You may be wondering about The National Treasure Project. What is it and what does it mean for you?

Over the last few years I’ve been talking to parents around the country about character and morality and values and beliefs. I wanted to know how parents were passing those beliefs on to their children. What were they saying, what were they doing to convey their beliefs, or any beliefs to the next generation?

I was surprised to find out that few parents knew how to do that.  Even fewer had a plan for passing on their most important guiding principles and concepts to their kids.

One parent I talked to told me he and his wife have three sons—two in college and one just graduated. This guy and his wife went to a well-known religious university and his wife is on staff at a church. When I told him that I teach parents how to pass on powerful beliefs to their children he pulled me aside and said he wished he’d had some training like that. He said, “I lay awake at night worrying about whether I gave my children the stuff that they need.”

Well, that’s what The National Treasure Project is designed to do, to be a national movement to make sure that parents have the knowledge and the skills to pass on their most cherished beliefs.

Don’t lie awake worrying about your kids.

Make sure they will be okay by passing on great character.

Your children may be our National Treasure, but first, they are your family treasure.

May 2. 2004. An event that day stunned my neighborhood and launched this project.

It started out innocently enough. It was a pleasant Saturday morning in the Chicago area. A group of Glenbrook North High School senior girls had  challenged a group of junior girls to a powder-puff football game. But more was going on than was apparent.

The touch football game included more and more physical contact as it progressed. It soon became obvious that the football game was just a pretext for some violent hazing. The junior girls were beaten and doused with pig intestines, paint thinner, and human feces.

The violence sent several girls to the hospital – one with a broken ankle, one with a broken rib, and several suffering severe concussions. A dozen or so were badly beaten and were treated and released from the hospital.

Reportedly, three dozen participants were suspended from school and cited for misdemeanor battery. Two mothers of the girls were cited for providing alcohol to minors. (Parents of several of the girls later sent them on a cruise to escape media attention.)

The story made the national news largely because of the location. Glenbrook North High School is on Chicago’s North Shore and some 96% of the students go on to college.

How could this have happened in this community? That was the question I heard for the next few days. But I asked a different question. Those girls knew that this was wrong, but they did it anyway. What beliefs must they hold to think that this behavior was okay?

I began to look at other news stories about kids and violence, some were worse, some were not as bad. But in each report I noticed the lack of restraining beliefs and the presence of beliefs that allowed for personal injury, property damage, and avoidance of the consequences.

After that, I read other news stories about bullying, rampant cheating, flash mobs, and shoplifting. Somehow, somewhere there seemed to be a breakdown in the communication to these kids of the standards of a civilized society. I called this lack of restraining beliefs Belief Bankruptcy™.

It started me on the search for answers as to how so many in a generation could lack the beliefs necessary to function as members of society.

So, I began talking with parents – good parents, and not so good. In almost all of them I found some common factors, and even if you consider yourself an excellent parent, you’ll be interested in what my results say about you and the future of your children.

You’ll find those answers in The National Treasure Project.

Belief Bankruptcy™

The United States is in a deficit crisis. Almost daily we see signs that the nation is moving closer to total bankruptcy and a devastating crash. Yet few seem willing to acknowledge the danger or do anything about it.

You may think I am talking about the National Debt, the entitlement explosion, and the looming financial meltdown. Although the financial situation is of serious concern, it is merely a symptom of a much more important deficit—the erosion of our nation’s morality.

It’s a case of what I call Belief Bankruptcy™.

A few years ago I had a brief conversation with a senior editor at a national news magazine. I asked her . . .

“What are the minimum moral requirements needed for our nation to hold together?”

“I . . .I don’t know,” she answered with a perplexed look on her face. “It’s a good question.”

I sense we are dangerously close to our nation’s moral minimum.

What makes me say that?

The solution for the morality deficit is parents who teach their children well—parents who teach their children the beliefs—the moral, values, and character that will rebuild our nation’s moral footings.

Make no mistake, the frontline of the culture war runs right through your home. You can arm your children to resist the drift towards Belief Bankruptcy™ or you can let them fend for themselves.

After talking to lots of parents, I found some common factors about why Belief Bankruptcy™ may be overtaking so many of our children. Here’s what I found.

First, parents I talked to told me that they weren’t quite sure what beliefs and values they wanted to pass on to their kids. Some talked about wanting their children to live by the 10 Commandments. Most talked about wanting their child to be truthful, and fair, and live by the golden rule, but most said they just wanted their kids to be good people.

The second factor was that few parents knew how to pass beliefs on to their child. Some said they hoped their example would be enough. Many said that they had talked to their child about something that was right or wrong. A few said they wanted to leave all those decisions up to their child.

The third factor I found was that only a few parents had a plan to make sure their child got beliefs passed on to them. Interestingly, every parent I talked said they had a college saving plan and most had life insurance plans as well. But only a few had a plan for teaching character, beliefs, and values.

The fourth factor was that most parents I talked to thought their child would be taught character, beliefs, and values either at school or at church. Many parents thought this was covered by ‘professionals.’ When asked if they knew the values and beliefs of those ‘professionals’, most were stumped.

The very fact that you are reading this tells me that you are more concerned about your kids than many of the parents I talked to. I’m glad you took the time to join me here and I hope you’ll download the free materials and watch your videos.

Who is behind National Treasure Project. Well, I am. I’m Rich Hudson

I started studying beliefs and how they affect our lives more than 3 decades ago. As a result of my training and study, I’ve spent 6 years as a corporate trainer and then another 20 years as an executive coach.

As a coach I’ve had clients in 14 countries on 4 continents. These are CEOs and Managing Directors in multinational companies, and most of my work has been helping them develop powerful beliefs to take their companies to the next level of performance.

I began to notice that most of the beliefs that held my clients back were beliefs that were laid down in childhood. I began to wonder if there was a way to help kids build great, empowering beliefs while they were still young.

So I began to talk to parents about what they were doing to pass on their most important beliefs. I found that most had never really thought about it, and fewer still knew what to do. It wasn’t their fault, they’d just never been taught how to build and pass on beliefs.

Using my experience and knowledge of how beliefs operate I began working with some parents and writing about how parents could build their own beliefs and then pass them on to their kids.

The basics of how to do that are here in The National Treasure Project materials which you can download for free.

So. what is this National Treasure I’m talking about? It’s not what the National Treasure movie portrayed, but a little history might be useful.

Almost all the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were men of great faith and virtue. We would call then men of great character.

John Adams said, “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” He also said, “The foundations of national morality must be laid down in private families.”

I believe that the public and private virtue Adams was talking about is our true National Treasure. But this virtue won’t do anything if it stays in books, hidden away in libraries somewhere. Character is virtue in action, and it need to be in action to make any difference.

In short, our National Treasure depends on you developing this great character and passing it on to your child. Out National Treasure is great character in parents like you and families like yours.

So, take this opportunity in this election year to build some powerful beliefs, take a stand to live by those beliefs, and build the kind of great character you child can be proud of. Then teach that to your child.

Check out The National Treasure Project either on this website or at our Facebook page. The download of materials is free and there is no obligation.

So, this teaching character to kids, don’t parents know how to do that already?

I’ve talked to a lot of parents in the past few years. When I ask them what they are doing to teach their children character—what beliefs they are teaching their kids—I’ve gotten some interesting answers.

Some parents said sure, I’ve talked to my kids about right and wrong. A few parents have said that their kids can see their example. But when I asked what plan or steps they have taken to make sure their kids develop great character, most parents I’ve talked to were stumped.

If you are one of those parents who don’t know how to teach your kids about morality, values, and character; understand that it’s not your fault. You were probably not taught how to do it. And even if your parents told how to pass on your beliefs, the game has changed.

Your parents had no idea how the culture and the communications world would change.

One reliable media think tank says that today’s typical high school student spends almost 9 hours a day connected to electronic media.

To teach your kids character and instill beliefs in today’s world, you need a plan.

So, why is this a rare and unprecedented opportunity to teach your kid about character?

Most of the time, you probably find yourself fighting the media. Either you are fighting to protect your kids from the content or you are trying to explain to them the stuff they do see.

Face it, the media is making it harder and harder for you to keep up with what goes into your kids head.

But this year, the media will be covering the election—the candidates, what they stand for, what they are saying, and what they have done in the past. This gives you, as a parent, the perfect opportunity to talk to you child, ask questions, and use the teachable moment.

What better time to show and tell your child what you believe, how it affects your life, and how you take action with your vote.

The goal of The National Treasure Project is to provide you the framework, the method to teach your child using the backdrop of the election. No sides are taken, no candidate are endorsed. No beliefs are spotlighted but yours.

So take this opportunity to clarify your beliefs, and teach your child how to claim our National Treasure—the beliefs, morality, values, and character that have made America great.

How does this project work?

It’s pretty simple actually. You just download the materials which consists of a PDF guide. The guide give you links to 10 short videos which explain what you as a parent can do to open great conversations with your child about beliefs, values, and character. Also included are several worksheets to get you started using The Three Lifelines™ process.

You can keep in touch and find additional ideas of how to talk to your kids by visiting the website and the Facebook page. To learn more, you can go to the Connect page on this, The National Treasure Project website.

How can I help The National Treasure Project?

The best way you can help The National Treasure Project is to tell others to visit the website or the Facebook page.

If you have friends who are parents, let them know about your experience with these tools and invite them to join you working on building character.