“Wear exactly what you’re wearing right now!” “They’ll tell you to dress business-casual, but I’m telling you wear what you’ve got on!” Mary-Rachel was speaking to me from a position of experience … she’s a casting Director for Deal or No Deal … as she walked me back to a small room where I’d find three people we walked fast … “good luck Bill” was her last words as she scurried back to the big room! My appointment was for Monday night April 14, 2008 at 7:40 … be 20 minutes early, bring all your supporters, don’t call Aaron Simnowitz UNLESS you need to reschedule … NO EXCEPTIONS! These words were offered by the scheduler as she us pointed to the exit. It was 4:30 p.m. My day had started in line at 8:50 a.m. It took me 3 hours to get inside the warehouse to discover another endless array of lines with another 3-4,000 people weaving up and back before I’d get my 20 seconds to introduce myself and explain why I should be a contestant on their show. As I called Trix, my wife, my eyes were tried, I was shaking from no food, my voice was strong and I was excited. “Baby … come and get me … I’m finished!” “Did they pick you?” “Y ES – yes … can you believe it … I’m getting a shot with the video cameras, a final interview and then wait … they’ve told us it might be 6-8 months before we hear, some have gone a year before hearing back … but I’m in the finals … there were so many people in line with me, I can’t believe it … thousands!” Trix said, “the news cast mentioned maybe as many as 17,000 showed up!” When I got to the Hilton Hotel … Salon II … there were 6 groups of people huddled around each other … waiting … I checked in and was told, “to get my picture taken by – that girl over there!” When I got to her, she said, “My camera batteries are being re-charged … I’ll call you when I’m ready.” Trix and Shaun and Annette and Jim and I found a ring of chairs and we waited. We talked about the show, the weather, the other people in the room … we could hear people behind the walls screaming and yelling … the excitement level was very high! About 8:30 a staff member stood and got our attention … “Allow me to introduce to you the person who for the most part has been instrumental in creating this #1 show … Richard [and I didn’t catch his last name … to many yells from behind the adjacent walls] Richard was gracious and thanked the young woman for her introduction and began to talk about the show. How excited he was to be here in SLC, UT. “As you can tell, the excitement level is high and I suggest you keep it that way.” He told us the show has been in production for 4 years, that over that time some 300,000 people just like us have come to an open casting call, that another 200,000 have submitted 5 minute videos to them for consideration … very close to a half million people have applied to be a contestant on our show. We’ve held final interviews, just like what you’re going through tonight, with 750 people! 750 who we’ve selected our contestants from. Congratulations … keep your energy level high and enjoy the evening. That’s about .15% or 1 in every 667 – anyway you cut it … I was in! 45 minutes later our group was called to Salon I … I was brought in for a one- on- one with an interviewer and a camera man. The interviewer told me to stand on a “blue” piece of tape and look into the lense and smile! I held a sheet of paper with my name on it and some numbers and he looked at me and said, “ok, relax … I’m going to ask you some questions, be natural, animated and truthful and when I’m, ready we’ll bring in your friends! [after a few shots with the camera he told me to throw the paper down…] “Are you ready,” he asked? “Yes,” I said. “Ok Bill tell me your life story in 30 seconds!” For the next 15 minutes he asked me questions … very good questions … and I opened up like a book and he read me from cover to cover! I was “in the zone” as they say of athletes’ who are just hitting every pitch, or shot … I was “on” My voice was strong, my focus was on him … our eye contact was constant. My answers were just flowing off my tongue … I didn’t need to stop and ponder the answer … they just came to me. Excitement level was high … time seemed to stand still; I was having a ball being me. During the interview his perspective was I was really a pro at achieving my goals … he explored that for several minutes and I believe he really believed me! He questioned me as to, “do you really believe people can achieve ALL their goals?” “YES … EVERY ONE OF THEM!” I replied pausing a second then offering, “with a caveat … that they have a ‘passion’ a ‘core belief’ for that goal … then you can accomplish them all! He then asked me a question I wasn’t expecting … “what goal haven’t you succeeded in?” More astonishing than the question, was my answer! I clearly saw exactly what it was; in an instant I had to disclose something that I’ve NEVER verbalized to anyone –including myself! Epiphany, insight, break-through, awareness, call it what you want … a light illuminated within my mind and I saw clearly for the first time that I’d spent 33 years of my life pursuing something I didn’t really have a passion for … something that wasn’t a core desire of mine … something that had provided me a great amount of financial success, yet all those years I knew something wasn’t there!I had just been led by a master to the “moment of truth.” This young man whom I’d never seen in my life, who didn’t know me from Adam, who had been interviewing people all day long had just brought me to the edge of myself and asked me to jump! I had such trust for him, the process, the moment … that I simply let go of myself and told him the business I’d been in since 1973 … a business I had devoted countless hours, training, and capital to was not one I was truly committed to. After 12 years in the Securities Industry I actually created my own Securities Company – Entirety, Inc. It was 1985, I invested everything I had [$10,000 cash] and borrowed $25,000 more from my mother to get started. I trained over 20 people to become Investment Executives. My company grew, we had 1000’s of clients, we provided seminars in the 80’s on Living Trusts, Estate
About Willard Kille
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