Participants: Ashley Cobb, Karen Thomas
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000016
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00:31 Welcome to another edition of Issues and Answers.
00:33 Today our guest is Ashley Cobb. 00:35 He is a private investigator in 00:37 New York City and a much sought after motivational speaker and 00:40 we'll be talking with him about his detective cases as well as 00:43 his motivational talks. He has been featured recently in a 00:47 magazine Sharing Ideas which goes all over the United States 00:50 to motivational speakers. In addition, he has produced an 00:54 audio cassette entitled The Secret of Success Is the Union 00:58 of Divine Power with Human Effort. He also has a news 01:03 letter entitled He Is My Brother which because of him 01:08 I can be all God wants me to be. Very motivational news 01:13 letter. We'd like to welcome Ashley Cobb to our program today 01:16 Thank you for coming and joining us again Ashley. Thank you, 01:20 glad to be here. It's a real treat to have you. Yes thank you 01:25 So now tell me about your work as a private investigator for 25 01:30 years, 9600 cases, 98% success rate and you're a motivational 01:35 speaker. Well see Karen, I see you love 01:37 to talk about detective work. 01:39 Yes, it's intriguing. 01:40 It's exciting to me. Well I'll 01:43 tell you some more about me work as a private investigator, 01:47 but I want you to understand, I'm a Christian private 01:50 investigator. So my success rate has a tendency to be more 01:55 successful because I put the Creator in front and say I don't 02:00 know anything unless you lead me. As I stated before that God 02:05 knows the beginning to the end, so it's necessary for any 02:10 business person, whatever profession or business that they 02:15 are in, to call upon the Creator and say look, you lead me. 02:20 If you lead me I will not go wrong but if I lead myself I 02:25 have a tendency of relaxing, you know, depending on my wisdom and 02:31 many times, from experience, I've fallen down and I realize 02:35 that it's necessary to call upon the Creator when you're doing 02:40 anything. One of my cases I like to talk about that recently 02:45 occurred; one Friday evening as I was preparing to do an 02:51 investigation at a particular hospital and it was around 2 02:57 o'clock and the sun was setting late. It's my practice to be 03:02 home before the sun goes down on Friday because I worship on 03:08 Sabbath and it is my duty to be there. But it was 2 o'clock and 03:13 my staff and I were working on the case and we recognized 03:18 that maybe I could do this investigation and I'd have time 03:22 to come back and complete it and go home before the sun went down 03:29 Karen it's not my routine to travel down this particular 03:34 route and I'll tell you about that to show why I didn't 03:39 particularly care to travel this particular street. So I got in 03:44 the car and I started driving down the street in Brooklyn and 03:49 as I was driving I noticed that two strong men, very healthy. 03:54 I don't know, the men these days look healthy like they're 03:59 following all the health rules. And I saw this other man 04:02 standing against the fence. It seemed like they had him 04:07 pinned in and his eyes and body language spoke that I'm in 04:12 trouble; I need someone to help me. I drove about 20 yards away 04:16 and then I jammed on the brakes and backed up and I looked and I 04:20 realized that they were threatening him. So immediately 04:22 I jumped out and I pulled my ID and they said what are you, a 04:26 cop? I said, I'm a private investigator. What are you 04:29 doing. Well he broke into our van and stole a television out 04:34 and if you don't do something we're going to do harm to him. 04:38 You know what the harm was okay? He was frightened and he 04:42 said I didn't do anything. Now this individual appeared that 04:46 he was intoxicated with drugs and things. I had my cell phone. 04:50 I said, you are not the police, so let me call the police. Let 04:53 them do the job. So during the time that I was calling the 04:58 police we were standing there waiting for the police to come. 05:02 I guess their anger just overran them and they started beating 05:06 on him. I said, stop, you can't do this. So they stopped and 05:10 the poor fellow fell to the ground bleeding. The police and 05:14 the ambulance arrived about five minutes later. The police 05:18 talked to the guys as to what happened. They told him that 05:21 he'd broken into the van. It appeared that they weren't 05:25 paying the injured person any attention. I guess they felt 05:29 well you broke in the van and you got what you deserved. 05:32 I was persistent that he needed to go to the hospital. Well they 05:36 were going to take him to the hospital but there seemed there 05:39 wasn't a lot of speedy effort to do it. So they finally put him 05:44 in the ambulance and took him to the hospital. But after that 05:48 I went to the hospital and did my investigation and came back. 05:53 My heart was troubled. It said why did you let them beat him 05:57 up? Why didn't you stop it? Well I said I tried but there 06:01 were too many. But my mind said you could have done much more. 06:06 The question kept spinning around in my mind all that 06:13 Friday night. I talked about it and I told my wife. she said you 06:17 know I felt as a private investigator it was my duty to 06:21 uphold the law and prevent crimes. She said well you did 06:26 what you could. Later that night I got up out of my bed and I 06:32 drove to the precinct. You see when you're dedicated to do 06:37 something, Karen, you dedicate whatever it is. You put all 06:40 yourself in it and that's the way I am. I like to put whatever 06:44 I do and give 110% to what I'm doing. So I drove to the 06:48 precinct and I talked to a police officer. He was feeling 06:52 good, he was nice, he was friendly. I said sir I came here 06:56 there was an incident today around 2:30 that a man was 06:59 beaten up in front of this building and so I would like to 07:02 know his name. So he said okay hold on just a moment. He went 07:05 back to the back and came back. He said well they took him to 07:08 this hospital and this is his name. So immediately I realized 07:13 okay he didn't die. So I went back home and then went to bed. 07:17 The next morning I prayed for the young man and then I went 07:22 to church and I was out of church around 1:30. 07:24 Karen, usually on Sabbath after church I'm racing for the table. 07:28 I want to eat you know. A great dinner. Yes a great dinner that 07:33 my wife has prepared. But that particular Sabbath was just a 07:39 different day. My soul, just my inner part of me felt that I had 07:44 failed someone. So I went to the hospital. I went upstairs 07:51 and I asked the clerk what floor this particular person was in. 07:56 They said, up on the fifth floor So as I went up I approached 08:02 this young man, unshaved and oh he just looked like a human, 08:08 just a human not being taken care of. He was intoxicated with 08:14 drugs, but he has sobered up some. As I walked to him I felt 08:20 that he figured that I came to harm him. I assured him, I said 08:26 I'm the man that saved you yesterday. He said, Oh yeah. 08:32 I identified myself; I'm Ashley, God sent me to you. You have a 08:40 problem. You need to get off drugs and he said Mr. Ashley, 08:44 I prayed to God two weeks ago that if he would help me I would 08:49 do it. I said, do you want help? He said, yes I want help. 08:53 But I want to tell you when they took me to the hospital 08:58 yesterday, after a few hours somebody came in the emergency 09:02 room where I was and they threatened me. They said as soon 09:05 as I get out of the hospital that they are going to kill me. 09:09 I'm frightened that the hospital is going to dump me out as soon 09:13 as I get well. His jaw was broken and he was frightened. 09:17 I said, who were the people. He said the same people that I 09:21 broke in the van. I said, you can understand that they are 09:24 angry and in New York City breaking in people's cars and 09:28 vans is suicide. Man, you got to be crazy to do that. 09:32 I understand that drugs drove you to do this. He said, yes it 09:37 did. So I went over to the nurse and asked him what protection 09:42 he was giving this young man. They felt he's not so much. 09:46 They didn't say it but their body language told me that they 09:50 didn't care. I moved up closely and I kind of whispered in a 09:54 nice voice and I said, how would you like to be on the 6 o'clock 09:57 news today? She looked at me. I said someone if comes in to 10:03 harm this person in your care then you're going to be a 10:08 popular person this evening. They were scared. Who are you, 10:12 who are you, who hired you? I said well I am his protector. 10:17 Let me see the hospital administration. You can 10:20 remember seeing the important people come running down. 10:22 They said, sir, what can we do? What can we do? And I told them 10:25 the story. They posted guards downstairs. Nobody could get 10:29 upstairs, et cetera. I said who are his parents. So we went and 10:33 talked to him. The think about it, Karen, this young man told 10:38 me that his mother was a nurse. It was shocking. She didn't work 10:42 but a few blocks from where I attend church. So we got her on 10:46 the phone and told her that the son had been assaulted and she 10:50 needed to come to the hospital. So she thanked me for saving his 10:56 life. The next day she came down and at that time I called Cliff 11:01 and Freddie Harris. O yes, they do that drug 11:04 program, Drugs Close to Home. Yes. You know Cliff. Cliff is 11:08 energetic. He said, Ashley, I know you and I are friends but 11:12 you know from New York. You know how the New Yorkers are. I said 11:15 look come on Cliff, he's okay. I understand. He said, well I 11:19 don't know, but I'll just do that for you. And I said well 11:22 how come? He said, I need to talk to him. And knowing Cliff, 11:25 Cliff said well I was a former drug addict, so you know they 11:28 can lie, Ashley. You see you can't talk about that part. 11:31 You're a private investigator and I am an entrepreneur and 11:35 dealing with drug addicts. So he talked to him. He went through 11:38 the young man, he really put him on the carpet. I felt for the 11:41 young man. He looked at him and he said, now you know we're 11:45 liars, we can lie. You can jive actually but you can't jive me. 11:48 So the guy assured him that he wanted help. So I said well 11:51 Cliff if he wants help, I'll tell you what, I'll purchase 11:54 him a ticket. And Cliff said well now you're not going to 11:57 fly him man, you put him on a Greyhound bus and let him come. 12:01 I said, Well I'm not driving him to L.A. to pick him up. That 12:05 traffic is too heavy. And so okay. So Cliff was very careful. 12:10 He's experienced. So three weeks later we purchased some clothes 12:15 and gave him money for lunch and we took him to the bus station. 12:19 See the bus station in New York City is large as a small city. 12:24 So one mind said well leave him here man and go, but one mind 12:27 said you stay and make sure that he gets on the bus. So I 12:30 stayed and made sure that he got on the bus and I saw the bus 12:34 drive off and I walked away. I said now he's headed to 12:38 California to Cliff and Freddie Harris and I know they will help 12:43 him. As the evil one and darkness would have it to be, 12:54 I received a call the next day before this young man arrived 12:57 and it was Cliff on the phone. Cliff said, well Ashley why 13:01 didn't you tell me that the law is looking for this man, he 13:04 doesn't do this and he does that. I said, Cliff don't you 13:07 understand the evil one and darkness? You're not fighting 13:10 against flesh and blood; you're fighting with higher powers. 13:14 Sure they're going to say that. It appears that his brother had 13:17 called and said that he wasn't any good or anything. Wasn't 13:21 that helpful? We felt that the brother was just envious because 13:23 he didn't have it, you know. I said don't worry. He said okay 13:26 I'll give it a try. So this young man arrived and Cliff 13:30 cleaned him up and put him in his program. Cliff has a great 13:35 program, no messing around. They put him in the program and 13:39 assigned him to some of their supervisors and et cetera. 13:43 Karen, this young man began to grow. He began to grow. 13:48 He became hungry for the word of the Lord and he would write 13:51 me a letter. One of the letters I shall never forget, I don't 13:54 have time to show you that letter, he said Dear Mr. Cobb. 13:57 Thank you for coming and saving me. You didn't know me, you 14:00 didn't have to do it. But I am going to make a change. 14:04 God has called me. So it had been a year since that happened. 14:08 I stay in contact with him. The young man has joined the church 14:13 and he's baptized and he's an ordained deacon. So Cliff 14:17 called me one day and he said the other day about a week ago 14:21 and he said Ashley we want to help him get a driver's license. 14:24 The guy is so good. And I said, well Cliff why don't you let him 14:27 come back to New York. No, no, man, I'm frightened he might go 14:30 back. I said, Cliff don't tell me you figure I'm going to 14:34 steal him for an employee. But I still love you for that. Well 14:38 he told me well I am thinking about making him supervisor on 14:42 my program. And I said, young man, do you hear what your boss 14:46 is saying? That's a promotion. I said well we'll see what we 14:49 can do about his driver's license in New York. So I was 14:52 a little slow. Cliff called me early Sunday morning around 14:56 8 o'clock and it was around 5 o'clock in L.A. in California. 14:59 And I said what are you doing calling me? Now Ashley you're 15:02 moving too slow over there. Now we need a license, why don't 15:04 you do it? I said okay I'm going to work on it Cliff, so give me 15:07 the information again. I'm sorry So in the next two days Cliff 15:10 called me and he was praising God. He said, Ashley, God is 15:14 great, God is great! Now I had to calm down and wait till all 15:18 the excitement went down. Cliff is a very energetic, motivated 15:22 person himself who has succeeded in overcoming drugs and made a 15:26 good example of what God can do for you if you let God help you. 15:30 He said, this young man and I went down to the motor vehicle 15:35 department and they checked the computer and they said Vincent 15:40 there's nothing on your record saying that you owe tickets, so 15:43 you can apply for your license. So the young man said nothing? 15:46 They said well do you want us to put something up there? Just 15:51 apply for your license. Cliff was so excited. He said, well 15:54 Ashley, God is working with him. He is going to be my next 15:57 manager. I want to say this, Karen. That young man has grown. 16:01 I feel great about it. I just feel great. My outreach 16:06 organization is called HIMB, the work that I used there, 16:11 excuse the English, it may not be in line, he ain't heavy, he 16:16 is my brother. My wife and I called it, she looked it up and 16:21 saw it's a comporter ministry, not colporteur, but comporter 16:26 ministry. We checked it out. That means that something 16:28 existing we help them. So we helped this young man along the 16:33 way. That is my greatest point seeing this young man. So this 16:37 year I'm supposed to go out and I'm supposed to do one of my 16:41 favorite motivational speeches out there. So he's going to be 16:44 sitting there and he's going to say well Mr. Ashley, the private 16:48 investigator is one of the links that God used to help me to come 16:52 back to myself. He's doing great Karen; he's doing great. In fact 16:56 they wrote two articles about him. So we won't call his name 17:00 in here, maybe he wouldn't want me to do it, but maybe one day 17:03 I can be excused if Cliff's not listening to the program, I can 17:06 steal him from California and bring him to New York and let 17:10 him sit here and tell you what happened. How God used an 17:14 individual to bring him to God. As I look at that I see when 17:20 man has fallen from grace to destruction the angels themself 17:26 ask God could they come and pay the price for man. But God in 17:30 his great wisdom knew that they weren't capable of doing it. 17:34 God could have easily let the angels preach this gospel. 17:38 They would do much better than you and I because sometimes as 17:42 humans we get lazy along the way, we give up and we start 17:45 over. But God wanted humanity to be involved. So you get that? 17:50 He used this private investigator who comes short on 17:53 many goals that God has set for me, he used me to point another 17:59 individual to him. In that great day, we hope to see this young 18:03 man with you and everyone that's watching this program to stand 18:08 on the sea of glass and say we made it; thank God! 18:12 As the motto we sing and Dr. Martin Luther King, Free at last 18:16 thank God, free at last! That will be great, that will be the 18:21 final when we say free at last! Thank God Almighty! Free at 18:25 last! We hope to see this young man and many others that watch 18:29 this program. Let humanity work with humanity. There is no 18:33 better think that a human being can do for another one. As our 18:37 pride says, it takes humans to help humans. We were born for 18:42 one purpose; that's to serve each other. No man is an island. 18:46 That is just incredible. Now 18:49 you're also the president of the 18:51 Atlantic Union chapter of the 18:53 Adventist Laymen's Services and Industry Organization. 18:56 Isn't that what this is about? 18:58 Yes Karen. We call it for short ASI. That's what we're about. 19:05 We talk about witnessing in the work place. As I privately say 19:12 it that it is our responsibility to tell everybody that we come 19:19 in contact with about Jesus Christ and his saving power. 19:24 It's more than just about being a good entrepreneur, it's more 19:31 than that. God is the great I AM He is the great entrepreneur and 19:36 when we witness to others then we are doing what he put us on 19:43 this earth to do. When we help others as I say, when I became 19:49 involved with ASI, I thought it was a regular convention. 19:52 When you attend a convention it's to pass business cards. 19:57 This is what usually is done. After I found that was not 20:01 what it was about, I began to learn. I realized this is why 20:05 God had me to attend these sessions so many times so I 20:09 would be familiar with what he wanted me to do. I had no idea 20:14 that one day I would become the ASI president for the Atlantic 20:18 Union Conference. But God, being the one that knows the beginning 20:22 to the end knew what he had designated for me. So during 20:26 that time they did it different when we had out convention. 20:31 They would talk about witnessing in the work place and finding 20:35 new ways how to witness to others, how to bless others 20:39 and I began to learn little by little and pretty soon I 20:43 recognized when God blesses us he does it in a different way. 20:49 See, God's mathematics is totally different from my 20:52 mathematics. As I know 2 and 2 is 4; that's a fact to me. 20:56 but in God's mathematics he can multiply 2 and 2 may mean 8, 16, 21:01 32. So when we are witnessing to others and pointing them to 21:07 the creator then God opens the windows up and pours out a 21:11 blessing that we don't have room enough to receive it 21:15 providing we follow in all his requirements keeping his 21:19 commandments. This is what it's about and that's what I'm about. 21:23 Well it sounds to me from just listening to your tapes and some 21:26 of the things that you've been talking about as a professional 21:30 motivational speaker, something that you do in a volunteer 21:33 capacity and sometimes as well as coming into business groups 21:37 and helping them, you've talked a little bit about how you have 21:40 made Christ the center of your life and how you've incorporated 21:44 that into your business. You've also talked about it's important 21:47 to know yourself and to know Christ, to let God come into 21:51 your heart. Now I also want to ask you something. For that 21:55 person who's interested in having you come to their work 21:58 place; perhaps it's not a Christian work place, a 22:03 Christian setting but they'd like to have you talk to their 22:07 workers. What would you tell them about how they could 22:09 develop their gifts as employees? 22:10 Okay, that's easy, you know. We don't only do motivational 22:16 speeches to Christians. I do motivational speeches to every 22:21 one across the board because I feel that everybody is God's 22:27 people. Now in the work place a business owner or a manager may 22:32 need to have his employees motivated, may need his managers 22:38 need his executives motivated. Sometimes in life we continue 22:42 to do the same thing in the same manner until it becomes routine 22:47 and we lose the energy. It is my duty to come in and show them 22:52 which way that they can achieve in this particular department; 22:56 how they can overcome this obstacle in life. So when we 23:01 look at something at a different angle it can work out because 23:06 no one is right, no one person has all the answers. So I 23:10 usually motivate the people that I speak to. Pick yourself up by 23:16 the boot strap and pull yourself up. Don't let anybody turn you 23:21 around. You're great and you have a God that says you're 23:25 great. Live all that you can in this life. Live your dream and 23:30 live all that you can. When you live that live on because 23:34 there's much more to live. 23:35 That's wonderful. Well I tell you, in looking at your business 23:40 profile I noticed that you have incorporated that very principle 23:44 in your own company by giving your secretary a very special 23:48 title that I know would make her feel wonderful, Secretary 2000. 23:53 Yes, let me talk about that. I said that one day and I was 23:58 coming to the new millennium, 2000, and recognized that 24:02 I needed to motivate the office staff. You know I go all over 24:07 the country motivating everybody else. Sometime my own are not 24:12 taken care of. But I'm a different type of employer. 24:20 I talk to my people, I make little jokes with them. If they 24:24 come in the office looking down I say look it's sad enough to 24:27 be here, sometime I don't want to be here, but since we have to 24:31 be among each other, put a smile on your face. What can I do for 24:34 you today. I'll tell you what, lunch is on me today and we 24:38 both cheer up. So we talked about secretary 2000, they were 24:41 looking at me and said what do you mean about that. I said, 24:43 well I'm giving you a different title. You know we're going into 24:47 the new millennium and we want to come in and we want to pick 24:52 ourselves up by our boot straps. Is there anything I can do to 24:56 make your life easy while you're working for me. I know it's 25:00 always a raise and I always know if anything I can say to set 25:05 things in priorities because many times the boss is wrong. 25:08 Bosses are wrong, you know they're not right all the time. 25:12 You can get a lot of good information from your employees 25:16 and I make it my business to talk, to listen to what my 25:19 employees have to say. So I gave them that title. I say you 25:23 always can talk to me. Just tell me how you feel. Just say time 25:27 out, I want to talk to you. I can't fire you for that because 25:30 as long as you're on company time I won't fire you for that. 25:33 Just tell me how you feel. Then I'll know how I should do it. 25:36 So we have a good working relationship 25:38 I tell you Ashley, we're nearing the end of our program but 25:42 before we go I'd like for you to look into this camera over here 25:44 and I want you to talk to that person who is running their 25:49 company who may be torn between the bottom line as well as 25:53 having their employees feel happy about working where they 25:56 are and then the idea which you've introduced today of 26:00 incorporating Christ and doing unto others. What would you say 26:04 to that person? Well, Karen, I will say to that 26:06 person, it could be a man or woman, who owns a business or 26:10 is having people working for them, there are times that it 26:15 seems on the bottom line that the boss and the employees don't 26:20 see eye to eye. I would say to the employer, first you sit down 26:25 and you think about what can make your employees happy. 26:28 Now in order to have a successful business you must 26:31 have satisfied employees. You must pay them a fair salary, 26:36 you must listen to them because we have problems and they can 26:41 give good information that will cause a company to grow. 26:46 Most successful companies are not because the boss builds it 26:49 by himself. There is a group of individuals around him giving 26:54 him advice and he spearheads it up and he takes that advice. 26:58 Now I would say to that person first incorporate God into your 27:03 plans. Determine to live all you can. If you have a business and 27:08 that business may not be progressing as you think it 27:11 should, once you incorporate Christ in your plans and you 27:16 look for different methods and avenues. Get as much information 27:21 from people that know what you are manufacturing or what 27:25 services that your selling. A lot of your information comes 27:29 from your secretary or the warehouse person, the fellow 27:34 that may sleep the floor for you. Listen to that and you can 27:38 be a success along with God. 27:40 Well thank you so much for sharing your ideas today and 27:44 thank you for coming into the program. For our viewers, we 27:48 would like to hear from you. Please call that 800 number. 27:51 There is someone who is willing to pray with you. 27:53 If you're a business owner and would like to have Ashley come 27:56 to your company, please call that 800 number. 27:59 Until next time may God bless you. We look forward to seeing 28:02 you again on Issues and Answers. |
Revised 2014-12-17