Len Thurmond: Now in my life, my mother will always be my hero more than anything else. She’s the reason I’m on this earth to begin with; she’s the reason I survived the years I was trying to destroy myself; and she’s the reason that I live right now.
I came back to where I lived in Georgia to be hear her because she was ill, and I wanted to take care of her and I wanted to try and give back some of what she had given me and make sure that her grandchildren knew what a special lady she was.
As far as current people that I look up to, in this industry, the internet industry, there are so many people who have literally pulled themselves up by the bootstraps that it’s amazing. Stephen Pierce, everybody knows the story of how he was shot, he was homeless; very similar to my story only I wasn’t shot and he had it much worse than I did. Armand Morin came from the wrong side of the tracks and is now a multi-millionaire.
It goes on and on. There are just so many people who decided, basically, I think we all decided that we are unemployable. There’s no way that any of us can work for anybody else. We don’t have a choice. We have to make it and we have. We’ve made a living at it; some better than others. Most of those, better than I, but I still make a good living.
Those are my heroes. Those are the people I look up to. People made the decision; not that they don’t want to work for somebody, but they know in their heart that they can’t work for somebody else. They are entrepreneurs at heart, which basically means they are creative. They have an energy force in them that will not be denied. They cannot put that aside.
It’s not that they can’t work for someone else. It’s that they can’t deny that. It’s like a singer who decides not to sing or a really, good, talented actor with a passion who can’t act all of a sudden; there’s no reason to live. You cannot deny it if you are one of those unemployable people. You have to follow your dreams.
That brings up another thing. Who are my real heroes? I don’t know any of them personally, but I think my real heroes would have to be the people who follow their dreams because they have to and never make it because they are so dedicated that they can’t quit. That’s the epitome of dedication. If you never even reach your dream, but you continue to have to go for it, you just can’t stop.
That’s dedication and there’s nothing like that out there. That’s an amazing level of dedication. Those would have to be my real heroes and I was one of them for a long, long time. I think I am proof that you can strive for something you believe in for a long time and never make it, and if you keep trying eventually you probably will.
You asked me what level of money is enough and all that. It’s really not important. I make a good living. I’m not rich, but I make a good living and I do something that I truly love, and that’s all that matters.
If you can be happy doing what you do, that’s all that matters. People who strive to become famous singers and do nothing but play one night gigs in little bars their entire lives for the most part are really happy because they’re doing what they love. That’s all that really matters.
If there’s any unhappiness in their lives it’s mostly because there is somebody else they are responsible for whom they can’t provide for the way they want to. That’s my impetus for making money and getting where I am, but most people in that situation are by themselves; they are not responsible for somebody else. If they have somebody else who loves them, they probably work their own job and are self-sufficient.
They are pursuing a dream, and I don’t think there’s anything in life more important that you can do than to pursue a dream. If you spend your life pursuing a dream honestly and with all your heart, regardless of what level of “success” society says you’ve reached, I think you’re a success, and I think that’s really all that’s important in life.