Saving Lives, Saving Jobs, Saving America – with Arthur Lih – [Ep. 188]

Linda J. Hansen:  Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101® Breakroom Economics Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101®- Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck, and the creator of the Breakroom Economics Online course, the book, the course and the entire podcast library can be found on Prosperity101.Com. I seek to connect boardroom to break room and policy to paycheck by empowering and encouraging employers to educate employees about the public policy issues that affect their jobs. My goal is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity, the policies of prosperity, and how to protect their prosperity by becoming informed, involved, and impactful. I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit Prosperity 101.Com.

Thank you so much for joining with me today. If you are a regular listener, I want you to know how much I appreciate you and your encouraging words, your five-star ratings and great reviews. Thank you. I also invite you to support this podcast by becoming a Prosperity partner or regular sponsor. You can support with any amount or frequency, but your financial provision will help the work of Prosperity 101® to continue as we promote freedom and liberty for all. Just click on the Prosperity Partner link at the bottom of my website, prosperity 10 one. And if you listen often, you know I cover a wide range of topics and try to help listeners connect the dots in terms of how each issue affects their lives. I believe the policies of freedom, as outlined in our Constitution and in the Judeo-Christian principles that have guided this nation, will guide us to restoring the greatness of America. But how can we best steward or care for and protect our freedom? How can we use our time, energy and resources to help ourselves and others? We all have unique talents, and my guest today has decided to use his to save lives, save jobs, and to help save America.

Before I introduce him, I'd like to read a small paragraph that has always encouraged me to be a wise consumer in support of American jobs and manufacturing. I'm not sure the author, but I'd still like to share it and it's just got great wisdom joe Smith started the day early, having set his alarm clock made in Japan for 06:00 a.m. While his coffee pot, made in China was perking. He shaved with his electric razor made in Hong Kong. He put on a dress shirt made in Sri Lanka, designer jeans made in Singapore, and tennis shoes made in Korea. After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet made in India, he sat down with his calculator made in Mexico to see how much he could spend. Today, after setting his watch made in Taiwan to the radio made in India, he got in his car made in Germany, filled it with petrol from Saudi Arabia and continued his search for a job. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, checking his computer, made in Malaysia. Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals made in Brazil. Poured himself a glass of wine made in France. And turned on his TV made in Indonesia. And then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in America. And with that, I'd like to introduce my guest, Arthur Lih, founder and CEO of LifeVac. The vision of LifeVac came from a story that Arthur had heard of a woman in a hospital. She was weeping following the death of her young son. He had died because a grape had become lodged in his windpipe, and the Heimlich maneuver did not work. Once Arthur heard the story, he set out to invent an apparatus that could clear an airway. LifeVac has since helped in saving over a thousand lives and is widely used by healthcare professionals, first responders, and just regular people. The products are intentionally made in America, and Arthur warns of imported knockoffs that are not made with the same high quality standards and which may not save a life. Arthur, thank you so much for joining with me today. I'm honored to share your story and the LifeVac message.

Arthur Lih:

Thank you for having me, because the message you send and the ability to educate people both on our country and our product is greatly appreciated. And the message will save a life. Someone will see it, and someone will save a life. So thank you.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, we hope it will. So to all the listeners, please keep listening and share this episode with others, because you never know. It may save a life. So I love the story of LifeVac, but what were you doing prior to starting Life back?

Arthur Lih:

Well, I had a shipping company for 20 years, and I had built it up with a partner, and I was 47. I had sold it. I had a couple of years left on my agreement, and I was going to retire. And I was looking forward to doing that, because running your own business for that long, particularly in that business, is very draining. But you want to make God laugh, and make plans, so that didn't work out.

Linda J. Hansen:

So true. We make our plans, but he directs our steps. Well, I'm glad he led you to starting Life back. And this story of the woman that you saw weeping because she had lost her son really tore at your heart. What was it that led you to understanding how to create the LifeVac suction system?

Arthur Lih:

Well, I was in a hospital. I heard the story, and I was in an environment of that loss, and I was in the room, and I don't think without that focus that I would have had to drive, because when I looked at the gurney, I felt like I saw my daughter. She was seven at the time, too. And that night I researched and I saw that 5000 people a year. Fourth leading cause is accidental death. One child every five days, 100,000 plus visits to the emergency room. And I realized this isn't a lightning bolt. This isn't a rare occurrence. This is the fourth leading cause, of accidental death. And I can't do anything if the Heimlich fails when my daughter's life is in my hands. So I just started to research the forces and the studies, and then I went about to think of a very simple, simple way that a panicked father could save their daughter in the event the Heimlich or backflows didn't work. And that was the mission, was originally to save her.

Linda J. Hansen:

That's precious. How old was she at the time?

Arthur Lih:

Seven. Just like the child. And that was all the connection. That was the beginning of the driving force that was handed to me.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, often it is watching a tragedy that inspires us to do something, and especially when we realize that tragedy could hit those we love. So thank you so much for stepping up and doing what people told you could not be done. What were some of the obstacles you faced as you wanted to develop the LifeVac system?

Arthur Lih:

So I got it to work, and she was with me, in front of me. And we used to camp on nylon every night, one night before school started. So she was seven, and I still had my tent with stuffed animals, and we would hang out. That was a daddy daughter night before school. And I now made it. She was safe. But now I had the devil and the angel on my shoulder. The devil's saying, you're good. She's safe. You're retired. Enjoy life. The angel is saying, everyone loves their child like you do. How could you be the only one? How do you have this? And read a story about a child dying, and what do you do? Snicker so they're fighting. I get her to bed, and I'm standing on the island. It's beautiful night, stars. And I look up at the stars, I say, God, give me the strength. As I said the word strength, a shooting star went across the entire sky. And I tell that story because he answers us directly very rarely. And I think he knew the road was going to be difficult. I owned a shipping company. I didn't know anything about medical products. I didn't know anything about medicine. I didn't know about the FDA. I didn't know about testing and cadavers and studies and the challenges they faced if you think you're going to make a medical product in America but because he answered me immediately, there was no more question. It was needed because there was so many times it would have been so easy to say, I don't need this, I tried it's too hard. So that was the beginning of the path and the challenges were ridiculous. The simplest way to think about it is you make a life saving device in your garage and you have to bring it through all the efforts to make it into a life saving product and you can't prove it. You're not allowed to choke people. You can't do a clinical trial. So it's all faith. All faith and science and soul.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, that is absolutely inspirational and so many of us have fought uphill battles like that and really, truly, being an entrepreneur is a roller coaster and a battle where you're developing something that most people think can't be done because you're doing something new and you were doing something new. How did you get it approved for use?

Arthur Lih:

Well, every ambulance in the United States carries a suction device. Problem is they have like a long tube and you should be skilled in controlling yourself. So my goal was to make that so the registration process was similar, the testing process. Know, I tried to use scientific method now in my life, in my Godwink world. My sister's a doctor, my dad was an engineer, my dad worked on the space program. So I grew up not only knowing you can do anything impossible, but not being afraid of not knowing. Right. We went to the moon. We didn't know, we never did it. So how much the retro rockets burn when we're in orbit, I don't know, do some math and hopefully it works because there is no precedent. So I was able to persevere down a path less fearlessly than most. So we tested the force, we tested on simulation, on dummies, we tested it on cadavers. And with that background of success and the sheer reliance on physics, we have the laws of physics, we can count on physics. So this is stuck. If something's stuck in your throat at 10 Mercury and you pulling on at 300, it's going to move, right? We don't have to reprove that. You drop your pencil, it hits the ground. So that was the foundation to put it out there and said, I think it'll work. I don't know what else I'm going to do. Which no company would do, no regulatory company would do. But that's why you got to sometimes do what's right. Say, too bad, I'm doing it. And I did. And it has never failed, never hurt anyone. We're coming up on 900 children, saved 900 kids and almost 1400 lives documented. Saved by life.

Linda J. Hansen:

That is incredible. And I know we'll give out the website address at the end, but I want you to share the website address so that people know they can go and actually see the pictures of the saved lives. For those listening right now to this podcast, I realize it's not a video podcast, it's an audio podcast. And I wish you could see what I see through our video interview here, and that is walls and walls of pictures of people who were saved through LifeVac. And so before we forget at all, I want to make sure people have many opportunities to take down the website address so they can get their life back for their family or for their business. So what is the web address?

Arthur Lih:

Yeah, the best way is LifeVac. Net. And you go there and you can get it. And like you said, most danger is children and the elderly. You could save yourself. So if you live alone. But like you said, for the visual, there is over 1300 mixed tiles. If you can picture what a mixed tile is like, about five x five inches, 1300. And when I sit in here as my cathedral, this is my motivation. I can look at 1300 pictures of people that are alive, and four minutes, this room would be a hall of remembrance because that's how long it takes you to die. So each one of these in four minutes, this would have been a hall of people that were lost to choking, and instead it's a hall of they're still here. And that hit me as a very powerful most of our historic walls or monuments are those lost. And that's exactly what this would have been four minutes from when they used the light back.

Linda J. Hansen:

That is so inspirational. And it reminds us that we can't give up. God gave you a vision. He gave you a burden to help. He gave you the ability to understand how to fix it. But not only was it difficult, because you can't force a person to choke and then test your product on them, right? You can't endanger their life to save their life, to make sure your product works. So that was challenging. But I know when we were speaking earlier, you told me that the biggest obstacle to your success or to being able to save lives, to you, the success is the saving of lives. So the biggest obstacle was actually our government. And because this podcast is so focused on helping people understand the policies that help or hurt businesses, because businesses drive the economy and businesses support families and communities, what were the obstacles that you had and you still have as you run your company?

Arthur Lih:

It's more perception of the power of the government. And I can tell you, I rode my motorcycle through a beautiful park in Ohio, came to stop sign Stoplight, and there were five people on the side. There was no one around, but the Red Hand was up, so they didn't cross the street because the Red Hand was up. So it's not only that, this perception that Life Act wasn't allowed. And early on, there were 60 schools that had a death, and I offered to give them a free one so it wouldn't happen again. And a lot of them said, oh, no, we're not regulated. The regulations don't say we're allowed to have it. So it's almost that seatbelt law mentality that if I'm not told to do it, I guess I can. I'm not allowed. But if you think about it in depth, how scary that is, meaning these people actually thought they were required to let a child die when they could save them, and that's when it gets scary. That our moral code. Even if there was a law, which there isn't, the law is actually you're supposed to save the kid. That's the law. But to perceive you're not allowed because the government didn't tell you to do it is scary to me. Once again, the law is you have to try and save it. But the misconception is, it's not my rules. It's not my regulations. I can't do it. The law is you got to do anything reasonable. But to think that you are required to let a kid die that could be saved because you're not told you can is scary, and you can't fight crazy. So luckily, we've thousands and tens of thousands of schools now carry it. But that message scared me in the sense of you should not be around children if you think there are rules that have to let them die and you follow them, you got issues.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, we have a lot of issues in our country right now. And you said you can't fight crazy. And I know there's a lot of us who are trying very hard to fight crazy in a lot of areas. But you mentioned a story from Fenimore, Wisconsin. We were talking about Wisconsin, and you mentioned Fenimore and what happened in Fenimore and how did that drive what you're doing with schools nationwide?

Arthur Lih:

Many years ago, probably six or seven now, beautiful little boy choked to death. And the parents devastated and true heroes because they contacted us because they didn't want to happen to someone else. So they became advocates because they knew the pain, and so it worked its way up. And currently, a person in a wheelchair, kid in a wheelchair, scoliosis brace. There's numerous childhood disabilities that you cannot heimlich them. You can't get your arms around. Scoliosis brace blocks them so they have no chance in a choking emergency. So there's a group called EFA Equal First Aid that is fighting for them to have an equal opportunity. So Bill came to Wisconsin, and I was brought in to technical advisor to talk about lightBack and make sure they understood it was safe and whatnot. And a mother testified on losing her child. A father testified on losing his son in school. Another grandfather testified on losing his daughter in school. Then I spoke, and after I spoke, one of the council people, you know, we got budget. Is there anything you could I couldn't. I just listened to the story about Sam, who I got to know the parents and this beautiful little kid, and I keep him with me when I ride. They just said he died in school. So I said it's free. And they all froze. And I said, I will give one to every school free. If that's our problem, then I'm going to commit right now. Sign a doc. It's free. And then I felt I couldn't dust to Wisconsin. So I've been giving free life back to every school in America, because money is worthless if we're going to lose our kids in school. So I don't care. I think we'll be okay. I think we could do it, but that's what I'm doing.

Linda J. Hansen:

That's so generous of you and so caring. And that really shows the heart that you have to help people. And if only more people would be like that, it would be amazing. And so thank you so much for doing that. You never really know. Well, if they tell you, then you know. And it's a really wonderful story with so many lives that have been saved, and I'm sure there's many who've been saved that never even contacted you.

Arthur Lih:

I had a good one. I went to check up at the doctor, and I went in and saw one guy, and he says, oh, you got to go in the other room. I walk in the other room, I have my Life back shirt on. And the guy says, oh, lifeback. He says, I have that. I used it to save my kid. I'm like, now, he didn't know that I was an inventor and CEO of the old thing. He said I had a shirt like I got it at a concert or something, and he had not reported it. So that was such a gift that I walked in, and he was like, oh, yeah, I use it to save my kid. And I was like.

Linda J. Hansen:

I'm glad God called you out of retirement into this work and ministry. But you had said, too, that I want to encourage everybody who's listening, whether you are someone who's listening and you're an entrepreneur with an idea or something that you think can help those of us who are entrepreneurs, we have to go through a lot. Like, we get told no a lot. We have to work at helping people understand our vision. We know that God called us to something, but we need help to get it to fruition. And it's a difficult journey. And you had so many people who said, this can't be done. You can't do it. You can't do it that way. Don't even think about it. All these things tell us a little bit about that, and that may encourage those who are listening to step forward into their fear and do it anyway.

Arthur Lih:

Well, the real thing, I think, is not that complicated. I wrote a story about, you just do what's right. Right. Just do what's right. It'll work out. So early on, my dad working on the space program reliability. There's no second guesses everything has to work kind of inbred me. One, you could do anything to build it, right? So from the beginning, I made it simple. I made it last forever. That's the first time they said no, it's got to expire. If you want money, you got to make it expire. Sell a new one every year. I said no, I made it affordable. They said, make it triple the price and expire. We'll make a lot more money. I said no. They said, if you make it in China, you can make it for a lot less. I said no. And I said, I give you a free one if you ever use it. And they said no. So I really got no support from any of the typical financial or government help because it was too inexpensive and they couldn't sell you a new one every year. But I saw from the EpiPen that came out it was $600. Every school has one, but the mom in Idaho can't afford it. And every school gets a new one every year because it expires, but the mom in Idaho can't afford it. And I knew that system could have got light back in schools very quickly if I tripled the price and made it expand. But then the mother and idol couldn't get it. So I said, I'm going to make an inexpensive last forever, cover your whole family, make an American, give it away. If you use it, I'll give you a free one. And then the mother and idol get it. And I'll fight and I'll win eventually to get it in the schools and the restaurants and all that because now it won't get legislated because you can't get money every year, but it's just do the right thing and it'll be all right. I don't know what happened when we stopped making products the best we can and why don't we make them last forever? What do you need to sell another one for? We're only here for a little while. Just good one. And be proud that you made something that lasts forever. And be good, be a good person. Sleep at night. What's the big deal?

Linda J. Hansen:

I love that concept. I love that attitude. And you said, too, that you felt like it was a moral imperative to make it in. You know, I share that desire to only purchase and buy things made in America, and it's very hard to do sometimes because so many people have chosen to make their products in other countries, and it's really hard. I know that there's many things that have come up into the patriot economy, like public Square and other sources where you can have American made products, and it's wonderful, but it's a hard road. So thank you very much for choosing intentionally to make your products in America and not doing the more convenient or less expensive way of operating where you build things offshore.

Arthur Lih:

Really, as I learned that how bad it is. Basically, there are two major reasons why you want to make it somewhere else, right? One is in the old days at least if you made it overseas, you had to put it in a factory here. So if you infringed on a patent, I could go after you. Well now it just goes from China, let's say to Amazon so you have no recourse. They can copy anything because you can't get to them. You're going to sue China. Good luck. The second problem is that when used to go to Sears and buy something, that money stayed in the country. When you buy it now on Amazon, that profit goes back to China and they don't pay tax. So we're slaughtering ourselves. And the third thing is they don't have any regulations. They're not inspected by the FDA, they don't have to follow. Our FDA book is the size of a phone book on what we have to do to make this thing properly under their guidelines. They just make it. They just copy it and make it. They don't care if it works, they don't care about it. They're not registered with the FDA. So we are sacrificing our tax dollars, our quality and potentially our lives. I've bought probably 1500 of these knockoffs, and I would say probably 90% would have a major flaw. Because as simple as it is, there are some intricacies that need to be done right for it to work properly. And I put a lot of time and effort into making a valve system that you can't block with your hands. I could put just a valve in it, that's what they do. But it could fail, it could get blocked. So I made something that won't fail or block, but the key, once again, just do what's right. So you make it here, you can deal with a little bit of cost difference. It's not going to make a difference. You're going to be okay, don't be greedy. So what right, it's not that bad. And then you get quality product, you support your country, keep tax dollars in the US. It's just ridiculous that we sell our souls for, know, couple pennies or dollars, whatever we need to get pride back in the products we make. Meaning my name's on it and my dad's name on it because we're the same name. My name's on the move because of him. So you get a life back. It lasts forever, works perfectly every time. We never had a failure, never had an adverse effect. And the money stays in the country. And people have jobs that they could be proud of, not that freaking hard. So wake up, make the best thing you can and make it here. No big deal. Let's go.

Linda J. Hansen:

Right. And we're talking about going to the moon. And your concepts are not rocket science. It's do the right thing, make it here, support your country, do things that save lives and do what's right. It's beautiful. And what would you say to employers who want to help their employees understand how the policies like you've had to deal with all these policies, the regulatory policies, the tax policies, everything. What would you say to them so that they could help their employees understand? Look, this makes a difference, like who you vote for and the policies that are there so that we can stay in business and keep making life backs.

Arthur Lih:

I think in general, and my employees too, when we save 100 lives, we usually have, like, a little cookout in the parking lot. I have the food truck coming, and we all go out and talk and enjoy that moment. We actually been saving them so fast, we're probably coming up next time would be 900 kids. But as an employer, I would say, look, you have to be proud of what you do. You have to work hard. That's what life is. Be conscious of being led the sheep. Do what's right. Don't worry about whatever is wrong. Don't do it. It's not that hard. And be educated that we have to stand up as we keep getting crushed by taxes, by regulations. And escaping is not the answer. Fighting is the answer. You got to stand up for yourself. So I think as an employer, I would say value your employees. Develop mutual respect, inspire them. We save lives. I'll go running around this place, I'll go into the picket pack. I'll go into the manufacturer. We saved another life, guys. Hey. We all clap. So it's not hard. It's getting back to regular values. My dad worked at Grumman. They had the Grumman picnic. Those guys killed themselves to put a man on the moon. You never heard them squawking them out, their hours of their things. They had a mission. And your job is your mission. Your family is your mission. Work hard, take care of them, be educated, and you'll be fine. And the more we're educated, the better we can get things back on track.

Linda J. Hansen:

Absolutely. That's why I do Prosperity 101®, to try to help educate people so that we can get our nation back on track and we can help employers such as yourself to be successful in their business and in their mission and their calling. Because what you do is so much more than a business. It's a calling. I want to make sure people have the website again. They know how to get the Life vac and listeners, when you go on the LifeVac website, I encourage you to go through all the tabs at the top and read the things, read the stories, read the history of life back, read about it. But also you can take a training. There's a tab that says Training, and it's just a short video where you can learn how to effectively use a LifeVac, and you can get a little certificate that shows you went through the training. This is great.

Arthur Lih:

The training. Cost? What does it cost to get trained?

Linda J. Hansen:

The training was free, so you can do the free training. Good point.

Arthur Lih:

All that training should be free.

Linda J. Hansen:

It is great that it is free training. And so for those of you who have schools or maybe churches or you're just a family, a business, you need to have a life back. And so please go to the website and read through it all, but order the LifeVacs for the people that you care about and you never know the life that you may save. So, Arthur, do you have anything to share in closing before you share the website again?

Arthur Lih:

No, I think it was really neat praying before we started. I think that this was a really nice interview and I'm very grateful that you persevered to deal with me and I think that your message is very important and I hope we save a life from this. So I'm thankful.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, I hope we save a life, too. Thank you. I know that people will be burdened to share this with others and it is a scary moment, but it can be fixed so quickly. And so thank you for answering the call and making sure the angel from God is the one that got the most of your attention when you said there were warring angels. One drawing you into retirement and an easy life and one I knew the.

Arthur Lih:

Devil going to lose, but he was it sounded so good. I was going to build boats.

Linda J. Hansen:

Yeah, well, thank you for not. You never know.

Arthur Lih:

Always wins.

Linda J. Hansen:

Yeah. When we decide to persevere through hard times, we never know the eternal significance of that, too. I mean, it's just exciting when I look at the pictures that are behind you there, you know, what are those lives doing now? Like, each of those people, what are they doing? And those babies that were saved or those children, what are they going to grow up to invent and do to help America or help the world? I mean, it's just exciting to know that you had a part in making sure that they can fulfill their destiny.

Arthur Lih:

First little boy I held, he was saved right before his birthday. He was the first boy. We saved the girl first. But I held him and I looked at him and I said, you better be a good boy. And that was, like, six years ago. And I talked to his grandmother occasionally because she's a super fan, she gets it. And I said, I'm coming to his high school graduation. I'm going to sit in that audience and watch him get his diploma and ball my eyes out. That's what I'm looking for.

Linda J. Hansen:

Yeah. Well, that is really rewarding. And I'm sure that they're grateful that you answered the call. So thank you and please give the website again.

Arthur Lih:

Yeah. Peoplelifeback.net. It's the safest way to get the product and you got a fire extinguisher. Please consider getting a life back. You got four minutes and it's just not worth it.

Linda J. Hansen:

Absolutely. So lifevact. Net listeners go and support the mission of LifeVac. So thank you so much, Arthur.

Arthur Lih:

What a nice interview. Thank you very much.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you again for listening to the Prosperity 101® Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a great review. Don't forget to visit Prosperity101.com to access the entire podcast library to order my newest book, Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck or to enroll you or your employees in the Breakroom Economics online course. You can also receive the free e-book, 10 Tips for Helping Employees Understand How Public Policy Affects Their Paychecks. Freedom is never free. Understanding the foundations of prosperity and the policies of prosperity will help you to protect prosperity as you become informed, involved, and impactful. Please contact us today at Prosperity101.com to let us know how we can serve you. Thank you.

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