July 14, 2025 • 57 mins
Right Thinking with Steve Coplon.
This week's show is called "The Light at the End of the Tunnel." Tune in and hear Steve share thoughts on a recent road trip that has provided clarity and confirmation that the path he is traveling through life on is the right path. This show will give hope and encouragement to all who listen.
In this episode, I recount a transformative road trip titled "The Light at the End of the Tunnel" with my friend Jack. Our journey through several states sparked reflections on friendship, adventure, and personal growth. A highlight was a hike through the Blue Ridge Tunnel, symbolizing the clarity found amidst challenges.
We visited the Napoleon Hill Foundation, where discussions on applied faith inspired me to emphasize the importance of belief and action. I conclude by celebrating family connections, reminding listeners that love and support guide us through life’s tunnels.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
This week's show is called "The Light at the End of the Tunnel." Tune in and hear Steve share thoughts on a recent road trip that has provided clarity and confirmation that the path he is traveling through life on is the right path. This show will give hope and encouragement to all who listen.
In this episode, I recount a transformative road trip titled "The Light at the End of the Tunnel" with my friend Jack. Our journey through several states sparked reflections on friendship, adventure, and personal growth. A highlight was a hike through the Blue Ridge Tunnel, symbolizing the clarity found amidst challenges.
We visited the Napoleon Hill Foundation, where discussions on applied faith inspired me to emphasize the importance of belief and action. I conclude by celebrating family connections, reminding listeners that love and support guide us through life’s tunnels.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
There must be lie starning brighter somewhere. Got to be birds.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Why I am high tun a sky.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, Welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Today's episode number four and thirty nine Right Thinking with
Steve Copelan is very pleased to announce that this week's
show was called The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
Tune in and here Steve share faults on a recent
road trip that has provided clarity and confirmation that the
path that he is traveling through life on is the
right path. This show will give hope and encouragement to
(01:07):
all who listen. Last week, I had just one of
the most wonderful three or four days of my life.
Let's see, it started on Wednesday and it ended on Sunday,
so I guess that's a four day period of my life.
And I went on a road trip with my good buddy,
one of my best friends in my whole life. Jack
(01:31):
and Jack and I went to junior high school high
school together. We've been best buddies for over sixty years. Now,
back in nineteen seventy four, we went cross country. I
traveled six weeks with Jack to Colorado to he was
going there to visit with his brother Bobby. He came
(01:52):
over the day before my junior year in college at
olderman U University was started was to start. It was
the next day I was going to start a new major.
I changed my major from accounting to elementary ED. And
he came by and said, Hey, Steve, I'm going to
Colorado tomorrow to see my brother Bobby. Why don't you
(02:14):
go with me? Long story short, I did. I dropped
out of college. My mother just just about had a
heart attack, so sudden that I made that decision. Fifty
dollars in my pocket, six hundred dollars in bills that
I would have to work for a while on the
road to send money back to my mother. My mother
said to me, as a result of that decision, you know, Stevie,
(02:36):
not just that one decision.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
There are other events in my life, she said, Stevie,
I have four children, but you're the only one that
put every one of these gray heads on my life.
I'm not proud of that. It was just part of
what I went through when I was young. My mother
was the most wonderful mother in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
But anyway, I went with Jack.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And then about three years ago Jack and I went
cross country again. This time he drove with me to
Oregon where I picked up my daughter Lindsey and Willie
and Stella to drive them back when they were moving
back to Virginia. And that was just another wonderful trip.
(03:14):
Then he flew home and we just did great things together. Traveled,
traveled to the Grand Tetons and Custer State Park in Wyoming,
and just it was just a phenomenal trip. A lot
of other things happened Jack. Jack is one person that
(03:35):
he's an adventurer. He does things. But so anyway, I
asked Jack, would you like to take another road trip.
Last year he went to Wyse, Virginia with me when
I went up to the Napolean Hill Foundation because my
good friend Leffort was going to be the MC for
a Future Business Leaders of America that was being hosted
(03:59):
at University of Virginia wise At sponsored by Napoleon Hill Foundation.
Don Green you know the head guy there. So Jack
went with me last year and then I saw the
Leffert and the whole purpose of the trip was to
go up there and give love with the big hug
and say how to Don and we did that, and
(04:22):
it's so wonderful to have Jack travel with me for
something like that, and just being with Jack's always wonderful.
So I was invited by Leffort this year to go
to the Napoleon Hill Foundation's twenty twenty five graduation class
for the Napoleon Hill Certification, and I didn't know that
(04:42):
I was going to be able to go. He invited
me about two months earlier because my grandson Max, Andrew
and Stacy, my son Andrew's son was going to be
celebrating the sixth birthday and it was going to be
a pool party at the outdoor pool of the Nouf
of Williams, and so I told Laford, I don't know
(05:04):
that I can go drive that far eight hours each way,
just up and back over, leave on Wednesday, be there
on Thursday, and come back to be at the birthday party.
I just a lot of driving. So I just didn't
think I was going to make it. But then when
my my wonderful close friend sawmus Chad when he told
(05:25):
me he was going to be going and that he
was going to be one of the speakers at the
graduation to present the third of the Napoleon Hill seventeen
Principles of Success.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I figured it out.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I said, oh, I'm going to go because I needed
to go see Chad close at Chad and I are
We we've never met each other physically, you know, personally
that we've never been to each other's presence, just conversations
and zoom and thing. So I called Jack said you
want to you want to go? And he said yeah,
but he had to had to get back to me
because two days a week he keeps his grandkids for
(05:59):
one of the daughters, and he had to check the
schedule and call me back and said, no, I can go.
I'm not going to have the babysit those two days.
So we planned it. I let Chad know I was
going to be there, and and I went. And then
when I let Letford know, I said, leffort, don't let
Johnny know, Johnny Lloyd know that I'm coming, because I
(06:20):
wanted to be a surprise. Okay, so that's the background
for this trip that I took last week. And so
I picked Jack up in Richmond. I leave, you know,
from Nofolk to Richmond, and we were going to hike.
And we had a wonderful hike last year when we
went Cascades National Park. I think it was called Beautiful
(06:41):
Waterfalls there, and it was a pretty hard hike. So
I started doing a lot of walking in Seashore State
Park last couple of weeks because I haven't been able
to hike for a couple of years because of my
my neuropathy in my feet. But you know, I'm getting
through that very well, and I've been hiking again. But
Jim Jack says, see it's going to be too hot.
I don't really want to.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
HiPE like that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Uh So, but we'll we'll figure it out as we go.
Well we did. Jack is forty one years and he's
retired now three or four years retired. The videographer photographer
the State of Virginia's Department of Transportation. He he's up
in a helicopter taking pictures of you know, road projects,
(07:22):
construction sites.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
He's been to every.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Highway and byway and and he knows everything about the
road system in Virginia. And so you know, I trust
Jack to tell us where we're going to go on
this trip. So I pick him up. The weather's like
ninety five degrees give or take.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
One claim to fame for Jack is the last year
when we're together, he had a map a state, a
map of state of Virginia, and he did all the
photography on it. His picture made the made the map.
You know, that's a big deal for me to have
a friend that's as much as I love to travel,
maps mean a lot to me. And Jack was the
photographer for that map. Okay, so that's where we are.
(08:04):
So I pick up Jack and we get on the
route and then about an hour and a half away
and near Crose, Virginia, there was a place that he
said we might go there. He said there's a tunnel
there that we can hike in. And I'm thinking a
tunnel that we can hike in, that's kind of a
unique thing, and so he said, yeah. It was a
(08:26):
tunnel built in the you know, eighteen thirties or forties
or something that was through the mountain near Winchester there
and for the trains, they get trains through there and
it operated for a long time and I took eleven
years I think I read to do it. And it's
called the Blue Ridge tunnel and Nelson County is actually
(08:50):
where it's at, but it's near the city of Crosee
if you ever want to go there outside of Charlottesville.
So I didn't know much about it, but in my mind,
you know, I said to him, is that like hiking
in a cave or something, you know, really dark? He goes, well, yeah,
kind of. He said, it's gonna be about twenty degrees
lower in there. It'd be nice to maybe hike in there.
(09:11):
So we drove for the hour and a half and
I'm thinking, well, you know, could be a little claustrophobic.
It's about a mile each way. By the way, the
tunnel was a mile from the beginning to when you
came to the other end of it. And I didn't
say anything about, you know, maybe his claustrophobia.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Uh, you know, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I like to be in caves and I can lay
down on a on a gurney and take radiation, I'd
be okay. But I'm thinking it's going to be pitch black,
don't lights know anything in there. And so but when
we got there, you park in the park a lot
and then you hike about a quarter of a mile and
then there it is. But then Jack said, well, we
got to wear these headlamps. And he had two headlamps
(09:52):
that like minor headlamps things you can put on and
be and read at night, I guess, but so he
had two of these, so we each put a one
and we started the walk. And I have to tell you,
I think it's one of the most unique hike walks
I've ever taken. The uro tracks have been removed, and
it was it was like sixty eight nine degrees in there,
(10:13):
I think, and there was actually one place in there
where it was like a little waterfall coming down on
the inside. But it was amazing. But the reason that
I titled this show The Light at the End of
the Tunnel is that there was an ou claustrophobia because
it was very, very straight and wherever you were you
(10:37):
could turn around and see the entrance where you came in,
and you could see the light.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You could look forward and see.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
The light, and it was just an amazing experience to
go through there. So we walked up and back and
it's the light at the end of the tunnel and
we got out. It was pouring down raining. That was
the other part of this adventure is that it was
poor and down rant, and so it was good. It
was good to hike in a tunnel where you weren't
(11:04):
rained on. So the theme of this trip that I
gave myself for being with Jack was I wanted to
I wanted to celebrate Jack and let him know because
I didn't think that too many other people ever would
have talked to him about it. And I'm pretty straightforward,
and he acknowledged that I was one of the only
people who ever had this conversation with him let him
(11:26):
know that I think that he's probably one of the
most good, stable, wonderful life friends that I have. And
what I mean by that he had like a wander
lost when he was young. He's got that adventuresome spirit.
And you know, he dropped out of Old Dominion University
after two years, took a break and he went to
(11:47):
Australia and he hitchhiked around Australia. And then after three
months of hitchhiking around Australia, he went to the outback
in Australia and he lived there for a year amongst
the Aborigines as an apple picker.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And that's that's just always fascinated me. That Jack did that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Uh, the Fiji Islands are over there New near New Zealand.
And on that that time of this big trip for him,
when he went away like that, he went to Fiji,
Fiji Islands, and he and he slept on the beaches.
He didn't have any money really, and and and he slept,
you know, with a sleeping bag. And so he's a
guy that went to Fiji and slept on beaches. Jack
(12:32):
is just an amazing, amazing human being. He's got a
he's got a really wonderful ability to to feel comfortble
with himself. He's the perfect person for me to travel
with because he knows how to take care of himself.
And and so okay, that's a little more of the
background on that. But what I told Jack on this
(12:52):
trip was I said, Jack, you knows anybody ever really
shared with you that that you have just done a
beautiful job with your life. You know, you've got a
beautiful family, three daughters, five grandkids, married for for forty
some years maybe I don't know how many years, it's
maybe longer than that, and worked, you know, worked as
a stable job, something that he loved doing for forty
(13:16):
one years. And it comes at a time when he
had just downsized a couple of years ago from a
beautiful home that he lived in that he raised his
family in to a home and kind of like a
community where where it's like a homeowner association for a
little bit older people where you know, you don't have
(13:36):
to cut the grass or do stuff like that. And
I and I we stayed on the conversation about how
he did through his downsize, how he how he did it,
because that's interesting to me because my wife and I
are going to be, you know, downsizing ourselves. And on
this particular trip, just a couple of days before we left,
the previous Sunday, my wife, don and I had a
(13:59):
very deep, serious conversation and and here's kind.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Of what that was.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
John and I are getting older, and we're both you know,
with my health that everybody knows about that follows me here.
It's always been the plan to live in this house
until I pass if you know, when I die, and
then let the house gets sold and then you know,
you that's the equity for Donna to to to continue
(14:29):
with her life and be taken care of. But she
said to me, she said, Steve, I'm not gonna be
able to do it without you. I'm going to be,
you know, basically a basket case. I'm going to be grieving,
and I'm just not going to be able to concentrate
enough to go through all that. We've got to do
it before you die. Now, let me put a little
little little parenthetical clause in here.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm not planning on die and it's not emminent anytime soon.
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I'm I'm fighting the good fight. I'm doing well. But
when she said that to me, I knew that she
was right, And for the first time, I decided that
we're going to start working on the downside sometime in
the next year or two probably, but we need to
start figuring out where we want to live next. But
it's just I'm excited right now because when I downsize,
(15:19):
that means that I'll be able to basically retire when
we sell the house that we're at, and just work
a lot less and concentrate on the things I want
to concentrate on, my foundation and writing and maybe doing
more public speaking. And so this trip to Wise, Virginia
(15:40):
to see Don Green and left for Feet and sawmus
Chad and Lonnie Monday and some other good friends there,
excuse me. It was also to go and see if
I might want to get certified myself, whether I should
get certified. You know, I've been teaching Napoleon Hill materials
(16:00):
for fifty years myself not being certified. But when I
started the foundation thirteen years ago, I called the Poland
Hill Foundation the first call I made, and Don Green
answered the phone, and when I told him that I
was going to be going into prisons and helping helping
people get their lives straight and so forth, he said
to me, well, you know, Steve, he called at the
(16:21):
right time because we used to have a very large
president of prisons, but we don't it anymore, and we'd
love to be affiliate with you, which is why I called.
And over the thirteen years, all the five hundred times
or so that I've been in and out of prisons,
Don has supplied me with hundreds of books to pass
out in prisons and for me to pass on information
about the Poland Hill Foundation and basically share my testimony
(16:44):
that's based on a lot of my life. Is the
principles of Poland Hill that he talked. So, you know,
whether I get certified or whatever, you know, I don't
know but I went there just to kind of get
a feel, get deeper into the inner circle, we'll say,
of the Polone Hill Foundation. And the day that I
was there last Thursday was everything that I ever could
(17:07):
have asked it to be. And the highlight of it
was that I met Chad personally, and so I got
I got there late Wednesday night, and then when I
spoke to Chad in the morning about a quarter seven,
he said, well, come on down and get a cup
of coffee.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You know, I've got a surprise for you.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And you know, my seventy fourth birthday was just on Tuesday,
a couple of days before. And so I got, I
got dressed, went down there and he was with Johnny Lloyd,
and Johnny didn't know I was coming. And I have
to tell you, when you got friends that love you
as much as Johnny loves me and I love her
and all these other wonderful friends that I have through
(17:47):
the Pone Hill Foundation, Johnny stood up and almost screamed
out and said, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. And
then she came over, didn't know I was going to
be there, and then we hugged and she actually was
crying because she was so glad to see me. It
brought so much joy to my heart. And the first
thing she said was when I see Lefford, I'm gonna
(18:08):
give him a hug, and then I'm gonna slap him
for not let me know you were here.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
That was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
So then we then we went and I and I
rode with Chad, and I gave I gave Uh, I
gave Jack keys to my car, and he toured wise
and he was totally invited to do whatever I did,
but he made up his own mind. So he did
join us after lunch because we were gonna leave after lunch.
Chad Chad was the speaker and he spoke on the
(18:35):
Palming Hill's third principle, applied Faith, and I was so excited.
And Jack participated there to hear this too, And I
just have to tell you what Jack said about Chad's
presentation was he said, and that's not a pastor that
(18:56):
I'd ever fall asleep with if I would go to
his church. Chad and his wife do have a church
in Florida. And he said, boy, is he a professional
Polish speaker? He was fabulous, and yes he was. His
presentation on applied faith was unbelievable. And you know, the
(19:17):
whole thing that he based it on was the Matthew
seventeen twenty when Jesus said, because you have so little faith, truly,
I tell you, if you have faith as small as
a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move
from here to there, and it will move nothing. It
will be impossible for you. And so what Chad did
(19:39):
was he he brought the scripture into the Napoleon Hill
principle to teach it, and he used this chart for
a moment, and he said, it all starts with God.
And then he went in and when he talked about
the faith that you have through wisdom of your friends,
(20:00):
reading biographies and learning about people, and he gave this
wonderful I've never heard this fo He gave this wonderful approach.
He said that when he turned forty, the first thing
he wanted to do was read biographies of people that
didn't hit their success in life until they were forty.
If you turn fifty, read biographies of people that didn't
(20:22):
reach their success in life until you turn fifty sixty
and so forth. You know, when you get older, into
your sixties, you can use Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
One of my favorites in that age bracket is Stan Lee,
the comic book writer Marvel Comic Books. But the point
is that faith in being able to succeed, and he said,
(20:47):
you should always focus on people that have succeeded and
learned their stories, and then after you get solid on that,
then you're going to have faith in your own experiences.
And I've used that same principle for forever. I remember
when I was in my thirties and I was starting
(21:08):
to have health issues, you know, I would I would say, well,
you know, I've been at the bottom of the trough
maybe thirty some times now and always come out of it.
So when you have experience of your own that you
have gone through the valleys in life, that will give
you stronger faith that you're going to be able to
get through the values that you find yourself in or
(21:30):
the adversaries that you find yourself in. And it went
when I was in my forties, I'd say, I guess
I've been at the bottom of the trough now for
forty some times. But I remember in my fifties I said, yeah,
I've been at the bottom of the trough fifty seven
times now and I trust the Lord. I give it
up to the Lord, and I'm going to come out
of this. And so that's that's a big part of
(21:51):
what Chad's message was. And he passed out key chains.
And after lunch, when I rode back in the car
with Chad and Laney, he had with these little boxes
that had all these individual tea chains with the medallion,
and it says on the medallion on one side, if
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing
will be impossible for you. And on the other side,
(22:14):
in the center, it has a real mustard seed covered
in a kind of a plastic and it says, with faith,
all things are possible. So no matter what I do
today to tell you things, just remember, if you have
the faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing is
impossible with the Lord. So that's that's what happened there.
(22:37):
And so when Chad finished, he sat back down next
to me, and and it was it was emotional.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I said, I was sitting right next to him.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
He sat back down after his presentation, and I gave
him a big hug just to tell him how beautiful
his message was. And I prayed on him and it's
just such a beautiful life I have here, and so
being with my other friends there, it was just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I don't know if I.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Said a minute ago or not that when he handed
me the box of the of all of the little
ten keychains in each box, he had thirty something to
pass out. So Lana and I we opened up all
the little packets because each one was in a plastic sleeve.
He didn't want anybody to have to open the plastic sleeve,
and then he passed them out. So so Chad, I
thank you for letting me touch the mustard seeds that
(23:26):
you passed out for each of those people. Let's keep
passing it on. So the certification class was just absolutely wonderful.
I met many people, made some new friends, and it
was just so such a good thing for me to
return to Wise and discuss more of my future with
the Bold Hill Foundation. And so I'll leave that for later.
(23:50):
That conversation. So Jack and I on the on the
ride back, we had a beautiful conversation where I said, Hey, Jack,
do you realize how many or how few people we
know from our Gramby High School in Maufolk, Virginia. Grown
up days that have actually gone out in the world
(24:12):
and done as many adventures as you and I. And
I said, can you think of anybody else that's really,
you know, done those kind of things that we have,
because for the both of us, most people, most people
always say to him and to me, boy, you've done
so many things, and you got so many stories. My
mother used to just to really be into saying that,
(24:36):
you know, she she admired all the many, many travels
and trips that I've had. You know, I call myself
a hitchhiker because I went all over the country hitchhiking
and just had so many wonderful experiences and just been
out there, been out there, living life. And there was
a high school teacher, Ms. Griffin, that that took me
outside my senior year in high school. And I wrote
(24:57):
a paper and Catch from the Rye and and compare
and contrast myself with Colden Caulfield, the main character. And
then she asked me, Steve, is everything that you said
in that paper true? And I said, yeah, everything, every
word of it. And then she said, do you mind,
faint give you a piece of advice that I've never
given anybody? And I said, oh, I would love that
(25:18):
I would appreciate that. She said, Steve, I've never met
anybody like you. You ought to go out, She says,
what are you gonna do with your life?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
First? She asked me that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I said, well, I'm going to be an account that
I knew that from when I was, you know, eight
years old. And she said, well, Seve, you ought to
go out in life and just live life to the fullest,
do anything that ever comes your way, and when you
turn forty, right about it. Well, I like to tell
people that I'm somewhat of a delinquent. You know, I'm
seventy four now, and I didn't really start getting into heaven.
You know, I don't think I published my first book.
(25:47):
My first book got published until I was either sixty
nine or seventy. But I got a lot that I
want to get out now, and so I'm moving toward
that in my life. If I can do the downsize
and keep my health and just focus on putting out
more messages and reaching more people, that I hope I
can well.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So I talked to Jack about.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That, and he said he really can't think of anybody
that is if it's that category, like like the two
of us that have just really done a whole lot
of wanderlst type things, just travel. And the question always
comes up, you know, why do you travel? And I
like to I like to quote Mohammed. You know, if
the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammad will come
(26:29):
to the mountain. You know, why did they climb those mountains?
Because the mountain is there, so it's wonderful. So we
talked like that. And I have a I have a
friend named Cheryl, and she's one person that's in this category.
She's a dentist. She's got a heart of goal. I've
none of my whole life sense. I was actually in
high school with her sister, and then she came to
(26:50):
Richmond and became a dentist and she was a karate
karate girl, and so we kept close friendship. Just again
a heart of goal, and you know, we're still close contact.
And she took one of those road rallies from some
company that was launching something, some green Frog or something
like that, and they sponsored a road rally where you
(27:10):
had to go all the way for She lived in Alaska,
by the way, for twenty years in the bush country
as a dentist, and you know, you have to fly
in supplies to get things you can't hardly get out.
It's so bearing up there in the twenty years she did.
But anyway, she wanted to do this road rally. And
(27:31):
the road rally was Alaska, got through California into Mexico,
back through the states, whatever, and you had to pick
up something in each destination to prove that you had
been there, like buy a cup of coffee and get
the receipt that shows that you know, you got the
receipt from there. I mean the thing, I think the
(27:51):
people that did that, I think they drove twelve to
fifteen thousand miles or something with this particular competition. She
called me up and said, see, see, go on this
road rally with me. And she explained it to me,
and I said, I can't take the month to do that.
I just don't have the time. Back when it happened,
this was years ago, Sheryl and I had danced in
(28:13):
the Marathon dance in Richmond. Her boyfriend ed and kung
fu guy. We were real close and he didn't like
to dance so much. And she said, hey, see see,
you're the only guy that I know can do this,
and we can win, and we did. We danced twenty
six straight hours, got a ten minute break every hour.
It was the night after a Halloween back in nineteen
seventy six. I believe it ended when there were two
(28:38):
other couples. There were six of us left on the
dance floor and it was a two hundred and fifty
dollars first prize. But the last six of us were
not going to stop. None of us were going to stop.
We knew that. The management knew that, and they came
over to us at the end of the twenty six
hour and they said, hey, we never thought anybody's going
to keep this long. He said, we got to close
(28:59):
this place. We can't keep this competition going. If we
had fifty dollars, would all split up three hundred dollars.
And it was the most beautiful thing. We all put
our arms around each other in a circle, and nobody
wanted to be the first one to say I'll take it,
because that means you quit. All of us shook our
heads yes at the exact same moment. We each got
(29:20):
fifty dollars, and it was kind of rough. It took
me two days to get my sanity back because I
was pretty wired to say the least. Well, that was Suiryl,
so she qualified for this list that Jack and I
were trying to put together of people that are what
we call just kind of adventurers that do things that
other people don't do. And then Larry Harkem came to mind,
a guy that we knew in high school. He retired
(29:41):
at forty five years old. His wife was already in banking,
and they formed a bank. They charted a new bank,
and he was able to retire at forty five years old.
She stayed in the banking, but he retired. And oh,
probably about ten years or so ago, he wrote a
jet ski. Larry wrote a jet ski from off of
Virginia up the East coast, all the way up to
(30:03):
New York, crossed over into the Erie Canal, switched over
to the Mississippi River Great Lakes, down into the Mississippi River,
came all the way back down in Florida, did the
tip of Florida, came back up the east coast. I
think he did seven thousand miles on a jet ski.
He had to stop in the middle of the trip
because I think he had to have appendicitis operation. Then
(30:25):
he went back after he healed, but Larry Harcum definitely qualifies.
And at our fiftieth high school reunion six seven years ago,
seven years ago, I guess, he came to me and
he gave me a copy of his book, Larry harkm
I can't think of the Loop. I think it's Traveling
the Loop or something, and it was his adventures on
(30:46):
that Loot and he gave it to me and Jimmy
Hollom and I can't remember the third person he gave
it to, but he said, Steve, I want to give
you a copy of my book because I know you're
like this. And that was a heck of a compliment
coming from Larry who had just done that, and so okay.
So that's the kind of conversation Jack and I were having.
But then Jack told me a story that I'm going
(31:08):
to share right now. That is one of the best
stories I've ever listened to. I mean, I was on
the edge of my seat driving my car back to
Richmond to drop him off last week. Jack has two
cousins and two brothers and their brothers and they they
had this adventure spirit and when they were younger, they
(31:29):
wanted to go to Alaska and live in the in
the bush country, and they wanted to be like live
off the land. And the first thing that they did
when they set out to do this was they met
some park ranger kind of guy, and they told him,
you know, need places that we could go where we
could just kind of live like this, and he gets,
you know, there's this island. I can't remember the name
(31:51):
of it, but they have a weather station there. And
the guy said, hey, if y'all would like to do that,
you know, we'll drop you in there. You could probably
get a job with for the weather station. So they
did that for a period of time. Couldn't get off
the island, of course, up in Alaska. But then they
ended up somewhere near Anchorage and they were living in
a cabin out in the wilderness, and they had a
(32:13):
girl hooked up with them and lived there and then
and then it was not going so great for two
guys and a girl, so one of them and the
girl left. But that left the other cousin of Jack's
with his dog all by himself up there in this
bush country with nobody for hundreds of miles around. And
so one day he was out looking for food type thing,
(32:37):
and he saw two grizzly baby bear cubs, two grizzly cubs,
and he got too close to him, and then the
mama bear came and she chased him, and he went
up a tree, climbed up a tree. I stopped the store,
said Jack. Bears climbed trees because I know, keep listening.
(32:57):
He got up the tree as high as he could,
and that grizzly bear attacked him and ripped his ripped
off his kneecap, and the dog, thank God for that dog.
That dog just barked and barked and got up to
the grizzly. The dog just either bare story or a
dog story. You can use it either way. The dog
(33:17):
got the grizzly to finally leave. Well, the guy had
a leg that was all torn up, his knee was
opened up, that his kneecap was totally displaced, and so
somehow he got back to his cabin, radioed and they
hit it. They came in for a plane and they
air lifted him out and he had to have surgery.
So that's that one brother's story, and how Jack heard
(33:41):
the story. He never really kind of was closed or
knew these cousins. The cousins on his father's side, and
when he and his wife jan about three four years ago,
went on a cruise out of I think it was Seattle,
Washington to Alaska and then they took a then they
took a train to Anchorage and they hooked up with
(34:02):
the cousins. That's that's you know, he just learned the
story through or four years ago. Okay, the other brother
he ended up going to Europe and he became a
take tours into Russia to go hunting trips into Russia.
And the brother that had the knee, thats sed uff
like that. I think he's the one that climbed Mount Everest.
(34:26):
So let me just tell you the story that Jack
and I were trying to do a list of people
that we know personally they are adventures. It ended up
with these two brothers, and I say, these guys are
absolutely top of the line, world class adventures. So that's
kind of kind of stories me and Jack Sherif when
we're traveling together trying to trying to just you know,
(34:47):
go through talk about life whatever. Jack was beautiful sharing
the downsize of how he was wiped downsize, and so
it got me thinking in a very positive direction because
it's coming up from me and Donna pretty soon. Okay,
So that's that's that. That's a lot of what happened
in the Pauling Hill Foundation. So when we continued from there,
(35:08):
I spent the night at Jack's house and my my
wonderful close friend Sam Justice. I haven't seen Sam, and
this is this is just wrong. Sam was one of
the karate instructors at American Karate Academy back in the
in the early seventies when I was there, and then
(35:30):
into the late seventies I was. I was in a
close association with Sam. He was the he was the
coach of the Virginia AAU karate team that fought in
the in the in the in the National Championships, and
and he coached me when I had three years of
fighting in the National Championships. And I did episode number
(35:52):
two fourteen. You might want to go back and listen
to it. It's part of my autobiography that's being published.
And this one was called Sam Justice was a railroad Man.
Let me read what that was that day, right, thinking
it was Steve Collins very pleased to announce it. This
week's show was called Sam Justice was a railroad Man.
Tune in and here Steve talk about the importance of
martial arts in his life and now having positive role
(36:15):
models helped him to become one himself. Okay, now, Sam Justice,
I wrote that chapter, recorded that chapter in my autobiography
because Sam Justice is one of the best role models
I've ever had. The thing with Sam is is that
he worked now. Jack Bialhart worked forty one years for Vita,
(36:39):
and Sam Justice he had forty I think it was
the same, might have been forty three years for the Railroad.
He had a full, beautiful career with the Railroad, and
at the same time he had his own karate school.
And he told me on this strip this past Friday
morning that he's had his own karate school for fifty
(37:02):
years now. His wife, Linda says it's probably longer than that.
Sam Sam got his black belt when he was thirty.
He's eighty two years old. And when I showed his
picture to Donna when I came home, she could not
believe because she had talked to him on the phone
a couple of days before I introduced him. She says
that man does not look like an eighty two year
(37:23):
old man. He's amazing, the vitality, the youth that he has.
So I spent three hours visiting with Sam at his house.
He brought me into his house, which I greatly appreciate
and love, and we just had a chance to catch up.
And it's just a wrong that it took us. I
don't think I've actually seen Sam for forty years. Me
(37:44):
and Jim Bongo Bailey used to go up there on
Wednesday nights to his karate school and he'd bring in
anybody from the richmondry that would want to spar for
a couple hours with me and Bongo. And we did
that for at least a year and a half every Wednesday,
and Sam was just so beautiful, so beautiful. His karate
school back then in the village shopping center, there was
(38:06):
a prison security guard named TJ, and TJ had a key,
and me and TJ would go up there in the
daytime to the school and we would put on our
spar and gear, our pads are so forth, and we
would just do a survival type far. What that means
is is that no conversation, no conversation. Two hours we
(38:28):
would go just you're gonna be out there dealing with
this other person. And if you let your guard down,
you're gonna get hit, You're gonna get hard. It was
full contact, and so me and TJ would just just
go for two hours at a time like that, and
it was it was just the most wonderful male bonding
imaginable because at the end of it, take off my
gi top and just wring it and I could lose
(38:51):
four or five pounds in as far like that. I
was at one hundred and seventy pounds at the time.
TJ was a two to twenty five incredibly powerful man,
and uh it was. It was quite challenging for me
to be out there with TJ for two hours where
we're doing this then we just just give this embrace
on each other that it's like you can't. It's a
(39:11):
beautiful thing just to be able to have that mail
bonding because where you're gonna find people that you can
do this with and like, you know, it's incredible training. Well,
when I went to Sam's house, I was having a
hard time with the GPS. They kept saying an address
the street that he lived on. He told me it
was lean, but the GPS kept popping up drive and
he lives in Raiko and it and it kept uh
(39:34):
it kept popping up. Just took another another place and
took a that's what it kept popping up. And I
couldn't believe that it was Sam. You don't want to
ride on a GPS to the wrong address and be
opposite direction type thing. Well he said, no, just do
it anyway, because I pulled it up, you know, street
(39:54):
by street, and he goes, yeah, that's it. So I
went there, but it took me too much extra time
to get there. And his wife Linda and daughter Tammy
that was going to take his wife to the to
the for doctor visit, they couldn't wait any longer, but
they had wanted to wait and see me. And this
is a wonderful, wonderful compliment that Sam gave me. He
said that you remember, he said, He asked Tammy. She
(40:16):
was like twelve thirteen years old last time I saw her,
she was a national champion. And I did a T
shirt that she still has for her and Melanie that
was called disco Karate and there there on the front
of the T shirt doing it looks like a dance
move that was so beautiful. And Sam said, do you
remember Steve Coplan? And Tammy said, who could ever forget
(40:36):
Steve Coplan that had ever met him. I thank you
for that comment, Tammy. So anyway, I was only going
to be there for about two hours and told my
wife i'd leave around noon. Well, I was there. I
was there for three hours. In the last half hour,
Linda and Tammy came in from the doctor and it
was just one of the most wonderful unions I've ever had.
(40:58):
And I haven't seen Linda hand me for forty years,
and they both looked just absolutely beautiful and just as
much vitality in their life as Sam's got in his
and and so it just it just made me feel
real good to be part of this well and part
of what Sam and I were doing. Sam brought up
(41:18):
a song that that he said, I really need to
learn and know this song. And this song was called
no Matter What. And I texted him when I got
home too, and I asked him, he said, give me
the give me the name of that song, would you please,
And he said, okay, So he just texted back to me,
so to speak, give me just a second here.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
So this song no Matter What sung by Ronan Keating
k E A T I n G. The song was
written by Andrew Lloyd Weber for the musical That Whistled
Down the Wind nineteen ninety six and Rounin Keaton was
(42:03):
a member of a band called Boyzone. He's Australian.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
This song has the same title. Many people have done
it and it's not the same song. But Sam wanted
me to make sure that you do the ronin Keaton
no matter what version of the song. And the original
song was written because it was written toward children's adoration
(42:28):
toward Jesus, and that's really where the song started. Later
on the song was used to get more into romantic love,
not love toward Jesus. But I want to read just
a couple lyrics from some verses in here, and it's
no matter what. I can't deny what I believe. I
can't be what I'm not. I know I'll love forever,
(42:50):
I know, no matter what. If only tears were laughter,
if only night was day, if only prayers were answered,
then we would hear God say. And this is what
God says. No matter what they tell us, no matter
what they do, no matter what they teach us, what
we believe is true. And I will keep you safe
and strong and shelter from the storm. No matter where
(43:14):
it's barren, a dream is being born. No matter who
they follow, no matter where they lead, no matter how
they judge us, I'll be everyone you need, no matter
if the sun don't shine or if the skies are blue,
No matter what the end is, my life began with you.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
That's God Jesus talking to his children. And what I
want to tell you is is that Sam said, Steve
learned this, and I've I've been taught by Sam Justice.
He is just such a beautiful person. That's why I
put him into my autobiography. I've named hundreds of karate teachers,
masters and so forth in my life, but I chose
(43:53):
Sam Justice because what Sam represents to me is a
life of loving and giving to others. And he's a
family man. He's a man that gives to so many people,
and he's got just absolutely the most beautiful attitude of
anybody that I think I know. That's why I chose him,
And when he gave me this song, it's just another
(44:16):
thing that I want to thank Sam for for just
giving me beautiful, beautiful things for me to learn that
I know are going to make my life better, and
so not just my life as a teacher, Sam gives
me this to be able to pass on to others.
That's really you know, it's the theme that the It
emphasizes steadfast love and enduring and promising to be there
(44:41):
for other people no matter what. So that's that's basically,
you know, the main idea that I'm bringing you from
that song. And Sam, I hope I'm interpreting it right,
because I think I do. I think I love this song.
Let me sum that up just a little bit more powerful.
This song conveys the message of unconditional love and commitment,
(45:03):
and it assures the listener that their relationship will endure
through any challenge. That's what I'm all about, and I
hope that y'all have learned that from me and all
the other shows that I've ever done with you. So now,
on the way back coming back on this trip, I
was leaving Richmond and I was introduced See it's all
(45:26):
about networking. Also, you know, Leffort Fate is part of
the pawn Hill Foundation because I called Don Green when
I started the foundation thirteen years ago and became affiliated.
Well then I met Leffert when I got into doing
Right Thinking with Steve Copland radio show because the person
(45:47):
that start at the radio show that I got on
is Jeff Heiser. He wanted me to interview Leffort Fate.
That's how I met Leffert and then I introduced left
to Don Green. And then when I went to see
Leopard a year ago, there was a man there and
his name is Glenn Hodges, and he came just to
(46:10):
be part of the Future Business Leaders of America Day.
And he came and introduced himself to me and said
that he woke up in the morning prayed for the
Lord to introduce him to somebody that he needs to know.
Then I met Glenn, and then Glenn introduced me to
Corey Green, which about a year ago, I did four
(46:33):
episodes in a row that were all just based on
martial arts and karate. It was a great opportunity to
get all that documented with Corey. He's an amazing martial artist.
And then Corey told a man named Joe Joe Wheelis,
that I want you to meet Steve. And so I
(46:53):
met Joe and Joe is going to be ninety years
old in October, and I was introduced to him by Well,
actually Glenn is the one that introduced me through Corey.
They're all friends, but Joe's been going through some health crisis,
is with cancer, and he was in a struggle, and
(47:14):
Glenn felt that it would be good for him to
meet me. Well, we've become just beautiful friends over the
last six or seven months, just beautiful friends. And so
I called Joe on the way home just to talk
with him for a while and catch up. We talk
at least weekly, a couple times a week. In the
first months that we were together, it was at least
three or four times an hour or two and we
(47:37):
became close friends. But the thing about Joe is, I'm
constantly saying to figure out, there's something about your life
that I don't understand yet with all the time we
spend together, he is one of the most articulate people,
with wisdom that is just beautiful, beautiful wisdom. And it's
(47:57):
almost nothing that I'm ever talking to or involved with
him that he doesn't have just a very mature wisdom
about himself. But I keep thinking that maybe Joe is
got some some background that I don't know about that
is like really high level where he went somewhere, like
for example, Leffett's been part of the John Maxwell association
(48:20):
there and a big part of that training and so forth,
and the Fawn Hill Foundation. But Joe doesn't you know,
he knows about both, but he's never been through their
their their courses or anything. And I keep asking Joe, Joe, so,
where where did you pick this up? Because for an
eighty nine year old, you would never ever know the
(48:44):
sharpness of his mind, the quickness of his mind. He's
just so absolutely beautiful, and I mean he he's he
seems to me like he's a man only approaching in
his mid sixties at the top. I mean, he's just
really sharp as attack. I told him the other year,
you're sharp as attacker with a little bit of rustle
the tip. Well, so I pushed the conversation real hard
(49:05):
on him to ask him, so, what is it that
I don't know about you that you've kept from me
for your background? How you've been able to develop this
in this depth of your wisdom and your attitude? He says, well,
I really don't know, Steve. So I asked him more questions.
He's like an innocent kid when I ask him these questions,
and he says, I don't mind sharing with you because
(49:26):
I know we're so close. Steve, You're such a good friend.
I'll be honest with you anything you ever want to know,
And so I keep asking, and then finally I said, Okay, Joe,
I've tried to ask you the questions, but now I'm
going to give you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I'm going to give you.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Sister Steve Palm Reader, Joe, you have a very long lifeline.
I can see it going very long, many many more years.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
For you, Joe.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
And Joe, I know that you've come from a very
good family that raised you right and taught you respect
for other people, and that they taught you the work
ethic gone out in life and use the respect and
the worth ethic to go foreig in life, and that
at many places that you have had career jobs, you
had the benefit of some of the professional training that
(50:12):
they bring in for the types of jobs you've had.
But I believe that more than anything else, Joe, you
have a respect for other people, and that you've learned
in your life that your associations are the key to
your own life, and that you've kept your life with
very good, close, worthwhile associations and learned throughout your life
(50:36):
to not have associations that go too far with people
of much lesser character than what I'm speaking to here.
And I said, what do you think of that? From
palm reader Sister Steve? And he goes, well, I think
that's exactly what it is. So I uncovered the mystery
of where did Joe get his great wisdom and maturity from?
(50:59):
And what I can tell you is we don't call
it just plain and clean living, because he'll object to
me saying that he's been a clean liver his whole life.
He might have he might have made a bet one time,
or maybe even participate in a drink, But the bottom
line is is that what I'm trying to tell you
here to sum up my show today, I got one
more little part to it, though, is that one of
(51:19):
the greatest keys to a good life, a successful light
is the friends and the associations that we keep. And
I have an expression that I've had for years that
when I find somebody that's got that kind of character
that I admire and respect, I always say that I
try to I try to have friends, or that there
are the kind of people that my mother would like,
(51:41):
because I had some friends, you know, all my life
that I would bring home and my mother would say
now I like that friend of yours. She didn't like
some of my other friends, and she would let me
know that too. But your associations with upstanding good people
is one of the greatest things that you can ever
strive to always have to have success in life. Now
I'm going to finish it up with. I came back
(52:04):
and I was really really tired. I got back on
Friday afternoon around I guess it was around four, and
so I got some rest and so forth. But on Saturday,
I went to the pool party at the Granby Street
YMCA oufter a pool from Max. Max turned six years old,
(52:26):
and I'm going to tell you I even read it
on his birthday card because I wanted him to hear
it out loud when he when it's read. When he
reads it, Max, I love your smile. Max has got
just the most incredible can even really kind of call
it a grin, but he is just so absolutely beautiful
and positive and happy and and tickles me all the time.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
And we do the tickling.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
But anyway, I was able to take my priority my
family and through my friendship with Jack and my desire
to be part of the Poland Hill Foundations a bit
this year and people that I loved dearly. I was
able to put it all together and get back at eleven,
you know, on Friday for the eleven o'clock pool party
at the norf of MCA, and then there was there
(53:12):
was a gentleman there and his name is Brian, and
there are other people at twelve other people from the
general public team. We had to pool ourselves for the
first hour and it was just so beautiful to see
my son Andrew, who I raised up in the YMCA.
I took him to the YMCA pool when he was
one year old and took Warner Babies class. Andrew studied
(53:35):
under me and karate and he got his black belt
when he was fourteen. Then he went up to the
second degree black belt under me. I'm so proud of Andrew.
I got my daughter Lindsay there. Josh couldn't be there
because he had to well he didn't have to, but
he went with his girlfriend to near Charlottsville for a
family reunion kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
Family.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Family, family, That's what I'm trying to speak to right now.
But when I off to one area of the pool,
and I even said this to Andrew's father in Los
Acey's dad, Mike, and I said, you know, Mike, I've
been a part of this YMCA for sixty seven years.
I came in as a through the Partner Membership program.
(54:16):
My uncle Sidney Simmle, he was in charge of it,
where they raise money from from local businesses to help
underprivileged children have a membership to the White and it
was ten dollars. And from the time I was seven
years old to my teenage years, Uncle Sidney always gave
me that membership. That's where I went all the time.
(54:39):
That's where I studied Judah, That's the pool that I
was always in and yamsays is so important to me.
And so to sit there and see my son Andrew
and my grandson Max, and Willie and Stella and Lindsay
all being there, and my wife Donald was there, and
it was just an emotional moment from to see the
(55:01):
life that I have, how beautiful it is, and how
important things are to me, particularly to the YMCA and
my family. So when I got out of the pool
and I was trying to get ready to go into
where the party was inside. Now this gentleman named Brian
was sitting there watching two of his grandkids and I
said hi to him, and I shared with him how
(55:23):
how much I just love being here, and I shared
my story of being a seven year old got in
on partner membership. He said, that's my story too, Steve.
I said, really, he goes yeah, his uncle got him
a membership when he was a kid through the same
partner membership program. He's twelve years younger than me, but
the same program. And he told me he was at
(55:43):
the y all the time and he knew all the
background of the YMCA the same as I do. He
is the first person my whole life that I've ever
shared my YMCA background story that has the same entree
into the YMCA because it goes back so far seven
years ago for me. So, Brian, you're my newest best
(56:03):
friend and I love you. But I'm going to sign
off right now. And the name of today's show is
the Light at the end of the Tunnel. And when
you were in that tunnel, you could look back in
the direction to see where it was. And so I
believe that I am one of the most blessed people
(56:24):
on the face of the earth. I was in the
tunnel to see the light at the end of the
tunnel and I'll share this with you what I already knew.
The light at the end of the tunnel is Jesus. Hey,
God bless each one of you. I thank you for
listening to this and I want you to have just
a wonderful week. God bless you.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
Thanks for listening to right thinking with Steve Coper. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week, and
remember it, don't quit, plan ahead. It will get better.
God bless you, and have a great week.
There must be lie starning brighter somewhere. Got to be birds.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Why I am high tun a sky.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, Welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Today's episode number four and thirty nine Right Thinking with
Steve Copelan is very pleased to announce that this week's
show was called The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
Tune in and here Steve share faults on a recent
road trip that has provided clarity and confirmation that the
path that he is traveling through life on is the
right path. This show will give hope and encouragement to
(01:07):
all who listen. Last week, I had just one of
the most wonderful three or four days of my life.
Let's see, it started on Wednesday and it ended on Sunday,
so I guess that's a four day period of my life.
And I went on a road trip with my good buddy,
one of my best friends in my whole life. Jack
(01:31):
and Jack and I went to junior high school high
school together. We've been best buddies for over sixty years. Now,
back in nineteen seventy four, we went cross country. I
traveled six weeks with Jack to Colorado to he was
going there to visit with his brother Bobby. He came
(01:52):
over the day before my junior year in college at
olderman U University was started was to start. It was
the next day I was going to start a new major.
I changed my major from accounting to elementary ED. And
he came by and said, Hey, Steve, I'm going to
Colorado tomorrow to see my brother Bobby. Why don't you
(02:14):
go with me? Long story short, I did. I dropped
out of college. My mother just just about had a
heart attack, so sudden that I made that decision. Fifty
dollars in my pocket, six hundred dollars in bills that
I would have to work for a while on the
road to send money back to my mother. My mother
said to me, as a result of that decision, you know, Stevie,
(02:36):
not just that one decision.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
There are other events in my life, she said, Stevie,
I have four children, but you're the only one that
put every one of these gray heads on my life.
I'm not proud of that. It was just part of
what I went through when I was young. My mother
was the most wonderful mother in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
But anyway, I went with Jack.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And then about three years ago Jack and I went
cross country again. This time he drove with me to
Oregon where I picked up my daughter Lindsey and Willie
and Stella to drive them back when they were moving
back to Virginia. And that was just another wonderful trip.
(03:14):
Then he flew home and we just did great things together. Traveled,
traveled to the Grand Tetons and Custer State Park in Wyoming,
and just it was just a phenomenal trip. A lot
of other things happened Jack. Jack is one person that
(03:35):
he's an adventurer. He does things. But so anyway, I
asked Jack, would you like to take another road trip.
Last year he went to Wyse, Virginia with me when
I went up to the Napolean Hill Foundation because my
good friend Leffort was going to be the MC for
a Future Business Leaders of America that was being hosted
(03:59):
at University of Virginia wise At sponsored by Napoleon Hill Foundation.
Don Green you know the head guy there. So Jack
went with me last year and then I saw the
Leffert and the whole purpose of the trip was to
go up there and give love with the big hug
and say how to Don and we did that, and
(04:22):
it's so wonderful to have Jack travel with me for
something like that, and just being with Jack's always wonderful.
So I was invited by Leffort this year to go
to the Napoleon Hill Foundation's twenty twenty five graduation class
for the Napoleon Hill Certification, and I didn't know that
(04:42):
I was going to be able to go. He invited
me about two months earlier because my grandson Max, Andrew
and Stacy, my son Andrew's son was going to be
celebrating the sixth birthday and it was going to be
a pool party at the outdoor pool of the Nouf
of Williams, and so I told Laford, I don't know
(05:04):
that I can go drive that far eight hours each way,
just up and back over, leave on Wednesday, be there
on Thursday, and come back to be at the birthday party.
I just a lot of driving. So I just didn't
think I was going to make it. But then when
my my wonderful close friend sawmus Chad when he told
(05:25):
me he was going to be going and that he
was going to be one of the speakers at the
graduation to present the third of the Napoleon Hill seventeen
Principles of Success.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I figured it out.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I said, oh, I'm going to go because I needed
to go see Chad close at Chad and I are
We we've never met each other physically, you know, personally
that we've never been to each other's presence, just conversations
and zoom and thing. So I called Jack said you
want to you want to go? And he said yeah,
but he had to had to get back to me
because two days a week he keeps his grandkids for
(05:59):
one of the daughters, and he had to check the
schedule and call me back and said, no, I can go.
I'm not going to have the babysit those two days.
So we planned it. I let Chad know I was
going to be there, and and I went. And then
when I let Letford know, I said, leffort, don't let
Johnny know, Johnny Lloyd know that I'm coming, because I
(06:20):
wanted to be a surprise. Okay, so that's the background
for this trip that I took last week. And so
I picked Jack up in Richmond. I leave, you know,
from Nofolk to Richmond, and we were going to hike.
And we had a wonderful hike last year when we
went Cascades National Park. I think it was called Beautiful
(06:41):
Waterfalls there, and it was a pretty hard hike. So
I started doing a lot of walking in Seashore State
Park last couple of weeks because I haven't been able
to hike for a couple of years because of my
my neuropathy in my feet. But you know, I'm getting
through that very well, and I've been hiking again. But
Jim Jack says, see it's going to be too hot.
I don't really want to.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
HiPE like that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Uh So, but we'll we'll figure it out as we go.
Well we did. Jack is forty one years and he's
retired now three or four years retired. The videographer photographer
the State of Virginia's Department of Transportation. He he's up
in a helicopter taking pictures of you know, road projects,
(07:22):
construction sites.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
He's been to every.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Highway and byway and and he knows everything about the
road system in Virginia. And so you know, I trust
Jack to tell us where we're going to go on
this trip. So I pick him up. The weather's like
ninety five degrees give or take.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
One claim to fame for Jack is the last year
when we're together, he had a map a state, a
map of state of Virginia, and he did all the
photography on it. His picture made the made the map.
You know, that's a big deal for me to have
a friend that's as much as I love to travel,
maps mean a lot to me. And Jack was the
photographer for that map. Okay, so that's where we are.
(08:04):
So I pick up Jack and we get on the
route and then about an hour and a half away
and near Crose, Virginia, there was a place that he
said we might go there. He said there's a tunnel
there that we can hike in. And I'm thinking a
tunnel that we can hike in, that's kind of a
unique thing, and so he said, yeah. It was a
(08:26):
tunnel built in the you know, eighteen thirties or forties
or something that was through the mountain near Winchester there
and for the trains, they get trains through there and
it operated for a long time and I took eleven
years I think I read to do it. And it's
called the Blue Ridge tunnel and Nelson County is actually
(08:50):
where it's at, but it's near the city of Crosee
if you ever want to go there outside of Charlottesville.
So I didn't know much about it, but in my mind,
you know, I said to him, is that like hiking
in a cave or something, you know, really dark? He goes, well, yeah,
kind of. He said, it's gonna be about twenty degrees
lower in there. It'd be nice to maybe hike in there.
(09:11):
So we drove for the hour and a half and
I'm thinking, well, you know, could be a little claustrophobic.
It's about a mile each way. By the way, the
tunnel was a mile from the beginning to when you
came to the other end of it. And I didn't
say anything about, you know, maybe his claustrophobia.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Uh, you know, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I like to be in caves and I can lay
down on a on a gurney and take radiation, I'd
be okay. But I'm thinking it's going to be pitch black,
don't lights know anything in there. And so but when
we got there, you park in the park a lot
and then you hike about a quarter of a mile and
then there it is. But then Jack said, well, we
got to wear these headlamps. And he had two headlamps
(09:52):
that like minor headlamps things you can put on and
be and read at night, I guess, but so he
had two of these, so we each put a one
and we started the walk. And I have to tell you,
I think it's one of the most unique hike walks
I've ever taken. The uro tracks have been removed, and
it was it was like sixty eight nine degrees in there,
(10:13):
I think, and there was actually one place in there
where it was like a little waterfall coming down on
the inside. But it was amazing. But the reason that
I titled this show The Light at the End of
the Tunnel is that there was an ou claustrophobia because
it was very, very straight and wherever you were you
(10:37):
could turn around and see the entrance where you came in,
and you could see the light.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You could look forward and see.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
The light, and it was just an amazing experience to
go through there. So we walked up and back and
it's the light at the end of the tunnel and
we got out. It was pouring down raining. That was
the other part of this adventure is that it was
poor and down rant, and so it was good. It
was good to hike in a tunnel where you weren't
(11:04):
rained on. So the theme of this trip that I
gave myself for being with Jack was I wanted to
I wanted to celebrate Jack and let him know because
I didn't think that too many other people ever would
have talked to him about it. And I'm pretty straightforward,
and he acknowledged that I was one of the only
people who ever had this conversation with him let him
(11:26):
know that I think that he's probably one of the
most good, stable, wonderful life friends that I have. And
what I mean by that he had like a wander
lost when he was young. He's got that adventuresome spirit.
And you know, he dropped out of Old Dominion University
after two years, took a break and he went to
(11:47):
Australia and he hitchhiked around Australia. And then after three
months of hitchhiking around Australia, he went to the outback
in Australia and he lived there for a year amongst
the Aborigines as an apple picker.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And that's that's just always fascinated me. That Jack did that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Uh, the Fiji Islands are over there New near New Zealand.
And on that that time of this big trip for him,
when he went away like that, he went to Fiji,
Fiji Islands, and he and he slept on the beaches.
He didn't have any money really, and and and he slept,
you know, with a sleeping bag. And so he's a
guy that went to Fiji and slept on beaches. Jack
(12:32):
is just an amazing, amazing human being. He's got a
he's got a really wonderful ability to to feel comfortble
with himself. He's the perfect person for me to travel
with because he knows how to take care of himself.
And and so okay, that's a little more of the
background on that. But what I told Jack on this
(12:52):
trip was I said, Jack, you knows anybody ever really
shared with you that that you have just done a
beautiful job with your life. You know, you've got a
beautiful family, three daughters, five grandkids, married for for forty
some years maybe I don't know how many years, it's
maybe longer than that, and worked, you know, worked as
a stable job, something that he loved doing for forty
(13:16):
one years. And it comes at a time when he
had just downsized a couple of years ago from a
beautiful home that he lived in that he raised his
family in to a home and kind of like a
community where where it's like a homeowner association for a
little bit older people where you know, you don't have
(13:36):
to cut the grass or do stuff like that. And
I and I we stayed on the conversation about how
he did through his downsize, how he how he did it,
because that's interesting to me because my wife and I
are going to be, you know, downsizing ourselves. And on
this particular trip, just a couple of days before we left,
the previous Sunday, my wife, don and I had a
(13:59):
very deep, serious conversation and and here's kind.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Of what that was.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
John and I are getting older, and we're both you know,
with my health that everybody knows about that follows me here.
It's always been the plan to live in this house
until I pass if you know, when I die, and
then let the house gets sold and then you know,
you that's the equity for Donna to to to continue
(14:29):
with her life and be taken care of. But she
said to me, she said, Steve, I'm not gonna be
able to do it without you. I'm going to be,
you know, basically a basket case. I'm going to be grieving,
and I'm just not going to be able to concentrate
enough to go through all that. We've got to do
it before you die. Now, let me put a little
little little parenthetical clause in here.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm not planning on die and it's not emminent anytime soon.
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I'm I'm fighting the good fight. I'm doing well. But
when she said that to me, I knew that she
was right, And for the first time, I decided that
we're going to start working on the downside sometime in
the next year or two probably, but we need to
start figuring out where we want to live next. But
it's just I'm excited right now because when I downsize,
(15:19):
that means that I'll be able to basically retire when
we sell the house that we're at, and just work
a lot less and concentrate on the things I want
to concentrate on, my foundation and writing and maybe doing
more public speaking. And so this trip to Wise, Virginia
(15:40):
to see Don Green and left for Feet and sawmus
Chad and Lonnie Monday and some other good friends there,
excuse me. It was also to go and see if
I might want to get certified myself, whether I should
get certified. You know, I've been teaching Napoleon Hill materials
(16:00):
for fifty years myself not being certified. But when I
started the foundation thirteen years ago, I called the Poland
Hill Foundation the first call I made, and Don Green
answered the phone, and when I told him that I
was going to be going into prisons and helping helping
people get their lives straight and so forth, he said
to me, well, you know, Steve, he called at the
(16:21):
right time because we used to have a very large
president of prisons, but we don't it anymore, and we'd
love to be affiliate with you, which is why I called.
And over the thirteen years, all the five hundred times
or so that I've been in and out of prisons,
Don has supplied me with hundreds of books to pass
out in prisons and for me to pass on information
about the Poland Hill Foundation and basically share my testimony
(16:44):
that's based on a lot of my life. Is the
principles of Poland Hill that he talked. So, you know,
whether I get certified or whatever, you know, I don't
know but I went there just to kind of get
a feel, get deeper into the inner circle, we'll say,
of the Polone Hill Foundation. And the day that I
was there last Thursday was everything that I ever could
(17:07):
have asked it to be. And the highlight of it
was that I met Chad personally, and so I got
I got there late Wednesday night, and then when I
spoke to Chad in the morning about a quarter seven,
he said, well, come on down and get a cup
of coffee.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You know, I've got a surprise for you.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And you know, my seventy fourth birthday was just on Tuesday,
a couple of days before. And so I got, I
got dressed, went down there and he was with Johnny Lloyd,
and Johnny didn't know I was coming. And I have
to tell you, when you got friends that love you
as much as Johnny loves me and I love her
and all these other wonderful friends that I have through
(17:47):
the Pone Hill Foundation, Johnny stood up and almost screamed
out and said, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. And
then she came over, didn't know I was going to
be there, and then we hugged and she actually was
crying because she was so glad to see me. It
brought so much joy to my heart. And the first
thing she said was when I see Lefford, I'm gonna
(18:08):
give him a hug, and then I'm gonna slap him
for not let me know you were here.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
That was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
So then we then we went and I and I
rode with Chad, and I gave I gave Uh, I
gave Jack keys to my car, and he toured wise
and he was totally invited to do whatever I did,
but he made up his own mind. So he did
join us after lunch because we were gonna leave after lunch.
Chad Chad was the speaker and he spoke on the
(18:35):
Palming Hill's third principle, applied Faith, and I was so excited.
And Jack participated there to hear this too, And I
just have to tell you what Jack said about Chad's
presentation was he said, and that's not a pastor that
(18:56):
I'd ever fall asleep with if I would go to
his church. Chad and his wife do have a church
in Florida. And he said, boy, is he a professional
Polish speaker? He was fabulous, and yes he was. His
presentation on applied faith was unbelievable. And you know, the
(19:17):
whole thing that he based it on was the Matthew
seventeen twenty when Jesus said, because you have so little faith, truly,
I tell you, if you have faith as small as
a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move
from here to there, and it will move nothing. It
will be impossible for you. And so what Chad did
(19:39):
was he he brought the scripture into the Napoleon Hill
principle to teach it, and he used this chart for
a moment, and he said, it all starts with God.
And then he went in and when he talked about
the faith that you have through wisdom of your friends,
(20:00):
reading biographies and learning about people, and he gave this
wonderful I've never heard this fo He gave this wonderful approach.
He said that when he turned forty, the first thing
he wanted to do was read biographies of people that
didn't hit their success in life until they were forty.
If you turn fifty, read biographies of people that didn't
(20:22):
reach their success in life until you turn fifty sixty
and so forth. You know, when you get older, into
your sixties, you can use Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
One of my favorites in that age bracket is Stan Lee,
the comic book writer Marvel Comic Books. But the point
is that faith in being able to succeed, and he said,
(20:47):
you should always focus on people that have succeeded and
learned their stories, and then after you get solid on that,
then you're going to have faith in your own experiences.
And I've used that same principle for forever. I remember
when I was in my thirties and I was starting
(21:08):
to have health issues, you know, I would I would say, well,
you know, I've been at the bottom of the trough
maybe thirty some times now and always come out of it.
So when you have experience of your own that you
have gone through the valleys in life, that will give
you stronger faith that you're going to be able to
get through the values that you find yourself in or
(21:30):
the adversaries that you find yourself in. And it went
when I was in my forties, I'd say, I guess
I've been at the bottom of the trough now for
forty some times. But I remember in my fifties I said, yeah,
I've been at the bottom of the trough fifty seven
times now and I trust the Lord. I give it
up to the Lord, and I'm going to come out
of this. And so that's that's a big part of
(21:51):
what Chad's message was. And he passed out key chains.
And after lunch, when I rode back in the car
with Chad and Laney, he had with these little boxes
that had all these individual tea chains with the medallion,
and it says on the medallion on one side, if
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing
will be impossible for you. And on the other side,
(22:14):
in the center, it has a real mustard seed covered
in a kind of a plastic and it says, with faith,
all things are possible. So no matter what I do
today to tell you things, just remember, if you have
the faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing is
impossible with the Lord. So that's that's what happened there.
(22:37):
And so when Chad finished, he sat back down next
to me, and and it was it was emotional.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I said, I was sitting right next to him.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
He sat back down after his presentation, and I gave
him a big hug just to tell him how beautiful
his message was. And I prayed on him and it's
just such a beautiful life I have here, and so
being with my other friends there, it was just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I don't know if I.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Said a minute ago or not that when he handed
me the box of the of all of the little
ten keychains in each box, he had thirty something to
pass out. So Lana and I we opened up all
the little packets because each one was in a plastic sleeve.
He didn't want anybody to have to open the plastic sleeve,
and then he passed them out. So so Chad, I
thank you for letting me touch the mustard seeds that
(23:26):
you passed out for each of those people. Let's keep
passing it on. So the certification class was just absolutely wonderful.
I met many people, made some new friends, and it
was just so such a good thing for me to
return to Wise and discuss more of my future with
the Bold Hill Foundation. And so I'll leave that for later.
(23:50):
That conversation. So Jack and I on the on the
ride back, we had a beautiful conversation where I said, Hey, Jack,
do you realize how many or how few people we
know from our Gramby High School in Maufolk, Virginia. Grown
up days that have actually gone out in the world
(24:12):
and done as many adventures as you and I. And
I said, can you think of anybody else that's really,
you know, done those kind of things that we have,
because for the both of us, most people, most people
always say to him and to me, boy, you've done
so many things, and you got so many stories. My
mother used to just to really be into saying that,
(24:36):
you know, she she admired all the many, many travels
and trips that I've had. You know, I call myself
a hitchhiker because I went all over the country hitchhiking
and just had so many wonderful experiences and just been
out there, been out there, living life. And there was
a high school teacher, Ms. Griffin, that that took me
outside my senior year in high school. And I wrote
(24:57):
a paper and Catch from the Rye and and compare
and contrast myself with Colden Caulfield, the main character. And
then she asked me, Steve, is everything that you said
in that paper true? And I said, yeah, everything, every
word of it. And then she said, do you mind,
faint give you a piece of advice that I've never
given anybody? And I said, oh, I would love that
(25:18):
I would appreciate that. She said, Steve, I've never met
anybody like you. You ought to go out, She says,
what are you gonna do with your life?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
First? She asked me that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I said, well, I'm going to be an account that
I knew that from when I was, you know, eight
years old. And she said, well, Seve, you ought to
go out in life and just live life to the fullest,
do anything that ever comes your way, and when you
turn forty, right about it. Well, I like to tell
people that I'm somewhat of a delinquent. You know, I'm
seventy four now, and I didn't really start getting into heaven.
You know, I don't think I published my first book.
(25:47):
My first book got published until I was either sixty
nine or seventy. But I got a lot that I
want to get out now, and so I'm moving toward
that in my life. If I can do the downsize
and keep my health and just focus on putting out
more messages and reaching more people, that I hope I
can well.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So I talked to Jack about.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That, and he said he really can't think of anybody
that is if it's that category, like like the two
of us that have just really done a whole lot
of wanderlst type things, just travel. And the question always
comes up, you know, why do you travel? And I
like to I like to quote Mohammed. You know, if
the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammad will come
(26:29):
to the mountain. You know, why did they climb those mountains?
Because the mountain is there, so it's wonderful. So we
talked like that. And I have a I have a
friend named Cheryl, and she's one person that's in this category.
She's a dentist. She's got a heart of goal. I've
none of my whole life sense. I was actually in
high school with her sister, and then she came to
(26:50):
Richmond and became a dentist and she was a karate
karate girl, and so we kept close friendship. Just again
a heart of goal, and you know, we're still close contact.
And she took one of those road rallies from some
company that was launching something, some green Frog or something
like that, and they sponsored a road rally where you
(27:10):
had to go all the way for She lived in Alaska,
by the way, for twenty years in the bush country
as a dentist, and you know, you have to fly
in supplies to get things you can't hardly get out.
It's so bearing up there in the twenty years she did.
But anyway, she wanted to do this road rally. And
(27:31):
the road rally was Alaska, got through California into Mexico,
back through the states, whatever, and you had to pick
up something in each destination to prove that you had
been there, like buy a cup of coffee and get
the receipt that shows that you know, you got the
receipt from there. I mean the thing, I think the
(27:51):
people that did that, I think they drove twelve to
fifteen thousand miles or something with this particular competition. She
called me up and said, see, see, go on this
road rally with me. And she explained it to me,
and I said, I can't take the month to do that.
I just don't have the time. Back when it happened,
this was years ago, Sheryl and I had danced in
(28:13):
the Marathon dance in Richmond. Her boyfriend ed and kung
fu guy. We were real close and he didn't like
to dance so much. And she said, hey, see see,
you're the only guy that I know can do this,
and we can win, and we did. We danced twenty
six straight hours, got a ten minute break every hour.
It was the night after a Halloween back in nineteen
seventy six. I believe it ended when there were two
(28:38):
other couples. There were six of us left on the
dance floor and it was a two hundred and fifty
dollars first prize. But the last six of us were
not going to stop. None of us were going to stop.
We knew that. The management knew that, and they came
over to us at the end of the twenty six
hour and they said, hey, we never thought anybody's going
to keep this long. He said, we got to close
(28:59):
this place. We can't keep this competition going. If we
had fifty dollars, would all split up three hundred dollars.
And it was the most beautiful thing. We all put
our arms around each other in a circle, and nobody
wanted to be the first one to say I'll take it,
because that means you quit. All of us shook our
heads yes at the exact same moment. We each got
(29:20):
fifty dollars, and it was kind of rough. It took
me two days to get my sanity back because I
was pretty wired to say the least. Well, that was Suiryl,
so she qualified for this list that Jack and I
were trying to put together of people that are what
we call just kind of adventurers that do things that
other people don't do. And then Larry Harkem came to mind,
a guy that we knew in high school. He retired
(29:41):
at forty five years old. His wife was already in banking,
and they formed a bank. They charted a new bank,
and he was able to retire at forty five years old.
She stayed in the banking, but he retired. And oh,
probably about ten years or so ago, he wrote a
jet ski. Larry wrote a jet ski from off of
Virginia up the East coast, all the way up to
(30:03):
New York, crossed over into the Erie Canal, switched over
to the Mississippi River Great Lakes, down into the Mississippi River,
came all the way back down in Florida, did the
tip of Florida, came back up the east coast. I
think he did seven thousand miles on a jet ski.
He had to stop in the middle of the trip
because I think he had to have appendicitis operation. Then
(30:25):
he went back after he healed, but Larry Harcum definitely qualifies.
And at our fiftieth high school reunion six seven years ago,
seven years ago, I guess, he came to me and
he gave me a copy of his book, Larry harkm
I can't think of the Loop. I think it's Traveling
the Loop or something, and it was his adventures on
(30:46):
that Loot and he gave it to me and Jimmy
Hollom and I can't remember the third person he gave
it to, but he said, Steve, I want to give
you a copy of my book because I know you're
like this. And that was a heck of a compliment
coming from Larry who had just done that, and so okay.
So that's the kind of conversation Jack and I were having.
But then Jack told me a story that I'm going
(31:08):
to share right now. That is one of the best
stories I've ever listened to. I mean, I was on
the edge of my seat driving my car back to
Richmond to drop him off last week. Jack has two
cousins and two brothers and their brothers and they they
had this adventure spirit and when they were younger, they
(31:29):
wanted to go to Alaska and live in the in
the bush country, and they wanted to be like live
off the land. And the first thing that they did
when they set out to do this was they met
some park ranger kind of guy, and they told him,
you know, need places that we could go where we
could just kind of live like this, and he gets,
you know, there's this island. I can't remember the name
(31:51):
of it, but they have a weather station there. And
the guy said, hey, if y'all would like to do that,
you know, we'll drop you in there. You could probably
get a job with for the weather station. So they
did that for a period of time. Couldn't get off
the island, of course, up in Alaska. But then they
ended up somewhere near Anchorage and they were living in
a cabin out in the wilderness, and they had a
(32:13):
girl hooked up with them and lived there and then
and then it was not going so great for two
guys and a girl, so one of them and the
girl left. But that left the other cousin of Jack's
with his dog all by himself up there in this
bush country with nobody for hundreds of miles around. And
so one day he was out looking for food type thing,
(32:37):
and he saw two grizzly baby bear cubs, two grizzly cubs,
and he got too close to him, and then the
mama bear came and she chased him, and he went
up a tree, climbed up a tree. I stopped the store,
said Jack. Bears climbed trees because I know, keep listening.
(32:57):
He got up the tree as high as he could,
and that grizzly bear attacked him and ripped his ripped
off his kneecap, and the dog, thank God for that dog.
That dog just barked and barked and got up to
the grizzly. The dog just either bare story or a
dog story. You can use it either way. The dog
(33:17):
got the grizzly to finally leave. Well, the guy had
a leg that was all torn up, his knee was
opened up, that his kneecap was totally displaced, and so
somehow he got back to his cabin, radioed and they
hit it. They came in for a plane and they
air lifted him out and he had to have surgery.
So that's that one brother's story, and how Jack heard
(33:41):
the story. He never really kind of was closed or
knew these cousins. The cousins on his father's side, and
when he and his wife jan about three four years ago,
went on a cruise out of I think it was Seattle,
Washington to Alaska and then they took a then they
took a train to Anchorage and they hooked up with
(34:02):
the cousins. That's that's you know, he just learned the
story through or four years ago. Okay, the other brother
he ended up going to Europe and he became a
take tours into Russia to go hunting trips into Russia.
And the brother that had the knee, thats sed uff
like that. I think he's the one that climbed Mount Everest.
(34:26):
So let me just tell you the story that Jack
and I were trying to do a list of people
that we know personally they are adventures. It ended up
with these two brothers, and I say, these guys are
absolutely top of the line, world class adventures. So that's
kind of kind of stories me and Jack Sherif when
we're traveling together trying to trying to just you know,
(34:47):
go through talk about life whatever. Jack was beautiful sharing
the downsize of how he was wiped downsize, and so
it got me thinking in a very positive direction because
it's coming up from me and Donna pretty soon. Okay,
So that's that's that. That's a lot of what happened
in the Pauling Hill Foundation. So when we continued from there,
(35:08):
I spent the night at Jack's house and my my
wonderful close friend Sam Justice. I haven't seen Sam, and
this is this is just wrong. Sam was one of
the karate instructors at American Karate Academy back in the
in the early seventies when I was there, and then
(35:30):
into the late seventies I was. I was in a
close association with Sam. He was the he was the
coach of the Virginia AAU karate team that fought in
the in the in the in the National Championships, and
and he coached me when I had three years of
fighting in the National Championships. And I did episode number
(35:52):
two fourteen. You might want to go back and listen
to it. It's part of my autobiography that's being published.
And this one was called Sam Justice was a railroad Man.
Let me read what that was that day, right, thinking
it was Steve Collins very pleased to announce it. This
week's show was called Sam Justice was a railroad Man.
Tune in and here Steve talk about the importance of
martial arts in his life and now having positive role
(36:15):
models helped him to become one himself. Okay, now, Sam Justice,
I wrote that chapter, recorded that chapter in my autobiography
because Sam Justice is one of the best role models
I've ever had. The thing with Sam is is that
he worked now. Jack Bialhart worked forty one years for Vita,
(36:39):
and Sam Justice he had forty I think it was
the same, might have been forty three years for the Railroad.
He had a full, beautiful career with the Railroad, and
at the same time he had his own karate school.
And he told me on this strip this past Friday
morning that he's had his own karate school for fifty
(37:02):
years now. His wife, Linda says it's probably longer than that.
Sam Sam got his black belt when he was thirty.
He's eighty two years old. And when I showed his
picture to Donna when I came home, she could not
believe because she had talked to him on the phone
a couple of days before I introduced him. She says
that man does not look like an eighty two year
(37:23):
old man. He's amazing, the vitality, the youth that he has.
So I spent three hours visiting with Sam at his house.
He brought me into his house, which I greatly appreciate
and love, and we just had a chance to catch up.
And it's just a wrong that it took us. I
don't think I've actually seen Sam for forty years. Me
(37:44):
and Jim Bongo Bailey used to go up there on
Wednesday nights to his karate school and he'd bring in
anybody from the richmondry that would want to spar for
a couple hours with me and Bongo. And we did
that for at least a year and a half every Wednesday,
and Sam was just so beautiful, so beautiful. His karate
school back then in the village shopping center, there was
(38:06):
a prison security guard named TJ, and TJ had a key,
and me and TJ would go up there in the
daytime to the school and we would put on our
spar and gear, our pads are so forth, and we
would just do a survival type far. What that means
is is that no conversation, no conversation. Two hours we
(38:28):
would go just you're gonna be out there dealing with
this other person. And if you let your guard down,
you're gonna get hit, You're gonna get hard. It was
full contact, and so me and TJ would just just
go for two hours at a time like that, and
it was it was just the most wonderful male bonding
imaginable because at the end of it, take off my
gi top and just wring it and I could lose
(38:51):
four or five pounds in as far like that. I
was at one hundred and seventy pounds at the time.
TJ was a two to twenty five incredibly powerful man,
and uh it was. It was quite challenging for me
to be out there with TJ for two hours where
we're doing this then we just just give this embrace
on each other that it's like you can't. It's a
(39:11):
beautiful thing just to be able to have that mail
bonding because where you're gonna find people that you can
do this with and like, you know, it's incredible training. Well,
when I went to Sam's house, I was having a
hard time with the GPS. They kept saying an address
the street that he lived on. He told me it
was lean, but the GPS kept popping up drive and
he lives in Raiko and it and it kept uh
(39:34):
it kept popping up. Just took another another place and
took a that's what it kept popping up. And I
couldn't believe that it was Sam. You don't want to
ride on a GPS to the wrong address and be
opposite direction type thing. Well he said, no, just do
it anyway, because I pulled it up, you know, street
(39:54):
by street, and he goes, yeah, that's it. So I
went there, but it took me too much extra time
to get there. And his wife Linda and daughter Tammy
that was going to take his wife to the to
the for doctor visit, they couldn't wait any longer, but
they had wanted to wait and see me. And this
is a wonderful, wonderful compliment that Sam gave me. He
said that you remember, he said, He asked Tammy. She
(40:16):
was like twelve thirteen years old last time I saw her,
she was a national champion. And I did a T
shirt that she still has for her and Melanie that
was called disco Karate and there there on the front
of the T shirt doing it looks like a dance
move that was so beautiful. And Sam said, do you
remember Steve Coplan? And Tammy said, who could ever forget
(40:36):
Steve Coplan that had ever met him. I thank you
for that comment, Tammy. So anyway, I was only going
to be there for about two hours and told my
wife i'd leave around noon. Well, I was there. I
was there for three hours. In the last half hour,
Linda and Tammy came in from the doctor and it
was just one of the most wonderful unions I've ever had.
(40:58):
And I haven't seen Linda hand me for forty years,
and they both looked just absolutely beautiful and just as
much vitality in their life as Sam's got in his
and and so it just it just made me feel
real good to be part of this well and part
of what Sam and I were doing. Sam brought up
(41:18):
a song that that he said, I really need to
learn and know this song. And this song was called
no Matter What. And I texted him when I got
home too, and I asked him, he said, give me
the give me the name of that song, would you please,
And he said, okay, So he just texted back to me,
so to speak, give me just a second here.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
So this song no Matter What sung by Ronan Keating
k E A T I n G. The song was
written by Andrew Lloyd Weber for the musical That Whistled
Down the Wind nineteen ninety six and Rounin Keaton was
(42:03):
a member of a band called Boyzone. He's Australian.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
This song has the same title. Many people have done
it and it's not the same song. But Sam wanted
me to make sure that you do the ronin Keaton
no matter what version of the song. And the original
song was written because it was written toward children's adoration
(42:28):
toward Jesus, and that's really where the song started. Later
on the song was used to get more into romantic love,
not love toward Jesus. But I want to read just
a couple lyrics from some verses in here, and it's
no matter what. I can't deny what I believe. I
can't be what I'm not. I know I'll love forever,
(42:50):
I know, no matter what. If only tears were laughter,
if only night was day, if only prayers were answered,
then we would hear God say. And this is what
God says. No matter what they tell us, no matter
what they do, no matter what they teach us, what
we believe is true. And I will keep you safe
and strong and shelter from the storm. No matter where
(43:14):
it's barren, a dream is being born. No matter who
they follow, no matter where they lead, no matter how
they judge us, I'll be everyone you need, no matter
if the sun don't shine or if the skies are blue,
No matter what the end is, my life began with you.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
That's God Jesus talking to his children. And what I
want to tell you is is that Sam said, Steve
learned this, and I've I've been taught by Sam Justice.
He is just such a beautiful person. That's why I
put him into my autobiography. I've named hundreds of karate teachers,
masters and so forth in my life, but I chose
(43:53):
Sam Justice because what Sam represents to me is a
life of loving and giving to others. And he's a
family man. He's a man that gives to so many people,
and he's got just absolutely the most beautiful attitude of
anybody that I think I know. That's why I chose him,
And when he gave me this song, it's just another
(44:16):
thing that I want to thank Sam for for just
giving me beautiful, beautiful things for me to learn that
I know are going to make my life better, and
so not just my life as a teacher, Sam gives
me this to be able to pass on to others.
That's really you know, it's the theme that the It
emphasizes steadfast love and enduring and promising to be there
(44:41):
for other people no matter what. So that's that's basically,
you know, the main idea that I'm bringing you from
that song. And Sam, I hope I'm interpreting it right,
because I think I do. I think I love this song.
Let me sum that up just a little bit more powerful.
This song conveys the message of unconditional love and commitment,
(45:03):
and it assures the listener that their relationship will endure
through any challenge. That's what I'm all about, and I
hope that y'all have learned that from me and all
the other shows that I've ever done with you. So now,
on the way back coming back on this trip, I
was leaving Richmond and I was introduced See it's all
(45:26):
about networking. Also, you know, Leffort Fate is part of
the pawn Hill Foundation because I called Don Green when
I started the foundation thirteen years ago and became affiliated.
Well then I met Leffert when I got into doing
Right Thinking with Steve Copland radio show because the person
(45:47):
that start at the radio show that I got on
is Jeff Heiser. He wanted me to interview Leffort Fate.
That's how I met Leffert and then I introduced left
to Don Green. And then when I went to see
Leopard a year ago, there was a man there and
his name is Glenn Hodges, and he came just to
(46:10):
be part of the Future Business Leaders of America Day.
And he came and introduced himself to me and said
that he woke up in the morning prayed for the
Lord to introduce him to somebody that he needs to know.
Then I met Glenn, and then Glenn introduced me to
Corey Green, which about a year ago, I did four
(46:33):
episodes in a row that were all just based on
martial arts and karate. It was a great opportunity to
get all that documented with Corey. He's an amazing martial artist.
And then Corey told a man named Joe Joe Wheelis,
that I want you to meet Steve. And so I
(46:53):
met Joe and Joe is going to be ninety years
old in October, and I was introduced to him by Well,
actually Glenn is the one that introduced me through Corey.
They're all friends, but Joe's been going through some health crisis,
is with cancer, and he was in a struggle, and
(47:14):
Glenn felt that it would be good for him to
meet me. Well, we've become just beautiful friends over the
last six or seven months, just beautiful friends. And so
I called Joe on the way home just to talk
with him for a while and catch up. We talk
at least weekly, a couple times a week. In the
first months that we were together, it was at least
three or four times an hour or two and we
(47:37):
became close friends. But the thing about Joe is, I'm
constantly saying to figure out, there's something about your life
that I don't understand yet with all the time we
spend together, he is one of the most articulate people,
with wisdom that is just beautiful, beautiful wisdom. And it's
(47:57):
almost nothing that I'm ever talking to or involved with
him that he doesn't have just a very mature wisdom
about himself. But I keep thinking that maybe Joe is
got some some background that I don't know about that
is like really high level where he went somewhere, like
for example, Leffett's been part of the John Maxwell association
(48:20):
there and a big part of that training and so forth,
and the Fawn Hill Foundation. But Joe doesn't you know,
he knows about both, but he's never been through their
their their courses or anything. And I keep asking Joe, Joe, so,
where where did you pick this up? Because for an
eighty nine year old, you would never ever know the
(48:44):
sharpness of his mind, the quickness of his mind. He's
just so absolutely beautiful, and I mean he he's he
seems to me like he's a man only approaching in
his mid sixties at the top. I mean, he's just
really sharp as attack. I told him the other year,
you're sharp as attacker with a little bit of rustle
the tip. Well, so I pushed the conversation real hard
(49:05):
on him to ask him, so, what is it that
I don't know about you that you've kept from me
for your background? How you've been able to develop this
in this depth of your wisdom and your attitude? He says, well,
I really don't know, Steve. So I asked him more questions.
He's like an innocent kid when I ask him these questions,
and he says, I don't mind sharing with you because
(49:26):
I know we're so close. Steve, You're such a good friend.
I'll be honest with you anything you ever want to know,
And so I keep asking, and then finally I said, Okay, Joe,
I've tried to ask you the questions, but now I'm
going to give you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I'm going to give you.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Sister Steve Palm Reader, Joe, you have a very long lifeline.
I can see it going very long, many many more years.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
For you, Joe.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
And Joe, I know that you've come from a very
good family that raised you right and taught you respect
for other people, and that they taught you the work
ethic gone out in life and use the respect and
the worth ethic to go foreig in life, and that
at many places that you have had career jobs, you
had the benefit of some of the professional training that
(50:12):
they bring in for the types of jobs you've had.
But I believe that more than anything else, Joe, you
have a respect for other people, and that you've learned
in your life that your associations are the key to
your own life, and that you've kept your life with
very good, close, worthwhile associations and learned throughout your life
(50:36):
to not have associations that go too far with people
of much lesser character than what I'm speaking to here.
And I said, what do you think of that? From
palm reader Sister Steve? And he goes, well, I think
that's exactly what it is. So I uncovered the mystery
of where did Joe get his great wisdom and maturity from?
(50:59):
And what I can tell you is we don't call
it just plain and clean living, because he'll object to
me saying that he's been a clean liver his whole life.
He might have he might have made a bet one time,
or maybe even participate in a drink, But the bottom
line is is that what I'm trying to tell you
here to sum up my show today, I got one
more little part to it, though, is that one of
(51:19):
the greatest keys to a good life, a successful light
is the friends and the associations that we keep. And
I have an expression that I've had for years that
when I find somebody that's got that kind of character
that I admire and respect, I always say that I
try to I try to have friends, or that there
are the kind of people that my mother would like,
(51:41):
because I had some friends, you know, all my life
that I would bring home and my mother would say
now I like that friend of yours. She didn't like
some of my other friends, and she would let me
know that too. But your associations with upstanding good people
is one of the greatest things that you can ever
strive to always have to have success in life. Now
I'm going to finish it up with. I came back
(52:04):
and I was really really tired. I got back on
Friday afternoon around I guess it was around four, and
so I got some rest and so forth. But on Saturday,
I went to the pool party at the Granby Street
YMCA oufter a pool from Max. Max turned six years old,
(52:26):
and I'm going to tell you I even read it
on his birthday card because I wanted him to hear
it out loud when he when it's read. When he
reads it, Max, I love your smile. Max has got
just the most incredible can even really kind of call
it a grin, but he is just so absolutely beautiful
and positive and happy and and tickles me all the time.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
And we do the tickling.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
But anyway, I was able to take my priority my
family and through my friendship with Jack and my desire
to be part of the Poland Hill Foundations a bit
this year and people that I loved dearly. I was
able to put it all together and get back at eleven,
you know, on Friday for the eleven o'clock pool party
at the norf of MCA, and then there was there
(53:12):
was a gentleman there and his name is Brian, and
there are other people at twelve other people from the
general public team. We had to pool ourselves for the
first hour and it was just so beautiful to see
my son Andrew, who I raised up in the YMCA.
I took him to the YMCA pool when he was
one year old and took Warner Babies class. Andrew studied
(53:35):
under me and karate and he got his black belt
when he was fourteen. Then he went up to the
second degree black belt under me. I'm so proud of Andrew.
I got my daughter Lindsay there. Josh couldn't be there
because he had to well he didn't have to, but
he went with his girlfriend to near Charlottsville for a
family reunion kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
Family.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Family, family, That's what I'm trying to speak to right now.
But when I off to one area of the pool,
and I even said this to Andrew's father in Los
Acey's dad, Mike, and I said, you know, Mike, I've
been a part of this YMCA for sixty seven years.
I came in as a through the Partner Membership program.
(54:16):
My uncle Sidney Simmle, he was in charge of it,
where they raise money from from local businesses to help
underprivileged children have a membership to the White and it
was ten dollars. And from the time I was seven
years old to my teenage years, Uncle Sidney always gave
me that membership. That's where I went all the time.
(54:39):
That's where I studied Judah, That's the pool that I
was always in and yamsays is so important to me.
And so to sit there and see my son Andrew
and my grandson Max, and Willie and Stella and Lindsay
all being there, and my wife Donald was there, and
it was just an emotional moment from to see the
(55:01):
life that I have, how beautiful it is, and how
important things are to me, particularly to the YMCA and
my family. So when I got out of the pool
and I was trying to get ready to go into
where the party was inside. Now this gentleman named Brian
was sitting there watching two of his grandkids and I
said hi to him, and I shared with him how
(55:23):
how much I just love being here, and I shared
my story of being a seven year old got in
on partner membership. He said, that's my story too, Steve.
I said, really, he goes yeah, his uncle got him
a membership when he was a kid through the same
partner membership program. He's twelve years younger than me, but
the same program. And he told me he was at
(55:43):
the y all the time and he knew all the
background of the YMCA the same as I do. He
is the first person my whole life that I've ever
shared my YMCA background story that has the same entree
into the YMCA because it goes back so far seven
years ago for me. So, Brian, you're my newest best
(56:03):
friend and I love you. But I'm going to sign
off right now. And the name of today's show is
the Light at the end of the Tunnel. And when
you were in that tunnel, you could look back in
the direction to see where it was. And so I
believe that I am one of the most blessed people
(56:24):
on the face of the earth. I was in the
tunnel to see the light at the end of the
tunnel and I'll share this with you what I already knew.
The light at the end of the tunnel is Jesus. Hey,
God bless each one of you. I thank you for
listening to this and I want you to have just
a wonderful week. God bless you.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
Thanks for listening to right thinking with Steve Coper. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week, and
remember it, don't quit, plan ahead. It will get better.
God bless you, and have a great week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!