Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski; I’m on the phone with Chuck Daniel. Chuck is one of the Internet Heroes that I met at Joel Christopher’s seminar, the Double Birthday Bash. Chuck had a long career in technology working with Microsoft to write software programs.
Ralph Zuranski: I think he worked with Outlook and did a tremendous amount of work in that area and in the process of just being involved in technology, he got interested in internet marketing, because he knows now that the most important thing for any business is that you need to be able to sell the products and services of that business and the more successful the sales are, the more successful that business is if they provide good quality service and good quality products.
Ralph Zuranski: So how are you doing today, Chuck?
Chuck Daniel: I’m doing great, Ralph. It’s great to be on the call.
Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate you offering to help. You are one of the heroes who offered to help with providing software for a number of the schools in the different programs, and I’m thankful that you’re willing to do that for the schools up in your area once we get ready to start the Heroes program in every community.
Chuck Daniel: I’m very glad to help that way, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate that and the first question I want to ask is what is your definition of a hero?
Chuck Daniel: Well, that’s an interesting question.
Chuck Daniel: I don’t really have one single definition, because you know, I think people can be heroes in many different ways.
Chuck Daniel: If you look at, say for example, the firemen or policemen or any of the others who helped with the 9/11 tragedy for example, that’s one type of hero.
Chuck Daniel: But, I also think that people who consistently and selflessly help others, sometimes even at high personal cost or risks because it’s the right thing to do are heroes.
Chuck Daniel: For example, people who walk their talk, even in the face of adversity are also heroes in my mind, or even people who inspire or motivate others to do their best are heroes.
Chuck Daniel: Children who carry on as best they can with a positive attitude even though they may have a challenging disease, I think those kids are really heroes as well.
Chuck Daniel: I don’t have one definition, but I hope you can get a sense of the type of person who I think are heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: I really agree with that. There are so many people around us, and sometimes you wonder if societies can’t find any heroes. They say, “Where are the heroes?” Well, they should probably look next door, look at your neighbors, and look at the people you work with.
Chuck Daniel: Everybody goes through difficult times in their lives. What was the lowest point in your life, and how did you change your life path to one of victory over the obstacles, because I know you had some pretty big obstacles to overcome in your life.
Chuck Daniel: I guess a low point would have been when I was quite young. I was 21 at the time, and I was attending the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada.
Chuck Daniel: I was off for the summer, and I woke up one morning with this giant swelling on my neck. At first, I was kind of freaked out because I hadn’t had mumps yet, and that can have some pretty severe consequences if you get it as an adult.
Chuck Daniel: But it turns out I had something worse!
Chuck Daniel: I had a form of cancer; the technical term is lymphoblastic lymphoma. It’s a form of cancer in which people of that age, the age of 21, it is normally fatal, and so I guess, you could say the low point for me is that at that age when you basically feel like you are invincible, you’re getting some news saying, “Hey, you’re not invincible and you have a pretty severe disease and you have to come to terms with it.”
Chuck Daniel: For me, that was one of the lowest points of my life, at least in terms of the news and then, you have to come and gain some perspective that way.
Chuck Daniel: I guess you asked, “How did it change my life?” I guess it changed it in some pretty fundamental ways. I don’t know if I’ve been pretty victorious against everything I’ve come up against. I have taken what I’ve learned from having cancer and been successful for most things.
Chuck Daniel: You get a perspective that says, I decided that no matter what, I was going to do everything that I could to try and beat the disease, even though the treatment that they had at that time was not the greatest. The standard treatment was chemotherapy and radiation, and it wasn’t an exact science. They just did the best they could based on how they had treated people previously.
Chuck Daniel: And so, what I decided to do was that I decided I was going to try and beat it and I did beat it. I’m happy to say that I’ve been in remission for more than 20 years now.
Chuck Daniel: The thing that happened from that is that I got perspective of, I’m not invincible. I think part of my cancer was caused by the stress of a lot of things going on in my life just at that time, and so I learned to put things in perspective and not get so stressed out about certain things. Also, the fact that something even as severe as cancer can be beaten if you believe that you can beat it and that attitude has really affected everything that I have done from that point on.
Ralph Zuranski: So having a positive view of setbacks and misfortunes and mistakes is important, you feel?
Chuck Daniel: Oh, absolutely. I don’t believe that I could have beaten cancer unless I had a positive viewpoint.
Chuck Daniel: And I mean it was hard because at that time I was in shock. It was something that I thought, “This is not going to happen to me.” I was very healthy and yet I still got the disease.
Chuck Daniel: I believe that most things happen for a reason, and that you need to look at that reason, learn from it and move on. I also believe that people have personal responsibility for the things that happen to them.
Chuck Daniel: Some things might seem beyond your control, but I don’t think that those things happen very often. And also, if you don’t take personal responsibility, then you’re really giving up your control or whatever personal power you might have over the situation, and I think it’s better for me personally to be directing my life than leave it up to fate or in the hands of others.
Chuck Daniel: I can depend on me, so that’s kind of a philosophy or viewpoint that I’ve had even before cancer but certainly after having that disease.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I guess so, and how important do you feel it is to be optimistic about the future?
Chuck Daniel: I think it’s incredibly important to be optimistic. I’d say that I’ve always been an optimist.
Chuck Daniel: Sometimes it has gotten me into trouble, (laughs) but what I will say is that, being an optimist, I guess, how I define an optimist is, I always think, I have this perspective that the right things will happen and that people will do the right thing.
Chuck Daniel: I think that having that expectation actually causes, most times, those things to happen just because having those expectations that has an impact that seems to affect the way that things go, and I’m certainly a happier person because of it.
Chuck Daniel: Certainly, I’ve been disappointed at times but I would say the majority of times that I’ve expected something to happen it has happened so that’s kind of my outlook.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I know that you were very successful at Microsoft and worked there for about ten years, I think, and you decided that you wanted to get into a new career as far as marketing things on the internet and teaching other people how to be successful in marketing things on the internet. Did it take a lot of courage to pursue those new ideas?
Chuck Daniel: Yes, it did take a bit of courage; at least I like to think so anyway. I’ve done many things in my life just purely out of interest and some of them were out of the mainstream and no one else was interested in them at the time; it was just my personal interest.
Chuck Daniel: Part of it was I grew up in a small town, but I was interested in things like software, magic, martial arts and I didn’t really have friends that were interested in those and yet, I still went out and pursued a degree in computer science. I was a reasonable amateur magician. I studied martial arts and I continue to study them to this day.
Chuck Daniel: If you look at my career path like you mentioned, I developed software for Microsoft in the electronic email server area for many years, like 10 or 11 years.
Chuck Daniel: Then because of my interest, or my growing interest in internet direct marketing, I wasn’t quite ready to go it on my own at that time, but I decided that I would switch to a role in program management in the customer relationship management group because that group had a division that did electronic email marketing and also I thought that the skill set that the program manager would have to develop.
Chuck Daniel: Like acting as a liaison to the customer, doing more presenting, understanding what customers really wanted, I really felt that in order to understand that better that would be a good role for me. So it was a big decision after ten years to leave software development and switch skill sets and go into that area.
Chuck Daniel: When I did finally decide to leave Microsoft and become an entrepreneur in the internet and direct marketing business, in Big Ticket Marketing, all those changes required some courage to pursue because they pushed me personally out of my comfort zone in order to do it.
Chuck Daniel: Because some of the skills, I didn’t have and I had to develop, and it was a new thing for me. I find learning fun and exciting.
Chuck Daniel: In one respect, it is very challenging, but you have to go outside of your comfort zone and you know, I wouldn’t say it was a huge amount of courage but it does require courage just to pursue those things that are newer or just to get out of the every day types of things that we have been doing.
Ralph Zuranski: So, it is just sort of uncomfortable in pursuing your dreams. You have to grow as a person; you have to make definite decisions to change your lifestyle. How uncomfortable do you think most people have it when they have to make changes in their lives also?
Chuck Daniel: I think everyone has to experience discomfort of some sort to pursue their dreams.
Chuck Daniel: I’ve been lucky in that outside of the cancer that I had, most of my discomfort has come from stretching, learning and growing in areas that I wanted to pursue.
Chuck Daniel: There are many people that I have read about or heard about that have experienced far more adversity than I have, and it really amazes me to hear their stories.
Chuck Daniel: It’s like we were saying before the call, Ralph, it’s really inspirational to hear about people’s stories and understand their background.
Chuck Daniel: So I try to read as many of their stories, or hear about their stories or when I’m meeting people to learn about their stories because learning about the stories helps bring me up and helps put things in perspective.
Chuck Daniel: So even if I might be feeling a bit down on a particular day or things aren’t going particularly well, just by trying to read a little bit or learn a little about somebody else, if you look at some of the things that they’ve gone through and then you say, ” You know what? Maybe things aren’t so bad.”
Chuck Daniel: Get off your butt and go do something about it because like I said, cancer was a tremendous shock and I did manage to conquer that, but I’ve read a lot of other people’s stories and boy, they’ve overcome even more adversity than I have.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, in the pursuit of your dreams, is it important to really believe in your dreams? I know a lot of people that are in your life, they have a tendency not to believe in your dreams and to try to squash what you want to try to do. How important do you feel it is to believe in your dreams?
Chuck Daniel: I think it’s really, really important and that’s true, like you mentioned, there are people, part of why people try and dissuade you from your dreams is because you are growing in a certain way and they are comfortable with you the way that you currently are and so that’s kind of uncomfortable for them.
Chuck Daniel: They may be a little afraid that the relationship that they have built with you will go farther apart if you go that route and perhaps they are right, but you have to follow what you want to do. If you want to go in a certain direction, and you make up your mind to go there, then you can set some goals and make it a reality.
Chuck Daniel: I don’t think that I am a diehard goal setter, but I have always had some broad strokes for the direction I wanted to go in my life, and then I work toward them.
Chuck Daniel: I also believe that you have to be very flexible when it comes to your goals. I am more of a short-term goal setter with broad strokes for the longer term, and then I’m flexible about what I do to get me where I want to go.
Chuck Daniel: And it’s a model that seems to have worked pretty well for me, I do try to plan out about three months in advance, kind of on a weekly basis, but my goal is not as granular as others that I have seen.
Chuck Daniel: Yes, I do believe that you have to believe in your dreams and follow them in order for them to become a reality, because it’s just too easy to give up if you listen to everybody else.
Ralph Zuranski: So you believe that goal setting is important?
Chuck Daniel: Yes, absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, as we go through life and we are seeking after our dreams, it seems that there are a lot of doubts and fears that plague us on a daily basis. How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
Chuck Daniel: Well for me, I had a lot of role models; some of them direct role models and some of them indirect role models, I definitely believe in mentorship. Friends have helped me sometimes. I do believe in myself and that partly came from my background growing up and also the experiences I’ve had growing up in my life like with cancer and other things.
Chuck Daniel: I also mentioned before that I try to read something positive or listen to something on tape and that has helped a lot. So those types of things, most especially the role models played a big role in helping me overcome doubts and fears.
Ralph Zuranski: You know it seems it’s a fact of life that people offend us, they upset us, they oppose us, and forgiveness is something that’s important. How are you able to forgive those people that upset, offend and oppose you?
Chuck Daniel: Well, for one reason I’m pretty optimistic and I have a very thick skin so I’ve never been one to hold a grudge anyway because it just takes too much energy.
Chuck Daniel: I do get upset at people sometimes, but I try and think about it from their perspective. Sometimes I’ll find that it’s me being the pain, but then of course if that’s true I can apologize and we can move on.
Chuck Daniel: I do tend to move forward fairly quickly. I don’t dwell on things too much other than to try and learn whatever lesson I can learn from the experience, so that I can prevent repeat problems or performances like that in the future.
Chuck Daniel: But I tend to just say, I either shrug stuff off or look at it and say, “What can I learn from this?” and then move on. I think the primary reason is that I think it does take a lot of energy if you don’t do that. I’d prefer to take my energy and apply it in more productive ways.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I know that you are really interested in serving others and I wanted to know if you find that as a source of joy.
Chuck Daniel: I do. I’ve always liked to help people if I can, and you know, the service or the help that you can give to people can vary. Like for example, the help in my case might be technical help because of my background in computers or from my work at Microsoft, or it might be organizational in nature.
Chuck Daniel: A simple thing, for example, I help run the Scholastic book program for my son’s class, which is something that they needed a volunteer to do, or just working for charitable organizations, like I’m currently involved with Ronald McDonald House in Seattle. What they do is they provide homes, kind of home away from homes for families of children with cancer.
Chuck Daniel: Also St. Jude is another hospital for children with cancer, and part of that comes from my experience with cancer, but also because my feeling is that kids shouldn’t really have to deal with problems that are that big when they’re young. They don’t have any bad habits or real stresses or issues that could have caused that cancer.
Chuck Daniel: They were unlucky enough to get it and what really amazes me is, you visit these houses or places like this, and they are still all so positive.
Chuck Daniel: They are still kids and they are playing and that part of it really does give me a lot of joy and faith that these kids can really be so positive in spite of the fact that they’ve got to get these treatments and it’s really thrown their world around.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, wow, that is amazing. It’s funny that you talk about Ronald McDonald, Randy Charach, one of the heroes I interviewed yesterday, and he actually was Ronald McDonald for six years….
Chuck Daniel: Oh, was he?
Ralph Zuranski: And he went to all the different places. I didn’t know that too. He had benign cancer in his leg that caused him unbearable pain. His story is just amazing too, and how he was able to overcome that. It was probably one of the high points of his life, spending six years as Ronald McDonald, going to all the different places where kids were suffering from the different diseases.
Chuck Daniel: Yeah, I could see that. I could see him getting a lot of joy out of that, even in spite of the fact that the kids are going through what they are going through.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s amazing. How important is it to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems since you’ve definitely had your share?
Chuck Daniel: Oh, I think it is important. I mean, I know sometimes when things get tough, no matter what I’m working on; I just make fun of myself because it lightens my mood! You know, I’ll get on my own case, “Quit being so grumpy, or whatever”. There’s lots of stuff you can do.
Chuck Daniel: I also know from reading that laughter is supposed to be very therapeutic and healing anyway. For example, I read someplace that when you are feeling down, just force yourself to smile because apparently it’s impossible to feel down when you’re smiling. There’s something physiological about the way that curving your mouth upward that forces your mood. It’s linked somehow.
Chuck Daniel: So I think that having a sense of humor kind of forces you to do that smiling process and so yes, I really think it is important.
Chuck Daniel: And also, I think the sense of humor is one way of keeping things in perspective. If you can lighten your mood and really look at it and say, “Okay, what’s going on?”
Chuck Daniel: I also think if you are working in a team, that it’s very important, because it eases the mood of the team and makes them focus more on solving whatever challenge you are trying to solve rather than getting down and griping about it.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Who are the heroes in your life?
Chuck Daniel: Oh, I’ve had, like I mentioned before, I’ve had a lot, some indirect and some direct. You know, first of all, I guess my parents. From early on, my mom always said you’re going to university. You can do whatever you want, and you just have to decide what you want to do.
Chuck Daniel: Just having someone tell you that when you are very young is very important, because you do form your impressions from people how they act and what their expectations are for you.
Chuck Daniel: So, her expectations were very clear and I think that really helped me go to university and lots of things later on.
Chuck Daniel:My dad, he was always kind of joking, he had a great sense of humor, and he did things like, he was very willing to change jobs many times, to stop being transferred around.
Chuck Daniel: He was a bank manager for many years, but that job required him to move from town to town and we didn’t like it. So he kind of sacrificed that to have a more stable home life, so we didn’t have to move around as much.
Chuck Daniel: Like when we were talking about what makes a hero, this is something that’s a very simple thing, but it’s something that they did that played an important role in my life.
Chuck Daniel: My sister was also very important. She has a gift. She can work with kids that have disabilities like hearing impairment or maybe they are learning challenged. And so, I got a chance to see her work with those kids and that’s very inspiring.
Chuck Daniel:There are lots of other role models as well. We talked about inspirational and motivational people. I really enjoy Tony Robbins’ work. I have almost all his complete library of stuff, and I enjoy listening to it because he does bring you up and he does give you some tools you can use.
Chuck Daniel: Another guy, Bill Phillips, he had the Body for Life program. He single handedly helped a lot of people get in better shape than they were in and because of that, really opened up the possibilities that said, “If I can get out of the terrible shape I was in, into this fantastic shape; I can really do anything.”
Chuck Daniel: I have my own internet and direct marketing mentor in Joel Christopher, who is guiding me in that arena.
Chuck Daniel: You look at someone like Bill Gates. He is very successful in business. He has created a very successful company. His software is in use almost everywhere, and he is very philanthropic as well. He’s given millions or maybe even billions to the AIDS effort.
Chuck Daniel: And other people, Bill Phillips as well is involved with the program for terminally ill kids, where they submit a wish; Make-A-Wish foundation.
Chuck Daniel:Most recently, if you just look at the internet marketing arena, there are lots of speakers and marketers who are always at events who are heroes of mine because of what they have been able to accomplish, just as entrepreneurs and in business.
Ralph Zuranski: Mine too.
Chuck Daniel: Lots of heroes, both direct and indirect.
Ralph Zuranski: When you think there is any group of heroes in our society today that aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve?
Chuck Daniel: I think there are.
Chuck Daniel: Part of it is at the start when we talked about the definition of hero, we do have a lot of people who are heroes and they are very public heroes, but there a lot of people that work in the background, like the 9/11 folks.
Chuck Daniel: Some of them were on TV and some of them did get coverage, but there were a whole lot of folks who were there and were also helping and they weren’t getting coverage, but they were heroes nevertheless.
Chuck Daniel: And people, like I said, people can be different heroes in different ways. I think the ability to be a successful role model for someone else is a way to be a hero as well…
Ralph Zuranski: I agree.
Chuck Daniel: But, there are lots of people that you never hear about. Like you were mentioning, maybe the ability to point out to people, just look around in your neighborhood or indirectly at other people who are doing these types of things and get to know what they do and use that as a role model.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a great idea. Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Chuck Daniel: I think they are most important in the lives of young people because young people learn by modeling. You can tell people, I can’t even remember what the saying was, but basically, kids learn by what you do, not what you tell them to do.
Ralph Zuranski: Isn’t that true?
Chuck Daniel: The best thing that you can do if you want to be a role model or if you want to be a hero in the life of a young person whether they are your child or another child or you are involved in some sort of scouting program, Big Brother program, any sort of program like that. Or the kids in the neighborhood are over and you are the dad in charge.
Chuck Daniel: You are impacting them from a very early age on, just by what you are doing. They are looking at it, they are evaluating it and they are seeing it and they are going to model it, because they are soaking up that type of stuff.
Chuck Daniel: And so I think that’s why it’s so important that these people have a positive role model to look up to.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know, I totally agree. Kids watch what you do and don’t really listen to what you say unless those two things match.
Chuck Daniel: Yes, they can find the difference. They can pick it up even if it’s subtle.
Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet Hero?
Chuck Daniel: Well, I don’t really consider myself a hero, Ralph.
Chuck Daniel: I mean, if someone can learn from me and benefit from me, I think that’s fantastic, and if I can help a worthwhile cause that I believe in, then I like to do that.
Chuck Daniel: Like I mentioned before, I enjoy helping people and I try to do what I believe is right. I try to do it consistently and I think if everybody did that and tried to do their best at it then they could all be heroes in some way, to their families, to their communities, to their countries.
Chuck Daniel: I guess it kind of goes back to why I don’t have one definition of hero. There’s lots of ways that people can be heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think the world would be a better place, especially if the media focused on the good people do rather than the evil and just the wrong things?
Chuck Daniel: I think so; it definitely doesn’t seem to be their model though.
Chuck Daniel: I think bad news tends to sell better. I don’t know why we focus on it. I guess maybe that’s in some way the inherent nature; people tend to be attracted to bad news. In fact, I think someone tried to start a good newspaper once and it wasn’t very successful.
Chuck Daniel: I know for me, I tend not to watch the news at all; I barely watch news programs on TV unless they are educational. I might run across some stuff on the Internet, but I just find it, it’s too distracting and it kind of focuses me on stuff that I don’t want to focus on.
Chuck Daniel: Certainly I know that there are bad things happening in the world, and it concerns me, but I want to be able to focus on things that are positive and letting people know about those things because ultimately that will drive people’s behavior in the right direction, I feel.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that’s so true. What do you think about the “In Search of Heroes” program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Chuck Daniel: I really like the concept behind the program, because, first of all, it teaches young people a set of valuable skills and it does it by providing them with role models who are already successful and so those role models can give them a great education and also opportunities to use what they learn.
Chuck Daniel: If they can successfully learn the skills and use them to either help a business or create a business of their own, they can see how to provide valuable products, and they can also see that by providing that value that they can be compensated for that.
Chuck Daniel: That’s fantastic, because they don’t teach this in regular school classes. You learn some valuable stuff in there but you don’t learn about entrepreneurship. You don’t learn about building a business. You don’t learn about how to figure out what is valuable in providing that value and it’s that value that you get compensated for.
Chuck Daniel: So I think it has a wonderful effect on the students involved, because they can actually see it work and then they can take those skills forward with them into whatever they ultimately decide to do.
Chuck Daniel: And parents gain confidence because they can say this is something they can help encourage their children to do and this particular avenue is something that is probably more positive than if their time was occupied in other ways.
Chuck Daniel: And of course, business people get the benefit of these student’s enthusiasm and they can get help to accomplish their business goals for probably a lot cheaper than they could if they actually had to hire the experts and the business people themselves can give back their expertise.
Chuck Daniel: So it’s a nice big circle where every one benefits from everyone else. I really see that as the impact that it has on all of those people.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s really a great perspective. What are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that they too can be heroes and make a positive difference in the lives of others?
Chuck Daniel: I guess that’s a great question! I guess what I would say is for parents; don’t say no if you can avoid it.
Chuck Daniel: I mean, you have to be a responsible parent, and you have to give your children guidance when they need it. But really encourage children to try things, don’t discourage them right away because some times you might be surprised to find something that maybe you would have considered impossible or very difficult for your child, because he might have a unique or novel way of approaching it. Or maybe he’s got a way that he’s figured it out, and he brings a new perspective to the table.
Chuck Daniel: Children are the most resourceful human beings on the planet, right? They’ve got enthusiasm, they’ve got dreams, let them see what they can do, don’t judge them too early, try and encourage them, be as good a role model as you can be.
Chuck Daniel: Like I said before, kids learn by example in what we do, not by what we tell them to do. I guess, kids are the world’s best modelers, so give them something to model and let them try stuff.
Chuck Daniel: They might find some disappointments but if you encourage them to say, “Hey, it didn’t work this time. Let’s find something else.” Keep trying until you get it. If you are committed enough, you are likely to find the answer.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that’s great advice. I really appreciate your time to answer these questions and I was wondering if you had any words of advice before you go?
Chuck Daniel: Well, I don’t know, I’m almost “adviced out” on the questions! But I think the last thing I said is probably the advice I would definitely give to kids, and I think the “In Search of Heroes” program can really help because of the way the program is structured and because of what I said there. So, you know it is a real opportunity for them to play a role and I would encourage them to do that.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s such great advice. Chuck, I really appreciate your time in answering these questions and what a tremendous difference you are making in communities and doing charitable work, and I’m excited about your offer to head up the “In Search of Heroes” program in your own local town, once we get the book “In Search of Heroes” on the internet published, so kids can actually go in and read about the local heroes that we found and use them as role models.
Chuck Daniel: Well thanks, Ralph, I was glad to be in on the call and I am looking forward to the upcoming challenge and just keep me in the loop.
Chuck Daniel: I’m sure we will be in touch because there’s lots of stuff on your web page that I still haven’t explored yet, that I have to go back out and have a look at.
Chuck Daniel: So I will probably call you up and say hey, listen to this interview and I guess that’s an other piece of advice I give people, go to the web page, http://www.insearchofheroes.com. Check out the program, and listen to what people have to say.
Chuck Daniel: There’s a lot of really, really talented people out there and what they’ve said is inspiring, exciting and sometimes even surprising.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes it is. You never know what is going to pop out of a person’s head when you ask them a challenging question.
Chuck Daniel: I agree.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, again, thanks so much, I really appreciate your time!
Chuck Daniel: OK, thanks Ralph!
Chuck Daniel had a long career in technology working with Microsoft to write software programs.
Ralph Zuranski: I think he worked with Outlook and did a tremendous amount of work in that area and in the process of just being involved in technology, he got interested in internet marketing, because he knows now that the most important thing for any business is that you need to be able to sell the products and services of that business and the more successful the sales are, the more successful that business is if they provide good quality service and good quality products.
Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate you offering to help. You are one of the heroes who offered to help with providing software for a number of the schools in the different programs, and I’m thankful that you’re willing to do that for the schools up in your area once we get ready to start the Heroes program in every community.
Chuck Daniel: I’m very glad to help that way, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate that and the first question I want to ask is what is your definition of a hero?
Chuck Daniel: Well, that’s an interesting question. I don’t really have one single definition, because you know, I think people can be heroes in many different ways. If you look at, say for example, the firemen or policemen or any of the others who helped with the 9/11 tragedy for example, that’s one type of hero. But, I also think that people who consistently and selflessly help others, sometimes even at high personal cost or risks because it’s the right thing to do are heroes.
Chuck Daniel: For example, people who walk their talk, even in the face of adversity are also heroes in my mind, or even people who inspire or motivate others to do their best are heroes. Children who carry on as best they can with a positive attitude even though they may have a challenging disease, I think those kids are really heroes as well.
Chuck Daniel: I don’t have one definition, but I hope you can get a sense of the type of person who I think are heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: I really agree with that. There are so many people around us, and sometimes you wonder if societies can’t find any heroes. They say, “Where are the heroes?” Well, they should probably look next door, look at your neighbors, and look at the people you work with.
Chuck Daniel: Everybody goes through difficult times in their lives. What was the lowest point in your life, and how did you change your life path to one of victory over the obstacles, because I know you had some pretty big obstacles to overcome in your life.
Chuck Daniel: I guess a low point would have been when I was quite young. I was 21 at the time, and I was attending the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. I was off for the summer, and I woke up one morning with this giant swelling on my neck. At first, I was kind of freaked out because I hadn’t had mumps yet, and that can have some pretty severe consequences if you get it as an adult.
Chuck Daniel: But it turns out I had something worse! I had a form of cancer; the technical term is lymphoblastic lymphoma. It’s a form of cancer in which people of that age, the age of 21, it is normally fatal, and so I guess, you could say the low point for me is that at that age when you basically feel like you are invincible, you’re getting some news saying, “Hey, you’re not invincible and you have a pretty severe disease and you have to come to terms with it.”
Chuck Daniel: For me, that was one of the lowest points of my life, at least in terms of the news and then, you have to come and gain some perspective that way. I guess you asked, “How did it change my life?” I guess it changed it in some pretty fundamental ways. I don’t know if I’ve been pretty victorious against everything I’ve come up against. I have taken what I’ve learned from having cancer and been successful for most things.