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Leadership Success and Overcoming Adversities: Zig
Ziglar story
- Noted Motivational Speaker and Chairman, Ziglar Training
Systems
By Howard Edward Haller, Ph. D.
This groundbreaking leadership research by has received
extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known prominent
business, political, and academic leaders who either participated in the study
or reviewed the research findings.
You will discover the proven success habits and secrets of
people who, in spite of difficult or life threatening challenges shaped their
own destiny to become successful, effective leaders. The full results of this
research will be presented in the upcoming book by Dr. Howard Edward Haller
titled "Leadership: View from the Shoulders of Giants."
The nine initial prominent successful leaders who overcame
adversity that were interviewed included: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, U.S. Senator
Orrin Hatch, Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Dr. John Malone, Larry
Pino, U.S. Army Major General Sid Shachnow, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.
The data from the above nine research participants was
materially augmented by seven other successful leaders who overcame adversity
including: Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark Victor Hansen, J. Terrence
Lanni, Angelo Mozilo, Dr. Nido Qubein, and Dr. John Sperling.
Additionally, five internationally known and respected
leadership scholars offered their reviews of the leadership research findings
including: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Jim Kouzes, Dr. John Kotter, Dr. Paul Stoltz, and
Dr. Meg Wheatley.
This is a short biography of one of the principal
participants who generously contributed their time and insight for this
important research into the phenomenon of how prominent successful leaders
overcome adversity and obstacles.
This "Zig" Ziglar's story:
Zig Ziglar was born
in 1926, in what he termed "very modest circumstances" to a family that was
"financially challenged in many ways." He was "the tenth of twelve children
born to a family living in rural Mississippi." He lost his father at the age of
five.
Zig worked from an early age to support his family. He
shared that he "had what was known as an inferiority complex." Until "Judge"
Ziglar's untimely death, he worked hard in a very depressed economy to provide
for his large family. Zig said his Papa "was a thoughtful man possessed of
great confidence. Everyone respected his intelligence, fairness, and judgment."
Two days after his father's funeral, Zig's 14-month-old
baby sister also died. Zig's mother decided to move the family to the "big
city" of Yazoo City on the Mississippi River delta. His mother was well-versed
in the Bible and regularly quoted from it. "My mother was famous for her 'one
minute sermons.'"
Zig worked his way through school, beginning with
elementary school and continuing through his college years. In 1943, Zig joined
the Naval Air Corps. Zig said, "I never would have had a chance to get into
college were it not for the V5 Program." He continued, "Despite being a poor
student, I did well enough on my [Navy] Air Corps entrance exams to be accepted
into the Navy's pre-flight training program."
He entered Millsap College in July of 1944, as part of the
Navy's V5 program for Navy pilots. It was while he was attending Millsap that
he met and started dating Jean Abernathy.
Zig was transferred to the University of South Carolina by
the Navy. When World War II ended Zig continued to attend the University of
South Carolina, selling sandwiches to other students to pay his expenses, and
continued to court Jean Abernathy by mail. Zig and Jean were married on
Thanksgiving Day in 1946.
The summer after they were married, Zig's sandwich
business died off. The couple began to struggle financially. Zig got a job
selling expensive cookware through dinner parties, but he still had his
"inferiority complex."
That was the case until an important talk and words of
encouragement from a respected mentor became the pivotal event that changed
Zig's entire life. Ziglar proved his mentor right, moving from failure to
success. But Zig also faced many obstacles as a field manager, obstacles that
were to test him in the extreme.
After his sales and sales management experiences, Ziglar
made a career change, focusing his attention on becoming an accomplished public
speaker. He had not been attending church regularly, but he returned to it,
becoming a devoted Christian. He described the importance of his embracing
Christianity:
"My greatest help came in the form of my faith when I
became a Christian on July 4, 1972. As I came to realize how much God loved me,
as a result I loved myself more and respected myself more."
"Again, here was a factor in my life that made a major
difference {his mentor and friend Cavett Roberts]." Cavett Roberts, founder of
the National Speakers Association (NSA), who was one of Zig's many mentors,
persuaded Zig to put his message in writing. He did so. In fact, Zig has now
authored twenty-three books on leadership, personal growth, sales, faith,
family, and success.
I have known Zig Ziglar for many years and attended
several of his training sessions. One of Zig's trademark lines sums up his
attitude perfectly: "You can have everything in life you want if you will just
help enough other people get what they want."
For as Paul Harvey is fond of saying "and now for the rest
of the story" read Zig's wonderful and uplifting book "Zig: The Autobiography
of Zig Ziglar" (2002).
Copyright 2006 © Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
Chief Enlightenment
Officer
The Leadership Success Institute
www.TheLeaderInstitute.com
Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D. is the Chief Enlightenment
Officer of the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho based The Leadership Success Institute. His
Doctoral dissertation in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga Univ. included
interviews with prominent US leaders in business, politics & education. He
is turning is leadership Doctoral dissertation into a book titled- Leadership :
View From the Shoulders of Giants" |
