Ralph Zuranski: What is your definition of heroism?
George Callens: My definition of heroism is for sure not what I am. I think a hero is somebody who goes above and beyond, or actually they don’t even have to go above and beyond, they take action that is totally selfless. They do things because it is the right thing to do.
George Callens: They do not do it because of personal gain, personal prestige or anything like that. You know, people think of heroes and think of a person running in a burning building and saving them and yes that is heroic but there are many other ways to be heroic by just doing the right thing because it is right, not because there is any benefit to them for it.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
George Callens: To be honest with you no I didn’t. We grew up on a farm, didn’t have two nickels to rub together, I always had dreams but I don’t recall ever having a personal hero. It is probably when you don’t have a T.V. growing up and the only thing you hear on the radio is the polka music your mom is playing and you probably don’t have too many heroes to find.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
George Callens: I would have to say goodness is the ability to see and act through the good of others. I would say even an evil person has some goodness in them because if that person sees some goodness in another and acts upon it even though they are really uncaring with everybody else I would say that person has a spark of goodness.
George Callens: Now that person is not ethical in that case, ethical is taking the proper action even when in some cases they may be personally detrimental to you or personally inconvenient to you. You still take the right action even though it is not the easiest course, and moral behavior is the hardest one of all because moral behavior is more than either of the other two in the concept of the beholder.
George Callens: You go to some parts of the world and they may think that violent movies are immoral; others might think nudity is immoral. There are a number of things we might think are immoral depending on our cultural upbringing. Now where I come from we are a little conservative. You know the nudity and sexual openness might be considered immoral but yet the old Gunsmoke series was one of the best series out there and it was one of the most violent series.
George Callens: I have met people in my life who thought that show was totally immoral. I thought it was a totally moral show and each show had a lesson. So, morality has to be determined by the norm of your culture. Now is it possible you grew up in a culture where something really evil is moral? I don’t know, that is a question I can’t ask, I have to answer for me and for me most of my moral guidelines are dictated by religion.
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
George Callens: People who sacrifice their life by running in to a burning building or an act of war, we consider that heroic, but many times that is an instinctive reaction or adrenaline reacting to the fact that we think we are incapable of death, that we will live forever.
George Callens: I spent five years in Vietnam and I know many a times when something comes up like that it is a heroic action. I know some of the people in Irac that have came back and I have talked to some of them who some of them may have lost a limb saving someone or something but when you ask them about it, it was nothing heroic to them it was just an instinctive reaction that they did, and I think that probably has a lot to do with morals, the fact that they instinctively reacted that way.
George Callens: If they had taken time to think about it and realized the danger they may not have done it. Now on the other hand, somebody who over a longer period of time and the first person that comes to mind is you Ralph, up setting your family and moving to San Diego to, you and your wife, be the sole car givers of your mother and father, that is pretty dog gone heroic.
George Callens: That took intension, that took forethought, that took perseverance and the fact that you realize it is not going to be over in a few seconds, you are going to be doing that for a long time to come and you don’t complain and you do it cheerfully.
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?
George Callens: The low points in your life are kind of hard to point out or at least for me because when they are over I normally forget about them. I am normally an optimistic person and sometimes that is the most irritating thing in my life to some of the family members that are not as optimistic. I can see a silver lining in just about everybody.
George Callens: I am the little boy in the story who was put in the room with the pile of maneuver and he was fine because where there is maneuver there is a pony, but what I would consider to be the lowest part of my life is when it was a day or so after I had a heart attack and I was in up in the Abbott Heart Institute in Minneapolis laying there and I was realizing that everything I had done I could no longer do or most things I could no longer do. I would no longer have my pilot license or I would have my pilot license but I would no longer have a ?medical? to fly.
George Callens: I wouldn’t able to be the bread winner for our family or at least for a period of time. I would say that would have to be the lowest time and it lasted a day or two and then after that once in a while but never something to dwell on. I almost immediately started focusing on other things.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have a dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
George Callens: A dream or vision in the singular I would say is not that important, and in plural that is life. The dream, the vision, the journey is what life is all about. I have never, and I know some people will say from the time they could remember they had this dream or vision to aim at and I guess that is ok but to me that would be kind of boring.
George Callens: I have many, many visions, each one taking me to an upper level. I like to take multiple paths up to the upper level and I think that is what keeps me optimistic, that is what keeps me happy having multiple visions and critical is it? Your dog gone right it is critical, it is life so about that, I would say people who are going through depression or people who commit suicide it is because they don’t have a vision.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
George Callens: Oh definitely, definitely. You can’t ignore them because they will knaw at you internally. You just have to say “Hey, this happened and I learned this from it, what’s next?”
George Callens: I was a corporate manager for quite a while in the cellular industry and I had a lot of independent companies who sold our cellular service under us and we would come out with rules and regulations that pertained to and benefited the corporation because that is who we had to watch out for legally but sometimes they weren’t always so advantageous for the agent and part of my life and part of my stress was just fielding complaints for them, but the single most best agent I had, when ever we would come out with something that was, and I should not say detrimental but wasn’t in their best interest he would just call and read me the right act and hang up the phone, then call back fifteen minutes later and say “Hey George, sorry about that, I already figured out a way to get around that.
George Callens: He made more money then anybody else. Those who complained on it, dwelled on it, never got past it; those people never amounted to much. They just didn’t have the sales and everything in life is that way. Yes you can react to a situation but then get over it and figure out what the next step is.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas?
George Callens: I don’t know what that is, oh yes I do I guess there is, I am married to my wife and I I don’t think so but most people would disagree with me on that. To me I put pursuing new ideas in the same field with change and from what I understand most people are afraid of change.
George Callens: I embrace change, I get bored very fast and I love change, but maybe there maybe is to a deep level that I wouldn’t want change. wouldn’t want that to change. Other than that for me, no, I embrace change, I love it. It keeps me young.
Ralph Zuranski: Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
George Callens: If it wasn’t hard enough to achieve your dreams they wouldn’t be good enough dreams. Anything that isn’t hard it isn’t a dream it is a reality. So if you are pursuing something and it is going too easily for you and there is no challenge you really don’t have a dream or a goal you are just living, you are just existing I guess I should say.
Ralph Zuranski: How were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
George Callens: I just persevere, I push on. I find it exciting. There should be fear that is part of life. Our bodies are made to interact with fear and to carry us to the next level. Many times when I am suppose to be doing something and I don’t get it done until the last minute yes there is fear there and I better change what I am doing and get it done, that adrenaline shot helps me get it done, and it is a really good feeling.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
George Callens: I guess that it is real important. I went to college late in life, I was in my late thirties, and one of my exercises we had to do was think of the person you hate the most and why and it took me a long time to even find somebody I hated at all and when I finally did find the guy the more I thought about it the more reason I found not to hate the guy.
George Callens: When I worked in the corporate world there was this guy and me and him leap forged over each other as we each wanted the corporate dream and many times I did not like him but I tell you what, I always wished I could really hate him but if he ever needed any help on anything I tell you what, I was the first to rush to his side, probably didn’t like but I sure didn’t hate him.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?
George Callens: Yes, yes I do. I find it a lot easier to do things for others and make sacrifices than I do for myself. That’s why I facilitate these events. That’s why you probably do good taking pictures at these events and why you take care of your folks. I guess I just don’t find it that important to do things selfishly for myself I just enjoy doing things for others. I think that it takes a big load off of your mind, it makes your conscious freer and it just makes life a little easier.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
I pray everyday, sometimes multiple times.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
I maintain a sense of humor in the face of everything. My dad use to get upset with me and he would say “George, you are just a grinning fool.”
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the HEROES in your life?
George Callens: My dad, I guess I had a school teacher or two that may have been heroes in my life, but most of my heroes were within my family. My dad, some of my uncles, I probably even have a brother-in-law that would fit into that just because I think anyone in particular who is doing what he wants and in the family he is the one everyone rallies around because he is totally secure, not financially but that does not bother him.
Ralph Zuranski: How did they make a positive difference in your life?
By being who they are and setting an example.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you think are the HEROES today that are not getting the recognition they deserve?
George Callens: I think that any and all the heroes in our society are not getting the recognition they deserve. The people that we put up on a pedestal and call heroes are glory seekers in my opinion and should not be heroes at all in my opinion. Now I am sure I could point out an exception here and there but I am making a general statement. I think the real heroes are the unsung heroes that do what they do because it is the right thing to do.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are HEROES so important in the lives of young people?
George Callens: When we are young we have nothing to base our values on, nothing to base our judgments on, nothing to base our goals or our future on so the young have to look to somebody to set an example. Now they can look to an anti-hero or some negative person and set their values that way, or they can look at someone positive or a real hero or a person that does something to help others.
George Callens: They can look at someone who makes millions of dollars or they can look at someone who just has a real good solid life.
George Callens: What ever they look at and pattern is what they will become. So, it is very very important that they look at people and pattern people that are confident in themselves, people that are doing the right thing because it is right, not just for the money. Now there is nothing wrong with making money and making that person a hero but it would be very detrimental if they made say some of the key people in the Enron scandal as their hero, if a large percentage of our youth did that it would be probably a very devastating effect on our nation and the world.
Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet HERO?
George Callens: Embarrassing, because I know myself and I know my limitations, I know the little demons in those cages inside me and while I do good things and I try to in no way, shape or form do I consider myself a hero.
George Callens: I was really shocked when you first approached me about this because I just look at myself as a regular person, I don’t look at myself as a hero. What I do is hard work. I have farmed and I milked cows by hand when I was a kid and that is all hard physical labor but I don’t think I have ever worked as hard as I do at these life training events and seminars.
George Callens: The fact is after almost every one I end up having to see a Doctor afterwards because I run myself into the ground but the truth is I don’t look at it as work, I am just having fun, I am enjoying it, I enjoy making sure things run smoothly, I enjoy helping the people there and interacting with them and if I didn’t I wouldn’t do it.
George Callens: I have done it for free and I have been paid for it and I tell you what, it was a lot more fun when I did it for free, I worked the same on both of them and that is again why I consider it hard to be called a hero because to me something like that is very enjoyable.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?
George Callens: Openness, communication, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, just stopping and thinking, “Would I like to be treated that way, why am I treating a person this way, does this make any sense, will I be embarrassed by this later, what would I think if the public saw me doing this?” It boils down to the Golden Rule, do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and the world, that would instantly come true, what would they be?
George Callens: A lot of people would say peace on Earth but I won’t because I want to add something to it, it has to be peace with freedom on Earth. You can have a dictatorship where there is a lot of peace; I mean no one is fighting because no one dares to. You have to have peace with freedom on Earth and that means there has to be openness among all of human kind, an openness to accept difference, an openness to accept change.
George Callens: Peace with freedom. Another is I wish I could get my medical back so I could fly, that would make the world a lot better, and the third one is, while the first one was more holistic for the world, the second one which I probably should have put into third place but we will leave it in second now was very personal or self-fulfilling.
George Callens: The third one is that I want to realize what my purpose is on Earth here and I want to fulfill my purpose, not the goals for myself but the goals I was put here on Earth for. I keep a little plaque here in my office in my basement and I don’t know who wrote it or where I got it but I printed it out on a 8×11 piece of paper and put a frame around it years ago and it says, “ I shall pass this way but once, any good there for that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being let me do it now, let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” That is kind of the way I live.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the “In Search Of Heroes” Program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
George Callens: What I think it will do is set a benchmark that people will have to achieve on say the adult level, in order to become a hero, and anytime we raise that benchmark, we will never be able to raise it for everybody, but the more people we can get to think about it and strive to raise that benchmark the better it will be for our youth because they will see holistically a change, even though there will still be bad people out there, they will look at the world as a whole and say, “Boy there are still a lot of good people out there.” There are a lot of people who do good things because it is right and I think your program goes a long way to getting that recognition to people who are the unsung heroes and doing things right.
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?
George Callens: Positive reinforcement to the children, I know people including in my own family that love their children very much but they use negative reinforcement. In other words, if they want the child to do something they will say “Awe, you will never do that” thinking they are giving them a challenge but actually they were giving discouragement.
George Callens: So the parents need to give positive reinforcement, and the parents then have to walk the walk. The parent can not fight amongst themselves, excessively I should say. I will say there will always be disagreements.
George Callens: They having to be willing to forgive their neighbor, they have to be willing forgive each other, they have to be willing to forgive their children and show that that is not a sign of weakness and that it’s actually a sign of strength. I would say that is the parents’ biggest responsibility which is to set the example for their children, not in what they say but actually in what they do.