Ralph Zuranski:
Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski, and I’m on the phone with Bill
Hibbler. I’m doing his "In Search of Heroes" interview. He’s
one of the people that I’ve seen at many of the internet
conferences where I’ve taken photos and run the computers.
How are you doing today, Bill?
Bill Hibbler:
I’m doing great Ralph. How about you?
Ralph Zuranski:
I’m doing great too. I was wondering if you could sort of
tell us what you’re doing now.
Bill Hibbler:
I do a couple of different things, Ralph. The way I started
out in internet marketing was kind of becoming like the
consumer watch dog for the internet marketing crowd.
Basically reviewing products and basically just sharing my
experiences. You know, “I bought this. It’s great.” There
are a lot of people doing, “I bought this and it’s great.”
Bill Hibbler:
So I’ll just come out and say, “I bought this and it’s
really not so great. Avoid this” A lot of people come in and
they pull out their credit cards and they start buying tons
of things, a lot of which isn’t that great and not
necessarily what they need. Then I also teach people to
create their own information products. It’s the most
profitable thing that you can sell online. I am just
basically enabling people to live the same kind of lifestyle
I’ve been able to do.
Ralph Zuranski:
Weren’t you a DJ for a while? And also, did you travel with
the band that you represented? A famous rock group?
Bill Hibbler:
I started out in selling guitars, vintage guitars, to rock
stars when I was 15. If you’ve ever seen the movie
Almost Famous, it’s kind of similar to my story.
I would go backstage every time a band came to town and find
out what equipment they needed and take vintage guitars up
for them to look at. It was great for me. I was just trying
to meet my heroes, my rock and roll heroes.
Bill Hibbler:
That evolved into me eventually becoming a behind-the-scenes
person in the music business. I worked with the British
brand Humble Pie in the early eighties. I managed Glenn
Hughes from Deep Purple in the nineties. I got to meet
almost every big band on the circuit in the seventies and
eighties.
Ralph Zuranski:
Wow. Well, would you say that the rock stars were heroes to
you? Or, some of them weren’t very heroic?
Bill Hibbler:
They were heroes to me and some of them still are. But,
we’ll probably get into this a little bit more later on. The
problem with that is, nothing against any of those people,
but it’s like a lot of people here are like “rock and roll
heroes” or “athlete heroes”. Their whole career, especially
for rock stars, is designed so where you really only see a
slice of the pie. You don’t see the whole person.
Bill Hibbler:
You see this person on stage and they’re holding a guitar
and they’re singing a song. Your mind kind of fills in the
rest, then everything else you’re fed about that person
comes from the publicity machine where a lot of it’s
fabricated. I mean that’s just part of the deal there.
Bill Hibbler:
If you try to model yourself after that person, unless
you’re also trying to be a rock star, it can be disastrous,
because a lot of times, as we know, those people’s lives
aren’t together at all.
Bill Hibbler:
How many rock stars have we seen overdose on drugs and die?
Bill Hibbler:
So, they’re not the best role models. But those were my
heroes at that time.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well, I know that you’ve been through some pretty low times
in your life. When was the lowest point in your life and how
did you change your path to win a victory over all
obstacles?
Bill Hibbler:
Well, I started out at 15. I was doing the guitar thing.
What I saw then is in order to do my job; I had to get
backstage. I had to get through security. It’s kind of like
a salesman that has to get past the secretary or the
receptionist. You know… the gatekeepers. It was really kind
of similar. I would walk up at first and I would try to
explain, “Well, I’m here and I’ve got these guitars.”
Bill Hibbler:
A lot of times I was asked by the band to be there. But
somebody would mess up. My name wouldn’t be on the guest
list. The security guys could care less. It was like,
“Whatever. Your name is not on the list.” So I observed that
that wasn’t working. I was just going up trying to explain
my situation. Going to all these shows, I would watch the
stage door. I would see a road manager or someone come along
and sometimes these people would have their backstage pass
on and sometimes they wouldn’t.
Bill Hibbler:
I saw many people without a pass. Some guy with a briefcase
covered in backstage passes from other shows would come
walking in and he wouldn’t stop and try to explain. He would
just walk in the door like he owns the place. It’s his
production. He belongs there.
Bill Hibbler:
Those people were usually British. If the security guard
questioned them, they were just kind of like, “What are you
talking about?” They just looked at them like, “Of course I
belong here.”
Bill Hibbler:
I wasn’t consciously aware of it but I began to model those
people. I went out and got my briefcase and I covered it
with stickers. I didn’t have a bunch of backstage passes yet
so I covered it with guitar manufacturers stickers. And I
was a good mimic. I could do the British accent as well as
the Brits could.
Bill Hibbler:
That became the deal. I remember the first time I tried it.
I just walked up and walked in the door. Nobody asked me
anything. If they would ask, “Hey. Hello. Where do you think
you’re going?”
Bill Hibbler:
“I’m going to the dressing room.”
Bill Hibbler:
“Well, where’s your pass?”
Bill Hibbler:
“I don’t know. I left it on the bus.”
Bill Hibbler:
And I would just keep walking and they would sort of shrug
and say, “Okay,” and let me go.
Bill Hibbler:
I’ve even had arguments with them. It was like, “Alright
mate. I’m going to leave. When the band comes and they’re
looking for their guitars, then you tell them that you
didn’t let the guitars come in because I didn’t have a pass,
alright?”
Bill Hibbler:
Then you start to walk away and they’re like, “Oh, wait,
wait, wait. Hold on. Go ahead, go inside. You’re okay.”
Bill Hibbler:
That was my early experience with learning to model other
people.
Ralph Zuranski:
Was that your lowest point in your life?
Bill Hibbler:
That was not the lowest point in my life. That’s how I began
to overcome obstacles.
Bill Hibbler:
What happened when I went backstage to those shows is I saw
this guy, the road manager. I was fascinated. He’s like the
manager of the band on tour. He’s running the show. That’s
what I wanted to be. But, I had no idea how to do that.
There was no internet or anything then. It was hard to find
any kind of role models.
Bill Hibbler:
I realized what I really needed to be doing is working with
local bands and just getting more experience and working my
way up. I was afraid to do that. I dropped out of college
after six weeks. I was an accounting major. That would have
been a horrible mistake.
Bill Hibbler:
I was managing a stereo store and I was good at it. I had
accumulated a lot of stuff. I had two big stereos and I had
a Betamax, which was a big deal then and all this “stuff”.
The idea of going to work for a local band.. you don’t make
any money.
Bill Hibbler:
So I couldn’t do that and pay my bills and keep all my
“stuff”. What happened is, I don’t want to go through the
whole story but I ended up with a really nasty drug habit.
This was late seventies up to about 1980. I’d discovered
cocaine.
Bill Hibbler:
That just knocked me on my butt. I ended up pawning
everything I owned.
Bill Hibbler:
It was all gone. I used to have like seven or eight vintage
guitars.. gone. Stereos…all that stuff gone. I had this huge
stack of pawn slips. That was all I had left. I came to the
point where I had been served an eviction notice from my
apartment. The power was turned off. I was about to be
homeless.
Bill Hibbler:
A friend of mine that was a drummer in a band came by. I’d
worked for his band when I was in high school. He offered me
a job going on the road with his new band. Up until that
point, I wouldn’t have taken it. I would have wanted to but
I couldn’t afford to do that.
Bill Hibbler:
So, I had to learn the hard way. And I had nothing to lose
at this point.
Bill Hibbler:
I just had my clothes. I put some things in storage and I
eventually lost that because I couldn’t pay the storage
bill. But I became willing. That was the key, becoming
willing.
Bill Hibbler:
I didn’t have to worry about cocaine right then because if
you don’t have any money, you don’t have any cocaine.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy, that’s true.
Bill Hibbler:
That was definitely the lowest point. I was physically in
bad shape. I had lost everything. I was really beaten down.
But suddenly an opportunity presented itself. Within
probably a year of that happening, I was road managing
Humble Pie.
Bill Hibbler:
I had met the guys when I was doing the guitar thing before.
I just became fearless. I went to every show and I just made
myself known. I didn’t really know exactly what I was doing
but I was just everywhere. So I just increased the odds.
Bill Hibbler:
You could listen to the whole story and say, “Well, I was in
the right place at the right time.”
Bill Hibbler:
It was like I was everywhere and I was willing to do
whatever it took. Whatever I needed to do, “Okay, fine.”
Bill Hibbler:
I ended up doing that and basically living out a dream. Now
the alcohol and drug thing continued to interfere,
especially alcohol which I wasn’t drinking before then. I
discovered alcohol. It took me until 1989 to finally get
sober. I discovered AA. I discovered that there was a group
of people that had been there.
Bill Hibbler:
Again, I was just learning from their experience. I haven’t
had a drink or done any drugs since then, 1989.
Bill Hibbler:
Again, that was when I discovered that you can’t always do
it yourself.
There’s strength in numbers. It wasn’t
people preaching to you “Don’t drink.” It was just people
saying, “Well, this is what I did.”
I’ve tried to teach people to model what’s
worked for me. I don’t want to preach to people what to do.
I am just, “Here’s my experience.” And that carries over to
business and everything else too.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well, how important was it to have a dream or a vision to
set the course of your life to help you overcome those
obstacles?
Bill Hibbler:
Well, the music business thing, it was all about adventure.
We were like sailors on a pirate ship or something; just
having this great adventure. I eventually just got tired of
that because you’re dealing with people that are still
drinking and drugging sometimes and they’ve got huge egos.
Bill Hibbler:
So, I decided I wanted freedom. I wanted to do my own thing.
I don’t want to be in a position to have my lifestyle
disappear because this rock star goes over the edge or says
something stupid. I want to be more self-reliant.
Bill Hibbler:
I wanted freedom. Freedom has always been my number one
value. But not just freedom, because homeless people have a
lot of freedom. They’re free to come and go as they please
but little else. I wanted freedom on my terms.
Bill Hibbler:
I wanted to make enough money to live whatever lifestyle
that I chose to live. That could be material things, travel
and the ability to help other people do the same thing. I
wanted to use my experience to save others the hassle of
making the same mistakes I did.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. I can relate to that. How important was it that you
believed in the dreams that you had that they’d eventually
become reality?
Bill Hibbler:
It’s everything, Ralph. I had my doubts at times but I did
have the early experiences in the music business where I
knew what the possibilities were. I had that dream and
accomplished it. When I got there, it turned out to be not
exactly what I wanted. Basically, I grew up.
Bill Hibbler:
You get to a point where you’re like, “Okay. This was fun
when I was in my twenties. I’m about to turn forty and I
don’t think I want to do this anymore.”
Bill Hibbler:
Having the belief… I think whatever you believe, you can
manifest. Sometimes you have to kind of get that in stages,
if you know what I mean.
Bill Hibbler:
I did a thing with Joe Vitale. He has a book called
The Attractor Factor. He
has a thing where he was talking about attracting a car. I
decided I was going to experiment with this. I probably
wanted a brand new Mercedes. I didn’t believe that was
possible for me. But I was willing to believe that I could
generate something less expensive like… I love the old, late
eighties model Mercedes.
Bill Hibbler:
I believed that I could do that. It was, “Okay. This is
going to cost $5,000 or $6,000 and there’s maintenance. But
I believed I could do that. Once I believed, ten days later
I drove home in the Mercedes.I just recently got a BMW Z3
convertible which I’ve always wanted. You know, it was a
much more expensive car but I just believed I could do it.
Bill Hibbler:
Once I believed, then in a couple of days I had it. I think
if I’d of believed in a Bentley or whatever, that’s what I
would have gotten. It’s kind of like you’ve got to take it
in stages. If you can believe it, really internally believe
it, you can make it happen.
Ralph Zuranski:
You know, one of the things that make it hard to believe,
there are doubts and fears. The doubts that people put in
our minds that are around us and just fears that we create
on our own. How did you overcome your doubts and fears?
Bill Hibbler:
Really the same way that I’m helping other people. It was
seeing someone else do it. Here’s something. And I know you
were there. The Big Seminar One was a big turning point for
me. Even before the seminar.. the calls.
Bill Hibbler:
The preview calls that Armand Morin did where Armand was
basically introducing all these speakers and he said, “Look.
Anybody that speaks at the Big Seminar has to be making at
least five figures a month and has to have been doing so for
at least a year.”
Bill Hibbler:
I trusted Armand to give us those kinds of people. As I
listened to each of those speakers, Carl Galletti, Frank
Garon, Alex Mandossian, you know all the great people that
were there.
Bill Hibbler:
I’d hear them talk. They’d tell a little bit of their story
and they’d say, “Well, you know. I remember I’d been doing
this for about a year and I was making $1,000 a month at
that point.”
Bill Hibbler:
And I’d be thinking, “I’ve been doing this a year and I’m
making $2,000.”
I heard these people. For the most they weren’t smarter than
me. They had more experience but it wasn’t anything that I
couldn’t do. So I’d say, “Okay. This guy was there. He’s
making, and I say guy because it just happens that all the
speakers on Big Seminar One were guys, not that women can’t
do it too…”
Ralph Zuranski:
That’s true.
Bill Hibbler:
These people were making five figures [monthly] and they had
taken the same path. So I thought, “All I’ve got to do is
model what they did.” You know, with my own unique twist. I
couldn’t be Armand Morin II [laughs].
Bill Hibbler:
But that was it. And that was just really encouraging to me,
hearing those stories.
Bill Hibbler:
The other thing that was the key for me was forming a
mastermind group. I’d done that when I was in the music
business and I have a mastermind group today here in
Wimberly, Texas. A group of people like Joe Vitale, Craig
Perrine, Cindy Cashman, Pat O’Bryan..a lot of people that
you know.
Bill Hibbler:
There are six of us at the core. We meet once a week and
it’s all about support and encouragement. You don’t have to
have someone like a Joe Vitale in your group. Sure, it’s
been really beneficial to have Joe there.
Bill Hibbler:
But in my music business group, and Pat O’Brian was in that
one, too, it was all unknown musicians in Houston. One guy
wanted a record deal and he went out and got a record deal
and was the opening act for Kiss on their ’96 tour.
Everybody accomplished their goals.
Bill Hibbler:
So just forming a group of people so that you’re not around
the people that… you know the type of people that say, “You
can’t do that. You’ll never make money doing that. You’ll
never succeed at that.”
Bill Hibbler:
Having that kind of support group is just critical.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy, that’s true. You know, we’ve been on the internet
circuit for about three years now. How important is it to
maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Bill Hibbler:
You have to keep your sense of humor. I don’t always succeed
every time. But you’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself
at times. I think many people
take themselves way, way too seriously. Life is full of
humor. Even at your lowest point, you can laugh. I think
that that’s essential.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Who are the heroes in your life now?
Bill Hibbler:
I’d say my Grandfather, who is no longer with us. But my
Grandfather was probably my number one hero. I thought my
Grandfather was rich. He was probably more middle class, but
he lived in a small town. So he didn’t have high overhead
and he ran a restaurant. Everyone in town knew him. He was a
hero to me.
Bill Hibbler:
My first exposure to entrepreneurs, too. And my wife is my
hero.
Ralph Zuranski:
Is that Lena?
Bill Hibbler:
Yes,
Lena. She’s here in this little town. yet
she raises a fortune for Russian orphans. She’s originally
from Russia. This is her cause. She first started doing bake
sales and different things. I thought, “Well, okay. She’s
going to raise a few hundred dollars.”
Bill Hibbler:
I think the first year she raised $15,000 for orphans. The
money goes a long way over there too. She’s just really
devoted to that. So I really admire her.
Bill Hibbler:
Joe Vitale is another hero. Besides his internet marketing
and writing stuff, I just watch the guy. At age 50, he’s
lost over 70 pounds and he’s competing in fitness contests.
So that’s pretty inspirational to me.
Bill Hibbler:
Finally, my buddy Pat O’Brian, who I’ve watched go from a
basically broke musician to… I think he’s got like 40 or 50
different products on the market and he’s done that in less
than two years.
Ralph Zuranski:
Wow. That’s amazing. Well, how did they make a positive
difference in your life?
Bill Hibbler:
My Grandfather, I would say the big impact that he had, I
never got hooked on a paycheck. I never had to have that
security blanket. I didn’t even realize that until I started
seeing other people that did. They would ask, “How do you do
that? Aren’t you afraid?”
Bill Hibbler:
The lifestyle just came naturally to me. I grew up around
it. I was so used to the up and down thing that comes with
being in your own business.
Bill Hibbler:
With Lena it was really the power of giving. I’ll tell you a
quick story. We were in Germany together. This was probably
a few months before we got married. She had told me about a
woman at her church named Little Nina. Nina was probably in
her late 70’s. She was raising her daughter, Natasha, a 50
year old woman with Down’s syndrome. Usually they don’t live
that long.
Bill Hibbler:
She was in this fifth floor walk-up apartment taking care of
her all by herself and living on this extremely meager
pension. Yet, she had all this gratitude in her life. She
had been saving up to build this... she wanted to enclose
the porch in her apartment building to make a sunroom so
that Natasha could actually see the outside. But sometimes
Russia would be very cold.
Bill Hibbler:
She wanted to enclose it. I was really touched by their
story. I was getting ready to get on the plane back to the
States and had about 80 euros in my pocket. I could have
exchanged it but instead I told Lena, “Give this to Nina.”
It wasn’t that much money, Ralph. $80? Later when I went to
Russia I met Nina and I walked in and I saw this sunroom
that she had been saving for 15 years to build.
Bill Hibbler:
I went in and I saw the sun room and I met them. Little
Natasha has since passed on and Nina is on her own now. She
was so grateful to me. It was like I was the biggest hero on
the planet.
Bill Hibbler:
I could actually see the impact of what I’d done which to me
was nothing but it meant everything to her.
Bill Hibbler:
You compare that to my concept of giving before which is you
write a check to the American Cancer Society or something
like that. I have nothing against them, but you give and
it’s like, “Okay. The money I gave them just goes to pay for
them mailing me again.”
I don’t really see the positive impact of
that.
I paid for 1 1/100 of a machine or
something. I don’t know but I liked seeing where the money
goes. So that’s something that I got from Lena. And It’s
really helped me help her with the orphans.
Bill Hibbler:
Then with Joe, it was the opportunity to see the
possibilities first-hand for the internet marketing
lifestyle. It’s like if you go hear these people speak at a
seminar. I remember the rock star thing. It’s like seeing
them on stage is one thing but is that real?
Bill Hibbler:
Well with Joe, I see him all the time. He’s doing it.
There’s no stretching the truth there. I see it. That’s
inspirational to me.
Bill Hibbler:
With Pat, it’s a little different. For me it’s because I
could see... I don’t take credit for Pat’s success but I
could see that I could help someone else. He started out by
just listening to me rattle on about internet marketing.
Bill Hibbler:
You know how internet marketers are. We talk about
autoresponders and products and websites.
Bill Hibbler:
I introduced Pat to Joe and one thing led to another. But
just pointing the way and setting an example was enough.
Pat’s probably the first person I’ve really seen be really
successful doing that. So that’s inspirational to me.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well, why are heroes so important in the lives of young
people?
Bill Hibbler:
Kids want heroes. And if they don’t have them, if they don’t
have real heroes, they’ll go with imaginary heroes, like
rock stars that we talked about.
Or, athletes and other celebrities, movie
stars and they really aren’t the best role models because
like I said, you don’t see the whole person. You see a
carefully managed image for the most part. I think real
heroes, if you look can be seen close up, warts and all.
Bill Hibbler:
So that they’re not someone that’s on a pedestal. They’re
real people.
It’s got to be someone that’s real.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yep. Boy that makes a difference doesn’t it? Not, do what I
say but do as I do make such a big difference in the lives
of kids.
Bill Hibbler:
Walk your talk.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Well, how are you making the world a better place?
Bill Hibbler:
Well, my thing is, again, it’s trying to show people that
want freedom in the way that I do, how to get there without
being taken for a ride. And really kind of giving them…
Pat’s kind of helping me see this...
Bill Hibbler:
Give them a peak backstage. At first I thought that people
don’t want to hear about stories about me going to San
Antonio for the weekend. But actually, I did a promotion
recently where that’s exactly what I did.
Bill Hibbler:
I did a product promotion at the same time. I said, “I’m
doing an experiment. I want to see if I can go on this trip
and pay for it and make money while going out and having fun
just to show people it could be done.”
Bill Hibbler:
I documented the whole thing. I was kind of afraid, “People
are going to think I’m talking about myself which is not
what we’re supposed to do.”
Bill Hibbler:
But it worked. And people saw the possibilities. I should
have realized that from the beginning. It wasn’t like me
bragging. It was me showing them what works. That’s the kind
of thing I try to do.
Bill Hibbler:
You and I have talked about this before. I just got back
from this seminar in Atlanta where I saw a lot of people
that were into MLM and network marketing. They were really,
really getting pumped up and they were writing big checks to
get more pumped up.
Bill Hibbler:
I overheard two ladies waiting to get some coffee. I heard
these ladies say, “You know what.” She was really excited.
She was like, “I’ve only got $200 left in my savings account
but I’ve got to find a way because you’ve got to do it.”
Bill Hibbler:
Man, I didn’t feel good about it because I knew what she was
buying into.
Bill Hibbler:
This isn’t the way to go. Now, Armand Morin was there,
Stephen Pierce. T. Harv Eker was there. They were giving
people reality. But I think that the problem is… and this is
what I try to help people avoid in a nutshell...
Bill Hibbler:
People want to buy magic beans, you know? They want to buy
three beans and plant them and climb the bean stalk. They
always ignore the part of the story about the giant.
[laughs]
Bill Hibbler:
But that’s what people want. They get so hooked. You know,
“You can get a web site. It’s ready-made and we do all the
work for you and all you have to do is put it up and you
don’t have to do anything and it’s going to be great.”
And it’s like, “Oh. I don’t have to do
anything except write the check.” So they write the check
and that’s the mistake that they make.
I try to create tools that are really
useful. I try to evaluate other products and services so
that people don’t get ripped off and they don’t try to buy
magic beans and I try to warn them about magic beans.
Bill Hibbler:
Beyond that, as far as making the world a better place, I
kind of look at it as like I try to go with the micro view
of ‘help one person at a time’.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Boy that is so true. That makes a big difference. Do
you have any good solutions to problems facing society,
racism, child/spousal abuse, bouts among young people?
Bill Hibbler:
Child abuse I think that a lot of us have experienced that
in one form or another.
Bill Hibbler:
I think what most people tend to do is play the blame game.
Everybody, including me, does that or has done it. Instead,
I think that playing the blame game is useless. You can’t go
back and fix what happened X number of years ago.
Bill Hibbler:
But what you can do is decide that it’s going to stop with
you. If you have children, you decide that it stops here.
Abuse always goes from generation to generation. That’s the
one thing that you can do is just decide it stops here.
Ralph Zuranski:
That’s true.
Bill Hibbler:
Spousal abuse, I’ve witnessed this first hand. There’s
physical and there’s mental abuse. I think the physical
abuse is usually what we pay the most attention to. If
you’re getting physically abused, you’ve got to get out.
Bill Hibbler:
There’s usually denial and all these things. You’ve just got
to get out. A lot of people overlook the mental abuse. I’ve
had people that have experienced both. The mental is so much
worse.
Bill Hibbler:
If you’re in that situation, you’ve got to get some
counseling or you’ve just got to get out. It’s scary. But
it’s not going to change. You can’t sit around and think
that this is going to go away because it’s not. It’s just
going to continue. You’ve got to either fix it or get out.
Bill Hibbler:
Violence, I’ve got kind of a unique, well it’s not really a
unique take on it but a new twist. How many years have we
heard about violence on TV and violence in movies? For most
of my life I’ve said, “Oh, come on. I think people
understand the difference between real life and what’s going
on, on TV and what’s happening in movies.”
Bill Hibbler:
Something happened recently that’s kind of changed my mind
about that.
Ralph Zuranski:
Really?
Bill Hibbler:
That’s due to my wife Lena. Lena grew up in Russia but it’s
not just because of Russia. She never watched a lot of the
kind of action/adventure movies that we watch. I’m not
talking about slasher flicks. I don’t like those.
Bill Hibbler:
But if you think about it…I’m 45 years old and I wonder how
many people I’ve seen killed on screen since I was a kid?
Ralph Zuranski:
Probably a lot.
Bill Hibbler:
You don’t realize how desensitized that you are to it. There
were a lot of movies that I turned Lena on to when she first
got here like some older films, like Spartacus and Ben Hur
and the big epics. You see some of these battle scenes where
some guy gets an arm hacked off or something. To us. you
don’t even think about it. It’s like it’s nothing compared
to how real they’ve been able to make it look in today’s
movies.
Bill Hibbler:
But Lena was watching the chariot scene in Ben Hur and the
slave revolt in Spartacus. She was screaming in the living
room like it was happening to me.
Bill Hibbler:
If someone had walked in the room and say hacked off my arm
with a sword, her reaction would not have been any stronger.
At first I was saying, “What is wrong with you?”
Bill Hibbler:
She was just horrified.
Bill Hibbler:
I realized it’s not something weird about my wife. It’s
something weird about me and us. We’ve seen it so many
times, we don’t even think about it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy, you know that’s an amazing point.
Bill Hibbler:
It’s also, I think, when I grew up I knew what right and
wrong was from my parents and from my grandparents. I think
a lot of kids growing up now in single family households
where someone’s working and they just see those movies just
as much as I did if not more so, video games and stuff like
that.
Bill Hibbler:
They don’t have the other foundation. It’s like we just saw
what happened in New Orleans. I was watching Fox News and
Sean Hannity was talking about it. He was asking, “Why would
these people be shooting at rescue helicopters?”
Bill Hibbler:
And I was thinking I knew the answer. There’s a video game
out called Grand Theft Auto.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, I’ve heard of it.
Bill Hibbler:
Someone told me about it and they were telling me about how
amazing the visuals were. You could just get in this little
car and drive all over this island city or you could go on
the beach. It was amazing from a computer technology
standpoint.
Bill Hibbler:
So, I bought it. It’s like you’re basically running around
stealing cars and shooting people and there’s a scene where
the police are after you and they come in a helicopter.
You’ve got these big guns and at some point you’re shooting
at the helicopter.
Bill Hibbler:
The game is really kind of addictive.
Ralph Zuranski:
Really?
Bill Hibbler:
You’re sitting there playing this game. Then you’re like, “I
just wasted three hours of my life that I’ll never get
back.”
Bill Hibbler:
But you think about kids playing this every day and when I
heard that in Louisiana, I immediately thought of that video
game. I wondered if maybe some people are just going, “I’ve
been shooting at helicopters in the game. Let’s see what
it’s like to shoot at the real thing.”
Bill Hibbler:
That might be as good of an explanation as any. I don’t know
what the solution is to that. I don’t think you say, “The
government should enforce stricter standards.”
Bill Hibbler:
I don’t think that works at all. That’s just going to make
it more attractive.
Bill Hibbler:
But I think what we have to do to counter it is be good role
models.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy isn’t that true.
Bill Hibbler:
My Dad tried to preach to me all the time. As you said a
minute ago, actions speak louder than words, seeing is
believing. I think with our own kids, walk the talk. If you
don’t have kids, join an organization like Big Brothers or
Big Sisters where you go in and provide that role model. It
doesn’t have to be on a grand scale. It’s not preaching.
It’s just showing people so that it’s attraction rather than
promotion.
Ralph Zuranski:
So you think that’s the most important things parents can do
to help their children realize that they too could be heroes
and make a positive impact on the lives of others by walking
the walk road and then just talking the talk?
Bill Hibbler:
Yeah and go on and pursue your dreams. Make kids aware of
the possibilities. I don’t know if everybody has to change
their life entirely but do what you love and the money will
follow. To me that’s the best thing you could teach.
Bill Hibbler:
Parents too often try to force kids to live their dreams.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy, that’s so true.
Bill Hibbler:
I say you encourage them to live their own dreams. Don’t put
down their dreams. I dealt with that with the rock and roll
thing for years and it had a huge impact. My dad, you know
we would argue over hair length and things like that. Like
this is really an important issue in the scheme of things.
But what happened because of my family constantly putting
down the rock and roll thing is that when I needed advice, I
wouldn’t go to my parents.
Bill Hibbler:
Because I knew if I went to my parents and said, “You know,
I’m really kind of worried because this band is doing this
and this and I’m not sure if this is really the right thing
for me to do.”
Bill Hibbler:
They wouldn’t help me make the right decision. Instead, they
would just view that as an opening to come in, “Well, see.
You need to quit all that and go get a real job.”
Ralph Zuranski:
That’s what my parent’s told me too.
Bill Hibbler:
What is a real job, Ralph? What is a “real job”? Get a real
job. So I can be miserable.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. It’s something you hate 40 hours a week and then you
come home and drink at night just to bury your sorrow
because you’re doing something that you dislike so much.
Bill Hibbler:
Yeah. There’s no joy. People ask me what I do for fun. I
probably could do more things but what I do for fun is my
job. My business, to me that’s fun, I’m doing it. It’s like
people talk about retirement. I don’t want to retire. Why
would I want to quit doing this? What would I do?
Bill Hibbler:
Go fishing? But that’s the key is just encourage your kids
to live their dreams and support them.
Ralph Zuranski:
You know that’s funny. So many of the heroes I’ve
interviewed, that has been their message is that be an
entrepreneur. They’re the real heroes to society because
they’re pursuing their dream with every ounce of ability
that they have and faith that it is going to come true and
overcoming every objection in their way, just learning how
their dream doesn’t work that way but finally finding out
how they can produce the quality product and service that is
so valuable that they will attain their dreams.
Bill Hibbler:
I agree with that, absolutely, 100%.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well Bill, I really appreciate your time and I thank you for
sharing the most difficult time in your life. I know there
are quite a few people that have been there. I know I’ve
been there and done that. My situation is either kill myself
or choose the fee gift of salvation. Luckily I made the
right choice. That’s quite a rebuilding process. That’s for
sure.
Bill Hibbler:
It is but I think it’s probably, now that we’ve gone through
it, part of the bricks in that foundation.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Well you never realize how many blessings there are
around you until you get to the point where you don’t see
any blessings at all and you’re ready to kill yourself.
Bill Hibbler:
Yeah.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well, again, I really appreciate your time, Bill. Thank you
so much.
Bill Hibbler:
Glad to do it Ralph. I enjoyed it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Okay. Have a good day.
Bill Hibbler:
You too.
