Learn How To Be A Hero
Or Heroine By Reading Willie Crawford's
Ralph Zuranski:
Hi this is Ralph Zuranski I’m on the phone with Willie
Crawford. He’s one of the pioneers, really one of the true
pioneers in the Internet Industry and has done so many
things it’s hard to catalog what he’s done, where he’s been,
who he knows. But for someone that has overcome tremendous
difficulties in his life Willie is truly a phenomenal
example of what a hero is and how to become a hero.
Willie Crawford:
How are you doing today,
Willie?
Willie Crawford:
I’m doing great Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski:
Could you perhaps explain to the people that are listening a
little bit about your life and how you got to the position
where you’re at now as one of the leaders in the internet
industry.
Willie Crawford:
Absolutely. I was in the military, I don’t know ten years
ago, fifteen years ago and after college I knew I wanted to
start my own business. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to
do, so I went into the military for what I thought was going
to be just a few years but I ended up spending a career in
the military.
Willie Crawford:
While I was in the
military, I discovered the internet I was in a job in Hawaii
where I was allowed to surf the internet, and I discovered
that there’s a whole world of opportunity out there. And so
I started an online business.
Willie Crawford:
The first person I
stumbled upon was Jim Daniel’s and I started reading his
newsletter, liked it, and subscribed to about a 100 others.
Willie Crawford:
I printed all these
newsletters out and I was an air crew member and when I was
out flying around I was reading these printed out copies of
newsletters, and seen what all these people had to say, all
these people and this was 96 or so.
Willie Crawford:
In late 96 or early 97 I
was reading what all these people had to say and they were
teaching me how to start and online business. And so what I
did was I went ahead and I started a business. I started a
business teaching people how to make money on the internet
before I really had learned how to do it myself really.
Willie Crawford:
Which is not a good
thing to do. It is a good thing to do if you can find the
nuggets, if you can find what actually works and share, that
with people, which is an ability I have now. But what I do
is I teach people how to start businesses on the internet.
Willie Crawford:
And I have this passion
for making sure people know the truth and that they know
what really works as far as starting a business. So I give
my role is life I guess, as sharing with them what really
works as far as starting a business on the internet and
building your dream.
Willie Crawford:
I don’t believe in
toying with people’s dreams. I know that there are people
who spend their last couple of dollars you know to buy a
course or a product and set up a website and try to get
started on the internet.
Willie Crawford:
And I did that back in
late 96 early 97 I was told you need to find a niche, to
follow a passion. I knew nothing, so I set up a site with a
cooking site. People told me I needed to write a cookbook
and they’d buy it so I did and they did and it makes I don’t
know probably $300,000.00 a year this year from just a
simple cookbook I did in Microsoft Word.
Willie Crawford:
You know just a list of
recipes, write them out. No pictures in the first edition,
the second edition I had few more pictures, the third
edition a few more pictures. And it took off from there.
Willie Crawford:
I was online on
discussion forums and things like that talking about
marketing. People noticed me and all of a sudden I was
sucked into the arena of internet marketing speaker.
Willie Crawford:
The very first seminar I
ever attended I spoke at. That was Bob Silver’s seminar down
in the Florida Keys in 2002, December 2002.
Willie Crawford:
And so I’ve been a guru
if you will from the beginning. But it’s my ability to sift
through all the fluff and see what really works.
Willie Crawford:
I have a background my
college degree is in economics but I grew up on farm
extremely poor on welfare most of my youth. I was in the
eleventh grade before I even met the guidance counselor at
school who noticed my grades were fairly decent. But
noticed also that nobody in my neighborhood went to
college.
Willie Crawford:
And so she discussed
college with me. I looked at three colleges. I applied to
all three that I thought were interesting and they all
accepted me.
Willie Crawford:
I went to the only one
that I ever visited, which was North Carolina State
University, which was near the… which was the one that
hosted the state fair every year. It was like near the fair
grounds and so it was the only one I had ever even seen the
campus of. I went there and got a degree in economics, and
went into the military for twenty years.
Willie Crawford:
And then traveled the
world and after that decided I wanted to start my own
business. And some of my passion and what I do is that I
teach people how to start their own online business. And I
point out to them you know all the booby traps along the
way.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah boy there sure are a lot of them aren’t there.
Willie Crawford:
There are a lot of them. I mean so many people sold a
package of goods and they come to me with things they bought
at seminars, things they bought online and they’re ready to
run with something that they think is going to make them a
million dollars.
Willie Crawford:
And I have to say what
you bought is something that’s available for free online.
And it’s not going to do it for you. That you need to step
back and start over again and that’s not a very pleasant
thing to do but it’s my job to keep them from wasting their
time you know.
Willie Crawford:
If I know that something
is not going to, probably not going to work, I mean I don’t
know everything so but I can look at something and say you
bought something that people aren’t going to pay for.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well you know that’s so true. That’s probably the hardest
thing in the world is to tell people the truth about the
money that they’ve invested. And the path that they’re going
down is not the one that is going to get them to where they
want to go.
Willie Crawford:
That they bought into
the hype that a lot of the people that are selling from the
platform use to basically rip the dollars out of the
attendee’s pockets and put it in their own without really
offering much value or much follow through.
Willie Crawford:
Right.
Ralph Zuranski:
It is kind of a sad situation isn’t it?
Willie Crawford:
It is. I mean you know I attend probably an average of a
seminar a month or maybe two some months. And I’m sitting
in the back of the room and I’m watching the speakers and
I’m learning from the speakers. I learn from every speaker
in the room. I also learn from all the attendees that I
talk too.
Willie Crawford:
But I’m setting there
and I’m evaluating the process the psychological process and
sales process, and most people I meet on these seminar
circuits are completely ethical and I run across a couple
every now that I’m thinking you’re not going to sell
somebody that you know.
Willie Crawford:
But they do, and my job
is to. People trust me, people trust me and that amazes me.
I’ve been online for over ten years now and people come to
me, people call me on the phone and say I want your package
and I go what package and they say well whatever you’re
selling.
Willie Crawford:
And I’ve had you know
Doctors, Lawyers, and Dentist call me and give me their
credit card number and say just send me whatever you have.
And that is such a mind blowing experience that people trust
you to that degree. And I work very hard at deserving that
trust.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well you know why that is? I think the reason why it
is, is that you take the time to listen to people. You’re
in the backroom you’re meeting people I know and I shared
part of this convention with you and hung out with you at
the Yanik’s Underground Online Marketing Seminar. I was
amazed at how you weren’t puffed up, you spent a lot of time
just talking to people that were attendees, and answered so
many questions for free. I mean that is a rare quality.
Willie Crawford:
Well and I understand the experts who aren’t as accessible
is because there is only one of you and you can only do so
much. And that is one of my flaws actually, is that you can
go to any of my websites right now and my phone number is
listed on it and if you dial that number there’s a chance I
will answer the phone. That cuts into my productivity.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah but it doesn’t’ cut into your humanity. Which I think
is the thing that people are looking for is they’re looking
for a real human being that they can talk to that actually
cares about them and wants to offer them the best value that
they can get for the money that they have to invest.
Willie Crawford:
Well they want to know there’s a real person on the other
end of the website. They want to you know when they dial
the number they just want to know that somebody is really
there.
Willie Crawford:
And when you answer your
own phone which is not… I mean you mentioned Yanik’s
Underground seminar most of those people speaking outsource
things like customer service and but the thing about my
outsourcing its my wife doing it.
Willie Crawford:
But I answer my own phone. And that’s not the way to make
you know ten million a year.
Willie Crawford:
I’ll make over two million this year.
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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, 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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Willie Crawford:
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.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well what is your prospective on goodness, ethics and moral
behavior?
Willie Crawford:
And you haven’t had a chance to read my biography, If you
read my biography you’ll learn that one of the struggles I
went through was an addiction. It’s the most common
addiction in the world, which is an alcohol addiction.
Willie Crawford:
And so I had to go
through counseling and when I went through that counseling
at the expense of the military, they spent about $28,000.00
to recycle me if you will. I learned a lot about myself.
Willie Crawford:
And I learned that a big
part of the big problem with most of us is that we are not
comfortable with who we are. And that we’ve somehow gotten
out of kilter, and that it’s we need to reconnect with our
higher power with a God of our own definition. That’s
somebody that we feel comfortable with, somebody to me you
know God’s a caring individual that loves me as I love my
children.
Willie Crawford:
And then we have to
define our own world. For me ethics, morality and all those
things are doing the right things. It’s looking at a
situation and doing what I know is right. It’s doing the
next right thing. It’s you know doing the right thing, it’s
doing what would make me feel good if I knew no one was
looking.
Willie Crawford:
And so no matter what
I’m involved in, and I’m involved in internet marketing, I
get approached with a lot of deals that have the potential
to make me 10, 20, $50,000.00, I turn a lot of those down
because I look at the impact that’s it’s going to have on
other people.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
And I say no I can’t do
that, for various reasons. But for me I have to feel good
about what I do. The only person that really throws out of
kilter if I were to do some of those things that I consider
unethical would be and no one would know about it. But I
cannot afford to have myself feel out of kilter or
imbalanced.
Willie Crawford:
So because of
experiences that I’ve been through, because of training I’ve
been through, counseling I’ve been through where I’ve been
taught that you do the right thing.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
It’s just who and what I am you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well you’ve been a soldier and there’s always that
question of what is a person willing to sacrifice their life
for. What would you sacrifice your life for Willie?
Willie Crawford:
I’ve often thought of that you know. I could be in a fast
food restaurant where there was a hold up and I would
sacrifice my life for the person standing next to me you
know.
Willie Crawford:
Its… its crazy because I
have no desire to die, but I view… my world is different
than a lot of people’s. You know so I’m willing to
sacrifice my life for the person just standing next to me in
line, especially if that person hasn’t lived as long as I
have.
Willie Crawford:
I look at the world and
I look at humanity and I look at you know people that lived
a thousand years before me and people that will live a
thousand years after me and I see us all as one. I see us
all as a continuum of that flow of energy and of genes you
know.
Willie Crawford:
It’s I don’t know, I
probably getting to far out there but I look at the fact
that right now I share the genes of somebody who lived 5,000
years before me. And 5,000 years in the future somebody
else will probably have my genes and so I will continue to
be there, whether I’m there or not. And so I have no fear
of death and I would risk my life for anyone really.
Willie Crawford:
You know I could be put
in a hold up situation, I could be put in a situation where
I would desire to die, I would hope that in the face of
danger I could somehow pull through you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
But I would risk my life
for someone who was afraid you know to say in a hold up
situation, I would step in and try to talk the holdup person
out of harming them. It’s just me, it’s just I guess its my
faith knows that even if I’m killed its not the end. So I
don’t fear death.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, yeah.
Willie Crawford:
And so but I was also trained as a soldier just step up and
die. You know they were soldiers in previous wars who… I
flew airplanes they knew that when they went on a mission
that 80% of them would not return. They knew that,
statistically they knew that and they did it anyway.
Willie Crawford:
And I talked to people
who were commanders who would look at their 18 to 20 year
old troops, and know that 80% of them would not return. And
had to say to them ok go to your job, which is you know
these were their children you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
And that was so in grained me that to me risk is, I have
very… a very high threshold for risk which is good in
business. Because I was trained by my mentor that you’re
going to make mistakes, and so you get the mistakes out of
the way.
Willie Crawford:
I was trained that
you’re going to fail and that you will learn from your
failures. So you don’t fear those but you get them out of
the way.
I was trained fail fast. If you know you’re going to fail
you know go ahead and get it out of the way so you can find
the successes.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well isn’t that true.
Willie Crawford:
You know that almost every major successful author out of
every three books they’ve published that two were complete
flops.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
If they knew that, why not get those flops out of the way so
they can go ahead and get that successful book done. And so
I was trained to just go ahead and do it. Knowing that I
mean most people when they look at internet marketers in
particular and they look at the big successes they don’t
know that these guys had failures.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
But they did. And now their successes over shadow those
failures. But you know, I don’t fear failure I just do it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah well you know that is so true that everybody thinks
that when they get their first project done that its going
to be an incredible success.
Willie Crawford:
But don’t even know that
the majority of the people, the reason why they are so
successful is they failed so many more times than anybody
else that isn’t quiet as successful as that. It’s called
failing forward.
Willie Crawford:
The faster you fail, the
more you’re going to find out what doesn’t work and what
does work and the faster you’re going to become a success.
Willie Crawford:
Right the whole key is learning from your failures. Dan
Kennedy is one of my favorite copywriters and my favorite
mentors. I spend thousands of dollars every year with Dan.
Willie Crawford:
And when he was in the
infomercial business, I think it was like one out of every
eight infomercials that he did was a complete flop. Did the
one pay for the eight failures? But it wasn’t looked, as a
failure it was looked at as ok we discovered this didn’t
work.
Willie Crawford:
You know if it was the
same company paying for those you know the one success and
all the other failures it wasn’t bad but if it was different
companies paying for the failures then that was bad.
Willie Crawford:
But marketing is all
about testing and you can’t just look at it as failure you
look at it as learning experiences.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah and I think probably you would agree that the most
important thing in the world is to actually do something and
create a product.
Willie Crawford:
So many people spend
their lives spending thousands and thousands of dollars
every month just going to the seminars, buying all the
courses and never producing one product or taking the good
advice that the majority of the speakers give them.
Willie Crawford:
Most people set in the back of the room and they make notes
and they plan they buy things they go home and they stick it
on a shelf and the speakers can’t control what their
customer’s do with what they buy.
Willie Crawford:
So you I guess grow a
little callous as far as; well they’re not going to do
anything that’s not my fault but it’s all about action.
Willie Crawford:
I mentioned earlier I’ve
gone through some counseling. One of my counselors said to
me, she said; Willie she said nothing happens until you
change. It’s all about change and it’s all about action.
Willie Crawford:
This is March and on
January 2nd, I produced my first info product this year. I
sat down and spent about four hours writing out an ebook
that was 24 pages that I sold for $29.00. It has already
made my $15 grand. I’m on my this is March I’m on my fifth
product this year already.
Ralph Zuranski:
That’s great.
Willie Crawford:
And I’ve already made March, I’ve already made about 300
grand this year.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well that’s sweet.
Willie Crawford:
Yeah, I mean part of that that’s skewed because I did a fire
sale that it made about $27,000 in a day. But that’s all
about action you see.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
Again I look at Mike Filsaime was selling his Butterfly
Marketing program, and when I went through it I said
everybody and his brother is going to do a fire sale now.
And I said I need to do one early. And I’m sure I was one of
the first people to do one.
Willie Crawford:
And I rolled it out, I
didn’t give my partners enough time to plan for it. I just
said… I was at Ken McArthur’s JV Alert live seminar in
Orlando and I said I’m going to do this starting on Friday
of next week. And I said to the people in the room I’ll let
you in first. I offered it at the back of room product for
like $47.00 and I didn’t even have the products together
yet.
Willie Crawford:
I went back home and
planned it, put the website together, there were some
glitches there with the scripts that were suppose to go in
the backend of the show. And while others were making
excuses and hemming and hawing I said I’m not going to delay
it I am going to do it. And so I just, I had to make some
changes.
Willie Crawford:
I had to email my
partners and say you know this changes the backend that pays
you, that manages the affiliate program some of that stuff
has changed because there’s problems with the scripts. But
I am still going to do it on time.
Willie Crawford:
And we rolled it out and
my first day was $27,000.00, my second day was $21,000.00
and my third day was $18.000.00 and there’s people in my
part of Florida don’t make $80,000.00 in a year.
Willie Crawford:
Well maybe they do, but
that’s poverty level, but nobody makes $21,000.00 a day or
$28,000.00 a day. But I did you know. And that’s just my
friend Joe Vitale, he wrote in one of his books he says
money aligns people that act fast.
Willie Crawford:
And that is all I picked
up from that book. I think that was the attraction factor,
I’m not sure. But I make a decision and I do it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well that is amazing you’re experiencing some incredible
success in your life now. A lot of people don’t realize that
everybody has low points in their lives. In fact life is
like a roller coaster. When was the lowest point in your
life and how did you change your life path to win a victory
over all obstacles?
Willie Crawford:
I want anyone listening to this call to go to
GitOffThePorch.com, GitOffThePorch.com and read my
biography. I talk about getting up one morning, walking
into the shower, taking a shower and in the middle of the
shower collapsing. And I made such a thunderous noise that
my wife rushed into the bathroom and I’m lying in the shower
dying. I’m convinced I was dying at that time.
Willie Crawford:
And she yells and
screams at me don’t you do this, don’t you leave me. And
she yelled and she screamed so much that there was a part of
me that thought you know, I’m tired, I’m very tired. At
that point I’d probably been drunk for like six months every
single day.
Willie Crawford: Ralph
Zuranski:
Really.
Willie Crawford:
I was a functional walking drunk. I would go to work and do
my job and drive back and forth, and I could function
perfectly normal but my body had said you completely
overwhelm me, I’m tired and I’m lying on the floor of a
shower with the water flowing and the room is going dark.
Willie Crawford:
And it was my wife’s
yelling and screaming don’t you leave me, don’t you do this
to me. That I guess pulled me out of it enough to where she
helped me out of the shower, and I sat down on the toilet
lid and got dressed and they took me to the hospital where
they sent me into treatment for alcohol addiction at the
time.
Willie Crawford:
A third of my blood was
alcohol.
Willie Crawford: Ralph
Zuranski:
Really.
Willie Crawford:
It was in excess of .35 I think it was.
Ralph Zuranski:
Oh man.
Willie Crawford:
It should have poisoned my brain enough where my brain
should have stopped working you know. But and so they sent
me to a 28 day treatment program, and that was the low point
of my life. It was the weeks leading up to that I had done
a number of crazy things.
Willie Crawford:
I spent three years in
Alaska where I was assigned as a soldier and when you go out
fishing, or in the wilderness in Alaska you can look behind
you and see a bear or a wolf or a badger or some other
creature that wants to hurt you.
Willie Crawford:
And so I carried a 44
Magnum pistol with bare rounds and these rounds were
powerful enough, where somebody can drive at you with a car
and you can shoot through the radiator into the engine block
of a car with a 44 Magnum and stop that car.
Ralph Zuranski:
Wow.
Willie Crawford:
That is how powerful that pistol was. I went from Alaska to
Florida with the military, I brought my pistol along, and at
my lowest point I actually considered suicide. And I can
remember being out drunk and thinking I’ve lost control.
I’m a control freak.
Willie Crawford:
A lightening told
myself, my life, everything and I thought to myself I’ve
lost control. And I thought ah I’m going to end it all. And
I actually stuck my gun to my head and cocked it and then I
thought I don’t want to die alone I want somebody to hold me
in their arms as I die. That is what stopped me from
shooting myself.
Willie Crawford:
I just didn’t want to be
out by myself in the middle of nowhere with no one
appreciating the fact that I was killing myself.
Ralph Zuranski:
Wow.
Willie Crawford:
I wanted to be touched by another human being as I died.
That was the lowest part probably in my life you know.
Willie Crawford:
And many people go
through that and it’s important for those people to realize
that it’s ok to be that way. But you need to reach out to
others and let them know that you’re struggling because
there’s people who are there to help you.
Willie Crawford:
And people helped me.
And you know I turned around. But that was a low point in
my life. I was on the verge of taking my own life at one
point. I collapsed in the shower and was on the verge of my
body just saying ok we give up. You’ve abused me too much
and I came back and at that point I was making over
$100,000.00 a year on the internet.
Willie Crawford:
You know things have
turned around enough now where its seven figures and it
happened and when the momentum kicks in it’s just amazing.
Just totally amazing. It’s mind boggling.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, boy that is amazing to get to that point where you’re
ready to take your own life. I know I was at that same
point and even though I had money and sex and drugs there
was just no happiness there.
Willie Crawford:
Yeah, yeah. For me it’s all about serenity. It’s all
about being at peace and at ease and comfortable with your
role in the world. And if you’re not happy with where you
are and with who you are, then you know something is out of
kilter, but you need to find that balance because otherwise
life is just not worth living to you.
Willie Crawford:
And serenity is very
important to me. Peace and happiness is very important to
me. I mean I live in northwest Florida where I can get up
any day and just go out go fishing whatever, and as long as
there is no hurricanes, I can just go out and go fishing I
can be out in the middle of the ocean.
Willie Crawford:
The ocean is the most
peaceful place in the world. I mean it puts me in touch
with my tiny place in the world, because I am just one
little tiny speck in, you know a dot in the universe.
Willie Crawford:
And you can go out and
look down in the ocean and see a school of a million fish
and you realize how vast things are. And if you look on
your depth finder and you see the ocean that… spots like
five miles deep you know which is incredible.
Willie Crawford:
You realize that if you
fell overboard you would never reach the bottom, because the
water the pressure and the things change you would sink
slower and slower and slower and you’d never reach the
bottom. That’s just incredible.
Willie Crawford:
But you know I’m all
about serenity, I’m all about being happy with what I do and
I when I was in the military I’d wake up everyday I’d look
at the television and there was the news on and everyday
there’s a conflict in the world. Theirs like 35 wars going
on in the world right now whether most people think about it
or not. I mean Korea has been at war since the 50’s.
Willie Crawford:
They are still
technically at war. You know the north against the south.
And there is about 35 wars going on in the world. And as a
soldier I would look on the television and say where am I
going to be tonight. And as an aircrew member who delivered
special forces and soldiers that did ??? and things like
that and things like that behind the lines.
Willie Crawford:
I didn’t know and there
came a point where I just said I’m tired of this and I want
to experience some of my children’s birthdays and just be
more in control of where I am at the end of the day.
Willie Crawford:
And that is when I
decided I was going to leave the military and when I decided
I was going to go ahead and build my own business and make
it a success, you see failure was never an option for me.
Willie Crawford:
It was; you will build a
successful business and you will make over a million dollars
a year from your successful business. It was never an
option that I could do anything other than that.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well how important Willie is it to have a dream or a vision
that sets the course of your life?
Willie Crawford:
Its extremely important. It’s everything. Its you have to
believe that you can achieve that dream, but if you don’t
have that dream you’ll settle for where you are, you’ll
settle for where you are.
Willie Crawford:
And that’s very sad,
because I deal with people on line everyday who are stuck in
jobs they hate. Who are… whose family situation is not
where they’d like it to be. And they are willing to settle
for it. I’m not willing to settle.
Willie Crawford:
But not only that… I
traveled to over 40 countries in the military, and I saw
what was possible.
Willie Crawford:
I went to Panama for
example, there were multi-million dollar condo’s and right
next to them were tin sheds of homeless people who just
pitched a shed next to the side of the building. So I saw
extreme wealth and extreme poverty. So I knew what was
possible. I know what’s possible.
Willie Crawford:
And then it’s a matter
of knowing that you can… can achieve you know the high end
of that spectrum. And it was just… I set a goal for myself,
I set many goals for myself, but and I take action on those
goals. But I refuse to believe that I can do anything other
than the high end of that spectrum.
Willie Crawford:
And a part of that is
also a philosophy of that’s ok to achieve a lot of things,
to have wealth. My grandmother who I grew up in this
Southern Baptist church she had fifteen brothers and
sisters. Her father built the church and I grew up thinking
money was bad. She would say to us as youth money is the
root of all evil.
Willie Crawford:
Which is not what the
Bible says, it says the love of money is the root of all
evil, because if you put that ahead of caring about others
and things like that, that is bad.
Willie Crawford:
Having money is not
bad. I had to relearn that. I had to learn that it was ok
to have money. That money lets you do things that you
couldn’t otherwise do. You can spend money on things that
you care about.
Willie Crawford:
But only if you have
it. So money is not bad. And I had to relearn that
though. And now I have learned that… you know I clearly
envision myself someday making ten, twenty, thirty million
dollars a year.
Willie Crawford:
But I’ll spend it on
things that I care about. Cancer research, whatever, but
money itself is not evil. You know it’s just a tool, it’s
just a tool.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well you know it’s important to have a positive view of
setbacks of misfortunes and mistakes. And it sounds like
you’ve derived at that position where that is your belief.
How important has that been in your life of taking a
positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Willie Crawford:
It’s extremely important. It’s I was stepped through a
process of forgiving myself for the mistakes I made. I’ve
made many mistakes in my life. Done wrong to other people.
I was taught that you cannot undo those mistakes you can go
back and apologize for those mistakes and people may or may
not forgive you and that’s ok either way. You have to let
go of it.
Willie Crawford:
I’m only in control of
myself and even then only to a certain extent. I learned a
long time ago I’m not even in control of myself. And so I
can only control what I do at a given moment in time.
Willie Crawford:
My belief system is that
I can do anything and I… there is this saying that we call
it the serenity prayer. Which is like God grant me the
serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, change
the things that I cannot find, I actually lost that.
Ralph Zuranski:
Change the things that I can, and know the difference
between the two.
Willie Crawford:
There you go, there you go. So if I look at something and I
can change it and it needs to be changed I’ll do it. But if
I look at something and I have two beautiful daughters. My
wife is from the Philippines and I’m African American. So
my daughters have this jet-black hair, its straight, they
are the ideal of many cultures.
Willie Crawford:
I mean you as a white
person you want to get a tan or whatever sometime. Well
they’ve got the tan, they’ve got the straight hair that I
wanted and they are in the middle.
Willie Crawford:
And I as they were
growing up I looked at all the young suitors they had and
wanted to chase them off but couldn’t and I learned some
things are out of your control you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah. Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
You just go with the flow and if you can’t change it you
don’t worry about it. So I’m at peace with myself and with
the world right now and that is a very good place to be.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well I guess so, well how important is optimism in achieving
that peace?
Willie Crawford:
Apart of me is all so about energy management and not
allowing myself to be influenced too much be negative people
and negative things. And so I’m a very optimistic person.
Willie Crawford:
Again I see myself as
making millions of dollars not just to have it because money
is just an instrument, it’s just a piece of paper well
actually 94% of the worlds money is zero’s and one’s in a
computer system.
Willie Crawford:
But to go from welfare,
to go from being on government assistance so poor that I
woke up one point in my life and I’m ready to school and my
school’s the bottom is falling off and my grandmother says
well here honey wear my shoes to school.
Willie Crawford:
And I’m like I can’t
wear my grandmother’s shoes to school. And she is like you
can, so I put on my grandmother’s shoes. These shoes were
like nurse’s shoes with thick bottoms because she was a
diabetic and she had to have her feet comfortable. And
Willie Crawford:
And I wore those shoes
to school and the only people who mentioned it and gave me a
hard time were cousins, because they were embarrassed that I
was wearing as a teenager, a grandmother’s shoes. But I had
no choice.
Willie Crawford:
And so I could have
missed school until the next check arrived, the next welfare
check and we could have gone to the local department store
and bought another pair of shoes but I didn’t, I just wore
them to school.
Willie Crawford:
And so that was such a
lesson for me in life, and just… and not letting what others
say or do or think impact you too much. When I was in
college I studied sociology.
Ralph Zuranski:
I did too.
Willie Crawford:
Yeah I studied why we do what we do. And how we’re impacted
by other people’s opinions. I am not influenced by other
people’s opinions right now.
Willie Crawford:
It’s good that I didn’t
learn what I know now when I was younger. Because I can
set on the airplane and look across the aisle at the most… I
don’t know the most beautiful lady in the world and you know
strike up a conversation and feel completely at ease and
feel like she’s more ill at ease than I am.
Willie Crawford:
I can look at a
ninety-year-old and see beauty in their eyes and just feel,
feel their spirit, because I’m completely at ease with the
world and with everyone and who I am and optimism plays a
part in that. It’s wherever I am and whatever is happening
it’s supposed to be happening right now.
Willie Crawford:
I am where I am supposed
to be.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well do you think its important as far as prospective of
expecting good things to happen to you, and looking for the
silver lining in things that may not appear good first
hand.
Willie Crawford:
It is, you know I believe that when you do good for other
people that good comes back to you. And it may not come
back to you right away. I understand that, and so… you know
if I do a favor for you or do good for you I don’t expect
you necessary to give back to me but I know it will come
back to me.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah that’s so true.
Willie Crawford: Willie
Crawford:
And it does, it always has. I do I make contributions,
donations, things anonymously to tons of organizations.
I’ve walked into McDonalds, actually my wife is going to
hear this recording later probably but you know I’ve tipped
the guys sweeping the floor you know ten dollars or I have
just given it to them to just watch their face light up,
because nobody does that.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, yeah.
Willie Crawford:
And it’s a good feeling.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah it is a good feeling.
Willie Crawford:
One of the things that a
lot of people have is fear, fear of pursuing new ideas; do
you think that it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
Willie Crawford:
It’s takes courage to know that your ideas may not be
accepted and that you may fail. You know if you
miscalculate and you do something that was headed down the
wrong path, so that goes back to that fail fast because
something is going to work.
Willie Crawford:
And a lot of my teachers
in real life, a lot of my teachers in books, have taught
that since the majority of people are average or failing,
you need to do something different. You need to just step
out there and take a chance you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Um, Um True.
Willie Crawford:
And I do that. I have no fear of failure. I don’t want to
leave my family in a bunch of debt when I die and I won’t,
but I have no fear of taking chances. I have no fear of
taking chances. I have no fear of rejection, which is
significant, because too many people worry about what others
think. I don’t care what others think.
Willie Crawford:
I calculate my
probability of success, my probability of doing the right
thing and I take action. When I go to seminars I make a list
of what I’m going to do in the next day, the next week, the
next month, the next six months, and I do those things.
Willie Crawford:
And there are things
that I go back to my hotel room and get on the internet and
do things that night on some websites you know just testing
things. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. I
don’t get trapped in that paralysis by analysis thing.
Willie Crawford:
I do it. I just do it
and it has made a tremendous difference.
Ralph Zuranski:
When you experience the discomfort that comes from pursuing
new ideas and your pursuit of your dream, how important is
it to be willing to accept that and go through it to attain
a higher level?
Willie Crawford:
You have to realize that if you do fail you know what the
consequences are going to be. And if the consequences are
extremely high maybe you should not do it.
Willie Crawford:
But what I have
discovered I read a book a couple of years ago and there was
a thing in there that most of the time when you fail the
only consequence is, maybe the need to admit that you
failed. But there is also great probably that no one
noticed that you failed.
Willie Crawford:
You know knowing that
knowing that even if I completely screw up, chances are no
one even noticed that I missed up you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well so that’s so true.
Willie Crawford:
So what am I risking, I am risking embarrassing myself in
front of a group of people that I care about their opinions,
but a lot of those people aren’t even willing to step out
and take the chance. So what is the cost of failure, of
taking a chance of making a mistake of not achieving your
goal.
Willie Crawford:
Often it’s just; oh I
made a mistake and I didn’t do what I was trying to do.
Nobody is going to torture you forever for that. you know…
they may mention it a while but we very quickly get back to
our own world and what’s important to us and we forget
Willie missed up when he tried this project very quickly.
Willie Crawford:
And so I’m not afraid to
try very big things. I will send you, you know after this
interview I’ll send you some links to some of the projects
I’m working. I’m working many projects of multi-million
dollar projects. And they’re not guaranteed to succeed.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well how.
Willie Crawford:
But if they succeed, will change the world. I’m involved in
a project to build a number of homeless shelters in Baton
Rouge funded by a Cable television show, a cookbook, spices,
cookware, and all kinds of products. And that project will
succeed but I am involved in a lot of other projects that
are multi-million dollar projects that if they don’t succeed
we tried you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well how important is it to have a belief that your dreams
will eventually become reality?
Willie Crawford:
It’s extremely important, if you don’t believe in yourself
and believe that its conceivable then the negativism and
everything will transfer to your actions.
Willie Crawford:
And so you’ll sabotage
yourself. You’ll do things that you don’t believe its
possible and man is an electromagnetic creature. We pick up
on other people’s signals, other people’s energy.
Willie Crawford:
And so if you’re telling
somebody one thing and you feel something different, people
can pick up on that just because we can pick up on other
people’s magnets and stuff, the energy they’re giving off in
their body.
Willie Crawford:
You know you set in the
room with somebody and you’re talking with them and thinking
about doing a deal with them, and the hair on the back of
your neck stands up and you feel I don’t trust this guy,
you’re picking up on that person’s electromagnetic energy.
Willie Crawford:
And if you don’t feel
you should do a deal with that guy, don’t do a deal with
that guy there’s something wrong with it. So you got to
trust your instincts too. And it’s difficult to explain but
I trust my instincts, I trust my feelings, they’ve never led
me wrong.
Willie Crawford:
You know I could go way
up in left field explaining a lot of things and getting into
quantum physics, and all kinds of stuff but I mean we live
in a world defined by laws. As a marketer one of those sets
of laws is the laws that Robert Cialdini laid out in the
book Influences Psychology Persuasion.
Willie Crawford:
You know one of those
laws is the law of reciprocity when somebody does something
for you no matter what country you’re in and anthropologist
has studied every culture in the world just like now. When
somebody does something for you feel an obligation to do
something back for them.
Willie Crawford:
And there’s other laws
that they’re just nature laws that are invalid that say this
is how human beings interact. If you can study and
understand and match the laws, you’re actually quiet
dangerous you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well you know one of the things that everybody has problems
with is their doubts and fears. How do you overcome your
doubts and fears?
Willie Crawford:
I say to myself I’m statistically… I don’t know I will live
to probably be 80 my grandmother lived to be 96. And so and
I’m 50 now, I’m 47 now. So I have to be willing to take
chances. I have to be willing to be wrong. And again its
going back to if I’m wrong who’s going to notice and what
are the consequences?
Willie Crawford:
There are no
consequences? I mean if I am wrong somebody might mention
it in their newsletter or on a discussion forum or whatever,
but most people are not going to notice.
Willie Crawford:
So I have doubts, I have
fears, I mean I have I know myself better than the average
person does just because I was taken through a process of
getting to know myself. And most people will not admit that
they have fears but yes I have fears I have doubts. But I
am willing to step through them you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well …
Willie Crawford:
I am willing to do things that… take chances. Because I
know that 90% of the time even if I mess up and I make a
mistake the penalty, for being wrong is not that high.
Willie Crawford:
You know we exaggerate
in our minds the penalty for being wrong; we exaggerate the
cost of making a wrong decision. I mean when you walk down
the street, or you drive down the street and you look at
people on the street corner 99 of those people don’t know
who you are or completely unaware of who you are, they are
in their own world.
Willie Crawford:
They will never ever,
ever, ever know of your existence. And so to worry about
making a mistake is totally not called for. I mean if I go
out on the internet right now and spend $10,000.00 on an
advertising campaign and mess it up, nobody will know except
the people that I spent the money with. And maybe not even
those people you know.
Willie Crawford:
But there is no reason
to doubt or fear anything. Fear is completely unfounded. I
mean who is going to know and why do you care.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well do you think that 90% of all the things that we
fear never become reality?
Willie Crawford:
Yes 90% of all the things we fear never become reality. And
its I don’t know, its crazy but you know you watch a horror
movie or whatever, and you watch the monsters in the movie
those are all products of someone’s imagination. They are
not real you know.
Willie Crawford:
So there is no reason to
fear. You should identify what you want and you should go
for it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well who helped give you the willpower to change things in
your life for the better?
Willie Crawford:
My grandmother whom again, my father and my mother separated
and my mother left me and my two younger brothers with my
grandmother. We were like three or four years old and then
she went up to New England to find a better job.
Willie Crawford:
My grandmother was a
short fat lady, but I just watched her interacting with the
world and even though she didn’t have a lot of wealth she
had no wealth really. I mean we had a $365.00 a year house
payment and she worried about making that payment. She had
a Farmers Home Administration loan yet the way that she
dealt with the world showed me that there is nothing to fear
you know.
Willie Crawford:
There is absolutely
nothing to fear. And lately I have run into a few people on
line who are coaches or mentors and they’ve also taught me
the same little basic lesson which is, most people fear
things that they don’t need to fear. So if you can get
beyond that then life is good. Yeah.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well how important is it readily forgive those that have
upset, offend and oppose you?
Willie Crawford:
Well that’s an interesting question. You know as a black
person, as a soldier, as someone from the South, I have been
offended, I’ve been discriminated against.
Willie Crawford:
When I was in the
military I got back to my barrack but again I talk about a
unit where the commander of the unit basically took care of
those who went to the same school he went to. And so you
were treated unfair if you weren’t one of the inter circle
you know, and that was pointed out to me very quickly in
that unit.
Willie Crawford:
I learned that we are
most comfortable with people just like us. People the same
background, the same whatever just like us. And so once you
go to understand that, it’s… if you’re different than me I
don’t know what you are all about, I don’t trust you. I
don’t feel comfortable around you. You grow to appreciate
why people do what they do.
Willie Crawford:
I don’t allow others
whose smallness makes them racists or sexists or ageists or
whatever to impact me at all.
Willie Crawford:
I try to understand
where they’re coming from you know. But I don’t allow them
to impact me at all. I try to figure out why they are the
way they are you know. If you don’t like me because of my…
whatever… I want to know why I want to know what makes you
that way and I want to understand that.
Willie Crawford:
And I want to know maybe
I can change your perspective. But I don’t want to change
your perspective by arguing with you. I want to change your
prospective by showing you that I’m, I’m different.
Willie Crawford:
That I care about you,
that I want to make your life better and I don’t want to
argue with you. I don’t want to change your perspective by
discussion, I want to change your perspective by
demonstrating that you’re wrong and leaving you to that
logical conclusion.
Willie Crawford:
But if you don’t like me
because of my race, my religion, my age, whatever, that’s
fine you know. It doesn’t impact me at all. I worry about
things that I can change and the things I can’t change I
don’t worry about.
Ralph Zuranski:
So you feel that it’s important to forgive those that injure
you in some way either emotionally or physically just
because…
Willie Crawford:
Absolutely, 100%, 1000% you know I have often set in
traffic, and or driven in traffic and just watched somebody
riding their horn and then they are off down the freeway.
Willie Crawford:
And that person may be
fuming you know a ten miles away, while the person they
honked their horn at should have gotten over it and the only
person that is being impacted now is the person that is
harboring that ill feeling.
Willie Crawford:
The only person being
affected is the person who can’t let go. So I’ve learned to
let go. I’ve learned to just let go that it doesn’t
matter. It’s not worth spending hours or even minutes
harboring ill feelings toward someone.
Willie Crawford:
Harboring resentment,
just you know life happens and the minute it happens if its
worth paying attention to, you pay attention to it that
minute and you ask yourself what can I do.
Willie Crawford:
I am also about positive
energy. I am about it has been proven to me that if you
surround with negative people, negative events, negative
things that you attract negativity. If you surround
yourself with positive people, positive thinkers, positive
doers you attract positive things into your life.
Willie Crawford:
I firmly, firmly, firmly
believe that and so I let go at things that are negative I
push out of my life. I don’t they are not admitted in my
life at all.
Ralph Zuranski:
Will you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Willie Crawford:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I have one friend who… one mentor
who shared with me that his father, I won’t get too deep in
this because somebody will mug me.
Willie Crawford:
But he told me his
father use to go into restaurants and pick out a young
couple that looked like they were struggling and he would
call the waiter over and say I want to pay for their meal
anonymously.
Willie Crawford:
And he would pay for
their meal and you know the waiter and he’d leave before the
meal was over with maybe. And the waiter would go up to
them and say somebody paid for your meal already you know
don’t worry about it.
Willie Crawford:
I believe in service to
others too that extent. I believe in giving anonymously. I
come across people on the internet all the time that are
struggling who need help and I give it to them.
Willie Crawford:
And I again I am too
accessible by phone. I need to fix that because there is
people who don’t need too, don’t need access, don’t need me
really, but they just tap into me because I am a valuable
resource.
Willie Crawford:
But there are others who
really, really need me and won’t make it without me. And I
don’t when I went through struggles and I ask myself so
what’s this what’s life all about. Somebody convinced me
it’s about serving my fellow human you know.
Willie Crawford:
Helping out other people
I mean I’m going to live I don’t know 80 years and I’m going
to die. When I define why I’m here, part of it is to be of
service to others. Connect to others is to love others, and
so you have to, to me being of service to others is very
important.
Ralph Zuranski:
What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Willie Crawford:
Prayer connects me with my higher power. I’m again I make
note of a Southern Baptist. My religious grounding is
that’s what my parents believed in. So if they and the
generation before them, and the generation before them, and
the generation before them, and the generation before them
all believed the same thing and it passed as least on to
me. I can question that belief but I can’t believe I’m
smarter that you know people who lived for ten thousand
years before me you know.
Willie Crawford:
There’s something wrong
with thinking I’m smarter. And we all do think we are
smarter. We think that you know well they were ignorant or
whatever you know so I need to really look at this.
Willie Crawford:
But prayer connects me
with the person that is running it all. And it allows me to
step back to allow energy and goodness and serenity and all
those things just to flow to me.
Willie Crawford:
You know, I mean
throughout the day look for opportunities just too connect
with… a God of my understanding see and that’s again my drug
treatment days, where part of what you’re taught in
rehabilitation is that a lot of us are out of kilter with
our concept of God.
Willie Crawford:
And if our concept with
God isn’t working for us, there’s something wrong with that
you know. You’ve got to feel that whatever your concept of
this higher power is, cares about you and isn’t vindictive
and loves you.
Willie Crawford:
And so that’s why if you
go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous or any of
those treatment programs, they always use the term of God of
your understanding.
Willie Crawford:
You know I… I’ve spent
to many years struggling with so what if you believe
differently than I do. You know are you wrong and if your
parents taught you differently than what my parents taught
me, or you are wrong.
Willie Crawford:
So I don’t even go
there. But prayer allows me to connect with this higher
power. Whatever created the universe and the world around
me and that I feel every day of my life. I feel every day
in my life and almost every minute of my life.
Willie Crawford:
I mean I can be in the
most horrendous environment I can be anywhere doing anything
and I am at total peace with the world. And that is an
incredible feeling. It’s to me the greatest power in the
world is love.
Willie Crawford:
I can be surrounded by
people who completely hate my guts, and if I can try to
understand them, and I try to love and appreciate them
they’re disarmed. They’re not even a threat to me. It’s
mind boggling if you really think about it. But the
greatest power in the world is love.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well also along with love comes humor. If you maintain a
sense of humor in the face of serious problems because I
know in situations that are difficult sometimes it’s either
laugh or cry.
Willie Crawford:
Yes humor is incredibly important to me. I mean I don’t
allow myself to watch negative movies for example anymore.
I mean I have gone through a number of courses that taught
me about energy management, and about how your environment
affects you, and so if I can’t laugh or smile about a
situation, if I can’t be lead to laugh or smile about a
movie its not for me.
Willie Crawford:
When I turn on the news
and its all negative I turn it off and its not because I
don’t want to hear it, it’s because if I can’t change it I
don’t need to fret over it.
Willie Crawford:
If it’s something I can
change and I should and I’m the right person to change it
I’ll go out and try to change it. But I’m not going to spend
you know, all my energy all my time worrying about something
that I have absolutely no control over, no influence over.
Willie Crawford:
And so humor, humor
comedies are the greatest gift I can give to myself. That’s
another thing when you look at what you allow into your life
you have to be good to yourself first.
Willie Crawford:
If you’re not firmly
grounded physiologically and mentally you can’t help others,
so you have got to be happy with yourself first. And for me
that’s not watching negative TV shows, not listening to
negative music, not listening to… not watching negative
movies.
Willie Crawford:
It’s watching things
that propel me towards that energize me and push me toward
my goal. It not allowing negativity into my life at all you
know. If you’re a negative person, and you’re a friend you
can still be my friend but I’m not going to hang out with
you. There’s no doubt about that in my mind right now.
Willie Crawford:
My mentors have taught
me that negative people just drain you of your energy. You
know if all you can do is complain you can complain to me
but I will say to you what are you doing about it. And I’ll
push you toward to doing something about it. But if you
don’t do anything about it we’ll part ways.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy that’s so true. Well who are the heroes in your life
Willie other than your Grandma?
Willie Crawford:
You know I thought about that earlier. I don’t really have
any heroes. My heroes were people I discovered in books.
Because I didn’t have the role models that… you know that
did things that I wanted to do in my community when I was
growing up.
Willie Crawford:
I will say that teachers
who took on one of the toughest jobs in the world you know,
shaping young minds were heroes, and soldiers and policeman
and fireman they’re heroes, but there is a lot of other
people in our society are heroes to me too.
Willie Crawford:
Volunteers, people I
went through some medical procedure recently and as I’m
sitting in the waiting room, this young lady who is a Red
Cross volunteer, who herself was dying with cancer and knew
it, she worked as a volunteer you know just to cheer people
up while they are in the waiting room waiting for a family
member to pull through surgery.
Willie Crawford:
I thought that is so
giving you know. She said I’m not going to set at home you
know thinking about my misfortune, I’m going to reach out
and touch someone else.
Willie Crawford:
And she was you know
honestly dying she knew she had maybe four months to live.
Yet she spent her time as a volunteer in a waiting room you
know just cheering up other family members. That was so
profound. So my heroes are volunteers, people who just
give of their spare time or their spare assets to help
others.
Ralph Zuranski:
You know it’s funny to when people are depressed or cast
down that the fastest way to raise their spirits is by doing
something for somebody else without expecting anything in
return.
Willie Crawford:
Absolutely. There is a saying; I felt bad because I had no
shoes until I saw a man that had no feet.
Willie Crawford:
And no matter how bad
your situation, if you look long enough and hard enough you
are going to find someone who has it worse than you do.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well why do you feel that heroes are important to young
people?
Willie Crawford:
Because young minds are so malleable and shapeable. You
know, if we they look for examples of what’s possible in the
world. And they need something positive to see.
Willie Crawford:
I mean all you see on
television is just negatives and all you see in movies is
for the most part negativism. And so they need somebody
that shows them what’s possible and show them what’s
possible when you do the right thing.
Willie Crawford:
You know to me heroism
is about doing the right thing.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well who do you thing are the heroes of today that aren’t
getting recognition that they deserve?
Willie Crawford:
Yeah I mentioned earlier, schoolteachers. There is so many
schoolteachers who are in really, really dangerous
situations who are getting paid next to nothing. They’re
not getting any respect and yet they’re shaping the next
generation of our country. So I think schoolteachers.
Willie Crawford:
I want to say soldiers
because I was a soldier, and because when America
transitioned force what that meant was, the rich could then
say well I don’t want my son to go into military so I’m
going to hire you instead to go.
Willie Crawford:
And risk your life to
defend me and my rights and my privileges and someone who
you know once you raise your hand and say I’ll follow orders
and do whatever I’m told to do, you’ve basically volunteered
to sacrifice your life if necessary.
Willie Crawford:
And you know while
everybody says a soldier is a hero probably, most don’t
realize that they have basically given up all their rights.
I mean I spent 20 years where if you told me to charge up
that hill with a rock it was my job to do that you know.
Willie Crawford:
And even if I saw the
guy in front of me getting shot it’s my job to do that.
Willie Crawford:
So when a country has an
all-volunteer force, you’re finding people to step out and
volunteer to risk their lives and their health to defend
your way of life and to me a soldier is a big hero.
Willie Crawford:
Nobody, again nobody
just wants to run out and get shot but a soldier is
defending your freedom, your ability your right to think
whatever you want to.
Willie Crawford:
But its often somebody
who, who has less choices as to other things to do. And so
because they don’t have a lot of other options they choose
to go into the military and they’re off in a rock in
whatever country. They are in the demilitarized known in
Korea.
Willie Crawford:
The war ended in Korea
in the 50’s, the countries have been at war over almost 60
years. And there are soldiers on the front lines everyday
right now.
Willie Crawford:
So to me a soldier, you
know a young man who at 18 gets married and marries his high
school sweetheart, and then goes off and leaves her maybe
pregnant, and gets a picture of his child being born while
he is off in some other country.
Willie Crawford:
To me that’s a
tremendous, tremendous sacrifice. And I you know anybody
listening to this recording, I beg them to at least you know
show your support for somebody like that.
Willie Crawford:
You don’t have to agree
with the politics of your country, but what you have to
realize is that the soldiers don’t have to agree with the
politics of the country, they do what they are told to do.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah.
Willie Crawford:
You I have often said you know the old men set around and
make decisions, and send the young men out to get shot you
know. Those young men have no choice. They volunteered to
do a job, and then they have to trust their leaders to make
good decisions, and decisions aren’t always good. But they
do what they’re told to do, so to me a soldier is a
tremendous, tremendous hero.
Willie Crawford:
Fireman, policeman, very
tough jobs, they do things to protect us and we often don’t
appreciate them. But we all should appreciate fireman.
Policeman… you know I’m driving down the freeway and my wife
sees a police car and she brakes or whatever. I don’t
brake, I think great, there is a man doing his job he’s
protecting me. And he’s taking tremendous risk.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah that’s true.
Willie Crawford:
And he’s getting paid next to nothing. And in my part of
Florida 28 to $35,000.00 a year is salary for policeman.
You know I’ve done that in a month you know. So yet it’s
his job to protect me, my home, my property. Protect me
against drunk drivers, drug dealers, people just driving
wild on the freeway, so policeman are my heroes.
Willie Crawford:
I don’t… its not us
against them. It’s them working for me.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah, well that’s so true. You know it’s funny that a lot
of people don’t realize that the freedom they experience is
at the sacrifice of someone else.
Willie Crawford:
And if we didn’t have
people that were willing to stand up for what was right and
use force when it was necessary we would all be slaves
wouldn’t we.
Willie Crawford:
We would, we would. I have traveled to more than 40
countries. I have climbed the Great Wall in China, I have
seen the rice terraces in the Philippines, I’ve seen the
Pyramids, I’ve seen the Hanging Gardens, and I’ve seen most
of the wonders of the world.
Willie Crawford:
And we live in… we as
Americans live in the greatest country in the world the most
freedom. The most freedom of any country in the world.
Willie Crawford:
We enjoy such tremendous
privileges and we don’t appreciate it. You know when I was
in Korea I watched the entrepreneurism of the Koreans.
Willie Crawford:
And I went through
sections where they’d taken the highway the median they
found the dirt section and planted vegetables in the median
and they planted trees or whatever you know something to
harvest in the highway itself in the median.
Willie Crawford:
I thought that is so
wild, you know that they don’t have that much cultivatable
land. And so they go out into the median strip in the
highway and plant vegetables and tend them and then harvest
them and you see enough things like that and you really,
really do grow to appreciate what you have.
Willie Crawford:
I’m extremely
fortunate. I get to work from my home everyday, get up and
decide whether I want to even go to work. Whether I want to
go fishing or just go play with my granddaughter or
whatever. I’m so, so blessed you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well that is a wonderful place to be. How does it feel to
be recognized as an internet hero?
Willie Crawford:
It takes some getting use to. But I honestly feel I’ve
earned it. I have worked at it for about ten years. See so
many people start out down a path and give up. And not
everything I’ve done has been you know worked out perfectly.
So its persistence is just sticking to something long enough
for it to work out.
Willie Crawford:
And so it fells great.
When I was at Yanik’s seminar in DC and half the people I
talked to said I’m a subscriber to your newsletter. That’s
a very good feeling but it also says I’m doing something
right. It says I’m treating people fairly, I’m not
misleading people, so it says I’m on track for what I want
to accomplish.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well why do you think you were selected for the unique honor
of a internet hero?
Willie Crawford:
I perhaps because of visibility, but also you know my value
system. You know I really care about people. You know
about I work out of my home I have my office there and above
my desk I have a picture of some of my subscribers.
Willie Crawford:
And so when I’m setting
down writing a newsletter, I’m not just writing a
newsletter, I’m talking to individuals. I’m saying I know
that you’re a work at home mom with three kids. I know that
you’re a senior citizen on a fixed income. I know that
you’re whatever. And here’s what I found that works for me
and here is how you can tweak it or twist it and make it
work for you.
Willie Crawford:
So I am an internet
hero, but it’s because I care about you, I care about
people.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well how will being recognized as an internet hero change
your life?
Willie Crawford:
It won’t change it too much, other than me pointing people
to the website and saying go check this out because there is
other people that really do care about you.
Willie Crawford:
And that’s what it is
all about to me. It’s all about really caring about
people. It’s you know… a 100 years from now I won’t be here
and so I will be judged by what I do. And I don’t want to
step on anybody’s dreams. I don’t have permission to step
on anybody’s dreams you know.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well do you have any good solutions to the problems facing
society especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and
violence among young people?
Willie Crawford:
Only that you teach people that the only person they have
control over is themselves. I’ve dealt with not spousal or
child abuse but I’ve dealt with racism much of my adult
life.
Willie Crawford: And the only person you
can change is yourself. If you can make yourself a better
person, someone that people can look at and look up to, and
see that you know yeah he’s different from me, but he’s not
harming me he’s making the world a better place then you’ve
made a difference.
Willie Crawford:
So and that probably
even for spousal and child abuse it’s setting an example of
what’s acceptable what’s acceptable. But no I don’t have
any… I wish I could wave a magic wand and fix the world
tomorrow but I can’t.
Willie Crawford:
I can only fix myself
and if I fix myself that will make the world a better
place.
Ralph Zuranski:
What if you had three wishes for your life and the world
that would instantly come true what would they be?
Willie Crawford:
Well I guess most would say world peace. But I’ve seen
close up the effects of war, and you know it just disrupts
ordinary lives, so peace and into many of the forms of
suffering you know,,, I mean cancer is probably the most
scary thing that most of us face. And yet it’s something
out of kilter in our environment that you know that causes
cells to grow at an abnormal pace.
Willie Crawford:
So a cure for cancer,
and then serenity. Too many of us are facing these battles
in our minds, and we’re not happy we’re just we are at war
with ourselves. So to me serenity is a major, major is a
major importance.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well what are the things that parents can do that will help
their children realize that if they choose to be heroes, and
make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Willie Crawford:
The best thing that they can do is be a good example. I
mean my grandmother in particular she just set a good
example for me. She showed that she wasn’t just talking the
talk, she was walking the walk you know.
Willie Crawford:
She didn’t have the
money to do things but she could show me how to do the next
right thing. And things that we do when our children are in
their teens or whatever, may not kick in until they are like
ten years later in their late 20’s or whatever but we’ve
influenced their thought process.
Willie Crawford:
And so the most the
greatest thing you can do for your children is to set a good
example.
Ralph Zuranski:
Boy that’s amazing too because kids really look at your
actions as well as listen to your words.
Willie Crawford:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski:
Well Willie what do you think about the In Search of Heroes
program and its impact on youth parents and business people?
Willie Crawford:
I love the whole concept because, because the youth of today
are going to be our leaders of tomorrow, and anything we can
do to shape their minds to set positive examples. There’s…
is television is too willing to provide negative examples
and that is partly because of what people want.
Willie Crawford:
There is this side of
humanity that you know when you drive past an accident we
rubberneck and gawk and see well who was killed or whatever
you know. There is a part of us that wants to see that… but
there is a part of us that wants to know that man is
basically good and wants proof of that.
Willie Crawford:
And so the greatest
impact that I can have and most of us can have is too
provide positive examples, positive role models. Showing
that a future spokesman helping others. If you help enough
people get what they want you will get what you want.
Willie Crawford:
If we just focus on
helping others life will work out in your favor. It will.
Ralph Zuranski:
I think that was Zig Zigler that said that.
Willie Crawford:
I think Zig said it too yes.
Ralph Zuranski:
He has got an amazing story it reminds me of what you talked
about the necessary aspect of forgiveness, where somebody’s
sitting in a car and somebody honks their horn at them and
that person is down the freeway and they’ve completely
forgot about honking their horn.
Willie Crawford:
Yeah you’re sitting there stewing about it and they’ve
forgotten about it and it’s only affecting you because you
are stewing about it.
Ralph Zuranski:
And Zig had a funny story about kicking the cat. Did you
ever hear that one?
Willie Crawford:
No I didn’t hear that one.
Zuranski:
It is one well worth listening too and getting Zig’s I won’t
run the experience of it for people that get a chance to
listen to Zig’s material.
Willie Crawford:
But the idea is that a
person had a problem in the morning like they spilled coffee
and they were upset about that and then they go outside and
get in their car and make a mistake in driving.
Willie Crawford:
And all of a sudden
somebody pulls out in front of them or whatever and they’re
just furious the entire day and that other person didn’t
even know that they pulled out in front of them.
Willie Crawford:
No.
Ralph Zuranski:
And when they finally get home the cat does something, pee’s
on the carpet or whatever, and the person kicks the cat and
feels a lot better and Zig says the person should have
kicked the cat when they got up.
Willie Crawford:
Yeah. The cat won’t appreciate that.
Ralph Zuranski:
No I don’t believe in abusing animals but I thought it was a
funny analogy.
Willie Crawford:
Well Willie I really
appreciate your time. I mean you have just given an
incredible value and wonderful information for everybody no
matter where they are in their lives. To understand what
they need to do to change themselves to become like you who
has overcome tremendous obstacles to be incredibly
successful.
Willie Crawford:
The only person you can change is yourself. And so you know
it’s an inside job. It all starts with changing yourself,
your perspective, what you’re willing to risk and you go
from there. And it’s also making a decision
Willie Crawford:
that you’re going to do
it, not just thinking about doing but doing it.
Ralph Zuranski:
Yeah boy that is just timeless advice. Well again Willie I
really appreciate your time.
Willie Crawford:
Thank you, thank you.
