
The immortal Zig Ziglar
I work in civil engineering, and have been involved in land surveying and engineering since 1984. The first few years were pure surveying, and it was damned hard work, particularly in the South Carolina summers. Without going deep into it, suffice to say after a few years, I became disheartened with what I viewed as a lack of upward-movement potential. So, I quit, stone cold. A friend of mine that ran a temp employment agency told me I could very likely have a successful career doing sales, so I took a shot at that. The next couple years found me employed at a few different companies, selling computers, then copiers and fax machines, and finally, office telephone systems. My success at all that isn’t the point. One of the sales classes I attended during that time is.
The company where I sold computers had enough on the ball to provide sales and motivational courses for their salesmen. Typically, they were brought in as VHS movies, and we watched them on the projector in the conference room. One of these courses was a motivational speech by Hilary Hinton Ziglar. Oh, wait. You’ll not recognize that name. You might know his common name – Zig Ziglar. If you don’t, just know that he’s one of the most sought after motivational speakers in history. Lemme tell ya, that man could convince an eskimo to buy ice by the truck load.
Zig’s thing isn’t about earning money, or owning boats and planes, or having the biggest house on the block.
It’s about attitude. Hard work. Being the best person, husband, father, student, employee, citizen, club member, and neighbor that you can possibly be. Just go out there, hell bent for leather, keep your chin up, plow through the bad days, rejoice in the good ones, sing, dance, and laugh. And let the chips fall as they may. Because, in the end, the only thing that can stop any of us is death. Other than that, if you don’t quit…never, ever quit, and keep a winning attitude, you WILL succeed.
Ol’ Zig has a wheelbarrow full of quotes for which he is famous, but one in particular has stuck with me, over the years. It’s very simple, and when it comes right down to it, it’s all you have to do in order to succeed:
“To get everything you need, just give enough other people what they need.”
Simple, right? Well, maybe not. There can be arguments brought forth that just because you give your boss all he needs, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be the one who gets the VP position. For that matter, being the most involved member of the garden club isn’t an assurance that you’ll be elected president this spring. That’s not the point, nor what the little ditty up there says.
What that quote does say is this. Give…then give some more. And when you’re done, do a little more. The gains you make will be remarkable – and not only material. Even if you don’t get that position, or the corner office, that boss will be looking at you with a new look in his eye. And n the end, you will be a success, because it does work. And ya know what else comes with that whole giving thing? You’ll have become a good person. And don’t tell me I sound like a Boy Scout. Take a look at the evening news tonight and then try to tell me we don’t need a few more plain good folks hanging around. I dare you.
Life is a dance…now, let’s start the music 🙂
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