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

Click on each name to listen to the heroes interviews of Sharif Khan, Author of "The Psychology Of the Hero Soul," Debra Berg, Author of "The Power Of One," Cameron Johnson, Author of "You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way – And Live the Life You Want", Robert Channing, the World's Greatest Mind Reader and Mental Motivator and Ralph Zuranski, the Creator Of the In Search Of Heroes Program.

Sharif asks question Ralph Zuranski: Let me just ask you, tell me a little bit more about your “In Search of Heroes™” program.
Ralph: It’s a program that I created back when I was a writer and photographer for the Coronado Eagle. I was disgusted by the Heroes like the rock stars, the sports stars, the movie stars or people that are basically just into money and fame. They don’t really give kids a good example of what it is to be productive human beings.

When you focus on material possessions and fame and the people’s lives are broken, they are in shambles, on drugs, involved in illicit sex; it is such a devastating aspect of people’s lives. I just thought we really need to look at who the real Heroes are.

From my experience, over my lifetime of being involved in professional sports, working with movie stars and working with incredibly important people, I’ve found that the real Heroes are the moms and dads. They are the people in their families that take their time and sacrifice to help and protect and serve those that they know that are in their family circle.

My mom and dad just recently had catastrophic illnesses last year, and I was the only child that decided to drop what I was doing, come back and live with my parents and help take care of them. I’m thankful that my wife came with me.

Now that I see how hard it actually is to step up to the plate and take care of your parents when they have catastrophic illnesses and how great are the sacrifices, I realized that the real Heroes are the people that are making a big difference in the lives of the people within their own families.

I thought that people really need to know this. That’s when I created the Heroes program, to take high school kids in search of local and national Heroes to just ask them, “Who are the Heroes in their lives?” Almost to a person, even the movie stars and important people in the community all said it was their moms and dads, or the coaches and teachers.

Ralph Zuranski: Cameron, What do you want out of life in ten words or less?

Cameron Johnson: Well, I think there are a number of different ways I could answer this, but most importantly, what I want out of life is that I want to leave the world a better place, and I want to motivate young people to do the best that they can do.

Ralph Zuranski:That’s pretty impressive. I was just looking at your bio. I was wondering if you could just share with everybody the stuff that you have done and a little bit about your unique book, The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities.

It sounds almost like my In Search of Heroes program.

Debra Berg:Yes, yes. Well, that’s how I found you. I was searching on the web for heroes and I found you.

I’ve had a kind of interesting career. It has led me to what I do today. I’ve been an entrepreneur; I’ve worked for, as you mentioned, the legislature, I’ve worked in corporate America and so I understand all the different industries in this country.

As I was a business owner I ran into a very interesting couple from Romania who had helped overthrow Nicolae Ceausescu and we became good friends.

They ran across a Harvard study called Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital and they were demoralized by it because it maintained that people were no longer interested in their communities. My friends came to learn about democracy here and to take those insights home and teach their grassroots leaders. Their reaction to the study bothered me.

So that ten years of working for the legislature and doing studies on social policies caught up with me and I just couldn’t believe that people weren’t interested in helping others and in helping their communities. So I went on my own personal quest to find out what was really going on out there.

I came across an amazing new trend. I call it the New Civic America. It’s about people, everyday Americans, women and men from all walks of life, who are sacrificing big incomes, personal lives.

One man has even sacrificed an NFL pension to go and create a solution to major social problems like poverty, at-risk youth or crime.

That’s what I do. What I do is I get out there and I talk to people about what is going on and I encourage others to do the same.

Ralph Zuranski:Wow, that’s really amazing. That sounds like a wonderful work.

Debra Berg:It’s really fascinating and it’s so humbling to talk to these heroes. They are very altruistic, not in it for personal gain at all. They are out there to make a change, to make a difference in the world.

Their ideas are so good that they are now replicating across the country and in some cases all over the world.

Ralph Zuranski:You know, that’s funny. I just found an article in the newspaper about young people that came up to the one gentleman, Mr. Strickland. I think you are going to be speaking with him at a seminar for Mark Lewis down in Dallas?

Debra Berg:Yes.

Ralph Zuranski:He basically had people, especially young people, come up to him and tell him how grateful they were to have the opportunity to work with him and do something that mattered and that helped other people.

Debra Berg:Yes. And these people have drawn in lots of volunteers, lots of youth, and they have set a fabulous example, especially for the youth. And the stories and spin-offs from what they have encountered with these heroes and what they have ended up doing with their lives is also very inspiring.

Ralph Zuranski:I can imagine that it is. I’d like to go ahead and ask you a couple of the Heroes questions.

Ralph Zuranski:What do you want out of life, in ten words or less?
Debra Berg: Health, wealth, a successful marriage, and a network of friends helping others.