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

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Ralph Zuranski: Wow, that’s a pretty amazing story. I sort of went through the same thing. I was angry at my dad for the way that he treated me when I was growing up so I figured, “Well, you’ll be sorry when I hurt myself or kill myself,” and I got myself involved in extreme sports and had one bad injury or one big mistake or made stupid mistakes and got involved with drugs. It was like, “Gee, I think I’ll just destroy my life to get back at you.”

Ralph Zuranski: Now that I look at it the same as you do, it’s like, gee! What was I thinking at that time?

Ralph Zuranski: Was there anybody who helped you to give you the will power to make changes at that time or did you just come up with it on your own?

Len Thurmond: Honestly, it was on my own. I was too messed up to let anyone get close enough to help me. There were a lot of people who loved me and wanted to help me and were constantly trying to help me; my brother and sister, my aunts, my uncles, my best friends, my girlfriends. I was married four times through all this because I couldn’t keep a wife. God, some of those women were incredible. I look back on it now and what an idiot I was.

Len Thurmond: It’s like that country song that says, “I know what I was feeling, but what the heck was I thinking?” What was I thinking?

Len Thurmond: There were plenty of people who would have helped me if I had let them, but I think most people who find themselves in a situation of hitting rock bottom couldn’t hit rock bottom if they allowed people to help them. There’re always going to be people who want to help you. Even just the local pastor or the neighbor’s father or whatever; there are always people who care.

Len Thurmond: But if you get that low, it’s because you refused to let anybody help. You are bound and determined to ruin yourself, and if you are lucky enough to live through it, then you will eventually hit rock bottom. And when you hit rock bottom, you know it. It’s not, “Am I there yet?” There’s no question; you know the day that happens. “It’s time! I’m done! This is it! Enough’s enough!”

Len Thurmond: It doesn’t mean that all your problems go away, but it’s the start of the recovery. I would love to be able to save that somebody saved me.

Len Thurmond: I’m a musician, I love music. There have always been countless ballads and stories about people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and if anything saved me it was probably those types of things that kept hammering in my head. “You only have to live this way as long as you decide. And when you’ve decided to change, it will change.”

Len Thurmond: I guess you could say I was helped by thousands, the thousands of people who’d gone before me and actually done it. People who had worse lives than I had; people who lived in all kinds of horrible situations and gangs and everything; they managed to pull themselves out of it.

Len Thurmond: Stephen Pierce is a prime example of that. He had it much worse than I did. So it’s hard for me to feel sorry for myself at this point, but back then I felt like I was the lowest guy on the earth. I guess it was stories of people that were inescapable. They are everywhere around you. Those stories finally sunk in enough to let me know I didn’t have to do this anymore and that I could do anything I wanted to. I never really questioned that.

Len Thurmond: I changed from what I wanted. I never wanted to die. I was not suicidal. If I had wanted to die, I would have been dead. I could have said, “I’ll show you, I’ll die,” and then shot myself in the head. That’s not what I wanted, you know. I wanted, for whatever reasons, to suffer. And I did a good job at it, and I wanted those around me to suffer too.

Len Thurmond: When I got tired of suffering I said, “Okay,” and that was that. It was just knowing that I could and know that other people had done it. I don’t think you can ever be too far gone where you can’t crawl out. You just have to make up your mind that it’s time. And when that time comes, it’s not that difficult to crawl out. You just have to believe that you can.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, how important was it to believe that your financial dreams had come true?

Len Thurmond: Really, Ralph, my financial dreams have not come true. They never will come true.

Len Thurmond: I don’t really have financial dreams. I want to be able to give my family everything they want. I want to not have to worry about how I’m going to pay the bills.

Len Thurmond: You know what I want? Do you know why I became successful when I became successful? When my oldest daughter was born, or rather, when she was two years old and she came and she asked me for something. I don’t remember what she wanted, but she wanted something, and I couldn’t afford it.

Len Thurmond: I told her I couldn’t afford it, “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford it.” And I told my wife that night that I felt so bad, so bad. I told my wife that night that I will never, ever have to tell my child I can’t afford it again. Not that I’ll give them everything that they want, ever. I don’t think that you should spoil your kids.

Len Thurmond: But I will never have to tell them I can’t afford it again. I made that promise to myself and to my wife that day, and I never had to again. I busted my ass to make sure that would never happen again. And it was almost an overnight thing.

Len Thurmond: I turned the gallery around instantly. I got into the internet stuff very shortly thereafter. I ran the gallery during the day. It was in a mall, so it was open day and night. My wife ran it at night and I went home and worked on the internet and took care of the kids. I raised my kids from the time they were in diapers, which is the most important thing to me, and it’s the reason that I do what I do right now. I’ve always been able to be there for them. I’ve never had to farm them out to anybody and I never will.

Len Thurmond: But that day I told myself that I will never have to tell her I can’t afford it again, and I haven’t. That’s the driving force that keeps me going.

Len Thurmond: I will never reach my aspirations of enough money because I don’t think there is such a thing. But I don’t really have any goal or set aspirations because all I really want is to never have to tell them I can’t afford it; never have to worry about paying a bill, where the money’s going to come from; and to be able to take them to Disney World or on cruises or to Hawaii or whatever when I feel it’s time to get away.

Len Thurmond: That’s the only thing that money means to me. I suppose it would be great to leave them a fortune in the end, but I’m not really sure that’s a good thing either. I mean, look at Bill Gates. He’s one of the richest men in the world and he’s not leaving his kids his money. He’s giving it away to charity because he knows it’s not a good thing to endow that on somebody. Make them make it on their own.

Len Thurmond: Give them enough to be able to get by and be comfortable. You don’t want to stick them in the ghetto, but I don’t think it’s good to do that to a kid. You need to raise them to be self sufficient and teach them to do it on their own.

Len Thurmond: My girls are learning how to make web sites and stuff right now at their young age of eight and ten. They’ve both got their own web sites and I fully intend for them to move into the business if that’s what they want to do. I’ll give them that opportunity.

Len Thurmond: But how much money I make is just enough to do whatever because you can’t take it with you anyway. Anything that’s left, if I were to become extremely wealthy, I would probably give it away to charity too. You have to give it and use it where it’s best needed. There are too many people who need it more than my girls do, as long as they’re comfortable.
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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

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