Ralph Zuranski: What do want out of life in ten words or less?
Greg Writer: I just want to make a difference in the lives of families and kids and I want to be a great father and husband to my wife and family and kids.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have a dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Greg Writer: Well, I think the dream or vision is my Christianity, and to be a good faithful servant of the Lord, and currently in my life it is to build Children’s Educational Network to be the premier online network for kids.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?
Greg Writer: Well, it is absolutely important. If you want to accomplish anything in this world you have got to stay focused and you have got to be one hundred percent committed, sold out for what it is your doing and where it is you are going.
Greg Writer: You have to have the attitude of “I’m never going to give up” and have the faith that God gives me. We are just focused and believing in God that we are going to accomplish our goals and at the end of the day millions and millions of children are going to be protected.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you follow your hunches and intuition?
Greg Writer: Oh, absolutely. You know some people call them hunches and intuition and I call it the Holy Spirit, but I think that if you will listen to your hunches and intuition or your Holy Spirit, typically those hunches and intuition are your inter-being and depending on if you are a person of faith it is somebody trying to give you direction and trying to keep you out of trouble and help you to go down the right path.
Ralph Zuranski: What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and decisions?
Greg Writer: Well, the specific philosophy is Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and provided everlasting life, so for us it is God first; family second and the idea of the philosophy of loving one another, forgiveness and love are the two main philosophies in my mind set that has come to mind that I live by, forgiving people and loving people.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Greg Writer: Well again the Bible lays it all out for us that we should be good people and “Do unto others as we want done unto ourselves” and “Love thy neighbor”. You know the one thing we can take to our grave is our reputation and our ethics and our values, and I really believe that Americans, society and the whole is over the last four, five, six decades, you have just seen a complete derogation in the ethics and the morals of people.
Greg Writer: I believe we need to get back to that which is why I have the whole focus of the Children’s Educational Network is trying to instill values and giving parents the tools to instill values in their children so we can all kind of live in this world with the morals and the values that are meaningful and get kids to understand why that is so important because it seems to have been lost in many parts of the country.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Greg Writer: Minute by minute, day by day, week by week, with the family members, without the family members. I think the more time people can spend in prayer the better. It is a very powerful tool and it works, absolutely works.
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Greg Writer: There are so many answers. I would put my life down for my family, my mother, father, family, kids my wife. I spent a lot of time completely dedicated to my business which to me my business is a ministry and from that stand point it is tied to my relationship with God and I am doing this to help and doing what I believe is Gods work in my life. So from that stand point I am sacrificing a number of things to do Gods work and to pursue the dream and vision that he has given me.
Ralph Zuranski: Are your goals consistent with your beliefs?
Greg Writer: Absolutely, I think they have to be, and if there is no integrity in having goals and beliefs that are completely different and offset and I think that is one of the driving things in this time of my life, having been a past investment banker and spending fourteen years so to say on Wall Street working with the dog eat dog world of investment banking, you know I am at a time in my life where I want to do something that is meaningful.
Greg Writer: And I can wake up in the morning and be excited about the changes I am making and I want to wake up when I am seventy and say “Look what God had me do and look at the effect it has had on people.” I absolutely have got a big vision and it is a big dream that God has given me and I do not take the responsibility lightly.
Ralph Zuranski: Are your actions consistent with your beliefs?
Greg Writer: Absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?
Greg Writer: I am not sure you can achieve very many goals of significance without being highly emotionally charged. I think the emotion behind the passion and the passion and the emotion tied together while seeking and going after goals gives you the strength to continue because it is not easy out there to succeed, it is not easy to accomplish things that you are seeking after, so you have got to have that emotion and that drive to accomplish your goals I think absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Greg Writer: Yes. You have probably heard the Thomas Edison story over a hundred times, it is not that he failed over 10,000 times when creating the light bulb it is that he found 10,000 ways not to create a light bulb.
Greg Writer: I think failure is a state of mind because when people fear failure they don’t even get and work on accomplishing something. To me it doesn’t bother me or phase me a bit. It is just a coarse correction; it is a part of life. People are going to fail. You are going to have road blocks, you are going to have problems and you have got to persevere and you have got to overcome and you have got to use it as a learning experience and everyone who takes it with that attitude learns and grows and is happier and becomes more accomplished by doing so.
Ralph Zuranski: Are you an optimist?
Greg Writer: I take optimism in a different light again going back to my faith. To me faith, hope and optimism… you know when you have got the biblical hope of eternal life in heaven with all of the relatives and all the family members who have gone there before me and the faith in what the word says, that is my ultimate optimism and with that faith and hope it gives me optimism and there for gives me the ability to persevere through all of the trials and tribulations I deal with on a daily basis and I can do it with a smile on my face and joy in my heart.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Greg Writer: Absolutely. You have to have a sense of humor and you have to look at things and reframe things to keep your own self motivated to keep going. If you didn’t have a sense of humor when trials and tribulations come your way it is going to make you get discouraged and make you want to give up.
Greg Writer: It is all about an attitude change and again going back to your question of philosophy I mean here is a philosophy for you, you have got to take the philosophy that the only real important thing in my life is serving the Lord and getting to everlasting eternal life and as long as I think of that is the ultimate goal then everything here on Earth is nothing, simple, little.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you invest time into daydreaming about what your life will be like when you attain your goals?
Greg Writer: Well I don’t know if I would call it daydreaming but I would definitely call it vision. Envisioning it as well as planning it, writing it down, penciling it out and putting it on paper.
Greg Writer: I just really seem to have this great gift that God has given me where I will wake up at three or four o’clock in the morning with these great ideas, these visions of how the business should be ran, how it should go and what my life should look like and you know the things I want for my kids. I actually do a lot of that stuff, as matter of fact I change my title to a C.V.O., a visionary officer.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel it is important to make positive statements about yourself, the type of person you are and your goals?
Greg Writer: I think self-esteem, I know it is good to feel good about yourself and there again is another Biblical principle; love yourself, love thy neighbor and love God.
Greg Writer: Not actually in that order, we love God first but you cannot accomplish or be a servant of God or to your family or anybody else or be meaningful to anybody I do not think unless you do feel good about yourself.
Greg Writer: So I think whatever people have to do to feel good about their self, make positive steps to having better self-esteem, not to the point of where you are proud and boastful but just feeling good about yourself, your grounded and just for me it comes easy because of my strong belief and my faith in the word of God it is easy for me.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and dreams?
Greg Writer: I really don’t take time out of my day to do that. To me I would change that, to me that is my prayer life, praying and seeking guidance from God, that is my way of working on that stuff that you just said.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas?
Greg Writer: Absolutely, I am filled with ideas so trying to chase the ideas; probably one of my biggest issues that I have to deal with is recognizing that I cant do everything all at the same time, I have got to prioritize and work on things in a certain sequence that is going to be beneficial to the overall plan.
Ralph Zuranski: Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
Greg Writer: Absolutely. I don’t know that I want to state that I am willing to experience discomfort but it is a fact. You are going to experience it so the fact that I know that it doesn’t bother me, I don’t even think about it. I just think ”hey that is just another course correction, just another bump in the road I have got to get over, lets get over it and go on to the next one.”
Ralph Zuranski: Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
I am the kind of guy who makes decisions quickly and a lot of them were not the right ones but when you are following your intuition and the Holy Spirit in making decisions, I think that all entrepreneurs and all successful entrepreneurs that make quick decisions have been successful people. I will tell you this I believe especially in this day in age, when you are in the internet business, the information business working in that type of business if you are not making quick decisions you can not achieve the growth and the things that you want to achieve because things are moving too fast around you.
Ralph Zuranski: Are you slow to revise or reverse an important decision?
Greg Writer: You just hit a hot button that is definitely one of my weaknesses that I am continually working on. I have been known to when I make a quick decision to stick with it and keep going and have a lot of faith in it and especially with human resources and people.
Greg Writer: I did have one of my mentors tell me in the last year or so he said, “The first time you feel in your gut that that person should be let go and they are not the right person you need to pull the trigger and make the decision and that is something I have a hard decision doing because I love people so much.
Ralph Zuranski: How were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
Greg Writer: I just have a gift from God, fears don’t bother me, faith, confidence, it just all comes from the Lord. I spent a lot of time with the Bible studies and at church reading the word. One of my partners is a pastor and the bottom line is I don’t have fear. I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Greg Writer: Absolutely, without forgiveness you can not function and be happy and successful. To me forgiveness is probably the number one problem in all relationships. I can honestly look you straight in the eye when I say I do not have any grudges. Of course just like anyone else I have situations where I get into a grudge match or something but it never ever lasts more than forty-eight hours. Usually when I go to sleep, when I wake up the next morning it is gone.
Greg Writer: I have forgiven them; I go on, no big deal. People that don’t do that, they are sick, they are having problems and there are a lot of problems. To me everyone should be forgiven period. There is no “Well he did this or this or that and I can’t forgive him.” No, it’s one hundred percent forgiven, seven times seventy. Every time always forgiven, but that doesn’t mean you have to forget what they did or excuse what they did, see.
Greg Writer: You can forgive them in your own mind and release them, release it to God and now it is Gods problem not my problem, but that doesn’t mean I have to respect them, that doesn’t mean I have to forget what they did, that doesn’t mean I have to trust them again and you have to take all of those things in to consideration that “Hey yeah I am going to forgive them and get it off my chest and let God take it but I’m still going to be prudent and use Gods wisdom in dealing with that person and that situation in the future.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Greg Writer: Absolutely, my whole life is about serving others. I don’t know, when you are young maybe it doesn’t work that way but when you get older it’s like you want to do something for people, or at least that is where I am in my life. I want to serve people instead of serving my own personal desires.
Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to one of victory over all obstacles?
Greg Writer: I think we have all had a number of low times in our life and a couple of them come to mind and one of them was I had some financial billionaires steal my company from me and it was very, very difficult.
Greg Writer: And I dealt with it by getting on my knees and praying to God, forgiving them and asking God for guidance and believing in that God is going to cover me and in that particular situation I believe that God was going to restore what was taken from me and two years later I got back what was taken from me.
Greg Writer: Gods plans better than my plan. What I had then and what I have now is ten times more valuable and I have much more control. It is just incredible just how God works things out.
Ralph Zuranski: Who helped give you the willpower to change things in you life for the better?
Greg Writer: My wife, she has been my rock and she has been my pillar. She has always been there for me. She could have had a number of reasons to have left me and a number of reasons to not have supported me but she stood by me and has always been there for me and without her I would not be here today, I would be gone.
Ralph Zuranski: How important was it to believe your financial dreams would eventually become reality?
Greg Writer: Well, I think if you don’t believe you can achieve then you can’t. If you can’t visualize what you are going to do and be specific in your goals and in your goal settings, I definitely believe in that.
Greg Writer: As a matter of fact it is a Biblical principle, going back to the visualization, it is like believing in those things that are not yet seen that are tangible. So you have got to visualize financial success and you have got to be specific with what you want to achieve.
Greg Writer: There is just something in the spirit realm that takes over and helps you accomplish that. It is like having a map and mapping out where you are going. Its like, “How am I going to get where I am going?” You can’t really get there if you don’t know where you are going.
Ralph Zuranski: Why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account and when?
Greg Writer: You have to be specific about your goals and be specific about the time frames and then break it down in to more specific smaller steps. Everything in life from a financial realm, from a business realm and from exceeding tasks and strategies and goals and break it down step by step. Implement one thing at a time and before you know you are getting to the end.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your definition of heroism?
Greg Writer: Boy that is a tough one because there are so many different heroes out there that you can point to. I think those are people that love people, that forgive people, that are active in chasing their dream and doing something that is meaningful in life. I guess that would be my definition that sounds pretty good.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Greg Writer: No I never really did. I never really thought of Jesus as a hero but if I ever did that is probably who I would have thought of.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the HEROES in your life now?
Greg Writer: My wife, she is my hero. My oldest son, all my children but from time to time they do things where you just go “Man he is my hero, he is just making me so proud” but I think right now the biggest heroes that I would reflect upon is our military.
Greg Writer: I got to say for the first time in my life I am ashamed for the first twenty years of my adulthood I didn’t really get the political scene, I didn’t really get the military scene, didn’t understand it, didn’t pay attention to it and now it’s like “Wow, I was lost.
Greg Writer: Man these kids are out there risking their life for freedom and doing what they can to protect us.” So everybody in the military and everybody who is out there fighting for our country is definitely a hero of mine.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to have trusted friends or a master mind group to bounce your ideas off?
Greg Writer: Well, bottom line is if you want to get to where you are going faster and eliminate some mistakes, you have got to have mentors, you have got to have friends and you have got to have a mastermind group.
Greg Writer: It is not to say you can’t get to where you are going on your own but if you want to get there faster, if you want to get there more efficient, you want to get there on a better time frame and you want to eliminate mistakes, heartache, pain and loss of resources, do it on your own but otherwise get mentors, get mastermind groups, get involved with people that are doing it and you will see an extremely large jump in your efficiency and your growth rate.
Ralph Zuranski: How do they make a positive difference in your life?
Greg Writer: Well, they do what I just said. They save me time, they save me money, they save me headaches, they save me mistakes and every time one of the mentor that I look up to and that I work with save me money and time I can thank them for my vacation I am taking.
Greg Writer: I can thank them for my ski trips I am taking, I can thank them for getting my kids in different schools and different things. It is all relative when you start to see the traces of how you got to where you are going, you can track it down to the knowledge that you had and what caused you to implement a particular idea.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you think are the HEROES today that are not getting the recognition they deserve?
Greg Writer: Well, I think there are probably some political people out there trying to serve our country and do what they think is best. They get slammed everyday in the press and in the media, they get run through the mud.
Greg Writer: Then you have got people out there who are taking their valuable time out of their day to educate people, i.e. our teachers. They are under paid, they are over worked and for the most part they are good people. There are always a few of them I feel should be booted off.
Greg Writer: The teachers and the people who are trying to run society for us, I can’t imagine, President Bush, I can’t imagine the pressure and the power, what he has to go through on a daily basis, it is just unbelievable to me, and these poor teachers out there, boy it is tough to think these teachers are getting paid what they get and you’ve got C.E.Os of companies making 600,000,000 a year and you have got a teacher making 40,000 a year, it is just not right.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are HEROES so important in the lives of young people?
Greg Writer: I think it gives them motivation and drive and especially for the kids who are not grounded in the word and brought up in a Biblical household. By having heroes and mentors and people they look up to it gives them drive, it gives them motivation, it gives them something to look for, it gives them the ability to dream, they in vision that “Hey if he did I can do it.
Greg Writer: I can be a basketball star, an athlete, a teacher, a guy that goes to the moon.” So they are extremely important as role models in society. It is just sad when some of these role models cross over the line and do things that hurt the whole process or the whole concept of having a role model.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things parents can do that will help their children realize they too can be HEROES and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Greg Writer: There are three things that immediately come to mind. One is spend more time with your kids. Parents are not spending time with their kids, they are not getting actively involved in their school, in their sports, in their daily activities.
Greg Writer: Two is you have got to love them more and tell them you love them, always. Continually show them that you are there for them that you love them and they are the most important things in the world and number three is don’t say no, say yes more, no less. Figure out ways to say yes.
Greg Writer: So when they say “I want to have some ice cream” you can say “Yes we can have some ice cream next week” as oppose to “No you can’t have any ice cream.” The goal is to say yes because our kids hear no so often that it just gets drilled in their brain and they don’t think they can accomplish anything when it is time for them to go out on their own.
Ralph Zuranski: How do people become heroes?
Greg Writer: They become heroes by doing something good for mankind. Whether that is teaching somebody, patting someone on the back, giving someone a hug, helping them learn something, protecting our country, there are millions of different ways but if you try to boil it down they become a hero to somebody by expressing love and doing something that is beneficial for an individual or mankind or society in general.
Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet HERO?
Greg Writer: Well I think it feels wonderful and I just hope that this interview and this whole process of what we are doing could bless some people and bring some people closer to their dreams and realities and that it would help motivate some people to think “I can do good and I want to get up off my you know what and get out there and make something happen that is going to be better for me, for my family and for everybody around me.
Ralph Zuranski: Why do you think you were selected for this unique honor?
Greg Writer: Well I think it is because of the success that I have achieved and the fact that we are doing something significant for families and kids. I think it is very very cool to be associated with what we are doing. Everybody in my whole organization has joined the organization because of the mission that we stand for and the vision that we have, to protect and educate kids. So I think that is why.
Ralph Zuranski: How will being recognized as an Internet HERO change your life?
Greg Writer: I don’t know. Hopefully it will give me some exposure. Hopefully it will give more children some exposure to what we are doing and hopefully give parents exposure to what we are doing and I hope at the end of the day it will help effect families in a positive manner and everyone that hears this it will bless them, that is what I hope, I hope that happens. In fact I will just believe that is going to happen.
Ralph Zuranski: How are you making the world a better place?
Greg Writer: I think it is just walking the walk and not just talking the talk, and being an example for the people around me, being an example to my kids. They see my work ethics, they see my value, they see the morals, they see them in my lifestyle and I think that is another big mistake that parents make is they may try to talk one walk but when their kids see them they are not walking the talk and it is confusing to kids.
Greg Writer: So I think that is another way that I am a blessing to people, they see me as a man of faith and I am very transparent about it, I am not ashamed about it and if it offends somebody I am sorry about that but I am a transparent leader. That is what I am and it is a gift from God that I am thankful for.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?
Greg Writer: Get the word, get a relationship with God. Understand what the Bible says and teaches and all of the answers are there for everybody. The bottom line is you have got to love one another and you have got to love thy neighbor. You have got to have a relationship with God and it will fix all of those issues.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and the world, that would instantly come true, what would they be?
Greg Writer: Wow, I have never thought of this before. I think I would wish that I would have the proper funding to accelerate the growth of my company to where I could go from five million kids to fifty million kids, to where I could literally give our software to every single kid in the United States and then give it to every kid in the world, and get every single kid automatically involved in a safe closed educational internet for kids.
Greg Writer: I am thinking if I had that one wish it would give me the ability to do anything and everything else I wanted to do, and I think the other wish would just be to have perfect health for my whole family, for every single person in my whole family that they would have perfect health and we wouldn’t have to fight with any health issues and I would pray that same wish on everybody that I know that comes in contact with me, to have perfect health.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the “In Search Of Heroes” Program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Greg Writer: I am excited about this and I think that getting these stories and these things in front of the youth today is going to be inspiring and motivating and going to be very beneficial to kids and I am supportive of it and I am very excited to be able to say whether it is five years from now, ten years from now, two years from now; “I remember when, I remember when, I remember when Ralph had that dream, he had that vision, we helped implement it and look what it did.”
Greg Writer: Seeing the testimonies of the lives that it touches and the lives it changes by this whole program so I want to commend you. I pray right now in Jesus’ name that this all be accomplished through his perfect will and his guidance and that million of kids and millions of youth and millions of people are blessed with what you are doing.
Greg Writer is the consummate entrepreneur and has been referred to the Entrepreneurs Best Friend.
One of his Companies Angel Investors Network is a syndicate of high net worth investors that buy and sell, and invest in early stage companies. They help entrepreneurs get the capital they need to grow and thrive and provide a number of services and connections to insure their investment have the best chance to succeed.
Greg has done some pretty interesting deals in the past everything from partnering with Dreamworks & their brand Shrek, who is a New York Stock exchange traded Billion dollar Company and Master P, who sold over 75 million albums, just to name a few.
As a former investment banker Greg was the youngest owner of a full service investment bank in the history of the United States at 21 years old and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, taken dozens of companies public and facilitated a number of mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Writer is a serial entrepreneur and currently the CEO of five separate companies including: AngelNetwork.com LLC, Children’s Edutainment Network, BizPAD, Inc., Be Your Own You, LLC and The Writer Group, Inc.
AngelNetwork.com
January 1997 — Present (16 years 7 months)
I Founded this website & Company and it has been serving the needs of high net worth investors and entrepreneurs since 1997. If you need investment capital visit this link:
http://www.angelnetwork.com/cmd.php?ad=634101
Angel Investors Network (AIN) was created by a group of successful entrepreneurs, investment bankers, angel investors, marketing and management experts, lawyers, and accountants who have built companies in a diverse set of industries.
AIN offers investors an opportunity to participate in the buying and selling of businesses, making equity investments, and providing debt financing to businesses with the opportunity of less risk and faster returns than typical Angel Investments because of our unique approach.
AIN also works with investors, marketing strategists, management experts and financial gurus who combine their skill and experience to work with our target investments and make them highly successful businesses. We are more than just Angel Investors. We are Business Marketing Consultants. We invest our time, expertise, and money in exchange for equity with the objective to explode growth and sell the companies for far more than the current worth.
CEO
BizPAD LLC
January 2012 — Present (1 year 7 months)
http://www.BizPAD.com is a web based task management and project management tool.
Interim CEO
BYOU Be Your Own You
June 2011 — Present (2 years 2 months)
Our vision is to build a self-esteem lifestyle brand that becomes a household name driving awareness to the issues around self-esteem and women’s empowerment.
Our mission is to build the self-esteem of girls worldwide by encouraging them to embrace their unique and authentic self, diminish the need for them to seek external validation and approval. Through our products and education, we empower girls and women to make positive choices for their health, safety, well-being, personal happiness, and contribution to society.
Interim CEO
Children’s Edutainment Network, Inc.
June 2004 — Present (9 years 2 months)
Children’s Edutainment Network, Inc. (CEN) is a holding company formed for the purpose of aggregating assets in the children’s educational and entertainment space, with a mission to provide both children and parents safe and empowering resources that support healthy family values through an innovative combination of education and entertainment.
CEN comprises multiple assets including: a kid-safe browser technology, referred to as the TUKI™ Browser; a patent-pending educational gaming website called Club TUKI™ where children play games, earn virtual currency, and win actual prizes in an auction format (http://www.clubtuki.com); a self-esteem brand for girls called BYOU – Be Your Own You, including an apparel line, educational programs, and an online community for girls (http://www.BeYourOwnYou.com) and all related intellectual property, including trademarks, copyrights, and patents.