Remembering Zig
Late last month one of my favorite mentors, Zig Ziglar, passed away. Reflecting on Zig’s life and his impact on so many thousands of people across the world brought back special memories of times I have spent under his teaching and leadership. During the early 90’s my wife and I lived in the Dallas, TX metroplex. One of my favorite memories of that time was being a member of Zig Ziglar’s Sunday School Class at the First Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. He was a great Bible teacher and very passionate about his faith and how that was foundational to everything he did in his life.
He is an author of numerous books including:See You at the Top: 25th Anniversary Edition, his autobiography, Zig: The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar and Courtship After Marriage. The autobiography tells the wonderful story of his life and what he overcame to get where he is today. There are some great lessons about life, family, faith and perseverance. Courtship provides some great lessons on having a great marriage for a lifetime.
The book, Great Quotes from Zig Ziglar, provides a great collection of Zig’s quotes over the years. I have learned a lot from him over the years and here are some of my favorite quotes below.
Look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion, and up with gratitude.
- Some people find fault like there is a reward for it.
- If you will pump long enough, hard enough, and enthusiastically enough, sooner or later the effort will bring forth the reward.
- We cannot build our lives around what might happen tomorrow.
- Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.
One of the greatest disasters of our time is our universal acceptance of the word “tolerance” as a great virtue.
- Inspect to make sure you get what you expect.
- The height of man’s success is determined by the depth of his belief.
- When we do more than we are paid for, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.
- What you do off the job is the determining factor in how far you will go on the job.
Possibly the greatest waste in life is the gap between what you are and what you could become.
- The way you see life will largely determine what you will get out of it.
- The next time you encounter a difficult obstacle or problem, you should smile and say, “Here’s my chance to grow.”
- “Success is not a destination, it’s a journey – it’s the direction in which you are traveling.”
You can have everything in life you want,
if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
- The real opportunity for success lies within the person and not in the job.
- It is easy to get to the top after you get through the crowd at the bottom.
- The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work – if you won’t.
- Motivation is the fuel necessary to keep the human engine running.
- Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them!
- What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination.
- Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there.
- Make motivation a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.
The basic goal-reaching principle is to understand that you go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will always be able to see farther.
- You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility.
- Ambition, fueled by compassion, wisdom and integrity, is a powerful force for good that will turn the wheels of industry and open the doors of opportunity for you and countless others.
Is character caught or taught?
- Both to some degree, as leader try to bring best out of people.
- Winning isn’t everything, it was our goal, but we need to be well-rounded people, have good lives outside football, our profession.
We Miss You Zig! Thanks for all your investment in our lives through the years!
If you found any of these inspirational pick up one of his many books and follow his son on twitter @tomziglar to see more of Zig’s wisdom and insight into great leadership.
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