ZIG ZIGLAR MOTIVATION How to Get What You Want audio only

At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce to you your next featured speaker. He hails from Dallas, Texas. He is a man who, we have a Dallas, Texas resident here. Welcome, sir. Two of them. Okay.

Your next speaker is a man who not only professes the greatness of individuals but has experienced the concept of greatness. He was number one in a sales force of over three thousand salespeople. He was also number two in a sales force of over seven thousand salespeople. He's a man who has worked very hard for the beliefs and convictions he possesses. I'm delighted to say that he is the author of the very successful and popular book, "See You at the Top," which is now in its ninth printing and has sold over 143,000 copies in its brief existence. I'm also delighted to say that this book, and the philosophy behind this book, is now being taught to the young people in the schools throughout America and many communities. Zig Ziglar, ladies and gentlemen, is making an impact. A great man who believes that it's your aptitude, not just your attitude, that always determines your ultimate altitude. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please join me in welcoming my friend and yours, Mr. Zig Ziglar?

Thank you. Thank you. Just for a moment, let's play a game. Let's pretend that your telephone rings tomorrow morning and the voice on the other end says, "John, I've got some marvelous news for you. We've just won a trip to Acapulco. They're going to be four of us that can go. There are only two of us, my wife and myself. We leave at exactly 8:45. We're going to stay on the beach four days. We will live in a millionaire's villa. We will have everything at our beck and call. We will live the life of luxury for four full days." Now, remember, John, we leave tomorrow morning at 8:45. My only question is, can you be ready to go at 8:45?

May I see the hands of those who could, in fact, respond and say, "Yes, I could go"? Just for a moment, let's continue the game by saying you got the telephone call, you accept it. Then all of a sudden, it dawns on you, "Hey, I've got some things to do." As a matter of fact, I've got to do this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And as a matter of fact, you turn to your wife and say, "Honey, I just don't know whether or not we can make it or not." She says, "Now, hold the phone, John." She whips out a sheet of paper. She says, "Now, what's the first thing we got to do? What's the second thing? What's the third thing? What's the fourth thing? What's the fifth thing?" How many of you, honest to goodness, believe that during the next 24 hours, you could get more done than you normally get accomplished in three, four, five, six days? Would you hold up your hands, please?

Here's my question: Why don't you go to Acapulco tomorrow, every day of your life? Why don't you, in your own mind, say, "Tomorrow, I go to Acapulco if I get this done today"? Do you realize that if you were to do that and schedule it and lay it out, that it would be just a matter of weeks before you could, in fact, go to Acapulco at any time that you wanted to, or anywhere else you wanted to go?

I was coming in on the plane yesterday, which is generally the way I fly, and I was sitting next to an old boy. And I couldn't help but notice he had his wedding band on this finger. Now, I looked at him for a moment. I said, "Friend, you got your wedding band on the wrong finger." He said, "Yeah, I married the wrong woman." I don't know whether he did or not, but I am completely persuaded that most people have the erroneous idea about what it takes to be successful, and then about what success is, and about what life is. And I would like to, during these next few minutes, climb down right inside of your mind. I'd like to climb down in your emotions. I'm going to motivate you. I'm going to say some things to you that are going to have an impact, and you will, in fact, not be the same when you get up from your seats at the end of this evening.

On your trip to Acapulco, there were several things involved. First of all, you had a very specific goal. Second, you had a time limit. And third, you listed the obstacles, the things you had to do in order to get the trip to Acapulco. I'm going to talk to you tonight about goals. There are four basic reasons why people do not have goals. Number one, they have not been sold. Now, friends, I'm flat going to sell you on why you gotta have them. I didn't say I wanted to, I didn't say I was going to try to, didn't say I hope to. I flat said, I'm going to sell you on why you must have them.

The second reason a lot of people don't have goals is they do not know how to set those goals. I'm going to give you a basic formula for setting those goals that will be precise if you will follow it. The third reason a lot of people do not have goals is they have fear. You see, there's a certain amount of risk involved when you say, "This, I'm going to do." Even if you do not tell anyone else, when you set a goal, there's a certain amount of risk involved. Then the fourth reason a lot of people do not have goals is because they have a poor self-image. If you do not think you deserve success, if you do not think you deserve a bigger home, to be a million-dollar producer, to have an outstanding mate, or beautiful, well-disciplined children who are productive, if you don't think you deserve them, then you'll do things that will keep you from getting them.

Let's look at number one. Let's sell you on the idea of having goals. Are they important? At Yale University, in 1953, they did a study of the graduating seniors. They discovered that of the graduating seniors, only three percent of them had definite, predetermined, written-down goals. Twenty years later, they did another survey of those seniors who had graduated. They discovered that the three percent who had committed their goals to paper had accomplished more than the 97 percent who had not written them down. What about you personally? Have you got your goals laid out? Are you a meaningful specific, or are you a wandering generality? Are goals necessary? I'm going to say emphatically, yes. Can you imagine the Chairman of the Board, General Motors, and somebody comes to him and says, "How did you get to be Chairman of the Board, General Motors?" Do you really believe he said, "Well, I, I just showed up for work and they started promoting men. First thing here, you know, here I am, Chairman of the Board, General Motors"? No, I think you know that that is not the way that it happened.

What about you? Are you a wandering generality, or are you a meaningful specific? How many of you are in the world of selling? Would you mind holding up your hands, please? One of the major problems we have in the world of selling, a lot of times, the salesperson is out selling, and although they're out there physically, what they're saying mentally is, "I need to be home with the family." And then when they're home with the family physically, they're saying mentally, "I ought to be out in the field selling." And so when they're out in the field, they're really back at home, and when they're back at home, they're really out in the field, and they ain't never know where. People today complain of lack of time. It's not lack of time that's the problem. It's the lack of direction. Are you a wandering generality, or are you a meaningful specific?

Howard Hill was part of the greatest archer who ever lived. He killed a Cape buffalo with a bow and arrow. He killed a Bengal tiger with a bow and arrow. He won 281 consecutive tournaments. He was never beaten in competition. As a youngster, I have seen Howard Hill in newsreels from 50 feet draw, dead aim, and split the center of that bull's-eye perfectly in the center. And yet, he could take the next arrow and literally split the first one. An amazing demonstration of skill. And yet, I'm going to look at you dead center and say to you, "I could spend 20 minutes with you, and at the end of that 20 minutes, Dick, I could have any man in this audience, or any woman in this audience, hitting the bull's-eye more consistently than Howard Hill could have on the best day he ever had, provided we blindfolded Howard Hill and turned him around so he would not know which direction he was facing." And you, rather obviously, laugh and say, "Ziglar, that's silly. Of course, how could a man hit a target he could not see?" That's a pretty good question. Here's another one: How can you hit a target you do not have? Have you got one? Are you a wandering generality, or are you a meaningful specific?

Are you going to work tomorrow because that's what you did yesterday? If that's the reason you're going tomorrow, you won't be as good tomorrow as you were yesterday, because you're two days older and no closer to the goal you do not have. You've got to have those goals. A lot of people don't have goals because of fear. I want to skip one and talk about this one just for a moment. I'll be leaving on an airplane tomorrow for Toledo, Ohio. Now, I got sense enough to know that some of those airplanes are coming down faster than they're going up. It's dangerous for that plane to fly. You see in the newspapers where the ships leave the harbor and you see where some of them sink. It's dangerous for the ship to be on the ocean. You read where people lease their homes and the, let's see, the people who've rented the house, they tear it up. It's dangerous to let somebody move into your house. And yet, the engineers tell me that it's more dangerous for that plane to stay on the ground than it will rust out faster than it will wear out up into the heavens. They tell me that that ship will collect more barnacles in the harbor and become unseaworthy faster than it will sailing the high seas. And they tell me that that if that house stays empty, that it will deteriorate faster than if you do not have someone living in that house. Besides, planes are built for flying, ships are built for sailing, houses are built for living. And man, too, was built for purpose. He was designed for accomplishment. He's engineered for success. He's endowed with the seeds of greatness. And the greatest danger we as human beings have is when we do not do anything at all.

Stop a hundred young men, age 25, on any street, U.S.A. Follow them until they're 65 years old. And of those who are still living, you will discover that only five of them have succeeded financially. It's almost as if they had set out in life to fail. But I also believe one of the reasons is most people don't understand this thing called money. See, I think it's all right to have money as one of your goals. Occasionally, I speak to people and they say, "Well, I don't want to make a lot of money." You know, I believe a man or a woman that would say that would lie about other things too. A lot of people don't have it because they don't understand it. They talk about cold, hard cash, and it's neither cold nor hard. It's soft and warm, feels good, beautifully colored. Not once is that redhead of mine over here ever said to me, "Wait a minute, honey, I gotta go change clothes 'cause what I'm wearing won't go with what you're carrying." As a matter of fact, it goes beautifully with it. Every once in a while, I'll have some of my Christian friends, they'll adjust their halos and say, "Zig, how do you reconcile all of that talk about money with Christianity?" And I say, "It's easy. I believe God made the diamonds for His crowd, not Satan's bunch." I read my Bible and it tells me Jacob was a millionaire, Moses was a millionaire, Solomon, the richest man who ever lived. And old Job wouldn't have qualified for the food stamp program, if you know what I mean. No, money is all right. As a matter of fact, you cannot get too much money unless the money gets you. You know, Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes that he who seeks silver will never be satisfied with silver. Now, if money becomes your god, you got a problem. You'll never have enough. We know that's true because in the last two years, five billionaires have died down in Dallas. Somebody said, "I wonder how much money Howard Hughes really left." And somebody else said, "He left it all." So if anybody asks you how much you're going to leave, say, "Same as Howard Hughes." You'll be telling the truth.

Now, having said all of that, let me see if I can tie it back together. I believe, and I make this statement 40 times in my book, that you can get everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. For example, if you're a salesman or saleslady, if you're selling a product that solves a problem, then you're helping someone else get what they want, which is the solution to the problem. So you get what you want and what you deserve. If you're in management, and your productivity and the productivity of your people is important to your income, if you can train, enthuse, inspire, motivate your people to be successful, then your rewards are going to be greater. You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. See, we can get what we want if we can give you some thoughts, or some ideas, or some motivation, or some stimulation. If we can, in fact, leave you something so that when you go home tonight, you will be a better man, or a better woman, or a better boy, or a better girl, then you will be more successful tomorrow. Yes, there's danger in setting goals, but there's infinitely more danger in not setting them.

Then a lot of people do not know really how to set goals. I'd like to share at some length with you on that. When I started writing this book, I started writing this book, and I kind of got excited about it. I put in there some words: "You can go where you want to go, you can do what you want to do, you can be like you want to be." But man, I wrote those words and I said, "Now, Ziglar, that's pretty good." As a matter of fact, I got to talking to myself, which is perfectly all right. It's all right even to answer, uh, but if you ever catch yourself saying "Huh?" to the answer you got, you got a problem. Well, I caught myself with a problem. I, you know, I was saying "Huh?" because where I said, "You can be like you want to be," I looked down and there was a 41-inch waistline and 202 pounds of Ziglar. And the thought occurred to me that one of these days, that I might bump into some of you, and I could just imagine this conversation taking place. I can imagine you saying, "Ziglar, you believe that stuff you write?" And I was gonna say, "Uh-huh." Then I was gonna imagine you saying, "Do you believe all of it?" I was gonna say, "Man, yeah." Then I could imagine you poking your finger in that 41-inch waistline and saying, "Ziglar, do you really believe all of it?" And then I was going to have to say, "Well, you know what's awful? We do take a little literary license every once in a while." But I knew I had to make a decision. I either had to take those words out of there, "You can be like you want to be," or I had to do something about me. Not only that, but my boy was eight years old at the time, and I think every father ought to be able to whip his children until they're at least 12. And the rate I go, and I wasn't even going to be able to catch mine. But the straw that broke the camel's back was when that redhead of mine kept telling me to hold my stomach in, and I already was.

So I went down to Cooper's Clinic. Now, Cooper is the guy who wrote the book "Aerobics." When you see somebody out jogging, you can rest assured that's Kenneth Cooper who had an influence on them. Well, it's a five-and-a-half-hour examination. First thing they did was took two quarts of my blood. Well, it looked like two quarts. They filled so many vials, I thought they were opening a branch of the blood bank right there. Then they dunked me in a tank of water three times, and the purpose was to determine the percentage of body fat that I had. When I got through, they told me that I was 23 and 9/10 percent pure. Lord. Then they put me on a treadmill, and you know, on the treadmill, the longer you can walk, the better your physical condition. And the worst possible condition was horrible. Well, I was determined to get out of horrible into just awful, and I made it by four seconds. When it was all over, the young doctor, Dr. Martin, skinny young doctor, runs the Boston Marathon, does the good things, calls me in, big smile on his face, optimistic, a real PMA advocate, probably reads "Success Unlimited" on top of it. Calls me in with a big old smile. He said, "Mr. Ziglar, we've got marvelous news for you. We run these figures through the computer, and according to our computer, and we know it's right, you, sir, are not overweight." However, he said, "According to the computer, you are exactly five and a half inches too short." And I said, "Well, Doc, that's pretty bad." And he said, "No, actually, you're in remarkably good physical condition for a 66-year-old." And I said, "Doc, I'm 46." He said, "You're in awful shape. So, as a matter of fact, if you were a building, I'd condemn you." And I said, "Well, Doc, what can I do?" And he whipped out a sheet of papers thicker than my book, and by the time he got through telling me what I could do, I was kind of like the little boy who asked his daddy a question, and his daddy said, "Well, son, why don't you just ask your mother?" Little boy said, "Dad, I just didn't want to know that much about it."

I got home and that redhead of mine said, "Honey," and said, "You're going to be out running all over the neighborhood, I suppose?" And I said, "Yep." Well, she said, "If I'm going to have a 46-year-old fat boy running all over the place, I'm going to get you looking as good as they can." So she went down and bought me a fancy running outfit, and I'd already gotten some fancy shoes. Oh, and I did something that was really ugly, but I hadn't read Ann Landers at the time, and I'm going to use that as my excuse, although I really knew better. You know, Ann says that you should not steal pages out of other folks' magazines. Well, there was a page in one of the doctor's magazines advertising Jockey shorts. Now, I don't know if you folks in Minneapolis read the Jockey short ads or not, but if you don't, the next time you see one, you should at least look at the picture. You'll find out in a hurry, they don't put Jockey shorts on fat boys. At least, they don't have a good year. So I hung it up in my bathroom and I said, "Now, there's my hero. That's the way I'm gonna look."

Well, the next morning, that alarm clock sounded off, and I hopped out of bed and put that fancy running outfit on and hit the front door and ran a block. Oh, but the next day, I did lots better. I ran a block and a mailbox. Then the next day, I was a block and two mailboxes. Then a block and three, and a block and four, and a block and five. One day, I ran all the way around the block, came back in, woke the whole family up and said, "Guess what Dad has done?" And one day, then I ran a half a mile. Then one day, I ran a mile. One day, around a mile and a half. One day, I ran two miles. Started doing the sit-ups, only eight the first day, then 10, then 20, then 40, then 80, then 120, then 200. Started doing push-ups, only six the first day, then eight, and 10, then 20, then 30, then 40. Today, I do the GI push-up. That just means you push up in the air and slap your hands while you're in the air. I'll tell you, it's different from the others. That weight started coming down from 202 to 165. The waistline dropped from 41 to 34. Oh, I know a lot of people have said to me, "Yeah, but I bet you were dieting religiously." Which is partially true, because I did quit eating in church. Now, please understand, I am not here to try to talk you onto going on a diet. I'm here to talk to you about goals. As a matter of fact, I talk about it as much as I do because it involves every single principle of goal setting.

First of all, ladies and gentlemen, my credibility was at stake. You see, if I'm going to write in my book, "You can be like you want to be," if I'm going to stand up in front of you and say, "You can be like you want to be," and I come waddling out at 202, there goes credibility. If I get up here and acknowledge Jesus Christ one moment and tell you a dirty joke the next, there is no credibility. See, credibility is a tremendously important thing. That was first. And the second thing that was my goal: You can't reach somebody else's goal. That's the reason I say, don't let me talk you into going on a diet. That's serious business. If you want to lose weight, you start by going to your skinny doctor for a thorough examination. Now, if he's not skinny, swap doctors. See, there's something missing from a credibility point of view when a fat doctor tells you you ought to lose weight. Get you a skinny doctor and a thorough examination. That goal was mine. You cannot reach somebody else's goal.

The third thing about that goal was the fact that it involved a big goal. If you're one for writing down phrases, please write this one down. You see, in order for a goal to be effective, it must affect change. And if it doesn't affect change, then the probability of you reaching the goal are pretty slim. 37 pounds made a difference in me. I run into old friends all the time and they say, "Hey, you've lost some weight." There's a difference. In order for it to be effective, it's got to be big, because it's the big goal that creates excitement. It forces you to reach in and utilize that which is there. And the next thing about the goal, although as a practical matter it was an intermediate goal, I'm going to use it for illustrative purposes as a long-range one. When I wrote this book, I was convinced it would sell. I sent it to three publishers. They were convinced it would not sell. They wrote me back, said, "We don't think it'll sell." Now, when it got to the fourth printing, they wrote me again, said, "Hey, you know, we think that thing's gonna sell." But at first, they said no. I believed that it would. I believed also, ladies and gentlemen, that it would sell. Well, I was enthusiastic about it. I did a lot of work on it. So I decided I was going to go ahead and print the book myself. Now, most authors who print their own book, they generally print a thousand copies, maybe two thousand, in rare cases, five thousand. But I believe the next point about a goal is tremendously important. I believe you've got to have commitment. Now, I made that commitment. I ordered 25,000 copies for that initial printing. Now, can you imagine me with 25,000 copies in my warehouse saying that I weighed 165 pounds? Because you see, the first thing I wrote in the book was that I weighed 165 pounds, that I had a 34-inch waistline. And the day I wrote that, I weighed 202 pounds. Can you imagine me stuck with a warehouse full of books saying, "I weighed 165," and I come waddling out and saying, "It works"? I'd made a commitment. You got to have those long-range goals. And the rule is a simple one: You go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you'll always be able to see further.

The doctor told me I had to lose 37 pounds. Now, that was specific. See, that's another point about goals: It's got to be specific. You can take the hottest day the world has ever seen, take the most powerful magnifying glass you can buy in any store, hold that magnifying glass over a pile of newspaper clippings on that hottest day, and you'll never start a fire if you keep the glass moving. But the moment you hold it still, you harness the power of the sun, you multiply it through the glass, and boom, you've got a fire. You cannot make it as a wandering generality. You've got to have a very specific target. 37 pounds was a very specific target. My target date was 10 months down the road. So I looked at the 37 pounds divided by 10. It came out 3 and 7/10 pounds. Boy, I got excited. 3 and 7/10 pounds a month. Why, anybody can do that. It's easy. As a matter of fact, I was so convinced that I could lose 3 and 7/10 pounds in a month that I didn't even bother to get started. The first 28 days. Yeah, greatest labor-saving device ever invented was tomorrow. So the other point, if you're going to do anything, you got to break it into a daily basis, and you got to get started.

Now, I was raised down in a small town in Mississippi, Yazoo City in Mississippi. Now, today, there are a lot of people that try to impress folks by telling them they're from Yazoo City, but I really am. As a matter of curiosity, how many of you here today have never been to Yazoo City, Mississippi? Never been? Okay. Well, I think everybody ought to have something to look forward to. When I was a boy, we lived next door to some rich folks, and I know they were rich, Brother Byrne, because they had a cook. I know they were rich because the cook had something to cook during the depression. That was a sure sign of wealth. And I was over there for lunch one day, as I tried to be most every day, and the cook brought the biscuits out. No exaggeration, those biscuits were no thicker than this wrist was. Now, I looked at him for a moment. I said, "Moe, what in the world happened to your biscuits?" She reared back, gave that big old tummy life, and said, "Well, I'll tell you about those biscuits. She said, 'They squatted to rise,' but she said, 'They just got cooked in the squat.'" Hey, you know anybody that gets cooked in the squat? You know anybody that's really going to do something as soon as the kids get out of school, and then I'll have more time to do those things? Then the kids get out of school and say, "Well, I didn't realize it, but I got to take them everywhere." Wait till the kids get back in school, then I'll really get busy. Kids get back in school, they say, "Well, we've got a winning football team this year. Got to support the team." Wait 'til football season, then I'll really get busy. Football season is over, they say, "Well, you know, it's Thanksgiving and Christmas now, and New Year's. Wait after the holidays, then man, I'm really going to get busy." After the holidays, they say, "Well, you know, the weather is just so bad, and isn't this the worst winter we have ever had? Wait 'til the weather clears up a little bit, then I'll get busy." After the weather clears up, they say, "Well, you know, this is the first chance I've had to play a little golf or go fishing. Wait 'til I get that out of my system." Then they say, "Well, it's almost time for Easter. Wait after Easter." After Easter, they say, "Well, you know, it's now almost time for the kids to get out of school." But that's where we came in, wasn't it? See, the people who wait for Aunt Matilda to move out, or John to get on the day shift, or for the farm to swap in the old clunker, or until we get a new governor or a new administration, the people who wait for external changes before they make an internal decision will get cooked in the squat every single time. I can guarantee it.

If you're going to reach your goals, you got to make up your mind you do something today. You can't do everything at once. And if I were to relate back to wait, it's appalling to me to have somebody come up who's 150 pounds overweight and say they're going to lose it in three months' time. Friend, it took you 40 years to put it on. Don't take it off like that. I took mine off and kept it off because I changed the thing that put it on, a habit. I ate too much regularly. I didn't gain 37 pounds in one weekend. It is one more bite that done me in. It's the little things. I looked at that weight and I realized that all I had to do was lose 1 and 9/10 ounces a day. And if I lose 1 and 9/10 ounces a day, then yes, I'm going to lose that weight. And ladies and gentlemen, to the ounce and to the day, 10 months, I had lost exactly 37 pounds. I had set the goal and I had reached it.

Now, a lot of times, people come to me and they say, "Zeke, tell me the truth." I'm always amused that people that say, "Tell me the truth." They're implying, I guess, that I have been lying up until then. "Tell me the truth, now, Zig. How did you feel about getting up in the morning and going out there and doing that running? How'd you feel about it?" I'm going to tell you the truth. I hated it. Man, that alarm clock could sound off, you know, and I'd lay there for a minute and I'd think to myself, "Ziglar, what's a 46-year-old fat boy like you doing getting up, running all over the neighborhood? Your buddies are sound asleep. What are you trying to prove?" And then I'd look down at that 41-inch waistline and I would say, "Ziglar, do you want to look like you, or do you want to look like the guy in the Jockey shorts?" Well, I didn't want to look like me. No way. So I'd get out of bed. But just 'cause I was running, that didn't mean I had to like it. Man, I'd get out there and run. I don't know what I'm trying to do, acting like a teenager when everybody else is sound asleep, and here I am doing a food thing like this. That's crazy, you know. And off I'd go. And don't you think for one minute I didn't tell everybody about it either. Friends, relatives, strangers, everybody I came in contact with, I tell them about that enormous sacrifice I was making. Listen, at one time, at one time in my life, I could get up and make you a speech and I could put a strain in my voice and a pained expression on my face and I could say, "Friends, you gotta pay the price." Oh, what a bunch of baloney that is. I ran in the snow of Winnipeg, Canada. I ran in the sands of Acapulco. Literally. I ran into orange groves of Florida. I've run in the rain right here in Minneapolis. And then one day, ladies and gentlemen, I was running in Portland, Oregon. Beautiful day. Never forget it. About 78 degrees. I was on Portland State University campus. It was about 12:30 or 1 o'clock. I was scheduled to speak, I believe, at 4 o'clock. And I was out running. And as I was running on that campus, I looked around. Some of the kids were laying on blankets reading, some were studying, some were relaxing. And here comes old Ziglar running, bomb. You know, sweat running down my back, sweat running down my legs, you know. And for the first time that day, it dawned on me that I was not paying a price. For the first time that day, ladies and gentlemen, don't know me, that I was having the time of my life. It dawned on me that I was enjoying every single step that I was taking. Today, at age 50, I can run two miles faster than 98 percent of the college kids of America. I'm stronger than I was a quarter of a century ago. I can do things that I could not have dreamed of doing just a few years ago. I contend that you do not pay the price for good health. You thoroughly enjoy the price. You pay the price. You pay the price for failure. You pay the price for a poor marriage. You enjoy the price of a good one. You enjoy the price of success. You just look at the people who've made it and the people who have not made it. I believe we've got to change our vocabulary. See, ladies and gentlemen, I don't believe you pay the price. I know that you enjoy the price. And I believe we need to change our vocabulary. I'm really talking about changing an attitude, am I not? See, that's what we're talking about here at these PMA rallies, changing attitude. We live basically in a negative world. An overweight person sits down at the table and says, "Everything I eat turns to fat." Well, that's negative. Mother sends your child off to school and says, "Now, don't you get run over." That's negative. We live in a negative world, and we become part of what we are around. Did you know that two-thirds of the medical students acquire the symptoms of the disease they study? Common cold. We know that if we get medical treatment, that the average life of a cold is a week. If we don't get the medical treatment, the average life of a cold is seven days. They don't know what causes the cold. They don't know what cures it. But they do know who gets it. The odds are over ten to one that when you get the cold, it's because you're emotionally depressed. You've got stinking thinking, which if it continues long enough, will lead to hardening of the attitudes. You become part of what you're around. Classic case: You take a southern boy or girl and send them up north, and in a matter of months, they'll pick up an accent. You've noticed it. Or you can take a northern boy or a girl and send them down south, and in a matter of months, we'll have them talking normally. You become part of what you're around.

What can we do? Well, let me give you another classic case reported in the July 1976 issue of "Success Unlimited" magazine. In Israel, there were a large number of immigrants from the Orient and a large number of immigrants from Europe. They arrived at about the same time. They did an IQ evaluation on both groups. The average IQ of the children from the Orient was 85. The average IQ of the children from Europe was 105. On the surface, it appears that the European Jewish children were a little smarter. But they put all of these kids together in the kibbutz, where the direction is positive, where the input is "You can do it," where the dedication is complete, where the build-up, the motivation, the drive, the direction is fantastic. And four years later, the average IQ was exactly the same thing: 115. You can change. You can grow. The greatest message I could ever give to you is that one simple thing: Yes, you can grow. I say it with all of my heart. I know in my mind that man was designed for accomplishment, that he's engineered for success, that he is endowed with the seeds of greatness. You can start from where you are with what you've got, and so long as you build on a moral foundation, I believe you can get anything you really want if you'll just help enough other people get what they want.

I'm going to share a story with you. I think it's the greatest story that I've heard in my lifetime. The story goes back nearly 13 years. I was speaking in Kansas City, and there I met a man. His name is Bernie Lopsick. He's more than a friend, he's a brother. He's in the audience right over here. Bernie Lopsick told me this story. He said, "Zig, when our son was born, our joy knew no bounds because we already had our two daughters. Now we had our son. The family was complete." But he said, "It wasn't long before we knew something was wrong because his head hung too lengthy on the right side of his body." But the family doctor said he would outgrow it. We knew better. So we took him to a specialist. The specialist diagnosed his condition as a reverse of club's feet and treated him for that. But he said, "We knew, Zig, it was more serious." We took him to one of Canada's top specialists, and after an exhaustive examination, this specialist said, "This little boy is a, he has cerebral palsy. He's never going to be able to walk or talk or count to ten. I'm going to suggest that you put him in an institution for his own good and for the good of the 'quote normal' members of the family." Brother Burn looked at me and he said, "You know, Zig, I'm not a buyer. I'm a seller. I could not buy the idea that my son was going to grow up being a vegetable." So we took him to another doctor who told us the same thing, and then another, and another, until 30 doctors said there is no hope. Then they heard of a Dr. Pearlstein down in Chicago. They got an alternate appointment so that when someone else canceled, they could have that appointment because Dr. Pearlstein was booked two years in advance. And 11 days later, a little boy from Australia canceled, and they went to Chicago. Dr. Pearlstein examined David, perhaps as no child has ever been examined before. And when he finished, he said, "This little boy is a, he has cerebral palsy. He's never going to be able to walk or talk or count to ten." If you listen to the prophets of doom. But he said, "I want you to know that I am not problem-conscious. I am solution-conscious. And yes, I believe there is something that can be done for this boy if you are willing to do your part." Well, obviously, Bernie and Elaine Lopsick said, "Doctor, tell us what to do. We will do anything." The doctor and the therapist and the nurses spelled it out in minute detail. They said, "You're gonna have to push this little boy beyond all human endurance. Then you're gonna have to push him some more. You're gonna have to work him until he falls. Then you're gonna have to pick him up and work him some more. You got to understand that there is no stopping point. That if you ever stop, he goes back. You got to understand that there might be months and even years when you will be unable to detect any change, but you gotta stay with it. And one last thing: Don't ever give him therapy in the presence of another victim of cerebral palsy because if he sees them taking therapy, he will inadvertently pick up those awkward movements." You see, we become part of what we are around, whether it's moral or immoral, whether it's good or bad. Stay with it long enough, and it's going to rub off on you.

The Lopsicks went home. They built a little gymnasium in the basement of their home. They hired a physical therapist and their bodybuilder. It took him a lot of months, but one day, David Lopsick could move the length of his own body. It took him several years, but one day the therapist called Bernie home and said, "I believe David is ready." And Bernie rushed home, and David Lopsick was down in the basement on a little mat getting ready to do a push-up. As that little body started to rise into the air, the emotional and physical exertion was so great, there wasn't a dry inch of skin on that little body. When he finished that one push-up, mother and dad, little David, and the sisters, and the therapists, and everybody, who broke down and shed those tears which so eloquently say that happiness is not pleasure, happiness is victory.

The story, ladies and gentlemen, is even more remarkable when we know that one of America's leading universities had examined this little boy and said, "There are no motor connections to the right side of his body. He has no sense of balance. He will have extreme difficulty even being able to walk and stand straight. He'll never be able to swim or skate or ride a bicycle." On October the 23rd, 1971, my wife and I had the privilege of flying to Winnipeg, Canada, to attend the Bar Mitzvah of little David Lopsick. Oh, how I wish you could have been there. Oh, how I wish the television cameras of the world had been clearly focused on what we saw as this little boy walked to the front of the synagogue, tall and straight and strong. I wish you could have heard him as he worded those words that moved him into the manhood of the faith of his forefathers. I wish you could have seen what we saw, knowing what we knew. Because you see, at that time, he had done as many as 1100 push-ups in a single day. He had run as much as six miles non-stop. He was shooting golf in the high 80s. One of the best table tennis players in Winnipeg, Canada. He had entered as a seventh grader, St. John's Ravenscourt School for Boys, where this little boy, who was never going to be able to count to 10, did quite well in ninth grade mathematics. February 1974, he qualified for an unrated $100,000 ordinary life insurance policy, so far as we know, the first and only time this has ever happened.

And I'll tell you the story of David Lopsick because it involves so many of the principles in which I believe. It begins with the right foundation of honesty and character and faith and loyalty and yes, love. Oh, what a love story this one is. You see, every night, this little boy used to have to put his braces on, and every night he would say, "Dad, do we have to put them on tonight?" Or, "Mom, can't we just leave them off tonight? Or do we have to put them so tight?" And you mothers and fathers know what I speak of when you have a little boy with tears running down his cheeks, pleading, "Don't put them on tonight." But because they did love him so much, they did not listen to the tears of the moment, because they wanted to see the laughter of a lifetime. That, ladies and gentlemen, is really what love is all about. Because you see, so many of us as parents are reluctant to do for the child what is best for the child, because we fear that child then might withhold his love from us, not knowing that over the long haul, the best way to guarantee his love is to demonstrate ours by acting in his best interest.

I tell the story of David Lopsick because it involves so many of the principles in which I believe. They had a beautiful relationship with others. The doctors and the nurses, you see, they all had a part. The therapist all had a part. You don't climb the high mountain by yourself. It is in conjunction with others that we really accomplish the major things in life. That's why I like to tell the story of David Lopsick because it's a story of cooperation. I tell the story because it's a story of goals, of big goals, of lifetime goals, of monthly goals, weekly goals, hourly goals, even, ladies and gentlemen. I tell the story of David Lopsick because it involves so much an attitude. You talk about attitude. This boy, since he was too small to carry it, used to have his own cassette player, and every day that little mind was fed with the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, the positive messages over and over and over. "You can do it, son. You can do it." See, we live in such a negative world that unless we deliberately read the good books daily, unless we deliberately regularly feed our minds with those motivational recordings that in essence remind us over and over in a negative world that we ourselves can be positive, if we have the positive input. And yes, I tell the story of David Lopsick because I believe it has so much to do with one of those things.

That so many times we as individuals have a tendency to overlook as a matter of curiosity. And I'm almost through, of course, you know, when us Baptists say "finally," that doesn't necessarily mean immediately. That just means we're getting close.

But I tell the story of David because it emphasizes so many of the things in which I believe. I'm just curious, how many of you had already noticed this chrome-plated pump sitting here on the stage? That's amazing. You know, I've noticed something. When I get aboard an aircraft with this pump, almost without exception, I'm the only passenger that's got one. And so I've got to assume by that that they must be getting scarce.

I believe, I believe this. I believe that this pump is going to sum up what I want to say about life and what I want to say about David.

Lochte got a couple of good friends down in South Alabama. Their names are Bernard Haygood and Jimmy Glenn. They were out riding through the South Alabama foothills one day and they got a little bit thirsty. They pulled behind this old abandoned farmhouse. Bernard was driving. He hopped out, he ran over to this old pump, and he grabbed the handle and he started to pump.

Now, just as a matter of curiosity, how many of you good folks up here in the big city have ever used one of these old water pumps? Hey, that's fantastic. Okay. Well, it was hot. It was August. No, Bernard wanted a drink of water. And after he'd been pumping a couple of minutes, he said, "Jimmy, better get that old bucket over there and dip some water out of that creek. We're gonna have to prime the pump."

How many of you know what I'm talking about when I say you gotta prime the pump? Well, for you non-pumpers, that just means that you got to put something in here before you can get something out here. See, a lot of people stand in front of the stove of life and say, "Stove, now give me some heat, then I'll put some wood in." You know, a lot of times the secretary says, "Boss, give me a raise, then I'll start coming to work on time." So many times a student will say, "Teacher, just give me a passing grade this semester, though my folks going to tear me up if I don't have a passing grade. Then next semester, I'll guarantee you, I'll study." Can you imagine the farmer saying, "Lord, give me a crop this year, and I promise I'll plant next"? No, it doesn't work that way. First of all, you got to put something in before you can get something out.

Well, old Bernard wanted that drink of water. I mean, it gets hot in South Alabama. And he was just a-pumping away and a-pumping away, you know. And I'll tell you, that sweat was beginning to come off of him. And he said, "You know, Jimmy, I just don't believe it's in the water down there." No, Jimmy said, "Yeah, it is, Bernard. You know, in South Alabama, the wells are deep, and we're glad they are because, you see, the deeper the well, the cooler, the cleaner, the sweeter, the purer, the better tasting that water is."

And isn't that the story of life? Isn't it true that that prospect that you really have to work on the most, when you finally do make that sale, isn't it true that that's the one that really gives you the most satisfaction? Isn't that the one? Isn't it true, ladies and gentlemen, that the boy or the girl who was available to every Tom, Dick, and Harry or Mary Sue and Jane come down the pike, those boys and those girls are not the ones that make the kind of husband you want and the kind of wife that you want? Isn't it true that the things in life that have value, that you got to do some pumping for?

Well, oh, Bernard, man, he wanted that drink of water. I mean, by then he was really working up a sweat. But you know, there's always that question: Just how much pumping are you willing to do just for a drink of water? And finally, Bernard just threw up his hand. He said, "Jimmy, they're just sitting in the water down there." Jimmy said, "Don't stop. Being all right. Don't stop. If you stop, it goes all the way back down, and then you'll have to start all over."

And isn't that true? See, there's no way you can look at that pump and say, "Yeah, just two more strokes and I got it." Because you might have to pump another 10 minutes. There's no way you can look in the head of that prospect and say, "Yep, just two more closes and I got him." Because, you know, it might really take a lot of pumping. But this we know. We know that if we pump long enough and hard enough and enthusiastically enough, that eventually the reward that follows the effort will always bring forth the reward.

And if you notice that once you get it to pumping, but then all you got to do is just keep a little ease there's steady pressure on it, and man, you're going to get more water than you know what to do with. Isn't it true that when things are good, they get better? And when they're bad, they get worse? And it's got nothing to do with what's going on out there. It's got everything to do with what's going on between your ears. You see, your business is never good or bad out there. Your business is good right here, between your own two ears. And if your thinking is thinking, your business is going to be in exactly the same shape.

I tell the story of the pump because that too says something about David. Lovesick for one solid winter, David set the alarm clock one hour earlier than any other member of the family. The wind chill in Winnipeg, Canada, hits as much as 80 degrees below zero. He put those skates on. He literally crawled out to the frozen ice, and it took him one solid winter to learn how to stand up. Later, he skated on the neighborhood hockey team.

Now, tell the story, ladies and gentlemen, because, you see, it wasn't easy. But I think if you were to talk to Davey Lobstey today, he would tell you that you do not pay the price for our good health, you enjoy that price.

Now, tell you the story because, you see, there today is a sequel to the story. I was speaking out in Amarillo. A young couple, seated down on the front row, were visibly moved with the story. And they came to me, and they got the address of the doctor who had taken that to Pearlstein's place on his death. And they went to Chicago. And this doctor examined their little girl, whom they said had cerebral palsy. A little girl was about 18 months old. And this doctor examined their little baby girl very carefully. And he said, "This little girl does not have cerebral palsy. It was a misdiagnosis. She was simply born prematurely. She has all of the symptoms today of cerebral palsy because you have been treating her for the disease." And she now has acquired all the symptoms. They started treating her as a normal child. Beautiful and happy and moving well today.

All you become part of what you're around. The way we treat people gets to be so tremendously important. You know, folks, I've had so many people to be so nice to me in my lifetime. I know that for the first two and a half years I sold, I was almost a complete failure. A man named P.C. Merrill came along and said, in essence, "You can do it," and he made me believe it. Before the year was over, I was number two out of over seven salespeople. My whole life changed because a man said to me, "You can do it."

Oh, I wish I could look you in your own eyes, dead center, and say, "You can do it," because you can. I'm just convinced that God wants you to make it. Believe in you because you're unique. There have been over 10 billion people to live on the face of this earth. There's never been another you. Believe in your fellow human being. Believe in what you're doing. The company you represent. The product you sell. If you're a salesperson, believe in our great country. It's the greatest land on the face of this earth. And of infinitely more importance than anything I or any other speaker who will ever address you will ever say, believe in Almighty God. Because if you do, I'm going to close, not by wishing you a good day. I'm going to close by guaranteeing you a good forever. And I truly will see you at the top. Thank you, and God bless you. Zig Ziglar, ladies and gentlemen.