer of toys, house ware products, giftware products, that kind of stuff. I went in there as one of their, you know…a designer and ended up being the Senior Designer and Assistant to the Vice President, by the time I’d gotten done. I still applied it because even before I’d gotten there, I’d done things like I met my wife for the first time. She came and lived with us for a while. She was trying to find a job. She came to me one time and she said: “Look, we need to have some money coming in.” I said: “That’s not an issue. Come with me.” Hopped in my father’s car; rode down the highway. Pulled over to this restaurant; walked in and asked for the owner. This is how the Power of the Presence [of God worked]. I was this confident about this connection with God because I had these experiences all of my life. I walked in this place, I said: “Is the business owner here?” He said: “I’m the business owner.” I said: “We want a job.” He said: “What can you do?” I said: “We can dance.” (chuckles) He said: “Show me!” He put money in this juke box; my wife and I danced. He hired us to teach ballroom dancing, right on the spot. Z: Wow (laughing) Stanley: (laughing) I looked at my wife and said: “See that’s not an issue. It’s not about the money.” (laughs) It happened 180 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

that quickly. She said something like: “We need to have money coming in.” I said: “Come with me.” We got in my Dad’s car; drove down the highway; and it happened that fast. It was done. (chuckles) Z: That’s great…Any other lessons Stan? Stanley: Well, you know. There are some other lessons. That is the biggest one and always will be the biggest one is to keep that Presence first and keep that connection open because that’s what sustained me and continues to sustain me to this day. But the other lessons are (pause) that in the course of maintaining that connection, you will find the greater responsibility you are willing to take on, the greater the pressure. You have to become accustomed to that pressure because if not other people would call it problems or barriers and limitations. It’s really not that at all. It’s pressure. Pressure, as I learned, is a natural Law. It’s a kind of resistance. It’s like when you want to be a champion athlete, you’ve got to get out and train hard and this, that, and the other. I learned that in the martial arts, you’ve got to work for it. If you want to be a black belt you’ve got to get to that point. You’re going to have to battle some black belts to become one. And that pressure causes you to want to really dig within yourself and discover this newness and this greatness about yourself in your core. There’s no limit to that, if you’re willing to stand up to it. Like anything else, if you work at it, it becomes easy at some point. But, that’s when you know you have to become alert because the minute that thing becomes easy you’d better be on your guard. That’s the other lesson. You’d better be on your guard. If things are starting to look rosy, you’d better go out and do something else to put some more effort; to apply your self to a greater extent.

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Because, you know, there’s this phrase that says only God is great. (pause) Well when you want that greatness you have to think in terms of, if God is the greatness that’s out here, it requires a tremendous amount of effort to get to that level of (pause) God Dominion, if you want to call it that. Where God can truly express Himself fully through you. And you have to be practical and think to yourself: “Am I really applying myself to that level?” Well, no you’re not! (chuckles, then laughs a lot) And everybody can answer that question the same way. Because if you’re asking the question, you obviously have not achieved that God Dominion. (longer pause) That’s where I had to be honest with myself and continue to apply myself, regardless of what the things were around me. And it’s to the point where…it does come to that point. For everybody out there that has made major contributions to humanity, they all had to look at themselves in the mirror and basically stare…whatever…I’ll call it death for lack of a better word…stare death in the face. Not that they were always being threatened by their life, but something calls them to the carpet and says: “Look, it’s either all or none.” No matter how good they are. No matter how high they’ve gone. They all have come to that point where Life says: “It’s either all or nothing.” And that’s a test. It’s a test of the athlete that wants to be a champion. The athlete that wants to be a champion knows that: “I have to give it my all.” “I can’t skip any steps, because once I become champion, everybody’s coming after me.” So this process is support; to go through every step; to put forth that pressure to know every step of the way to that championship so that when I get there I can maintain that position. That’s everybody on this planet that wants to achieve anything worthwhile. Those throughout history have…gone 182 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

through that same process of achieving. They take on greater responsibility. They have paid their dues in order to handle that responsibility. And they take on greater responsibility. And at some point should their desires to serve mankind be such, Life says: “You are the Master!” “You have demonstrated your ability to master Life.” And the heavens open up. You have there the Buddha’s, the Jesus’, the Ghandi’s. Those folks in the world that have conquered it all…and without a dime in their pockets. Major contributors to mankind; and without a dime in their pockets. Z: Are there any other lessons? Stanley: (laughing out loud) Well…there are some other lessons in terms of responsibility. I learned that we have to take on greater responsibility regardless of who you are. I say that in terms of youth. One of the fallacies our youth are dealing with today. Is that, you have to do this and you have to do that and you have to do this to be successful; to be happy in life. Go to college. Well, it hasn’t been proven true. Because all the adults you hear that are now…in control if you want to call it that…that are running industry and government have gone to college and haven’t created a better world than it was when they were children. If you look at the outer, we still have poverty. The only thing that we can look at truly that may have advanced, that still has not gotten rid of poverty is technology. Tell me…technology has advanced leaps and bounds. We still have poverty. So something isn’t clicking. With all the intellectual people that we have in the world we still haven’t figured out how to get rid of poverty; how to get rid of wars; how to get rid of disease. I feel that’s largely based on the fallacy that we have to get all of this intellectual, educational [academic] type of experiences as opposed to looking



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within ourselves and applying ourselves based on handling greater responsibility. Because once you get into yourself, you realize that experience is really what you become. You’re the culmination of everything that you’ve experienced in life. Well, that being the case and you consider that you are that accumulation of life experience; you should be brilliant. You should be a God being. But our attention is directed to the things outside of us. The things…the material things. Get a job. Buy stuff. Retire and buy more stuff. You’re enjoying life. You’re going to retire. Well that hasn’t proven to make people happy at all. It has proven that we can accumulate things. It has done that. But accumulating those things are only temporary…ah…points of, I guess, emotional satisfaction. That’s all they are. You’re just feeding your emotions for a moment. Then you’re back to your depressions and your drudgery and those conditions of the world. No one has proven those things to make you happy. Therefore, we have all those generations that have gone by and we see our youth, at this point now, facing these issues. Well, look “I got things.” “I’m a teenager.” “I got cell phones.” “I got calculators.” “I got computers.” “I got all this stuff.” “I got the internet.” “I got music.” “I got widescreen TV’s.” “And…I g-o-t p-r-o-b-l-e-m-s.” They also have something that we may not have had growing up. And that I see, I have to say see…because it’s them, it’s not me…I’m looking back. I’m looking at our young people today and I’m seeing them really crying…striving for something inside of them to come through. That they can anchor into, because they can feel it. They don’t want what the adults have. They got the stuff. But, when they look at that individual called adult, they don’t want that. They see unhappy people telling them, by their actions, that they have to go to college, go to work and retire, 184 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

when their too old to enjoy it and wither away and die. The young people don’t like that picture. They’re rebelling furiously. The rebellion is not so much rebellion in a negative way; there’s something inside of them that knows better. And they want that. And it’s called Freedom. Its Freedom based on the God within them wanting to express and experience Perfection. All this stuff in the world will never allow a young person or an individual to do that. (Silence) Z: Is this just for young people? Stanley: No, it’s not. I’ll qualify it by saying. Everybody’s creative. Meaning that all the stuff we have out here; all the education that we have; if it does not allow you to express the ideas, the ideals, the principles, the ethics, the morals that you feel within your own heart (silence) then you’re never going to be happy. You might as well just pack up your bags. That’s what people are doing. (chuckles) Not literally packing up their bags. But the average adult today is in a conundrum; in a sense that their saying: “Well, you know I’ve got to work because of my benefits and my retirement. Now I’m not happy in my job. I don’t see my ideas implemented. I don’t have the freedom to create and express these things that are within me, but I’ve got to do this. Well, in other eras and in other places in the world…where you are bound to do things you don’t want to do, they call that slavery. They also call it communism. Because you are relying on things outside of yourself, to sustain you. (silence) In America, where your constitution, our constitution says you have the freedom to prosper; you know life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those kinds of things and we have a constitution to protect the right to allow us to do that. It’s not based on these things. It’s based on that [God] Presence inside



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of you. That’s why this country accelerated and advanced so quickly. At one time, and we still do, but at one time we lived it. And the entire world benefited from it. Five thousand years prior to that constitution there was very little progress on this planet. People need to understand that. And look at that issue. The fact, that they were carting stuff by mules in Moses’ time and they were carting things using mules and donkeys and horses in Colonial times. Why is it that from 1787 to whatever time…a hundred years after that… 200 years we’re putting people on the moon? How come all of a sudden we’re able to do that and it wasn’t happening in any other nation anywhere else? (pause) Cause there’s something about it. And it has to do with that constitution and the fact that they acknowledged God first, instead of the King. And gave people the right to pursue God; their God Dominion in this nation. Which means that the creativity…all that creativity is…that is the essence of God. God creates. The Creator! That Creator exists within every individual. And this nation was designed to allow that Creator to express Itself through every individual. And we are living the benefits of that today. Now we have an obligation, if we want to see this world continue to prosper, to make sure that happens with our young people. And the way to do that…the most effective way to do that is to allow that Presence to express Itself through us, so they can see that Light expand. The adults need to come out of the closet…that believe in God and accept the word of God as their own and show the young people that…that’s what Life is all about. And we’ll all be happier for it. Z: Yes. I bear witness. Stanley: (Laughs out loud)

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Z: Were there any key relationships through this journey that come to mind? Stanley: Absolutely! And I’ll start with family. The first one, we talked about me. The next connection…the strong relationship…me and God, then it’s family and God. You know, it’s funny, Zayd. I put up a website…it’s my background. I’m starting to put together my story on this website. One of my quotes that I put up on this thing is: “Family is a group word.” (chuckles) That’s it! (laughs out loud) You know, group. We need to be reminded of that today. Family is a group word. It’s not you, me, that other person. It’s all of us together. It means being together; doing things together; you know, all that kind of stuff. Well, somebody saw my quote and responded. It was kind of neat, because she…I guess was inspired and wrote the word family and she broke the syllables down. Fam – i – ly. Then, she rearranged them. The rearrangement ended up being I AM FLY. Then she went on and she put I AM Flying. Then she went: I AM Flying means I AM FREE. (laughing out loud) I was like: “Whew. That’s powerful! We’re going to post that comment!” (laughing out loud, both of us) Matter of fact, when I talked to her later, I said: “I was looking at your phrasing and how you did this thing.” She structured it…in a structure, a pattern. I said: “You know, I looked at it and I saw something I never saw before.” I saw the fly before, you know, I am fly. She took it to the point of I AM Flying which means I AM Free. But, I saw for the first time, and she didn’t see it. I saw FLY rearranged to create the word LYF – Life. I AM Life is in the word family. Outside of the connection with God; that being the first and most important relationship is family. God put family together for a reason. I value it. I value highly my marriage…my relationship with my children because they allow me to excel

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and experience things that I would never be able to do within my own self. Because there’s a reflection there…There’s a statement by Beloved Master Jesus that says: “The world is a mirror that reflects what you put out.” That is so evident within your household, with you family. It’s unbelievable (laughs out loud). I think we ignore it. I think today especially…there are so many divorces, this, that. and the other. That’s based on what the Ascended Masters say, they say: “People avoid others because they can’t control themselves.” (laughs out loud) In a family, in a household, you are forced to deal with yourself. (Laughs out loud) So instead of dealing with themselves, accepting the responsibility of self-development, self-leadership, self-esteem, self-control, self-correction – WE DIVORCE. And that’s the worse thing you can do. One of the principles of the constitution…because the constitution was designed to protect the family…is…actually about family. They felt that the strength…Well, it actually says it right here, I have it in my hand now. “The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.” That’s because the family is (pause) largely a home, a house of God. When you think in terms of a house of God, it really…you have a Temple, the body as a Temple. You bring people together. You start to represent something greater than that. Government stems from the structure of a family. You’ve got people working together…should be working together in cooperation. You set up rules and regulations. You have a stronger unit. You can do more together as a group than you can separately. That’s what families represent. It’s extremely important that families work together and cooperate together and so forth. That relationship is as valuable as the one with God. If you can do that happily and harmoniously…outside of your direct 188 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

connection with God that is probably one of the greatest ways of showing praise and gratitude to God; to work real hard to maintain a happy and harmonious household. The benefits are limitless because in that exercise, in that training and experience. If you can do that in your own household, where you get really challenged the most because they know your “hot buttons” and everything. (chuckles) You can certainly handle everything once you leave that door. That’s why I feel a lot of children who have broken households; they don’t have the benefit of the direct experience of developing within that dynamic of a household and a family. Therefore, they’re less prepared when they walk out into the rest of the world. (silence) How do you learn to deal in groups? Now you’re out with somebody who doesn’t have [that experience]. In a family you can get away with a lot more. I can have an argument with you, if you were my brother, and the next day we’d be out partying together. Out there in the world…ah ah, I don’t think so. (laughs out loud) “You’re not part of my family. Guess what I could be partying with you and setting you up for the next, whatever it is. That’s the benefit of having family. We all know that. We all know that with family you can get away with things because that’s family. That’s Love. We’ll forgive a family member anytime before [we forgive] what happened with someone else. I don’t care how good your friends are; they’re still not your family. Z: That’s right! Stanley: And you can prove that. Let one of their family members show up. It could be your best friend, something will happen. I’m sure people have had the experience and there has to be a choice made whether it’s family or them. Well, guess



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what? Best friend, I love you, but this is the deal. This is where the line gets drawn. Z: Excellent! Were there any other relationships that were key to helping you learn and develop this perspective around Freedom? Stanley: Yes. I would say being in business almost all my life. My relationships with business owners. I came to appreciate being independent. It started with being an artist, really. And having the freedom to create things and watching ideas manifest from…just out of the blue. An idea would come and end up on a piece of paper, on a canvas, or on a design. Working the dancers and watching all these creative people just do things that were out right phenomenal. Then I realized there was even a higher level to that because artists were expressing themselves and allowing people to enjoy it. Get a lift emotionally, spiritually, and so forth. What business owners were doing through their creative expression was providing (pause) for our future. (pause) And that put me in a whole different level of respect for freedom and independence. A business owner has the ability to draw to him or herself resources and support that no one else can. To put something together in terms of the business, to provide for people to sustain themselves and pursue their God Dominion. And they couldn’t do it themselves. I have a whole different respect for individuals who decide to become business owners. Because of their ability to draw like a magnet resources and support, people and all kinds of things out of thin air. An idea, just like a traditional artist would do except they’re moving people and machinery and produce and an idea. All those things that nature itself seems to just come together behind one person’s desire to provide what they feel is

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an idea they have so that people’s lives can be enriched. That’s powerful to me. I’ve had relationships with literally hundreds of business owners since being a child up to now…it may even be thousands because of what I’ve done with the newspapers and the radio. Reaching out, touching people, getting responses and all. I feel that’s a big part of what this country is about. When you say independence. I really feel that the business owner today is the pure representative of the scope of what independence means and how far reaching it can be. It can go around the globe. I feel these independent business owners are also in the practical sense probably…the way I would put it is throughout mankind’s history we’ve always had these spiritual people that would show up. We call them Saints, call them disciples, call them Buddhas, call them whatever you want. But, there was always someone they connected to who would champion their cause and bring the people together. That person applied the Law to allow the people to come together to become industrious and so forth and so on. Well, I looked at that person as an entrepreneur. Because they were able to marshal these people and get them to pull together, and build and plow and all those kinds of things. That’s what I see happening today. I see you have a spiritual movement going on but yet you have these people who have these ideals and principles, who are called business owners. Who are able to marshal the resources and to make it available to people who have the desire to build and inspire and enrich lives and express their creativity. I give that to business owners. They’re the ones that allow the produce to get from the farms to somebody’s plate or table. Without them having the ability to do that, it wouldn’t happen. Because those at the farm who are harvesting, they’re not the ones that are making that

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transportation work. They’re not the ones that are getting it to the market to allow the product to be packed and shipped and doing all those things. I feel the responsibility of a business owner is key. I feel that today we have drifted away from the core principles of the constitution. We are being forced back into them. In the sense that business owners have to now live with a lot of things around them that they really didn’t bank on, in terms of the resources they have access to. There seems to be a lot more players now because we have a global economy. The dynamics are that those who have are thinking, “I want to keep mine to my own self,” rather than spreading the wealth. That’s causing grassroots business owners to say: “Wait a minute. What’s going on? The pie is not getting bigger, it’s getting smaller.” The resources on the planet have not gotten less. There’s still the same amount of real estate. The same abundance is in the United States; here and now, more so than when the Founding Fathers were here. There are parts of natural resources in this country that have not been touched. We started shipping stuff out, bringing produce in from other countries. It’s not that we lack the real estate and the resources to manufacture or harvest that produce. We’re still relying on other countries to do it because the labor is cheaper. We still have oil in our lands; in the United States as much as they have in Asian countries. But, their labor is cheaper. So, we’re dealing with a lot of things that we weren’t banking on that’s causing us to have to look within ourselves. I feel that’s going to be a very positive movement and direction of us gaining more of our spirituality or independence in this country. I think we’re being forced back to those core principles. We do not, in the United States of America, have to rely on outside 192 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

resources, outside of this country, to enrich this country and take it forward. We don’t have to do that. Z: As you’re talking about Freedom. You’re talking about responsibility and entrepreneurship, Business Owners. In your experience what would be the most important or dominant principles, values that would make a new business owner successful? Stanley: Your timing couldn’t be better. Back in 1996, when I founded The National Society of American Business Owners (NSABO), I pretty much based its principles around the constitution. Actually I have a list of principles. I call it “The Principles of American Business Ownership Development.” It is the method that I’ve developed since 1984. I used it in my consulting and marketing business and so forth and so on for years. It was proven and I refined it. Then, as I said in 1996, founding the NSABO, I just brought those principles to the surface, I have them here. There are a total of 12 principles. The first three are: 1. That all mankind are created equal by God for the purpose of pursuing and expressing Perfection. 2. America is the birthplace of Freedom allowing us to pursue the highest ideals of Perfection. 3. Business owners have a tremendous influence on others, including family members, the communities, business associates and fellow citizens. An example of that is someone can have a vending cart selling apples. They can hire an employee to work and sell the same apples; same hours of the day, right across the street. Well, guess what? Who has more power still? The business owner! (laughs)

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And that person has as much power as Motts Apple Pie people, because they’re a business owner. They can call a supplier of apples and get the same respect as the owner of Motts Apple Pies, because they’re business owners. That’s how much influence they have. But, they need to understand that. They need to understand that’s a responsibility. And that because of the position they have influence, they can make things change. They can walk through a room and depending on their attitude they can cause people to be inspired, very productive or ruin their entire lives, ruin their whole weekend. That’s something which they are responsible for. The next principle: 4. Business owners as a group of individuals with high ideals, morals, values and ethics given a single focus could dramatically heighten the state and progress of America and the world. This was demonstrated in our American industrial, financial, technological and information revolutions. The next principle: 5. Business ownership is a career One thing I’ve found over the years is that when you become a business owner, you’re not thinking “Well, I’m going to go to school and become a business owner.” Somehow you just happen to start a business. I’ve heard people say there’s no place to go to school to learn to be a business owner. Up until the National Society of American Business Owners (NSABO), really there wasn’t. We’re not that well known yet, as far as tradition goes. It’s not like, oh, “I’ll go to school to learn at the NSABO.” It’s not that at all. But the reality is, business owner194 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

ship is a career, a profession…and here is the principle. It is a way of life that must be continually developed into mastery as with any other professional craft. You’re a lawyer. Guess what? You have to go to school for law, pass the bar and this, that, and the other. But, if you’re the boss who owns the law firm; guess what? That’s a whole different ball game. You have a greater responsibility than the lawyer that you hire. That is a profession, being a business owner, though we’re not structured that way. That’s one of the things that NSABO is addressing, to get the word out. Look, you need to focus on the skills of business ownership and develop them. Regardless of what direction… whether it is law, food, restaurant, whatever it is. Business ownership is a career. You need to learn what that means and the implications of it. The next one: 6. Ownership means responsibility. Anyone who takes responsibility for their actions and influence is accepting ownership. That broadens the scope of traditional business ownership. That means that an individual who is working for somebody, who takes the responsibility of caring for that place, can have the same feeling of ownership as the actual business owner that invested all the money. That is something that was taught to me when I was growing up. That if I work for somebody, I can look at that job, at that business as my own. Why would I do that? You know, it’s not my business. I’m not getting any of the profits. Well, let’s think about it. If I accept the place where I work, the company, as my own business; how would I treat it? Would I trash the place? Would I abuse the resources? No. Like that business

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owner, I would see it as an investment. I would put all my Best into that thing. I would apply my work ethics and my energies to it because; guess what? I might leave this place one day and what will I have on my resume if I treat it as my own. What kind of recommendations would I get if I treated it as my own? If I abuse it, there’s a chance I might not get the next job I want to get. I might not get the next opportunity to advance up the ranks. That’s where, in corporate America, I feel the position of “intrapreneurship,” that whole philosophy came from. There are people who have said to themselves: “Look, I’m treating this as my own.” “This is my time going into it; my energies going into it; I’m going to max this thing out.” They become just as viable to that business as the owner himself, even though technically they don’t own it. But the benefits are still there. So we need to look at the opportunity that we have of taking responsibility in the business. Treat it as your own. I say this to students in high school: “Look, this school is yours. You own it. These people work for you.” They look at me and they go: “Ah, what do you mean? Why would we want to do that?” Well, think about it. You have copiers; you have computers; you have libraries; you have equipment; you have gymnasiums; you have teachers that have expertise. If you treat it like your own and you r-e-a-l-l-y treat it like your own: What would you be like? (pause) This is yours. Make it what you want. If you use it to your advantage…Oh my goodness… Imagine what young people would look like; if they treated it like their own? You’re not going to trash your mp3 player or your home computer. And that’s part of the principles. Accepting full responsibility for individual actions taken; makes that individual a business owner. The next one is: 196 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

7. Business ownership development requires discipline, initiative, and courage. Because you’ve really got to stand up against the things that want to draw you off. There’s always somebody who sees you doing good and they think to themselves: “Well, I don’t want you doing good cause it’s not me. And you might get more than I have.” And they’re going to try to pull you off. You’ve got to have the courage to stand up against that. Next one: 8. Creativity [This] is something that everybody has and not everyone will claim they have it. There’s no way you can survive in this world without creativity. God is creating. God’s in you. Guess what? The Creator is in you. Create! The next one: 9. Training and a commitment to sound principles. That commitment to sound principles is kind of where we are today, in terms of our constitution and our government and society. To get away from those sound principles of morality and ethics and religion and spirituality is insane. You don’t want to get away from those things. 10. Ownership is exercising one’s independence. The freedom to pursue and express Perfection. Expressing one’s full Freedom and God-given rights helps to preserve and protect the God ideals of our United States constitution. This means protection and hope for the rest of the world. It’s not like the rest of the world doesn’t know it. Because to this day, re-



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gardless of what people in our country, our own citizens think about this country; there are more people trying to get here than any other nation on this planet. Still. The last two principles are: 11. Our obligation to Life is to serve all Life by pursuing Perfection. Expanding it and protecting the Freedom to do so. Again, that’s getting back to the example of understanding that you are a person; a business owner is a person that has influence. You are also an example and that’s why it’s a responsibility. You might not think you’re an example, but people are watching you because you’re a business owner. You stand out. I don’t care who you are, whether you just have a vending cart… you’re working from your computer outside of your home, or inside your home. You’re still going to draw more attention than the average person. For whatever reason, I know there’s something greater than that. Something more spiritual about it that I couldn’t explain. They have some spiritual aspect to them that allows them to become a magnet to draw people to them; and get the respect for that. So you have to be careful with it. The last principle is: 12. Universal laws, natural laws, as claimed by the founding fathers, govern all activity throughout the entire universe. There’s no such thing as the laws of success here, don’t apply in India; or in Africa; or some remote country. The same universal laws of life here, exist everywhere else on the universe. (pause) That concludes the principles. 198 ~ 7 Self-Leadership Practices to Freedom and Power

Z: Excellent! Ah man, WOW! Two questions…one is: Is there anything else you want to say about Freedom? Stanley: I pretty much said it all. I’m sitting here contemplating. I always want to make sure that people understand, our first commitment: “Thou shall have no other God before Me.” That it is putting God first. That allows us to have that Freedom. The Freedom to do that, put God first, is the most valuable Freedom we have. (laughs out loud) And we should do it constantly. That would be it. Z: That’s the perfect place to stop. WOW! (chuckles) Man this is something brother. I thank you so much for this. My feeling is its going to help a whole lot of people. This is something far beyond what I think it is because it’s being ignited and driven by the God Presence, The God Power. I’m convinced.



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Key Insights on

Freedom Freedom is just that…having the right, the privilege, the honor to allow God’s Life, God’s Perfection to express through you without interruption from outside forces or even your own human consciousness. Freedom is the individual’s obligation to become one with the Presence of Life in them; to allow that to flow through freely and express It’s Perfection. Every individual has some kind of connection with some greater Power. And if giving attention to that, It would flow. The greater responsibility you are willing to take on, the greater the pressure. We have to take on greater responsibility regardless of who you are. Freedom to create and express these things that are within you. Dealing with yourself. Accepting the responsibility of selfdevelopment, self-leadership, self-esteem, self-control, and self-correction. You can do more together as a group than you can separately. That’s what families represent. It’s extremely important that families work together and cooperate together. One of the greatest ways of showing praise and gratitude to God is to work real hard to maintain a happy and harmonious household.

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Appreciate being independent and having the freedom to create things and watch ideas manifest. Desire to provide what you feel is an idea you have so that people’s lives can be enriched. The desire to build and inspire and enrich lives and express their creativity. Accepting full responsibility for individual actions taken Decision points from this chapter: ▶ Decide what you don’t want to do anymore ▶ Decide to become Key Relationships and Roles of Influence • Father – example; support • Aunts and Uncles - examples • Friends – study group, business partners • Wife – support; partner • Family – cooperate together; experience more • Business owners – examples; influence; demonstrate high ideals and principles What do these key insights, decisions, and relationships mean to you, for your personal development?

How can you apply these key insights, decisions, and relationships to enhance the development and growth of your children, co-workers, or employees?



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