Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given - Duane Dog Chapman [51]
Calvin Coolidge once said, “The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” When I’m on a bounty hunt, giving up and throwing in the towel are never options for me. My livelihood depends on a successful outcome. I took whatever fallout came my way when the “N” word story came out, because I realized that the Lord had a larger plan for me. He knew I could weather the storm, which in turn gave me the faith to endure through the months I spent making amends.
Instead of dwelling on my fears of losing everything, I chose to focus on moving forward. Tony Robbins taught me that wherever you place your focus becomes your reality. I was determined to place my focus on seeing the good that could come from this experience. I put myself in a positive state of mind and began acting on every opportunity that came my way to give back, until I no longer felt it was an obligation but rather a privilege.
We’ve all made mistakes and I owned up to mine like a man. I wish this event had never happened, but it did. I thought I had quit making bad mistakes, but I suppose as long as you’re alive, blunders will happen. The only thing I could do from this point on was to forgive myself so others would do the same. To do that, I needed to make some very big changes in my life. I wasn’t going to hide away or wish for some type of time machine to turn back the clock. I had to saddle up and ride the horse like I always did and face whatever lay ahead. I spent the next ten days or so reminding myself that I was an all-around good guy and a slayer of dragons. It was time to get out there and make that happen.
After taping the interviews with Sean Hannity and Larry King, Beth and I stayed in Los Angeles for a few days of rest and relaxation. We did a little shopping and then headed to Las Vegas to meet some friends for dinner. I was really looking forward to a fun night out. I handed my credit card to our server to pay for the bill. She came back to the table and politely asked if I had another form of payment since the card I gave her was coming up with a negative response.
I wanted to die on the spot from embarrassment. My card was declined…in front of several celebrity friends. I handed over another card, hoping that one would be approved. Thank God, it was.
When I left the restaurant, I called the bank that had issued the declined card to see what was wrong. It was our local bank in Hawaii, which we had done a lot of business with over the years. We had at least thirteen separate accounts with this bank, including our business, personal, and merchant accounts, which meant we put all of our eggs in that one financial basket.
There was a lot of street noise as I stood outside the restaurant making my call. The bank manager was having a hard time hearing me. On my third attempt to ask him what the problem was, I had to raise my voice so he could hear me.
“I’ve got a lot of money in your bank and I will take my business elsewhere if you don’t fix this problem right now!”
“Mr. Chapman,” he said. “Please quit yelling at me.” I wasn’t yelling out of anger so much as pure frustration.
Unbeknownst to me, days before the “N” word story hit, the same bank had given Tucker a loan to buy a brand-new truck. At the time, he had no credit and no job. Tucker used my name, relationship, and the few thousand dollars he’d been paid for selling the tape to finagle the loan. Unaware of the storm that was brewing, Tucker talked them into extending him the credit he needed to buy his truck because we had such a strong and long-term financial relationship with the bank. When Beth and I got wind of this shortly after the story broke, we called the bank to let them know we weren’t