Listen to What Len Thurmond Has To Say When He Answered the Heroes Question “When Was The Lowest Point In Your Life and How Did You Change Your Life Path To One Of Victory Over the Obstacles You Were Facing at That Time?”
Len Thurmond: Wow, what was the low point of my life? I honestly don?t know what the low point of my life was.
I went through a really tough childhood and adolescence and early adulthood, but truthfully, it was all self-imposed. It stems from my father and mother got divorced, and it?s the same old story. That?s not even, in most people?s eyes, worth getting upset over, you know. How could you let your life get destroyed over something like that?
I was 11 years old, I think, and it devastated me. I blamed my mother and I spent years trying to get back at her, trying to get even. I know that now and I?ve apologized to her many times, but I put her through hell, and I did it by ruining my life.
I got into drugs; I drank; I was constantly getting arrested. I was in trouble with the law. It was just terrible. I ran with the wrong crowd. I dropped out of school. I evaded the draft. I did everything that a kid could possibly do wrong, and I didn?t really know it at the time, but I look back now and I realize that subconsciously I was trying to get back at both of them, not just her, for ruining my life.
In retrospect, it?s probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me that they broke up. My father turned out to be something else.
The low point in my life; that?s what caused the low points in my life. It was that self-imposed self destruction that caused the low points, but when I actually hit bottom, I am honestly not really sure of the exact date, but I was homeless and starving. I was a very talented carpenter, but I couldn?t keep a job long enough to really eat or anything else.
I was feeding my drug habits and stuff more than anything. I was living in a van. I had an old, beat up van that had a broken shifter. It was terrible. It was pretty lousy, but as I said, it was self imposed, and at some point I just woke up and said enough is enough. That was it. I have never in my entire life believed or felt like I couldn?t do anything I wanted to. I just didn?t want to, and I knew that; on some level I knew that.
I always knew that I could do anything I wanted to, and at some point I got tired of beating myself up for no reason. It was just plain stupid and I knew it. So at some point I said, ?Okay, that?s enough. You?re done now?, and the day I did that, life changed.
I immediately went out and got a normal job and cleaned myself up, and before I knew it I was a general contractor and had my own crews. It was just a matter of applying myself.
I see it so often in young people. I think they are really subconsciously trying to get back at somebody else by hurting themselves. Somehow it converts into, ?If I hurt myself bad enough, you?ll be sorry,? which is just totally stupid, but I know that?s where I was and what I did.
Once I had had enough, I had had enough. My mom is one of the greatest women who ever lived. She is a very special woman. She went through all of it; bailed me out of jail; never really complained too much. She just took care of everything.
I had a brother and a sister and she worked three jobs to keep us in a middle class home that we couldn?t afford. She didn?t have to do any of the stuff that she did, but she felt it was her place in life to raise her kids and give them the best life that she could and just love them through it all.
I guess I did enough rebelling for the rest of the family because the other kids were perfect. You?ve met my brother. He?s an executive type; he?s got a Ph.D. He?s everything that I probably should have been.
I put myself through it and I know it was to hurt her and I am truly sorry for it now. I guess, in reality, it was something I had to go through to be who I am now. I wouldn?t put my mother through that for anything in the world again, but if I had it to do all over again just to me, I probably would do it the same way because, in truth, all the problems I had with drugs and alcohol and going to jail and getting in fights; all the stupid things I did made me who I am.
They made me know that I have experienced this for a reason and I have to help other people and I have to try and show people that there?s a better way and it?s stupid to do these kinds of things.
I know I can?t keep people from going down the same road I did, but maybe I can save one person. Maybe I can let them see that they don?t have to do what I did in order to redeem yourself to yourself. That?s really all it is.
The low point of my life was at some point in my 20s when I decided enough was enough and just hit rock bottom, and made the decision that that was it. I pulled myself in and it didn?t take long.
I don?t think anybody with any intelligence would ever take long to pull out of that. It?s just making that decision.
That?s what happened to me.