How to Overcome Negativity | Zig Ziglar's Advice in 2 Hours

When somebody says, "How you doing?" and you really are doing bad, I mean, things are just awful. What I want you to do is look at your watch. When they say, "How you doing?" I want you to look at your watch and you say, "Well, at exactly 3:30, I'll be doing super good."

And they might say, "Well, what's going to happen at 3:30?" Then you say, "At 3:30, I'm going to be positive. Now, I'm going to be negative until then, but man, at 3:30, I'm going to get positive."

How many of you would rap me as being positive, optimistic, and upbeat? Can I see you? Well, that's what I am. I really am. But I got to tell you, if you need major surgery, friend, I don't recommend me. Now, I'd do the best I can. I'd be positive, optimistic, and upbeat, but you'd still die. If you think all you got to do is think positive, then, ladies and gentlemen, you're headed for a downfall.

Self-fulfillment is the bodybuilder who goes to the gym and develops the muscles and spends all the time admiring that physique. Personal growth is that individual who goes to the gym and lifts those weights and practices those jump shots so he can be part of a winning team. Self-fulfillment is the Dead Sea. It's an end. Personal growth is the Sea of Galilee. It's a living, growing, vibrant water.

Zig Ziggler was one of the world's most popular motivational speakers. Ziggler was one of 12 children, raised by a widowed mother during the Great Depression. He wrote over 25 books, including "See You at the Top," and inspired millions of people around the world. In this exclusive training, Ziggler shares with us simple but effective strategies to fix your mindset, develop unbreakable discipline, and stop being a victim. Special thanks to the Ziggler family for partnering with us to release this exclusive content on our YouTube channel. Enjoy.

Okay, super, super, super. There never has been a doubt in the minds of any of the people that I've been talking with about whether or not the right mental attitude was important. Whether you're a coach, a student, a businessman, a housewife, a husband, a salesman, a builder, doesn't make any difference what you are, the right mental attitude is important. As a matter of fact, in America today, there are over 30,000 schools teaching just about everything. They'll teach you how to do anything from trimming toenails to taking out tonsils. They'll teach you how to put hash on the plate a little more attractively or how to run heavy earth-moving equipment. But there's not a school on the face of this Earth that's going to teach you how to be any better than mediocre unless you've got the right mental attitude.

Now, the right mental attitude involves a lot of phases. We're going to be talking a lot about positive thinking in this particular phase. As you well know, the Richer Life Course itself embodies many other things. It's the actually, instead of just a positive mental attitude, it's a positive life attitude. But gee, I don't want to sell that positive mental attitude short because that's the thing that makes so much difference so many times. See, it's a series of little things that makes the difference. You can call a girl a kitten and she'll love you. Call her a cat and you're in trouble. I mean, and it's not really that much difference. You can say she's a vision and you score all kind of points. Call her a sight and you're in trouble.

Or can you imagine a man looking in his wife's eyes and saying, "You know, honey, when I look into your eyes, the wheels of time just stand still." Oh, that's poetic. That's moving. That'll get action, I guarantee you. But that's so much better, you know, when he does it that way than if he were to say, "You know, honey, you got a face that'll stop a clock." You know, and yet it's just that, that little bit of difference. You know, if this watch of mine were four hours wrong, I wouldn't have any difficulty at all. I can look at my watch and say, "Hey, that's bad wrong." But if it's four minutes wrong, I got a problem because I can't tell that. And next Monday morning at 10:18, I get aboard that aircraft going to Portland, Oregon, you see. And if my watch is four minutes wrong, and I get there at 10:22, you see, I got a problem. Because, well, let me tell you about the deal I worked out with the airlines. It's a simple deal. It just says that if I'm not there when they get ready to go, that they're just to go ahead without me. And I found out last summer, right here in Dallas, that they live up to their end of the agreement too. And I also found out it's easy to catch those dudes before they leave the ground.

Okay, a little bit makes a lot of difference. I imagine you're familiar with the story of the great racehorse Nashua. Nashua won over one million dollars on the racetrack in less than an hour of actual racing. Hundreds of hours of training, hundreds of hours of practice, but one hour of racing. Now, as you well know, you can take a hundred dollars and buy ten, or rather, you can take a million dollars and buy $110,000 racehorses. But a lot of people don't know the reason. The reason is because a million-dollar horse runs exactly 100 times as fast as a $10,000 one, right? He does. Isn't how much faster is a million-dollar horse actually? Would you say twice as fast? 50% faster? 20% faster? 10% faster? How much faster is a million-dollar horse than a $10,000 one? Let me give you an example, which I think pretty well says it. Five or six years ago, at the Arlington Futurity, the winning racehorse received $100,000 more than the one who came in second place. Now, the Arlington Futurity is a race which is 1 and 1/8 miles in length, which, as you well know, is 71,280 inches. You didn't know that, didn't you? Okay, well, you know it now, 'cause that's a fact. I spent the day. I can tell you that's right. And the winning horse got there exactly one inch ahead of the one who came in second place. 71,280 inches of racing. The winner got there one inch in front of the second one.

1974, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, the jockey that rode that horse across the line first, he was given a check for $27,000. Substantially less than two seconds later, jockey number four crossed the finish line, and they wrote him a check for $30. And somebody said, "Is that right?" And I said, "No, it ain't right, but that's the way they do it. That's always been the way they've done it." You see, we're not going to change the rules for the game of life. There's no commission for the salesman who almost makes the sale, and yet there's full commission if he just barely makes the sale. Now, what's the difference between just barely making it and just barely missing it? I believe so many times it's wrapped up in this thing called the right mental attitude.

Does positive thinking work? Well, let's take you to a baseball game. It's a baseball game that's played a long time ago. It's played right here in Dallas, Texas, as a matter of fact, during the 1930s, when minor league baseball was real baseball. The San Antonio team had seven hitters on the team that had hit over .300 the year before. Everybody figured they was going to win the pennant because that many .300 hitters on a team, how you going to beat them? But the truth of the matter is, they lost the first game, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. As a matter of fact, at the end of 21 games, that San Antonio team had lost the first 18 games. The pitcher was blaming the catcher, the catcher was blaming the infield, the infield was blaming the outfield, the manager was blaming this, that, and the other, and everybody was blaming the manager. But in reality, the manager was a good one. His name was O'Reilley. He knew there wasn't a thing wrong with his team except the fact they were suffering from stinking thinking. In other words, they needed that little check-up from the neck up, as well.

So, because of the fact that they had played this one game in Dallas, had been beaten one to nothing, as a matter of fact, the only hit they got was a scratch single, and that was by the pitcher. And now they were getting ready for the second game. Well, at this time, there was a fellow in Dallas named Slater, who was a faith healer. Oh, they said that Mr. Slater could just do anything. And so O'Reilley devised a plan. Just before the game was to start, about 30 minutes before, he rushed into the clubhouse. He said, "Fellas, give me your two best bats. I'm going to, I'm going to take them somewhere. When they come back, we'll have the answer. We're going to win the game today. Don't worry about a thing." He was excited. About 2 minutes before game time, he came back in. He had those bats in that wheelbarrow, the two best bats from each man, and he was really excited. As a matter of fact, if you think he'd been excited before this time, you should have seen him. He was on fire with enthusiasm. He was burning up. He said, "Fellas, I've taken these bats to Mr. Slater. He's put his blessings on them. He says that all we got to do is step up to that plate, step up to that plate, take a cut. He says we're going to knock the ball out of there. He says we're going to win the game today. We're going to win the pennant." Said, "Fellas, go get 'em, Tigers!" And guess what the Tigers did that day? And remember, this is a team that had been beaten one and nothing the day before, that only gotten one hit, and that was a scratch single. But today, same ballpark, same team, same circumstances. This team, the San Antonio team, got 37 hits, they scored 22 runs, they hit 11 home runs. I don't think I need to add that they won the game. As a matter of fact, they went on to win the pennant.

But ladies and gentlemen, here is the kicker. For years, they sold Slater bats around the Texas League at an enormous premium. But the interesting thing is, they never proved that Slater had ever even seen the bats. Let me ask you a question. Suppose he had seen the bats. What could a fellow do to a pile of wood? We know he couldn't do anything at all. But what could he do to the minds of the men who was swinging that way? If you knew you were going to get a base hit, wouldn't you step up there with more enthusiasm, with more zeal, with more determination, and with more confidence, knowing that you were going to get a hit? And isn't that really what positive thinking is all about? Oh, positive thinking works. There's just no question about it.

I guess that's one of the reasons I love the Bible so much. You know, it's full of so many good positive thinking stories. You know, one of my favorites is the story of David and Goliath. How many of you ever heard the story of David and Goliath? You're fixing to get the Zig version, okay? You remember the story. Here's old 9-foot Goliath, 400 pounds. He's standing up on the hillside, you know, and he's shouting those obscenities. He says, "Come on, you dogs, come out and fight!" Here comes little David, 17 years old, running up there, you know, hadn't even started to shave. And he, and he said to his brothers, "Don't, don't, don't you fellas hear that guy?" And he said, "Yeah, we hear him." David said, "What you going to do about it?" And they said, "What do you mean, what you going to do about it?" David said, "Aren't you going to fight him?" They said, "Are you kidding? Well, man, people get hurt fighting guys like that." You know, they looked at old Goliath and figured he is too big to hit. And David looked at him and figured he's too big to miss. You know, then he said, "Where's the king?" And the brother said, "King don't feel so good." David said, "I'll take him on." They said, "You're crazy." See, they looked at Goliath and compared Goliath's size to theirs. Boy, that made him big. 9 feet tall, 400-plus pounds. David looked at Goliath and compared him to God, and boy, that made him small. And, and, in case for those of you who have not read the rest of the story, David and God won.

Hey there, it's Mark Tim with the Ziggler family, and I sure hope you're enjoying the video from my mentor, the legendary Zig Ziggler. Because you're part of Evan's audience, we want to give you a special bonus. It's a cool little book called "The Little Book of Big Quotes," packed with awesome content. This book is free, just for you. Check out the description below, and it's yours. Alrighty, let's get you back to Zig.

Now, what I like, what I like about good positive thinking stories is, I, you know, I like that. I, I, I like to see winners. And positive thinking makes winners. But, you know, the right mental attitude involves so much more than just the go-get attitude. I believe also it involves the go-give attitude. I think the story of Dave Murphy, our Dave Anderson, and Jim Murphy pretty well says what I want to say. It's a brutally hot day, and some guys are out working on a railroad, and they're right by the switching station, and one of the private cars pulls off to the side there and parks. And the short section of the train that it was on was going to sit there for a couple of hours, obviously. And all of a sudden, when the guys were working, they saw the window come up in the back car, which was the most beautiful car they had ever seen, handmade, absolutely magnificent. And a voice called out to the crew foreman, "Dave, is that you?" Old Dave looked around and said, "Sure is, Jim." And Jim said, "If you got a few minutes, can you come visit with me?" And old Dave said, "Man, I sure have." So he was glad to get out of that hot sunshine, you know, and he walked in, and they visited there for about an hour. And then finally, when Dave left the car, he shook hands very warmly with Jim Murphy and he went back to work. And the other guys cried around old Dave and said, "Dave, was that Jim Murphy, the president of the railroad?" Old Dave said, "Sure, that's him." They said, "Do you mean you know him personally?" And they said, "Know him personally? I've known him for over 20 years. As a matter of fact, Jim Murphy and I went to work with this railroad on exactly the same day. We started together. Sure, I know him well." And one of the guys says, "Well, Dave, I don't understand. Jim Murphy is now the president of the railroad, and you're still out here working in the hot sun." Said, "How do you explain that?" Dave Anderson very quietly said, "It's very easy to explain. A little over 20 years ago, I went to work for $1.75 an hour, and Jim Murphy went to work for the railroad." See, I don't care what you do in life. If you go to work for a company and want a good salary, you'll probably get it. But if you go to work for the company with the idea of working for them, not only will you get a better salary, but you'll get infinitely more satisfaction out of life. If you study your grades in school to make a grade, you probably will make a good grade. But if you will study for the knowledge that is there, if you'll really explore ambitiously what those books have to offer, not only will you get a better grade, but you also will get the knowledge that is so important. The go-give attitude is important. The Jim Murphy Anderson story says a whole lot.

I think the story of Israel also says a lot. You remember 1948, when they were reborn as a nation, exactly as the Bible had said they would? You remember since then, there have been something like three million people either to settle there or who were already there. And this is in one of the most isolated sections of the world as far as the geography is concerned. They're surrounded by their natural enemies, and there's got a lot, there's a lot of desert there. It's not exactly the garden spot of the world. And yet, in just a little less than 30 years, they've made it the showcase of the world, where crime is almost non-existent, where poverty is way, way down, where there's a spirit and a national pride there that's absolutely beautiful to see. And the reason is very simple. Each immigrant who comes into Israel, each one of the Jews who were coming home, came because they were delighted to come home. But they also came, they wanted to get something, but they also came perfectly willing to make their contribution. You see, that right man attitude has a great deal to do with that.

Everybody's attitude is important. I don't care whether you're a school teacher or the principal of the school, or a salesman, or a housewife, or a builder, or a major in the Army. It makes no difference what you are. With the right mental attitude, you can do so much more. Now, here's something I've noticed about attitude. I've noticed everybody's got a good attitude when things are going good. You know, when people are pleasant with them, they have a good attitude. When people smile at them, they smile back. If things are great, they got a good attitude. But when things are not so good, sometimes that's a different story.

One of the objectives of the Richer Life Course is to, is to do this: is to share with you some procedures and techniques so that when things are good, you're going to have a good attitude. But when things are bad, you are still going to have a good attitude. Which means that soon things will be good for you. You know, I think the story of Mr. B really says what I want to say about this. Mr. B called a meeting. Had all of his people together. He said, "I notice some of you coming to work late. I notice some of you are leaving early. I notice some of you spend too much time on a coffee break. Some of you spend too much time on a lunch break." Now, maybe that's not your fault. Maybe that's my fault. Maybe I have not set for you the kind of an example that I should have been setting. But he said, "All of that's going to be changed. I'm going to come to work early. I'm going to stay late. Short coffee breaks, short lunch breaks. We're going to build a company that's going to be an absolutely beautiful company." Oh, it was, oh, it was a magnificent speech, and his intentions were good. But about four or five days later, he was out of the local country club, became engrossed in a business conversation, forgot about the time. All of a sudden, he looked at his watch. He said, "Oh my goodness, I'm an hour late at the office right now." He hopped up, made a mad dash to his automobile, hopped in, scratched off, burned rubber doing about 90 miles an hour down the freeway. And all of a sudden, the long arm of the law entered the picture and gave him a ticket. Oh, now you're talking about a man being unhappy. But he was really upset. He says, "You know, this is ridiculous. Here I am, a peaceful, taxpaying, law-abiding citizen, minding my own business. And why does this guy do this? He comes along and gives me a ticket. What he ought to be doing is out looking for the robbers, the murderers, the arsonists, the people who are breaking the law. Leave us peaceful taxpayers alone." Oh, he was really upset. And by the time he got back to the office, it was about an hour late. So when he walked in, he did what management has done since the beginning of time. Every time they get their hand caught in a cookie jar, they say, "Look yonder," and then nobody looks here. So, in a very loud voice, he called for a salesman. He said, "Come on in. I want to find out about the Armstrong account. You've been fiddling with that thing six weeks or longer. You've had enough time to sell the deal a dozen times. Just come on in here and tell me either yes, you did sell it, or no, you did not sell it."

Well, the sales manager very quietly and meekly ducked his head, walked in the room, and closed the door behind him. And said, "Mr. B," said, "You know, I'm sure you're going to tell me this. I thought we had that deal. I thought it sold. But at the last minute, something happened. I don't know what it was, but at the last minute, we lost the deal. And I sure am sorry." Mr. B, but if you think he is sorry, then you should have seen him about two minutes later, because you're talking about a man getting a ride. Read to him. The sales manager really got it. Mr. B said, "Now, this is really ridiculous. For 18 years, you've been my sales manager. For 18 years, I depended on you to bring in new business. And now we have a chance to get the biggest account of all, and what do you do? You blow it. Well, I want to tell you something, friend. Just because you've been here 18 years does not mean that you got a lifetime contract. Now, you go out there and replace that business, or I'm going to replace you." Oh, he was really upset.

But if you think he is upset, you should have seen the sales manager. Sales manager goes storming out of there, slamming the door behind his back, muttering under his breath, "This is ridiculous. Why, for 18 years, I've been running this company. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one that knows what's going on around here. Why, if it hadn't been me, they'd have gone broke 15 years ago. And now, just because I let up and missed one sale, uses a cheap trick, he threatens to fire me. This is ridiculous." He was really upset. He called his secretary in. He said, "Those five letters I gave you this morning, if you gotten them out?" Are you going to give me some lousy excuse about fiddling with something else? She said, "No, don't you remember you told me that the Hightower account took precedence over everything else? That's what I've been working on." He said, "Don't give any of your lousy excuses. I told you I want one of those letters out, and I want them out today. And if you can't get them out, just let me know. I'll get somebody that can." "Just because you've been here for 8 years does not mean that you've got a lifetime contract." A lifetime contract? Lifetime contract? Oh, I spent $1,000 on my eyes. Now my mouth don't want to work. "Just because you've been here eight years does not mean that you've got a lifetime contract. Now, you're going to get those letters out, or I'm going to get you out." I'll tell you, he was really upset.

But if you think he's upset, you should have seen the secretary. She goes storming out of there, muttering under her breath, "This is really ridiculous. For 8 years, I've been running this company. As a matter of fact, I'm the one that knows what's going on around here. Why, if it hadn't been for me, this company would have gone broke 10 years ago, or 5 years ago, right after I got here. Well, I'm doing everything around here now. Just because I can't do two things at one time, uses a cheap trick, he threatens to fire me. And him fire me? As much as I know about him, who does he think he's kidding anyhow?" Oh, she was really upset. She walked out of the switchboard operator's desk. She said, "Look, I got five letters on you to get them out. I know that's not your job, but you don't do anything anyhow but sit out here to keep answering the telephone. I'm going to tell you this. I'm going to tell you just one time. I want you to get these letters out, and I want them out today. And if you can't get them out, let me know, because I'm going to get somebody that can." Oh, she was really upset.

But if you think she's upset, you should have seen that switchboard operator. She about to hit the ceiling. And this is ridiculous. Why, they don't do anything in the back but gossip, drink coffee, talk on the telephone, occasionally get a little bit of work out, and then the very minute they get behind, they come out here and they put it on my desk and say, "Now, you going to get it out, or I'm going to fire you." And I'm the only one that knows what's going on around here. This is ridiculous. But she got the letters out. Got home. She is still furious. She walked in the front door and slammed the door behind her. Walked in the den. First thing she saw was a 12-year-old son laying there on the floor watching television. Second thing she saw was a big rip right across the sleeve of his britches. She said, "Son, how many times have I told you, when you come off from school, put your play clothes on? Mother has a hard enough time as it is supporting you and sending you through school. Now you've dissipated me. And just for that, you're going to go upstairs right now. There's going to be no supper for you tonight, and no television for the next 3 weeks." Oh, she was really upset.

But if you think she is upset, you should have seen that little boy. He about to hear the say. And this is really ridiculous. He said, "Here I am, doing something. My own mother, when it happened, it was an accident. It could happen to anybody. And Mother doesn't even give me a chance to explain it. This is not fair." And about that time, his tomcat walked in front of him, which was a mistake. Boy gives the tomcat a big old boot and said, "You get out of there. You probably been up to some no good yourself." You know, you think about it for a moment. That tomcat was the only creature who could not have altered the series of events. Was it? He. And if you think about it for another moment, wouldn't it have been so much better if Mr. B had just gone directly from the country club to the switchboard operator's house and just kicked that cat himself? See, left all those other people out.

Now, let me ask you a question. Whose cat have you been kicking? Now, let me ask you another question. Have you been letting somebody kick your cat? You see, ladies and gentlemen, the bum on the bowy and the superintendent of your schools have got a lot in common. The bum on the bowy and the president of the bank have got a lot in common. The bum on the bowy and the mother of the year have got a lot in common. The bum on the bowy and your pastor have even got a lot in common. The bum on the bowy and the most successful man or woman you've ever met have got a great deal in common. Every last one of them have suffered frustrations, disappointments, defeats, and setbacks. Every human being that ever tried on planet Earth, every one of us have had those things happen to us. But the difference between the bum on the bowy and the superintendent of schools, the difference between the bum on the bowy and the most successful man or woman you know, is the way they react to the negatives of life. It's the way they react to the cat kickers of life. You see, life is full of cat kickers. And the way we react to them is going to determine how high we're going to go. The way we react to defeat, the way we react when we have failed at one specific time or one specific project, that really is going to be the determining factor.

How do you react when somebody kicks your cat? Did you ever check out of a motel and the clerk just literally tears your head off? Can you understand that? It's got nothing to do with you. That somebody had just stopped by and kicked his cat before you got there. Did you ever go in a restaurant, you know, for a cup of coffee, and you sit there, and you sit there, and you sit there, and finally you say, "Ma'am, could I, could I have a cup of coffee?" And she said, "Can't you see I'm busy? I'll get you as quick as I can." Do you say, "We don't have to bite my head off about it"? Do you, I mean, do you let her pull you down to her level, or can you understand somebody's been by there kicking her cat before you ever got there?

Ever get in a traffic situation? Traffic three blocks in front, traffic three blocks behind, and some idiot behind you sits on his horn, you know. Do you, do you turn around and say, "Can't you see we got traffic up here?" I mean, do you let them pull you down to their level, or can you understand somebody's just been kicking their cat before you got there? Ever come home from a beautiful day? I mean, everything is going absolutely great. You walk in the front door whistling and singing, you know, and you say, "Hi, hon, how you doing?" And your mate responds, "What do you mean, how am I doing? You're supposed to been here an hour and a half ago. If you've been putting up with what I've been putting up with all day long, you wouldn't be feeling so good either." I mean, can you understand? Shucks, your mate's not necessarily mad at you. Maybe somebody's been killed kicking your mate's cat all day long. See, we live in a negative, cat-kicking world.

So the question comes up, how do, how do you respond when somebody kicks your cat? I mean, are you going to let them pull you down, or are you going to respond properly? Well, let me tell you how to respond. The next time somebody starts to really chew you out, and you're innocent, now be careful, you know, you're innocent. Uh, first of all, let them finish the chewing. Again, the reason I love the Bible so much has got so much practical advice in it. You know, Solomon says in Proverbs, "He that answereth the matter before he heareth it is a fool." That's good advice. Let them talk. Let them get it out of their system. The psychologist will tell you that that's fine. Let them get it out. Then the anger is gone, you see. So let them do their cat kicking, let them do their chewing. But while they're talking, I want you to be quietly, very quietly, patting your foot, you know. And while you're patting your foot, so that your mate can't see what you're doing, be muttering under your breath, "Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat." And while you're saying that, you see, there's no way that you're going to let them get you upset when you're saying, "Cat, cat, cat, cat."

Now, let me suggest, let me suggest that you try this at home first of all with your mate. And when your mate finishes the chewing, and then I want you to smile, very Polly, very pleasantly, very loving. The attitude's important. Now, the way you say what you're going to say. And then you kind of smile and say, "Honey, I just wonder, has anybody been kicking your cat today?" And if you survive that one, and I got an idea that you will, why not use that method when you're dealing with somebody else who's trying to kick your cat?

Now, the question often comes up, when you talk about attitude, Ziggler, are you always up and excited and enthusiastic and all of those good things? Are you always motivated? Now, somebody asked that Red Man that the other day, and she said, "Uh-huh." But the truth of the matter is, there are occasions, yes, when even I will get down. Now, let me give you an example. Now, as I give you this example, I want to use it because it's positive and it'll tell you how to get up. That's really what you want to know, not how to get down. Most of us already know that. But how do you get up when you get down? So, in this example, let me start by saying that I am not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Republican. When President Ford and Mr. Carter competed, I wanted Mr. Ford to win. But the truth of the matter is, more people wanted Mr. Carter to win. So when I went to bed in Detroit, Michigan, that night, there in the Ponchartrain Hotel, at 2:00, when New York came into the Carter column, I went to bed just all down in the dumps. Oh, Mr. Carter's going to be president. Oh, Mr. Carter is going to be president. And I, and I went to sleep and moaned and groaned and twisted and turned.

The next morning, you, during the night, my natural enthusiasm and optimism returned. I knew when I awakened that had all been a bad dream. That all I had to do was switch on that television set, and sure enough, Mr. Ford was going to be president. But I switched the television set on, and nothing had changed. So now I got to make a decision. Do I support Mr. Carter, as my Bible says that I should, or am I going to go around the country bad-mouthing the man and trying to pull him down instead of trying to encourage and help our country? Well, obviously, that is the route to take to help and to build. But I want you to know that I'd worked hard for Mr. Ford. I felt like I had earned a certain amount of misery, and I was, I was absolutely determined that I was going to have me a little of it, and nobody was going to talk me out of it. So I said, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to be negative about Mr. Carter until November the 15th. Now, on November the 15th, then I'll be positive." So until the 15th, I still said some negative things about our new president. But on November the 15th, when I woke up right and early that morning, I said, "Oh boy, this is the day to get positive about Mr. Carter." And so I started reading the positive qualities of the man. I started reading about his plans for his cabinet. I started reading about his life history. I started talking to friends and supporters and boosters of him. I started listening to what he was saying. When he said he was going to trim the bureaucracy, I started looking and listening at a whole lot of things. And I've been absolutely amazed at how much Mr. Carter has changed since November the 15th.

Now, let me say something. I was negative for several days because we only elect a president about every four years, and it's okay. So I felt I was entitled to that much negativism. But what about everyday events? Let me tell you what you do when you have everyday events. When somebody says, "How you doing?" and you really are doing bad, I mean, things are just awful. What I want you to do is look at your watch. When they say, "How you doing?" I want you to look at your watch and say, "Well, at exactly 3:30, I'll be doing super good."

And they might say, "Well, what's going to happen at 3:30?" Then you say, "At 3:30, I'm going to be positive. Now, I'm going to be negative until then, but man, at 3:30, I'm going to get positive."

Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do I understand this right? You're going to be negative until 3:30, and then from 3:30 on, you're going to be positive? "I sure am, man. I can't wait for 3:30 to get here because then I'm going to be positive." They say, "Now, are you kidding me? You mean you're going to wait till 3:30 to be positive? Why don't you go ahead and be positive now?" Then you look at him and you kind of smile and say, "You smooth talker. You, as a matter of fact, you're such a smooth talker, you'd do good in my business." And then what I'm saying is, you're, you're probably thinking, "Z, that's about the silliest thing that I've ever heard of in my life." And you know, I agree with that. But I'll tell you what it does. It works. You know what you're doing? You're kidding yourself. You're laughing at yourself. And see, when you can laugh at yourself, it doesn't bother you if somebody else is laughing at you. That's right. Mental attitude is so tremendously important. And since it is so important, what is the method that you use for getting up when you get down?

Now, the next session, we're going to be giving you a precise formula for that. But in the meantime, let's look at the first four things that we need to do. First of all, you got to face it. You're down. I mean, you know that that's just where you are. You look at it and say, "Hey, there I am." And then you can, you can look and say, "Do I like what I see? Am I really happy being despondent, down in the dumps, miserable, and making everybody else miserable? Is this what I really want?" But there I am. Face it. That's the first thing to do. You are down.

And the second thing you need to do is understand the fact that there are no hopeless situations. There are only some people who lose hope in the face of some situations. You see, the darkest night since the beginning of time did not turn out all the stars. Then there's the third thing that you got to understand about this attitude of yours. You got to know that it is temporary. You see, this too will pass. And because it will pass, then know that your situation is temporary, that it's not always going to be that bad. And I don't care how bad it is. And when you know that it's temporary, when you accept that, that is the starting point. Then you can begin to build it to exactly where you want it to be.

And then there's the most important thing, which I touched on just a moment ago. And that simply is to make a decision. Decide how long you are going to be negative. Decide how long you're going to stay down. I decided to stay down several days because I'd lost a presidential election. I took that thing awful personal, you know. And then after I recognized what had happened, after those several days, since then, things have gotten better and better and better. Just decide how long you're going to stay down. If you feel like you deserve a little misery, that's perfectly all right. You don't drown by falling in water. You only drown if you stay there. And so what you got to decide to do is decide how long you're going to stay around swimming there. And then, once you've decided that you're going to do something about it, then the minute you make the decision that you're going to come up, that's the very moment you made the decision about how long you're going to stay down.

Oh, you know, I get excited when I watch people grow by the week. I've had the privilege in so many of the Richer Life Courses, seeing lives change so dramatically in just a question of days. As I think about what this session is, which is number eight, which really opens up so many avenues to so many people who have never been exposed to what positive thinking really is, who've never been exposed to the right mental attitude. And watching you grow and knowing what's going to happen to you as you work with your instructors, you work in your own company, and your own family, around your own friends, and your own relatives, knowing, you see, that your attitude is going to play such an important part in their happiness.

In one of our classes, we had a young lady who went through the class, had tremendous growth as a result of it. A couple of weeks later, she wrote us back and said, "You'll be amazed at how much my daughter has changed as a result of me taking the class." Well, the daughter had never taken the class, but she was getting the benefits because, you see, our attitude does affect those who are around us.

Now, let's look in this next session at a formula. It's a formula to build an attitude foundation that's so solid, as I indicated earlier, that when things are good, your attitude's going to be good. But when things are bad, your attitude still going to be good. Which means that soon things are going to be good. And with that right mental attitude, I say it again, you can go where you want to go, you can do what you want to do, you can be like you want to be. Which means that I truly will see you at the top.

My goodness, what an excited and exciting audience. And I understand out in TV Land, they're also having a wonderful time. That's wonderful. That's great. You know, I had always thought of myself as being an optimist. I mean, I'm the kind of guy that'll take my last $2 and buy a money belt with it. I mean, you know, that's my nature. And then I heard about this lady who was in a retirement home, and she'd been there a few months when a gentleman joined the home. And his luck would have it, first day at lunch, he was seated directly across the table from her. And after a few moments, he started to squirm a little bit, you know, and he looked at her and he said, "Ma'am," said, "You're staring at me, and it's making me uncomfortable." She said, "Well, I just can't help it." And he said, "What do you mean?" She said, "You look so much like my third husband. I absolutely cannot believe it. The color of your eyes, the expression on your face, the color of your hair, your personality, your sense of humor. You look just like my third husband." He said, "Third married husband? How many times have you been married?" She said, "Twice." Well.

Now, I'd say there's an optimist. I would say that positive thinking is important. But let me share a little of my story with you. Uh, first two and a half years I was in selling. I was not an overwhelming success. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even a whelming success. Now, that doesn't mean it didn't sell a lot. I did. I mean, I sold my furniture, sold my car. That is real close to the truth. I've bought gasoline many times, 50 cents worth at a time. I've had my electricity disconnected. I've had my telephone disconnected. Had to turn a car back in when I, and it's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me. My first baby was born. Hospital bill was $64. I didn't have $64. I had to get out and make two sales to get my own baby out of the hospital. I know what it is to be broke, to be discouraged, to have to make a sale today if we were going to eat tomorrow. I know what tough times are, how confusing it can be.

But one day, I went to a meeting. And incidentally, this session is increasing productivity and profitability. They go together. The speaker at that particular meeting was a man named P.C. Merill. Mr. Merill was addressing 21 of us, but as a practical matter, he was only speaking to me. That's the day my whole world turned around. I am from a small town in Mississippi. I am the 10th of 12 children. I envisioned, had a picture of myself as a little guy from a little town who would struggle all his life. Mr. Merill made the presentation. When it was over, he took me aside. He said, "Zigg, I have watched you for the last two and a half years, and I have never seen such a waste." Now, folks, that'll get your attention. I said, "Well, Mr. Merill, what do you mean?" He said, "Zigg, I believe you could be a great one. I believe you could go all the way to the top. I believe that you could be a national champion, and someday, if you chose to do so, I believe you could become an executive in this company, if you just believed in yourself and went to work on a regular schedule." Want to emphasize a point. In two and a half years, I had learned how to get prospects, I'd learned how to make appointments, how to conduct demonstrations, how to handle objections, and how to close sales. Technically, I was a trained salesperson. But until Mr. Merill said those words to me, and it was because of his integrity that I chose to believe them. He had said all the records for the company. He had written the training program for the company. Now he...

Taught me nothing new about selling, but when he convinced me that I could be a champion, I walked out of there a totally changed man. I saw myself totally differently. I finished that year the number two salesman in America out of over 7,000. I had the best promotion the company had, and the next year I was the highest paid field manager in the United States. Two years later, I became the youngest divisional supervisor in the 66-year history of that company and set some training records which still stand to this day.

The only thing that had changed was the picture I had of myself. And once that picture changes, things begin to change in your life. When you begin to understand that, yes, there are some things that we can do. When we learn that failure really is an event, it is not a person. That yesterday really did did in last night, and today is a brand new day. When you understand that, then we can move forward. And as I indicated earlier, it's not what happened in your past that makes that much difference. You see, the past is important, but it's the way we see our future that's going to make the difference.

Now, the question is, what can we do effective immediately that can make a dramatic difference in our productivity and our profitability? You see, everybody works for themselves. Or I know somebody else signs your paycheck, but the reality is, we're each self-employed. And if you don't believe it, just quit producing. Now, what I, what am I talking about? I'm talking about a very obvious truth.

Now, let me ask a very serious question. How many of you consider yourself to be honest and at least reasonably intelligent? Could I see your hands, please? All right. Now, some hands did not go up. Let me ask you a question: Was it the honesty part or the intelligent part that... Uh, now, I can relate to the intelligent part because I was always in the part of the class that made the top half possible. So, uh, you know, I'll relate to that.

Now, how many of you honest, intelligent people, as a general rule, get more work done on the day before you go on vacation? Hey, you're listening faster than I'm talking. Then you normally get done in two or three days? Can I see your hands, please? All right. Now, if we can find out why and learn how and repeat it every day, now, give the rest of it, without working any harder or any longer, would we be more valuable to ourselves, our family, our company, and our community? How many of you know that you would? Can I see your hands, please? All right.

Now, let's take a look, ladies and gentlemen, at what we can do. Now, to begin with, you have already acknowledged that you are an honest, intelligent person. That's what you've already said. Now, how many of you honest, intelligent people, on the night before the day before vacation, got out a little sheet of paper and you said to yourself, "Myself, tomorrow, you got to do this and this"? How many of you did that? Can I see your hands, please? All right. Now, we call that goal setting, ladies and gentlemen. Short range, but that's goal setting.

Now, why is goal setting important? David Jensen at UCLA did a study specifically on the people who come here, me speak at public seminars where people buy tickets to come in. Now, we have the, we have the smorgasbord of America there. We have psychiatrists and truck drivers. We have entrepreneurs and household executives. We have college professors, the military. We have teachers and students and major corporate executives, field managers, salespeople. We have everybody there. And those who set goals earn an average of $7,450 a month. Those who do not set goals, though they have the same information, earn an average of $3,397 a month. And this is documented in academia.

Now, in addition, these people who set the goals not only earn the additional money, but they're happier and healthier and have more friends and get along better with the folks at home. How many of you have noticed that people who know where they're going, generally speaking, are easier to get along with? Can I, I see your hands, please? Right. People with, with direction are that way. In my lifetime, I have never known a depressed person who had specific long-range objectives. You don't have time to be worrying and getting depressed. Now, understand, I understand clinical depression. I am still saying that I have never seen a depressed person who had specific long-range goals.

Now, once she wrote down what she's going to do the next day, then you got it organized. This is the first, import, most important. This is second. This is third. Is that about what most of you do? Let me encourage you to make one small change. Don't put down the most important. Put down the most disagreeable as number one. Now, for example, if you got to go tell Charlie some bad news, and Charlie's number five on the list, you finish number one. You know what's in the back of your mind? Got to deal with Charlie. Finish number two. I got to talk Charlie. Get him out of there. Put him number one. As this old boy down home would say, "Friend, if you're going to have to swallow a frog, you just don't want to look at that sucker too long." I mean, uh, he ain't going to get no prettier, you can count on it. As a matter of fact, he's going to get uglier. Go ahead and get it done. And then you accepted the responsibility.

Barbara Tuchman, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, noted historian, says the number one need in our society today are people who will accept responsibility for their behavior and their performance. It is not his fault, her fault, or their fault. It is your responsibility. Once you accept that responsibility, then you make the commitment. You know, it's my job. If I don't do it, somebody is going to have to. I make the commitment to do it. You know, most people are about as committed as a Kamikaze pilot on his 39th mission. I mean, you know, they just really don't take it that seriously. You got to, you got to have that commitment.

And the next day, you show up on time. As a matter of fact, you might be a little earlier, wouldn't you? Okay. Now, in addition to that, when you get there, you, uh, you, you, you really get started on it. You don't stand around and say, "Well, wonder what I ought to do now?" You get busy on. I'm here to tell you, the boss likes people that get their on time and get busy. This helps to ensure employment security in a world where job security doesn't exist. And you're enthusiastic about it. I mean, on the way to your job that day, you were talking to yourself all the way there. You know, "The first thing I'm going to do when I get there is this, and then I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to..." We talk to ourselves all the time, anyhow. Dr. Joy Browne says, "People who talk to themselves are above average in intelligence." US Air magazine, March 1990, said that what you say to yourself has a direct bearing on your performance. People talk to themselves all the time. How many of you even talk to golf balls? Can I see your hand? "Go in a hole. Hang in there. Turn left. Hold up." You know what I'm, you know what I'm talking about, don't you? All right.

Now, you say the right things, though. You're saying, "I'll do this, and then I'll do this, and then I'll do that." That's the kind of self-talk that makes a difference. You're enthusiastic. You're somewhat like little Johnny. Now, little Johnny was a pistol. He's a second grader. One Friday afternoon, teacher said, "Now, Johnny, our class this weekend, if anything exciting happens, tell us about it on Monday morning." Well, on Monday morning, you know, little Johnny was sitting there in his little desk, and he was all over the place, so the desk was sitting still. She said, "Johnny, looks like you had a good weekend." "Yes, ma'am. Sure did. What'd you do, Johnny?" "Me and my Daddy went fishing. We caught 75 catfish. They all weigh 75 lb." Now, "Johnny, son, you know that's not true." "Oh, yes, ma'am, it is. Said my dad is a great fisherman. I'm even better than he is. We caught 75 catfish. They all weighed 75 pounds." Now, "Johnny, if I were to tell you that on the way to school this morning, about two blocks from here, all of a sudden a big old 1200-pound grizzly bear reared up right in front of me, was about to grab me and eat me up, when this little old 8-pound yellow dog appeared out of nowhere, jumped up, grabbed the grizzly bear by the nose, threw him down, bounced him back and forth, broke his neck, killed him dead." Johnny, would you believe that? He said, "Oh, yes, ma'am." He said, "As a matter of fact, that's my dog."

[Music]

Now, get enthusiastic about what you do. Now, having said that, let me also put this mild disclaimer in there. Enthusiasm is great, but it's like running in the dark. You might get there, but you might get killed on the way, unless you have done what you did the night before. That is, you developed a plan of action. And that's so important. And you know, as you got started, that old PMA, that positive mental attitude, was going full speed ahead. I don't believe there's anybody in this country that is excited about positive thinking as I am. And I think one of the reasons for that is I understand what it will do, but I also understand what it won't do. I get a little unhappy and concerned when I hear some highly motivated individual stand up and say, "Man, with positive thinking, you can just do anything." Folks, that simply is not true. That is not positive thinking. That is New Age thinking. Now, New Age thinking simply says, in essence, "All is one and one is all, and I am God." Well, there are three things I know. Number one, there is a God. Number two, it ain't me. Number three, it ain't you either. Let's get real.

How many of you would agree that David Robinson is an optimistic, upbeat, positive thinking guy? Can I see your hands, please? All right. I agree with you. On top of that, he's a wonderful gentleman. Now, David Robinson has that wonderful attitude, but I got to tell you, he would be a total and complete failure as a...

[Music]

Jockey. Would you agree with that? I don't care how positive he thinks, he can't do that. How many of you would rate me as being positive, I'm missing, upbeat? Can I see you're... Well, that's what I am. I really am. But I got to tell you, if you need major surgery, friend, I don't recommend me. Now, I'd do the best I can. I'd be positive, optimistic, and upbeat, but you'd still die.

Now, hear the rest of this, because you see, folks, unrealistic expectations are the seedbed of depression. If you think all you got to do is think positive, then ladies and gentlemen, you're headed for a downfall. That positive thinking is step one. What positive thinking will do is let you use the ability which you have that is awesome, but it will not let you use something you do not have. Positive thinking won't let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. Can you intellectually buy that? No problem. See, what you're doing on the day before vacation, you simply, your positive thinking is permitting you to use the ability which you have. See, positive thinking works like this. When we walked into this room, it was pitch black. You know how they lighted it? Simplest thing I've ever seen in my life. All they did was throw switches. Just flip switches, and the room's lighted. Now, why is that? Well, very simple. The electricity had already been generated, and flipping the switches released it to come into this room. That's what positive thinking does. The youngster who has not studied for the test can think all the positive thoughts he wants to, but if he goes in that classroom unprepared, he's going to flunk that sucker. You can absolutely count on it. Positive thinking releases the information which you have. If you don't have it, there's nothing there to release.

Positive thinking is enormously important, and you focused on the issue at hand. And as you finished one, you decisively move to the next one. Now, when I say decisively move, I don't mean you get in a run for there, but you quickly move to another. Now, let me tell you something. This is where leadership prevails, and this is where productivity just really balloons upward. I want to emphasize a point. When Lloyd Bentsen was Senator, he said that for every 1% increase in productivity, one million new jobs were created. When Mike Blumenthal was Secretary of the Treasury, he said that for every $1 billion in export, there were 20,000 jobs created. Now, you mentioned that you did two or three times as much work the day before you went on vacation. That's normal. What I'm talking about here is one or 2% increase. What I'm talking about is something that when you finish a task, you decisively move to the next one. And here's where your value to your company dramatically goes up, because other people, whether you know it or not, are watching you. And when you move decisively, instead of trying to cut you off at the pass, they literally will move aside and let you go. That's a literal truth.

How many of you have noticed that, as a general rule, people with nothing to do want to do it with you? Now, other people will see you doing these things, and they will pick up the pace without even being aware of it. You know, there's an old saying: "People won't believe everything you say, but they'll believe everything that you do." I'd like to see if we can demonstrate the validity of the statement. Would you mind just emptying your hands just for a moment? Those of you who are watching it on satellite out in TV land, I want you to do the same thing. Now, what I'm going to do is this. I'm simply going to say, "One, two, three, go." Then I want you to slap your hands. Okay? One, two, three, go.

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Folks, I don't know how I could have made it any clearer. I slowed down the instructions. I demonstrated them. You completely ignored what I said, but you did exactly what I did. The example, ladies and gentlemen, is so enormously important. And you discipline yourself. If somebody came along and wanted to talk about the playoff games or last night's TV show, you said, "Look, I got to do this." Let me tell you, discipline is one of the most beautiful words ever. Uh, the word discipline is one that ought to bring on, you know, smiles instead of frowns. Simple, stand, unexpressed, it's best in her beautiful book, The 25-Hour Woman. Discipline is not on your back, needling you with imperatives. Set your side, encouraging you with incentives. Did you know that 175 of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies are former United States Marines? Did you realize that 26 of our presidents served in the military? And you tell me, what do they teach in the military? It's discipline and focus and decisiveness and goals and organization and responsibility. They teach all of these things. These are the qualities that make a good salesperson, a good husband, a good wife, a good doctor, a good lawyer, a good mechanic, whatever. Now, understand, the doctor still got to go to medical school to acquire the specific skills, but look at the qualities. You stayed with one until you finished it. You were persistent. You became a team player, as we mentioned. And your energy level at the end of that day was high. Real high. You're so tickled with what you'd been able to do. Man alive, you know, when you're the most exhausted, that's at the end of the day when you've had to try to fool the boss that you really are busy, or if you are the boss, you've tried to fool the troops that what you're doing is very important. At the end of a day like that, you know, you said, "Boy, I don't know if I can handle a deal like this much longer." Your energy level was high. You felt so good about yourself, and you were so motivated.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, as you look at those qualities right there, how many of those are positive qualities? Anybody? How many are leadership qualities? Now, you do understand that I've been talking about you according to what you told me on your day before vacation. So you have got every last one of them, plus a whole bunch more. Now, a lot of people deny they have these good qualities because, according to, or, uh, to recognize that you have these abilities commits you to use them. So a lot of people deny them. They're there. What? They're in denial. They think the Nile is just a river in Egypt. They don't really, you know, look at these things and plan on using them.

Now, these qualities would make a good husband, a good wife, or whatever. Let me emphasize a point, uh, ladies and gentlemen. What would happen if everybody, if everybody in your family and everybody in the company got on the page we're talking about? Can't you just imagine an incredible explosion of business? Can't you imagine teamwork developing to the degree that you're even more productive and serve even more people? Remembering, of course, that you really can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. Now, I know a lot of people say, "Well, Z, how do you get everybody on the same page?" Won't that take training? Yes, it will. Every once in a while, I'll have somebody say, "Why should I train my people and then lose them?" Well, there's one thing worse than training people and losing them, and that's not training them and keeping them. I'm here to tell you now, that gets expensive. We have 60 people on our staff. 20 of them sell. 60, I mean, 40 of them are other speakers and trainers and support people, and they work in administration, finance, and what have you. 20 people make sales, but every sale, every person on our staff can cost us a sale. Switchboard operators can, shipping department can, service department can, finance department can. I believe we got to get everybody on the same page.

Now, when you get them on the same page, a lot of good things will happen. Let me give you a specific example about what can happen. It's right here in San Antonio, Texas. And, uh, let me point out that every leadership objective in every company ought to be to have everybody saying, "This is my company," or "Our company," not "The company" or "That company." There's quite a difference. Let me tell you about a man who lives in San Antonio that bought these ideas. His name is D.W. Rutledge. If you're a football fan, you know that he's at Converse Judson High School. If you really follow it, you know that three of the last four years, they've won the Class 5A state championships. And if you know anything about Texas football, that is almost unbelievable for that to happen. But he's got everybody on the same page. They're thinking team instead of just individuals, with marvelous results.

Let me give you an example that means a great deal to us. Tri-Cities Hospital in Dallas has adopted this philosophy, bought into it completely, and they have trained all of their people. I'm talking about, I should say, we have trained all of them, from the janitor to the ladies who push the carts, to the people in the lunchroom, to the administrative people, to the nurses, to everybody, because everybody that touches anybody influences somebody else until ultimately everybody is influenced by one bad apple or one good apple. Now, as an example, at Tri-Cities last year, they were recognized as one of the 100 top hospitals in America. This was written up in, uh, the Mesquite paper, that's the suburb of Dallas there. And in order for them to get in the top 100, here's what happens: The per-adjusted discharge was reduced by 16%. Now, you just ask your CPA what that will mean to the bottom line. Not only that, but they lowered the mortality by 20%. I'm talking about life and death. They cut the length of stay by 9%, and they, they increased their return on assets by 58%. When you get everybody on the same team, incredible things happen.

But let me point out, ladies and gentlemen, that motivation is the key. Knowledge founded on truth gives you power, but it's motivation which is the switch that releases that power. Now, let me ask you a very important question. How much more did you know about your job on the day before you went on vacation than you knew 24 hours earlier? Anybody? Not a lot, is that right? Okay. And yet, you were dramatically more productive. And the reason you were is because you were motivated.

Now, you know, I have been talking with you quite a little while. I'm going to make a statement, and if it's true, I would like to get you to throw your hands up with lots of enthusiasm. If it is not true, just leave your hands right there by your side. Is that, is that fair enough? Even though I've spoken with you well over an hour, and normally when people talk to somebody that long, they begin to get a little restless. "When is that fellow going to stop? When's he going to give me a break?" Isn't that true? Answer is yes. I'll hit you with the tough one again. All right. But the reality is, even though I've been talking over an hour, at this moment, you are more physiologically energized than you were when I started. If that's true, let me see those hands go up, please.

Now, let me tell you what's happening in your mind. Dr. Forrest Tennant, one of the, I believe, the number one drug authority in America, a brain chemist, as well, has done some research. It was reported in the May 1989 issue of Meetings and Conventions magazine, and he's done a lot of research since then. What happens when you hear an excited message, an exciting message with optimism and enthusiasm and some direction which builds hope in a person? Then the brain literally is in-flooded with endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, dopamine, serotonin, and those neurotransmitters that physiologically energize you. That's what's been going on in your mind. You're psychologically lifted, and you are physiologically lifted. This, for what it's worth, I never verbalize anything. I never write or record anything until I have validated it psychologically, theologically, and physiologically. You need to put all of them together to get all of the benefits which we have been talking about. So the motivation really is important, but the knowledge you acquire has to go with it. Knowledge founded on truth gives you power, and motivation is the switch that releases that power.

Yes, I do believe there is a significant benefit to the motivation. A lot of people are substantially confused about what motivation is about. I was speaking to the National Council of Parents for Drug-Free Youth in Washington several years ago. Wonderful organization. Nancy Reagan had been there and made a speech. Brooke Shields had done a commercial for them. I was the keynote speaker that evening. When I finished, people said nice things, and, you know, it was a wonderful occasion. I went upstairs, went to bed, got a good night's sleep, got up the next morning, went down for breakfast. I was standing at the finally in the front of the line. The, uh, the head waiter had gone out to see some people, and the restaurant was set up somewhat like this facility this evening, except that around the back is where all the new people came in. Well, these three ladies who had been there at the Eden before came in the back, and they walked around, and when they saw me, they whispered in tones that you could only hear 100, 150, 200 yards. One of them said, "There's our speaker from last night." Second one said, "Yes, it sure is." Third one said, "He sure doesn't look motivated to me." Now, you know, I don't know how you folks stand when you stand. But when I stand, I just stand. I do not know how to stand motivated. So I just, I don't know whether the ladies thought I should have been standing there, look out, maybe wave and jumping up and down while I was doing it. That's motivation. That's insanity.

To motivate is to pull out or draw out that which is in you. Emerson was right when he said, "What lies behind you and what lies before you are tiny matters compared to what lies within you." When you recognize, confess, and develop the you and use the ability you have, if you only can find it, to the day before vacation, uh, quality is there. It's absolutely awesome what you can do.

Now, what would happen, for example, if you and I could get together every morning for a sales meeting? And what would happen if you and I could get together every evening for another sales meeting? As you're driving in to work, we have this little meeting, 20, 30 minutes or whatever, and I share with you some of the things we're talking about this evening. Have some fun in the process. How many of you believe you'd get to work feeling better and consequently be more productive when you got here? And if you had another meeting with me that afternoon on the way home? You see, so many times we leave everything at the company. We leave everything on the job. Our energy is expended, and when we get home, you know, we walk in kind of like this, and we do not bring the same energy level there. But if that dopamine and endorphin and the serotonin and all of those endorphins get to really hop in there when you get home, the same energy level will be there. And ladies and gentlemen, we can get so much more done.

I was a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California for two years. And here's what a study they did revealed: If you live in a metropolitan area and you do qualify, in three years' time, you can acquire the equivalent of two years of college education in your car. You learn everything from Chinese art to a foreign language. You can be a vocabulary learner, sales closing. You can learn a thousand and one things in your car. We can either use that time or lose that time.

Let me ask you another critically important question, because if we're going to get it all, we've got to bring balance in our life. The day before vacation attitude just simply indicates that, yes, we can take some steps. But if working and arranging our schedule on the day before vacation, setting the goals that day, if it works that day, can you think of any reason why it would not work every day? I haven't said a word about working harder. I'm simply talking about working smarter in an organized manner.

Next question: If it works so well on the job, doesn't it make sense that if we planned our family time, if we planned our exercise time, if we planned our personal growth time, doesn't it make sense, ladies and gentlemen, that we would have more time for those things which we plan? You see, we got to plan them. If we don't plan them, they really do not happen. There's so many things we can do to take control. But the thing we have got to do is understand, even ladies and gentlemen, in this world today of downsizing, if we can increase the profitability of the company, if we can increase our productivity, then the downsizing is not likely to occur. But let me give you a specific example in case it does. I'll be the first to admit this is an absurd example. But let me ask you a question. Suppose the Dallas Cowboys go bankrupt. Now, they cannot do it. The league won't let them. And Jerry Jones owns half of Dallas and all of Arkansas, so you know it, it is not likely to happen. But let's just play like the Cowboys went bankrupt, and Jerry called the team together and he said, "Fellas, it just breaks my heart to tell you this. He said, 'We don't have any more money. We're going to have to close shop. Two weeks' average pay is what I'm going to give you, and that's it. It's all over.' And, oh, I hate it because I love the Cowboys." Now, let me ask you a question. If that should happen, how many of you believe there's a reasonably good chance that Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson and Larry Allen and a few of the other fellas could get him a job somewhere else? How many of you believe that would probably happen? All right. Next question: Would they get a job somewhere else because they played for the Cowboys, or because they performed for the Cowboys? What do you think? Now, if your company should go under, would you get another job because you worked for specific company A, or would you get another job because you performed for the company? What do you think? And whose responsibility is it to perform? Ours. We're not victims. See, there's something we can do, and we can do it better, and we can do it now. No, I'm not talking about working harder or longer. I'm simply talking about keeping a monitor on our time and organizing it. I'm talking about bringing that life in balance where you consider the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. Where you look at the personal and the family and the business. I believe I can document the evidence to a conclusive, uh, point where when you go for quality of life first, standard of living invariably follows. But if you go for standard of living first, there's no guarantee that the quality of life is ever going to go up. We need to live in balance.

And I want to conclude with this. When I was 25 years old, I was phenomenally successful. I had set some records that, as I said earlier, still stand. Then I stopped growing and started swelling. I had all the answers. The next 20 years were up and down. Had some good years, but had some awfully bad years. I had a one five-year stretch where I was in 17 different deals, and that's all they were, as deals. We had some tough times. When I was 45 years old, I was stone broke and in debt. Had worked hard all of my life. And then I entered the other dimension of life. That is, where I looked at the spiritual side. I lost my earthly father when I was 5 years old. When I was 45, thanks to an elderly African-American lady who spent the weekend with us, I met my heavenly Father, whom I can never lose. And as I started reading my Bible, and as I started studying The Book of Proverbs, the greatest book on business ever written, as I started reading the Book of Psalms, the greatest book on human relations ever written, and as I started looking at all the great truths in the Bible, I started realizing that there's more to life than what you can get. Now, when I heard that my past had been forgiven, that my Lord was with me every day, that my future with Him was guaranteed, that cleared it all up. Folks, I've done a hundred times as much since I realized I didn't have to do it myself.

I close with this thought: Believe in you. You were created in God's own image. Believe in what you do. Believe in your great company. Believe in this great country which we are a part of. And of infinitely more importance than all of them put together, believe in Almighty God. Because if you do, I'll close by saying, if you'll do these things, I will see you, and yes, I really do mean you, not just at the top. I will see you over the top. Thank you, and God bless you for being here this evening. Thank you so much.

I'm going to start my presentation today the way I start all presentations, regardless who I'm speaking to, on what subject, or wherever. I'm going to start with some questions. Here's my first one: How many of you have heard me before, or else this will be your first time? Can I see your hands, please? All right. Well, you are here. Now, listen carefully. The next one's kind of tricky. How many of you honestly and sincerely believe, as a matter of fact, you're totally convinced, that during the next 10 days, there's something you can specifically do that would make your personal life, your family life, and your business life worse? Can I see your hands? All right. Then, how many of you believe, honestly and sincerely, there's something you can specifically do in the next 10 days that would make your personal, business, and family life better? Can I see your hands? How many of you believe that the choice is yours? How many of you believe that every choice has an end result? Now, let me pause and tell you what you have just said. What you just said, whether you knew it or not, is simply this: I don't care how bad or good my past has been. I don't care how bad or good my present is. There is something I can specifically do in the next 10 days that would make my personal, family, and business life either better or worse, and the choice is mine, and that choice will have an end result. That's what you've said.

If my timing is correct, since I seriously started the talk, I'm now 62 seconds in. You see, as speakers, one of the things we must do is grab an audience as quickly as possible and feed them some nourishment almost immediately, so that we whet their appetite for further listening. I'm convinced of that. I'm the 10th of 12 children. I asked my mom one time, I said, "Why so many?" She said, "Well, son, where do you think I should have stopped?" Well, I sure, I sure didn't think after number nine. Now, you, you got to put that down as a for certain. But you know, my dad died when I was five. There were six of us, too young to work. Hard of the depression, we had it tough financially, but I'm so grateful I did not zero in on what we did not have. I did zero in on what others had. You know what I noticed as a child in Yazoo City, Mississippi? And I know a lot of people go around the country trying to impress people by claiming to be from Yazoo City, but I, I really am. I noticed as a child in the depression that there were some people wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars, living in nice houses, taking nice trips, playing golf at the country club. And I have noticed in every decade since, ladies and gentlemen, that regardless of how good the economy is, there are some people who are going to foul it up royally economically. And I don't care how bad the economy is, there are some people who are going to do extraordinarily well financially. Many of you have noticed exactly the same thing. Then let me ask you, if you can come to the same conclusion, and can you share with your audiences the same bit of hope and encouragement that really, it is not what is happening out there that is a determining factor. It is what's going on in our own mind that will make the difference.

We've now spent another couple of minutes in sharing an idea, a challenging idea. You see, if we can get rid of that "loser's limp," that concept that "it's somebody else's fault," that "I am a victim," if we can destroy that in a person's thinking, we've given them that first glimmer of hope. And as the privilege of the platform which we all so love and enjoy, I believe that's one of our great opportunities to go with that great privilege. Neil Rudenstein is the president of Harvard University. His mother is a part-time waitress. His father is a prison guard. You see, it doesn't make any difference who your mom and your daddy might be. It's what you do. We need to let people know that. So important. A lot of people don't realize it, but Yazoo City, Mississippi, is in the geographical center of the world. Did you know that? You can start, and Mr. Kamp, you might not even have known this, but being the geographical center of the world, you can start in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and go anywhere in the world you want to go. That's a fact. And the maximum distance from Yazoo City to anywhere in the world you want to go is just 12,000 miles. And the message has nothing to do with geography. What it really says is that we need to share with people that they can start from where they are, and the distance from there to where they want to go is the same. It really does rest with them. But you got to have a mission. As speakers, we need one. Our mission is simply this: to be the difference maker in the personal, family, and business lives of enough people to make a positive difference in America and the world. Oh, I know that sounds presumptuous. So let me share with you a, a simple little story that might bring it back into perspective.

A grandfather was walking on the beach with his grandson. And as an aside, if I'd known the grandson was going to be so much fun, I certainly would have been nicer to their, their parents. But he was walking on the beach with his grandson, and he would reach down, and he'd pick up a sand dollar, and he'd throw it out to sea. And he'd reach down, he'd pick up another one, and throw it out to sea, and another one. And finally, his grandson said, "Granddaddy, what are you doing?" And the grandfather said, "Well, son, these sand dollars are living organisms. They've been washed to shore on the waves, and they'll die here in the hot sun if I don't throw them out to sea." And that's what I'm doing. And the grandson said, "But Granddaddy, there are so many of them. What possible difference can it make?" The grandfather reached down, and he picked up another one, and he threw it out to sea, and he said, "For this one, it makes all the difference in the world."

My friend John Maxwell from San Diego says that in a lifetime, each individual influences 10,000 other people on average. As speakers, you will influence tens of thousands of other people. And there are those in that audience who need the positive influence that you can bring. It's an awesome, awesome responsibility. I want to share some things with you. Since we're in the communications world, I now live in Dallas. I wasn't born there, but I got there quick as I could. This lady, I went to see a lawyer for a divorce. And he said, "What's the problem?" She started generalizing. He said, "No, let's be specific." And, uh, she said, "Like how?" And he said, "Well, do you have any grounds?" She said, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, we got about 40 acres out here on the north end of town." He said, "No, that's not what I'm talking about. Do you have a grudge?" She said, "No, but we got a really neat little carport there on the side of the house." And he said, "Woman, we need to get personal." And she said, "Like how?" And he said, "Well, for example, does that man ever beat you up?" She said, "Oh, no. I'm up every day at least an hour, hour and a half before he even turns over." He said, "Woman, do you accept in responsibility for the difficulties?" And she said, "Like how?" And he said, "Well, for example, do you ever wake up grouchy?" She said, "Oh, no. Said I just let him get up on his own, whatever he will." And he said, "Well, why do you want to divorce him?" She said, "The guy just can't communicate." See, I believe that communication is is enormously important. But where does success on the platform begin? It really begins with commitment. Most people are about as committed as a Kamikaze pilot on his 39th mission.

I never will forget January 7th, 1992. I rode past the Plano, Texas Rec Center where I do my exercises in weightlifting. Had to back away from the weightlifting. I was booking up, and a lot of people thought I was on steroids. And, you know, my reputation and such, can't do that. But I couldn't get in that day. No parking space. Rode past. Next day, I was back. By this time, I squeezed in, went in the Nautilus room, and every machine had three, four, five, six people lined up. I couldn't fight that. I came back to the front desk and I said to the young man, Sean, "What on earth is going on?" Old Sean grinned so wide he could eat a banana sideways as he responded to me. He said, "Z, don't worry about it. Don't give it a thought. Give us about three weeks. It'll be back to normal. These are our New Year's resolution people." You see, a lot of people, that's the way they do things. They make a resolution, and as long as it's convenient, involving no pain or trouble, and as long as they remember it, they'll be lighted, delighted to do it. But a commitment is absolutely necessary.

Let me, let me kind of set a little scenario here to, to tell you what I'm talking about. He was an All-Pro eight consecutive years. He had just signed a contract for $6.4 million. And yet, last year, this young man, who some of you probably have already figured out, this young man, Hakeem, and then in his native language, that means "doctor" or "wise one." Olajuwon, and that in his language means "being on top." And when you talk to Hakeem Olajuwon, he will talk to you about sacrifice and humility and equality and patience and tolerance and self-restraint and self-control and discipline. What did he do last year between seasons? He knew he had a weakness in his game. It was a 15-foot jump shot. 500 times a day, he went out there and from 15 feet, he practiced the jump shot. All you got to do is check the records, look at the scores, see what happened in the championship game, and you'll discover that Houston would not have won the NBA Championship had Hakeem not perfected that shot, because they were so close, and those shots are what made the difference. And what I'm talking about there, as speakers, is that's the difference between personal fulfillment or self-fulfillment and personal growth. You see, self-fulfillment is the bodybuilder who goes to the gym and develops the muscles and spends all the time admiring that physique. Personal growth is that individual who goes to the gym and lifts those weights and practices those jump shots so he can be part of a winning team. Self-fulfillment is the Dead Sea. It's an end. A personal growth is the Sea of Galilee. It's a living, growing, vibrant water. Self-fulfillment is the student who learns so they can display their knowledge. Personal growth is the teacher who learns so that they can teach it. It's a speaker who acquires knowledge that is valuable to somebody else so they can communicate that to them. That's the difference, basically, in what I'm talking about.

The privilege of the platform. I dug up my Trustee 1828 Noah Webster dictionary. I use that one because they used the right words in those days with the right identifications. Isn't, do you know why Webster wrote that dictionary? His wife kept asking him, "Now, what does that mean?" Well, anyhow, uh, you know, I dug it up, and, uh, I looked up the word "privilege," and it's "a particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or society beyond the common advantage of other citizens. It's an advantage, right, or immunity not common to others or the human race." Privilege. Any nation, though, that individual who takes their privileges more seriously than their rights and responsibilities will soon lose both. We need to be consistent if we're going to make it big in the profession. And when I say "make it big," I'm talking about getting in that position where you have an influence on other people, where you have that word of encouragement. Now, if you're in physical fitness, you need to be consistent. In other words, if you're going to talk about physical fitness, you ought to be physically fit. If you're going to talk about ethics and moral values, you ought to maintain those. If you're going to talk about building a solid financial career, you ought to be an example of what you're talking about. Consistency of action, I believe, is the key to long-term success of the platform. You know, of course, what you call a person who practices one thing and preaches another? What do you call them? Hypocrites. And as you well know, a hypocrite is a fellow who gripes and complains about the sex, nudity, and violence on his VCR. I think you'll agree that's a hypocrite. I might also say that a hypocrite is a fellow who simply is not himself on Sunday. Consistency of action is what I really want to talk about. And, and you know, the truth of the matter is, as individuals, we need to understand that the mic is on, and the mic is open, and the camera is on. I'm always intrigued with these public figures, athletes, and politicians, and so forth, not statesmen.

Uh, Mr. Kamp, politicians, there's a difference. That are always saying, "Well, they misquoted me," or, "I didn't realize the mic was on." Friend, the mic is always open, and the camera is always on us. Consistency of action and the words we use are so incredibly important.

I love what Charles Osgood said when he said, "Compared to the spoken word, a picture is a pitiful thing indeed." If we're going, ladies and gentlemen, to influence people, and that's not the thing that I do not appreciate overhead, I'm simply saying that the warmth, and the affection, and the love, and the hope, and the encouragement that the human voice can communicate is the most powerful communication tool of all times. Particularly if we consistently, from the platform and in our personal and family lives, are consistent in those words we use and the deeds we follow. How important, how powerful are they?

Well, you see, your impact can be absolutely incredible. We can turn this world of ours completely around if all of the speakers were committed to deliver that message of hope, that message of encouragement, understanding that the basic philosophy is, you know, philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. A philosophy that clearly says that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. That concept, that philosophy will encourage people. And as you'll see, as we go along, it works in everybody's life.

But the power of your words. Adlai Stevenson put it this way: "When Cicero spoke, the crowd stood and cheered. When the modern man spoke, the crowd stood and marched." We need to get people into action. We need to have them marching. We need to have them, we need to leave them with something that they yet can take a specific action on.

How important, how powerful are words? A man named P.C. Merrill, when I was a young salesman, 22 years old, in debt, broke, the whole smear going absolutely nowhere. And Mr. Merrill said some words to me in Charlotte, North Carolina. 21 other people were there, but the words he said to me so dramatically changed my life that before the year was over, I was the number two salesman in America out of over 7,000 salespeople. Had the best promotion the company had to offer. Had swapped the little Crosley, which I had driven to that meeting, for a luxury car. And the next year was the highest-paid field manager in the United States.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, one word can have a lot of impact. I pick up Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's book, "The Power of Positive Thinking." I occupied a solid position with the company I was in. Had four field managers when I was promoted. And almost immediately, tragedy happened to all four of them. Our business went way down. There was talk about getting rid of Zig because he couldn't do the job. Oh, I was having a pity party. Problem with pity parties is very few people come, and nobody brings presents. I picked up that bucket. Peale's book. I'd been saying, "Oh, I'm the good guy. I didn't have anything to do with that heart attack, and cutting the toe off, and the integrity. I didn't have anything to do with that." And Dr. Peale, in his book, said, "You're right, Zig. You had nothing whatever to do with it. But you've got everything to do with how you handle what happens to you."

You see, folks, the reality is, 300 world-class leaders. I'm talking about Churchill and Roosevelt. I'm talking about Helen Keller and Mother Teresa and Clara Barton. I'm talking to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. 300 world-class leaders. 75% of them either had some serious physical defect, or else they had been abused as children, or they had been raised in poverty. But they clearly understood: it is not what happens to you, it's how you handle it that's going to make the difference.

Words can make such a big difference. Cavett Robert said to me time after time, "Why don't you write a book? You've got something to say. Write it." Without that encouragement, there might have been several more years before "See You at the Top" became a reality. You see, I believe we need to give people hope. We need to give them encouragement. And the reality is, that book contains 384 pages. Took me 10 months to write it. And in those 10 months, I figured it out. You see, all I had to do was write one and a quarter pages a day, every day, for 10 months. In the same period of time, I lost 37 pounds. That meant all I had to do was lose one and nine-tenths ounces a day.

We need to give our audiences a thought, an action plan, an idea. And let it be such that, "Yes, I can do that." See, everybody, in their own mindset, "I can do that." That's what I'm talking about. That's what we give to people. And to do that, we literally must understand the power of the word.

Think about this: good or bad, words make a difference. Fell wrote a book, the title of it was "The Origin of the Species." It was the book that most dramatically influenced Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. They built their whole philosophy on it. It's the ultimate book on racism, the inferior race. And so that gave them privilege to destroy, or attempt to destroy, a whole race because they were setting up the dream race, the positive Aryan race. And we know the result. Wonder what would have happened had they carefully studied their Bible? What a difference this world would have been. What a difference they would make. It can be positive or negative. And so the choice, I'm saying, really is yours.

You need to read and prepare. Somebody asked me, "How do you prepare?" Well, of the last 22 years, I have read an average of three hours a day. What do you read? Well, I read for information. I read for knowledge. And I read for wisdom. Truth is, every day I read my Bible and the daily newspaper. That way, I know what both sides are up to. And I think that's important.

But I want to emphasize the point: you can have all of the knowledge in the world. You get information out of the newspaper and magazine. You get knowledge out of good books, encyclopedias, and seminars conducted by the National Speakers Association. That is where you get knowledge. But knowledge is not the answer, folks. If it were, every PhD in America would be rich and happy, and every high school dropout would be broke and miserable. And we know that's not true.

And so, to go with that, we need wisdom. Now, what is wisdom? It's a spiritual dimension. It is nothing but the correct use of knowledge. Doesn't make any difference how much knowledge you've got if you don't know how to use it, you're going to come to wrong conclusions. And that's what we're getting at here.

What is this thing called the privilege? What is it that people really do want in life? Well, everybody wants to be happy. I've never yet met a human being and said, "I want to be miserable." But let me simply say this to you: you will, other people can give you pleasure, but you'll never be happy until you do things for other people. You can take it to the bank. That's absolute truth. What's the greatest joy you receive? Is it because somebody says, "You're a great speaker"? Or is it because somebody comes up to you and says, "Let me tell you what it meant to me when you said this, and I responded to it"?

You know, too many people are too self-centered. One of the major problems of most speakers, or many speakers, I should say, is the average individual believes that anybody who can stand up and put three sentences together and still manage to walk off the platform are some kind of genius. And so they come up and they brag on us, and brag on us, you know. And it's not long before we get to thinking we're pretty hot stuff. And that's where the downhill slide begins right there. False pride and sex is a thing that destroys more budding careers than anything I've seen. And lack of preparation is another factor that, you know, that figures in that.

We want to be happy. And if we can work with some people to help them achieve that. But, you know, you're not going to please everybody. Doesn't make any difference what you do. Most of you know that Thomas Edison worked thousands of experiments trying to perfect the electric light. When he finally got it burning, it was 2:00 in the morning, and he heard this voice from the back of the house, "Time. It's 2:00. Put that light out and come on to bed." So you're not going to please everybody. That's progress.

How much preparation do you do? I don't know about you. I do a lot of public seminars. That means I simply do the same seminar from one city to the next. I've done hundreds of them. I'll average roughly three hours before each one. Because, you see, I can't gamble. I can't take a chance. I must be ready. If you've got 1,000 people, or 16,000 people, or in one audience, I spoke to 60,000 people in the Georgia Dome. If you've got that many people, each investing an hour of their time, that would be 5,000 hours, 10,000 hours. Think of all of those hours. Your responsibility, from having taking them from their homes, their families, their jobs, is to feed them something infinitely more valuable than the time they would have invested doing their regular job.

You need to understand what they want. Everybody wants to be healthy. A lot of people burn the candle at both ends. Say, "Boy, if I just work harder, I can, I can get more done." Evidence is solid that it is not. I heard about a moth that flew into a two-year-old's birthday party and burned the end at both candles. I mean, now, you know, things like that's a little subtle for some of you. But I, instead of the red head told me that wasn't going to work. But anyhow, there it is.

We need to be healthy. We need to look at our physical health, our mental health, and our spiritual health. You see, if you're going to get it all, you've got to deal with the whole person. And the personal life, the family life, and their business life. You've got to look at the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. You're going to get it all. And I don't know about you, I want to win the whole ball game. Happy. Everybody wants to be healthy. And they want to be, ladies and gentlemen, at least reasonably prosperous. I get amused at people who say, "Well, I'm not really interested in money." Anybody to say that. A lot about other things too.

Well, Zig, can you put it all together? Can you really have it all? Can you help other people get what they want and still benefit? Well, yes, you can. And that's the exciting thing. Now, I was privy to a kind of a private conversation, and I hope I don't offend anybody with this, but I was listening to four of our illustrious speakers here, kind of talking away. And it was Cavett Robert, and Art Linkletter, and Zig Ziglar, and Don Hood. And all of them were complaining that now they have to check their wallets as excess baggage. I mean, you know, that's a, I mean, prosperity is possible in this business, but it's possible if it's tied to helping other people.

How do you build in this business? You adopt the immigration attitude. Do you know that an immigrant, whether they're from the Orient, or South America, or Africa, or the Middle East, is four times as likely to become a millionaire in America as are the native born? Why is that? Little four-year-old girl explained it to me in minute detail. Got aboard an aircraft. That's how I fly. I was in Dallas, Texas. I was on my way to Norfolk, Virginia. I was the first one aboard. And as I got seated in seat 2C, aboard came this little family: a mother carrying an infant, leading a toddler. And a little four-year-old was bringing up the rear. The two, the mother and the two little ones, quickly made their way to the rear and had their seat. The little four-year-old turned and looked left at the, in the fuselage, into the cockpit. Those three magnificent figures with all the bars, and they saw all the wheels, and the bells, and the whistles, and all of the electronic gear, probably more than that child had seen in her lifetime. And when she turned around, those little eyes were as big as saucers. I don't know why the child did it, but she put her little hands on her little legs and kind of bent over, looked down that long fuselage, and said, "Gosh, that's what immigrants say when they come to America. Gosh, what an incredible opportunity."

I host a TV program called "Unsung Heroes." We had a chance, one of the young people that we were, that they were focusing in on, was a girl from Vietnam. She had been chosen as one of the heroes. And when they called her and told her that they were going to be coming out to film her, she could not contain her excitement and enthusiasm. "Oh," she said, "I'll have my apartment all cleaner. It is so beautiful. You're going to absolutely love it." They got out there. It was in a very dangerous section of town. Two rooms, glaring paint on it, cheap pictures, no furniture, almost. But for her, it was total luxury. That immigrant comes in to America, and they pick up the one ad C and say, "Did you see this morning in the Washington Post? There are 286 jobs offered, and some of them pay $5 an hour." Oh, I know you folks here don't think that's a whole lot of money. But where I come from, that's three days' wages. And I live cheaply. I'll get me a second job. Then I'll go to community college. I will get myself an education. And you know the truth is, by the time they find out we've got problems in America, it's too late. They've already made it. They've already made it.

That's what I'm talking about. The sheer joy, the excitement, the privilege of the platform. Are you really turned on every time you get up, or do you think, "Boy, here's another speech"? If that's your attitude, I plead with you, do the rest of us a favor and get out of this business. Get out of this business. Your responsibility simply is too great. The possibilities for good are so absolutely enormous that you cannot comprehend it.

We need to, if we're going to really be prepared, we've got to look at our physical lives. I'm 67. I know most of you thought I was in my early 30s. I have a resting heart rate of 47. My cholesterol level is 161. My blood pressure is out of a 40-year-old. When I was 62 years old, I stayed on the treadmill at Cooper's Clinic in Dallas, Texas, longer than any active player in the National Football League who's taken the test. And many of them have. And unlike Mr. C, I am not an athlete, but I am disciplined, and I am committed. See, 189 of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies are former United States Marines. 26 of our presidents served in the military. What do they teach there? They teach discipline, and commitment, and direction, and focus, and energy. They teach building on integrity. If you will, I'm telling you, it absolutely is a magnificent experience.

Why do I talk about the physical? Because I believe we have a responsibility to take care of our body. Just as a matter of curiosity, is there anybody here who owns a racehorse worth any excess of a million dollars? Let me ask you a question: If you had a million-dollar racehorse, would you keep him up half the night? Let him drink coffee and booze and smoke cigarettes and eat junk food? And if you did, how many races would that sucker win? And if we take this billion-dollar body of ours and abuse it, then how many races are we really going to win?

Take care of yourself mentally. You need to grow. Let me tell you one of the most exciting bits of information here. At Georgetown University Medical School, they discovered that in 100% of the cases, when you improve your vocabulary, your IQ goes up. Simple suggestion. Won't take you any time at all. Buy yourself a dictionary and put it in the bathroom. I'll absolutely guarantee you that if you will learn one new word today, it will have a dramatic impact on your understanding of a whole lot of things. Your vocabulary, your ability to express every human emotion will expand so tremendously that you'll be able to explain every human emotion and demonstrate every one of them without using one single vulgar, profane word. That's right. You'll even be able to express yourself without taking God's name in vain. And when you look at that, think of the tremendous advantage that will give you in life. Yes, the ability to express yourself.

If you have any questions about the spiritual aspects of life, is it important? Let me encourage you. Go to your life library. Pick up a copy of the April 28th, 1986 issue of Fortune magazine. That was April 28th, 1986 issue, Fortune Magazine. And then you'll read. They did a study. The CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies. Here's what they found: 52% of them came from the lower middle class or poor families. Doesn't make any difference where you start, folks. 91% of them were either Catholic, Jewish, or Protestant. There was some indication they were at least semi-active in their faith. Only 7% professed no faith at all. 91% expressed their interest in their faith. Now, apparently, faith plays a part. That indicates that they learned their ethics, their morals, and their values out of the Bible or out of church. I got news for you. If Tom Peters or Stephen Covey wrote a book, and 91% of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies says, "That's the one I read," I guarantee you the bookstores would have a flood of people wanting to buy that book. Because information is valid.

You will read there that it takes 2,500 professional families, doctors, professors, attorneys, and whatever, to produce one member of Who's Who. But it only takes seven missionary families to produce one member of Who's Who. I think that's worth looking into.

You see, what I've said so many times is, you've got to be before you can do, and you've got to do before you can have. Failure is an event. It is not a person. Yesterday really did. Last night. Today is a brand new day, and it is yours. You can start over today. It's the same plan every day, and you'll be amazed at how much more you will be able to get done if you take it to that step.

If I want to kind of wind it up by talking about something I think is critically important. What are we going to leave behind? When they lay you into that ground the last time, how will you be remembered? What legacy will you leave? Will they remember you as a great speaker or a great philanthropist? Will they remember you as a person who changed lives? Let me tell you why in my new book, I don't even talk about the dollars, and I don't talk about corporate position. And that's not to say I'm not vitally interested in them, because I am. But you see, I believe that's the result of doing the right things and being the right person.

Every year in Yazoo City, we have a family reunion. We live in Dallas now. The rest of the family lives much closer, and they generally drive in for the big family reunion. And the pig out takes place every Saturday. That's Saturday. It starts at 11:17 and ends at 9:14 that evening. Average weight gain is 2.2 pounds. It would be higher than that, but the truth is, ladies and gentlemen, that we have so many little ones around, it's not realistic to expect a 25% weight gain with them involved.

So on this particular occasion, we stopped in Jackson, rented the car, drove to Yazoo City, and stopped in a grocery store. My wife, she took her checkbook out, and she wrote the check for the amount and handed it to the lady. And immediately she reached into her billfold and pulled out a couple of credit cards as well as her driver's license and said, "I suppose you'll want to see these." The lady never looked down at the driver's license or the credit card. She was looking at the check. She said, "No. In Yazoo City, this name is all the identification we'll need." Now, please understand, I'd been gone well over 40 years. She was not talking about me. She was talking about my mother, and my older brothers and sisters, and the legacy they had left behind. That day, I promised and knew that if I never left a dime, I would try to leave my family a name that they can build on. You see, when you build a name, you can build a business. When you build a business, you influence people.

To watch another amazing Zig Ziglar video, check it out right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. I was almost literally raised in a grocery store. I was a teller in a grocery store. Now, I'm not trying to impress you with the title. That just meant I told people to move while I swept. I mean, I was not the manager.