Leadership Success and Overcoming Adversities: "Zig" Ziglar
story
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