In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Ralph Zuranski: Laughter

Willie Crawford: But I answer my own phone. And that’s not the way to make you know ten million a year.

Ralph Zuranski: Sure.

Willie Crawford: I’ll make over two million this year.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: But I won’t make ten unless I start outsourcing more and unless I get an answering service and stop answering my own phone, and get somebody to process my own emails and things like that.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well I know you shared the room because my other roommate had to leave early.

Willie Crawford: Right.

Ralph Zuranski: I was amazed at how late up at night you stayed and answering emails and stuff it was just incredible I thought gee does Willie ever get any sleep.

Willie Crawford: If you were on instant messenger with any with most of the guru’s, you see a lot of them are up at two or three in the morning because that’s when the phone stops ringing and that’s when you can get the most done. That’s when I can focus the most is like I’m often up at two or three o’clock in the morning.

And again it shocked me that others will see me online and they’ll IM me or whatever and say what are you doing up so late. But it’s just I have complete control of my time.

I work 100% from the internet. And I choose when I get up, when I work and everything. And so if I want to work at 3:00 in the morning and then sleep late or go fishing during the day then I can.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well that’s really amazing. You have been to a lot of conventions you’ve been all over the world. I’m sure that you’ve met quiet a few people that you considered heroes.

What is your definition of heroism?

Willie Crawford: Because I’m a soldier and old soldier who spend twenty years in the military my definition is probably different from most.

But my definition of heroism, is someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interest. They do what needs to be done in the face of adversity. They know that they can be harmed.

They know that they won’t necessarily get the immediate benefit of it but they do it anyway because they think it’s for the better good of society, and for the culture or the country as a whole.

You know whether it’s a fireman that rushes into a burning building knowing he could… that the building could collapse around him or soldier who would rather be at home with his family you know his new born baby but is off on some battlefield risking his life.

Or a teacher at some inner-city school teaching and knowing that there’s a possibility that kids in this classroom have guns in their nap sacks or whatever.

And that there are teenagers going through all of these chemical changes that they go through in adolescence and that they’re all wired and everything, and anyone of them could go off at them at any minute. Yet that teacher spends the time and energy to really care for those kids, and push them in the direction that they need to go.

So it’s someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interests ahead of their own immediate interests. That is my definition of a hero.

Ralph Zuranski: You know you had a pretty rough up bringing living on a farm and being on welfare most of the time. I know I had a pretty tough time growing up to and I was wondering did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?

Willie Crawford: That’s a good question you know, I didn’t have any real heroes per se. My heroes were books. I have a biography I’ve written called "Git Off The Porch" and its at my website at GitOffThePorch.com, and in that biography I explain that as I looked around me when I was growing up, all the people that I knew were smoking pot or doing cocaine or whatever.

And every spare penny they had was used to escape from reality and so they… they didn’t set a good example for me. I knew no people who were successful in business. I knew no people who were really good role models. Except for a few schoolteachers who reached out to me.

And so my Grandmother bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia’s when I was probably ten or twelve and that was probably the greatest gift that she could have given me. I grew up with my Grandmother. My Mother and Father separated and my when I was about three.

My Mother went to New England where the jobs were better than in the South. And she had custody of the three younger sons and my father had custody of the two older children and he was in the military still traveling the world. Remarried four other times after that and my mother left me and my two younger brothers on the farm with my Grandmother.

And she bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia and I read every volume of that set of Encyclopedia including the reference guides and things like that.

And I also at fourteen started my own mail order business. I had a bulk mailing permit. I did what was called big mails where you send out a package of circulars, just like online you send out your newsletter. Well I had a bulk mailing permit and people sent me their circulars and I mailed them out to people.

And I discovered somewhere in there that you could buy and resell books and people would send me like you know 500 books and I’d run an advertisement and resell these books.

And I discovered some really, really great books and that is where I learned that there were bigger worlds out there. I discovered in books that there were people who you know who made millions.

And who you know didn’t fall asleep worrying about the fuel oil running out at night and wake up in the morning you know when it’s freezing cold and you have no kerosene left and so your house is cold which we did many times.

So my heroes were books. That is where I learned about the bigger world and where I learned to dream. And to decide I was going to be a part of that bigger part of the world. I read books and I also listened to audiotapes, Earl Nightingale and people like that so.