Leaders of Men and Defenders of Women

That is one good looking group of gentlemen. Yes, I am partial since this a picture of me and my 4 brothers. The picture is nearly 2 years old now so a few things have changed including that nice Florida tan on my face.

From left to right we have Sheldon 17, Corbin 27, Me 29, Hayden 25, and Briton 19. We have a younger sister Marielle who turned 15 this past June. She is known as the beat up princess and a priceless gift for the man who lasts through our father and her 5 brothers protecting her (that is a lot of guns).

It has always been understood in our family that we each had the choice of what we want to do in life. That freedom to choose has been an incredible blessing to our family as we are all uniquely gifted.

Corbin works as a Welder, a Crossfit Trainer, and is a Corporal in the Marine Corps. Hayden works as a Salesman for AT&T and provides us with some of the sweetest deals on our family plan. Briton is known as Brit the Wit, and amuses our family with raucous laughter when he isn't repairing one of his motorized vehicles in the shop. Sheldon is our Thomas Edison at large having memorized the periodic table while he builds custom jewelry and sells it on Ebay. Marielle is my mom's sanity as she helps her laugh and lead all the testosterone in the house while continuing to amaze us as a young artist with her drawings.

While we have our specific talents and areas of expertise, we all understand the goal of our family, and that is to bless people. My parents taught us from an early age that if you want something, work for it. If you want something that is expensive, don't you dare say you are poor or cannot afford it, you find a way to bless people with something of enormous value.

Learning to lead

One of the maxims that my mother repeats constantly to this day, is that a Sipe knows how to work. That maxim materializes in the example of my father. He raised a family of 6 children in the United States on $30,000 a year for nearly 5 years. Those years were certainly lean as the babies kept coming and the business slowly grew, but none of us regret a minute of it.

My mother wanted to homeschool before I was born and my father would do anything to support her. Their children learned early on that nothing is impossible and the love of two people can bind like a glue despite every wave of any trial.

As the oldest, I was expected to help lead a household while my father worked and my mother taught school. Thankfully my schooling was mostly self-taught by the time I reached high school. I learned early on how to run a family and how to lead people in the various social environments I encountered.

That does not necessarily mean that I jumped to the front to lead whenever I was around people. My family learned from the mistakes of my father and his continual acknowledgment that listening first is better than shouting first.

My dad is the choleric, dominant, and outspoken type. You don't have to guess what he is thinking because he tells you. When those thoughts are less than filtered, people retract and walk away. My dad spoke with us often of what he learned as he saw problems but did not go about fixing them properly. Yes, he made known that there was an issue, but he learned over the years (as my mother found her voice and showed him how people reacted to him) to listen first and then frame his proposals to people in their own words and from their perspective.

Empowering people

The dynamics of my visionary father and my lioness mother created children who are concerned about the well-being of people. We believe in the maximum prosperity for mankind. The internet, bitcoin, and blockchain, are creating a world where maximum freedom for the individual, male or female, is quickly becoming a reality.

While I am excited at the possibilities of magic internet money, and transparent transportation of information, my mind continues to wander and wonder at the state of people inheriting these technologies. Like money, technologies have a tendency to accentuate who people already are versus molding them to be something they are not.

We enjoy bashing our governments right now and salivating over the pending demise of their unchecked spending and spying. Yet, are we as a society ready to seize the opportunity of freedom or does revenge consume us like a Count of Monte Cristo?

My concern is rooted in the state of families both here in the U.S. and around the world. The family has always been the backbone of a vibrant and healthy society, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. While we are entering a period where men and women have the chance to succeed and lead greater than any I can find in history, we have the society building juggernaut that is the family breaking down at every turn.

I am not proposing that the model (homeschooling) I grew up with is the one you should adopt. Your situation is different and your dreams are different. These words are simply here as a perspective to ask the question, are we ready for the revolution?

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