Remembering Zig Ziglar

Three days ago on Wednesday, November 28, motivational speaker, author, and businessman Zig Ziglar died at the age of 86 due to complications from pneumonia.

Zig (who was born with the name Hilary Hinton Ziglar) was a man who was a paragon of authenticity and integrity. His personal assistant Jay Hellwig said that Zig was “the same guy behind the closed doors as he was preparing for his presentations to thousands of people that he was when we were sitting at the kitchen table and he was reading the newspaper.” He was a man who mentored or inspired captains of industry and leaders of governments.

He was also living proof that it is possible to be open about your faith in a secular world and still be successful. (He actually didn’t become a Christian until he was 45. I had always thought he was born and raised with that faith.) Whenever I hear people make the comment, “Well, you should never mix business and religion,” I think of Zig. Whenever I get an email from someone who says, “Ron, I love your podcast, but every now and then you ask guests about their faith, and I don’t think you should do that.” I think about Zig. Whenever I’m faced with whether or not I should take a job for the money, even if doing the work might go against my personal convictions, I think about Zig.

I think regardless of what your personal convictions, Zig was a man who could inspire you and give you strategies and a course for success, in life and in business. Take a few minutes to watch this video and see if you have the strength to take his advice and change your attitude in life.

Some of my favorite Zig quotes:

• “If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”
• “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.”
• “Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”
• “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
• “When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
• “Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”
• “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
• “If you go out looking for friends, you’re going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
• “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
• “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”
• “Failure is an event not a person.”
• “Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there.”
• “Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success.”

Rest in peace Mr. Ziglar.