The Resilient Mind - You Were Born to Win - Zig Ziglar

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

Zig Ziglar was a best-selling American author and speaker who uplifted millions with his motivational message. One of his infamous lecture "See You At The Top" talks about why a positive mental attitude is critical for your success.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to You Were Born to Win with Zig Zigler. Get access to the Mental Mastery Program and other exclusive episodes by becoming a subscriber. Enjoy. I want to emphasize a point in our seminar today, and that simple is this. You were born to win. In my mind, there's absolutely no doubt about it. You were born to win.

And I want to start with a story, which I think says a lot. The year is 1974. There's a game scheduled between Notre Dame University and the mighty UCLA Bruins. UCLA is running absolutely roughshod over the competition. They've won 10 of 12 national championships, including seven in a row. Now, Digger Phelps is excited, he's enthusiastic,

he's all motivated, he's turned on, and he doesn't believe that. media when they say that UCLA is going to be running rough shot over Notre Dame. At the end of Monday's practice session, Digger had his team doing a most unusual thing. He had them run down to the end of the courts and cut down the nets. Now, folks, if you know anything at all about basketball, you know that they do not cut down the nets after the end of a practice session. They cut down the nets after they've beaten the bad guys across town.

after they won the district or national championship, but not after a practice session. On Tuesday, Digger Phelps had his team go down to the end of the courts and cut down the nets again. By Wednesday, his guys were convinced that Digger was going to make them the best net cutter-downers in all of college basketball. So by Thursday, they were highly motivated

about cutting down those nets. I mean, they got good at it. And by Friday, listen, after Friday session, they were motivated out. out of their gourd, so much so as a matter of fact, they did it so good that it was almost anti-climactic when on Saturday, now I did say almost, when on Saturday after pulling maybe the biggest upset

in basketball history, Notre Dame beat Mighty UCLA. They had won that game. Now, folks, you've got to know, but I'm not going to have the audacity to stand here or maybe kneel here, and tell you that the reason that Notre Dame won the game is because they had been practicing cutting down the nets all week long, but I will say this to you without any fear of error.

That simply is this. You were born to win. But in order to be the winner you were born to be, you must plan to win, you've got to prepare to win, and you must expect to win. And if you don't plan to win, and if you don't prepare to win, then you have no legitimate reason for expecting to win.

Whether you live in Salt Lake City, Portland, or Kansas City, you've got to have a plan. Now, I want to emphasize something. Digger Phelps and his coaches put together a magnificent game plan. They worked hard all week long, preparing for the game on Saturday. And then on Saturday, because they had planned. to win and because they had prepared to win, they legitimately expected to win, and that is exactly what happened. That's what today is about.

That's what the seminar is about, planning to win and preparing to win and building within you that legitimate expectancy based on realistic observations, facts, and procedures that if you'll take the first two steps, you have every right to expect to win and become the winner you were born to be. I want to establish something here that's very important. Matter of fact, we'll build this seminar around three basic premises, and that simply is that you are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. Now, you can change what you are,

you can change where you are, by changing what goes into your mind. I want to emphasize that because that is an extraordinarily important part of what we go through. Now, I want to also tie to that the fact that life is a long series of choices. And if we make enough of the right choices, we will end up with the right results. For example, for 24 years of my adult life by choice, I weighed well over 200 pounds. Now, the reason I say by choice is simply because I have never accidentally eaten anything.

I mean, it's always been by choice. And if I choose to eat too much today, then I have chosen to weigh too much tomorrow. If I choose to get drunk tonight, then I have chosen to feel miserable tomorrow. Every choice has an end result. Now, you see, we can choose what we put in their mind. And when we choose the right thing to put in our mind,

we have chosen the right thinking. We then have chosen the right actions, and the right action produces winners, ladies and gentlemen. Let me share something with you to emphasize the importance of input and expectancy in your mind. We teach a seminar in Dallas. It's called Literally Born to Win. People come from all over the world to attend.

We had a young man there a couple of years ago named Samuel Aquasi, Sarpong. Now he's from the Ashanti tribe in the nation of Ghana. In his land, they name the babies, the children, based on the day of the week on which they're born. The fact that his name was a quasi, now they have a couple of other names too. The fact that his name was a quasi indicates that he was born on Sunday. Now, that simply in his language means godly. gentle, kind, and peace-loving. By coincidence, this young man was a Christian minister.

Those who were born on Wednesday are named Kwaku. Now, Kwoku means mean, violent, aggressive, quick-tempered. By the strangest of coincidences, over 50% of all of the crime committed in the nation of Ghana is committed by those who are born on Wednesday. Sociologists say the only explanation they have is the fact that an expectancy is set up in the minds of the parents. Can't you just visualize the scene? Mom and dad get the good news. They're going to have a baby. Can't you hear them just. talking, well, boy, I'm sure glad we're going to have us a baby, but boy, I hope that kid

doesn't get here on Wednesday. And then can't you imagine little quaku shows up and the first time he drops the ball? Can't you just hear old dad saying, well, what do you expect that kid was born on Wednesday? Expectancy, which is set up in the mind, is so critically important. Now, we all might laugh and say, yeah, but Zig, that was in the... a Shanti tribe in Africa, thousands of miles away. Let me tell you something interesting about America. Did you know? According to Wendell Johnson in this book, People in Quandris,

that in America there's not a single full-blooded Indian on a reservation who stutters. That's right. Now here's another interesting little thing. In the Indian languages and dialects there is not a word, nor is there a substitute word for stutter. And if there's not a word for stutter, how are you going to stutter? You kind of snickle a little bit and you say, well, that's kind of cute, Zegler, but what's that dude trying to tell me?

Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Words paint pictures. Then the mind goes to work to complete the picture. Now, that's the reason the words you use, the language you use are so important, because of those pictures. For example, think of the picture that's painted in the mind of a child when the parrot calls him stupid. Do you really think that makes them any smarter? Or does it have exactly the opposite effect? You're absolutely right.

Bill Glass, good friend of mine. Bill is the former all-pro-in for the Cleveland Browns. and build us a lot of work in the prisons in America today. And he says that over 90% of the men and women who are incarcerated in our prisons today were repeatedly told by their parents. One of these days, you are going to end up in jail. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thousands of years ago,

the Bible said, as ye sow, so also shall you reap. Then the computer people came along, in modern times and made it a hundred percent negative. Garbage in, garbage out. Well, our seminar is a positive one, and so what I want to say to you is the same truth, and that is if you put the good stuff in, you're going to get the good stuff out.

To me, that's exciting. You are what you are and where you are because of what's going into your mind. You can change where you are. You can change where you are by changing what goes into your mind. will say some things a number of times today because repetition is the mother of learning and it is the father of action, making it the architect of accomplishment. I love, just love,

what Dr. Tony Komola of Eastern College in Pennsylvania says. Dr. Komola says, and I'm absolutely in agreement with him, Dr. Komola says over and over that your past is important because it is brought you to where you are. But as important as your past is, as it relates to your present, it is not nearly as important as the way you see your future. You see, ladies and gentlemen, the way you see your future determines your thinking today. Your thinking today determines your performance today, and your performance today determines your future.

But hey, did you hear what else? Dr. Compola said, Dr. Compola said, look, I understand about your past. I understand that you've had a bankruptcy. I understand that you've had a failed marriage. I understand that you've been chemically dependent. I understand that you were abused as a child. I understand all of those things.

but let me say it over and over and over that is in the past and I want to say this a number of times failure is an event it is not a person think of all of the times that Babe Ruth struck out think of all the incomplete passes

that Roger Staubach threw think of all the sales that a super salesperson is missed whether they live here in Salt Lake or Portland or Kansas City or Yazoo City. We've missed a lot of sales. So what? Failure is an event. It is not a person. In my own life, I was

stone broke at age 45. My dad died when I was five years old. It was the heart of the depression. I'd worked hard all of my life. I had been selling on the street since I was eight years old. I was milking cows by the time. I was eight years old. We survived only because we had a mother with an enormous amount of faith and the capacity for a lot of hard work and enormous amount of wisdom. I was milking those cows at age eight and just, I know we got some city slickers watching this, so let me tell you something about

cows. They don't give milk. I mean, you've got to fight forever drop. Now, I don't know what you can do with that information, but that's not my responsibility. My responsibility. My responsibility, responsibility is to give you information, then you use it as you see fit. Let me tell you what my good friend John Maxwell from San Diego, California, says. John Maxwell says, and again, I believe he's right, that if there is hope in the future, there is power in the present. Everything I do as an individual and everything we do as a company is to give you hope in that future. But at the same time, I've got to. got to be absolutely candid with you and say to you that if you expect to win, you've got to

understand the second principle, but I will be espoused and repeatedly today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that life is tough. I don't know what your experience with it has been. I don't know what you've discovered as you've gone about in the game of life, but I want you to clearly understand that life is tough. I want you to hear it over and over that whether you're a student in school, a salesperson, a household executive, whether you're in the military, the government, or whatever you do, life is tough. But even more significantly, I want you to clearly understand that when you're tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you. I just want you to understand that you've got to be before you can do, and you've got to do before you can have.

Now the reason I emphasize that is this. The average 20-year-old American has witnessed one million television commercials. That's 50,000 a year. That's 1,000 a week. And those commercials, primarily 30-to-60-second ones, repeatedly say, you know, everything has a 30-second or a 60-second solution,

but that's not what life is all about. The songs of today, frequently saying, I want to be free. But folks, let me tell you something. You take the train off the tracks. It's absolutely free, but it cannot go anywhere. You take the steering wheel out of the automobile. It's under direction and control of no one, but it can't go anywhere.

Unless we take control, unless we set the direction in our life, then, ladies and gentlemen, if we do go anywhere, it's under the direction of someone else. This seminar primarily is going to share with you some thoughts as to how you can move to the top, but you've got to understand again, you've got to be before you can do, and you've got to do before you can have. Life is tough, but I'll say it again, when you're tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you.

A lot of people are startled when I give them. this next little bit of data. 175, according to USA today, of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies were former United States Marines. Six of the last seven presidents of the United States served in the Navy. 26 of the presidents of the United States

served in the military. I want you to think with me for a moment. what is it that they teach in the military? Is it discipline, ladies and gentlemen? Don't they also teach responsibility? Don't they also teach leadership? See, a lot of people have seen some of those Paris Island boot camp scenes with a brutal drill sergeant

and they've gotten some incredibly erroneous ideas. But I can tell you because of the things we do with the military that is absolutely. incorrect. In the military, they change their stations at least every three years. Now, in wartime, they change them far more often than that. As a matter of fact, sometimes almost immediately. And in the military, what that commander has to do, he has to integrate those people into the flow of the current base or operation. He has to inspire, instruct, train, and you name it. In order for that military commander to move up,

he's got to have the ability to teach, train, develop, enthused people under him. Now, think about it. That's exactly what you've got to do in your life, almost regardless of what your job is. You've got to be before you can do. You've got to do before you can have. Now, folks, if you haven't figured me out yet,

let me go ahead and fess up. I speak and write at the seventh grade third month level. Now, the reason I do that is by accident a few years ago, I discovered that if you kept it at that level, that even the college professors would be able to follow right along with you and understand what you are saying. And I just happen to believe they are people too. But as my good friend, Dr. Steve Franklin from Emory University,

the college professor who gave me this little bit, had to say, you know, Zig, the great truths in life are the simple truths. He said, you don't need three moving parts and four syllables for something to be significant. Think about it for a moment, Zig. There are only three pure colors on the face of this earth. But look at what Michelangelo did with those. three colors. They're only 10 digits, but look at what Einstein

did with them. There are only seven notes, but look what Chopin and Beethoven and Vivaldi did with those seven notes. Look at what Elvis did with two. I mean, it just really

doesn't have to be that complicated. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as you well know, delivered right after the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place during the war of northern aggression. Just depends on which history book you read, folks. It really does.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 262 words. 202 of them were one syllable. One syllable, simple and direct is what I'm talking about. Let me say it again, ladies and gentlemen, life is tough. But when you're tough on yourself and keep it simple, so that we can clearly understand it, then life can be enormously rewarding, tremendously exciting,

but it's not necessarily going to be easy. You remember earlier, I said that for 24 years of my adult life, I weighed well over 200 pounds. 17 years ago, I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I got on a diet and exercise program. Up until then, my idea of exercise simply was to fill the tub, take a bath, pull the plug, and fight the current.

I mean, you know, that was it. And any way you cut it, that's just not much of an exercise program. During the next 10 months, not only did I learn to hate jogging, but the truth is I learned to hate joggers. Now, I don't know what your experience with joggers have been, but let me tell you my experience with joggers. Every time I saw one, he's jumping up and down and said, man, it makes you feel so good.

Feel good? Eyes hurting and hating ever step I could possibly take. I mean, I hated it, but I hated even more, being sick and tired and not having the energy that I really needed. And so I stayed with it. How clearly I remember for you good folks up in Portland, Oregon, that magnificent day there on Portland State University campus, It was high noon, had a seminar at four.

I was out there doing my running, and all of a sudden it dawned on me that the ground was flowing smoothly beneath my feet, I was breathing easily. That's the day I changed my vocabulary. Please don't miss this. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't pay the price for good health. You enjoy the benefits of good health.

health. There are those words again. You don't pay the price for a good marriage. You pay the price for a poor marriage. You enjoy the benefits of a good one. You don't pay the price for success. You pay the price for failure. You enjoy the benefits of success. Ten months I hurt. What's the bottom line? The bottom line is on November the 30th, 1988, I want to be a lot of success. I want to went back to the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas for my physical. While there, I stayed on the treadmill longer than any active player in the National Football League who has taken the test, and many, many, many of them have. I'm 63 years old. I have a resting heart rate of 49. I can outrun 98% of the college kids in America on a five-mile run. I can do things I never

could have dreamed of doing when I was 25 years old. I hurt for 10 months. I've had a ball for the last 17 years. I love to run. I've run with the temperature as much as 40 degrees below zero, and the wind just blowing like crazy. Now, you understand that is what was happening outside. I mean, surely you don't think for one moment I was out there in that stuff, do you? Don't want to miss it. I lead you. Now what I was doing, I was running inside in a ballroom or up and down a hotel corridor. I was running, though, and that's the point. I finished that little dissertation, and Dr. Coober's a good friend of mine today, and he kind of grins, you know, and he said, yes, Zig, that's pretty good. But I said, let me tell you about this 65-year-old lady who lives here in Dallas. Be glad to

introduce you to her, Ziegler. She started jogging when she is 59 years old. She jubes. She jude. She just finished her 10th marathon. Two of them were 50 miles. I picked myself up off the deck, and he said, oh, yes, Zig. There's this little 14-year-old girl. She lives right here in Dallas, Zig. She stayed on the treadmill so much longer than you did.

I'm not even going to tell you what it was. It would embarrass you if I did. Now, what's the point I'm making? It's a very important, very critical, very simple point. I am not bragging on Zig. I'm not bragging on the 65-year-old lady or the 14-year-old girl. What I am saying is that inside of you, physically and mentally and spiritually, there is an incredible potential just screaming to get out.

So important that we understand that. Important that we understand, though, that it's not easy, but that if you discipline yourself to do the things you need to do, when you need to do them, the day's going to come. when you can do the things you want to do, when you want to do them. As you'll notice, as we share in this seminar, I'll be talking about your personal life and your family life and your business life. The reason I talk about all three is because they're interwoven.

You cannot separate them. A lot of times people say, well, Zig, I don't ever take my problems down to work. And ladies and gentlemen, that simply is not true. You might not talk about your problems at work, but believe me, you take those problems to work with you. And they dramatically affect your output, your productivity. The January 8th, 1990 edition of USA Today points out that managers of small businesses, when surveyed, felt that if there is marital trouble at home, 42% of those managers felt that had a dramatically negative impact,

on productivity. Only 27% thought that alcohol did and 22% thought that drugs did. The relationship at home is important. You bet we will be dealing with all issues because success is all encompassing. Third philosophy that we'll be sharing with you is the basic fact that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. I want to emphasize something. I want to emphasize that what I just said is a philosophy, it is not a tactic.

If you think for one moment you can do something for someone, something nice for someone, and then later they're going to do something nice for you. That is manipulative and that absolutely will not work. Now the question is, what is it that people want in life? What is total success?

Well, I have an absolute conviction that all of us want exactly the same things, and there basically are seven of those things. I believe everybody wants to be happy. Thus far, I've never met a living, breathing human being who said, no, I want to be miserable. Everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants to be healthy. Everybody wants to be at least reasonably prosperous.

Now the sneaking suspicion that a lot of... of you folks who are hearing me today would like to be unreasonably prosperous. I get so amused at people who say, well, I'm not really interested in money. I think anybody that would say a thing like that would lie about other things, too. I really do. And don't misunderstand. Money is not everything. I mean, there's stocks and bonds and real estate, you know, and what have you.

Sometimes I have some of my, quote, religious friends say to me, well, Zegler, you're not supposed to be talking about money. Well, let me tell you something, folks. I've had money, and I haven't had money. It's better to have it. I can just tell you, it's better to have it. And let me remind you that the Good Samaritan never could have put that old boy up at the end after he had been mugged if he hadn't gotten out there and earned himself some money before he could do it, okay?

Everybody wants to be secure. everybody wants to have a friend, everybody wants to have peace of mind, and everybody wants to have good family relationships. Now what I'd like to do is I would like to just go back in touch on one of those, and that is everybody wants to be happy. Today, a lot of people confuse happiness and pleasure. I believe in pleasure, too. Let me give an example. I love desserts. I could eat good ice cream three times.

a day seven days a week 365 days a year I could actually do that and then eat something in between meals that would give me much pleasure but the question is how happy would I be at 486 pounds see what I'm getting yet another simple example I've never tried crack cocaine or cocaine never will but scientifically speaking let me tell you a lot of people take it because they quote want to be happy. The interesting tragedy is this. If you take cocaine long enough, and for some people, that's one time. It destroys the brain's capacity to reproduce dopamine and norapinephrine. And without those two chemicals in your body, which your brain naturally produces, without those

two chemicals in your body, it is impossible to experience joy and happiness. That ironical? You take it to be happy, and then that destroys all chance of happiness. Ask yourself three basic questions every time you get ready to indulge in pleasure. Now, like I say, I believe in pleasure. As a matter of fact, I don't believe, I believe that if you don't have some pleasures, you can't be happy. But distinguish the important things. Three questions. Number one, can I repeat this pleasure indefinitely and be happy?

Number two, now this one's kind of sneaky. Would I be willing for my mama to know I did it? Now, you know when you answer that one, ladies and gentlemen, I'll keep you from doing a lot of things that get folks in trouble. And number three, will this pleasure bring measure to someone else? It's just a fact of life. be happy on somebody else's misery. A couple of years ago I had a young man in my office.

I don't have a chance to do this very often, but his friend was concerned deeply about him because he literally was losing his family and was destroying his health in the process. And so he wanted me to see if I could persuade the young man about something important. So I talked to the young man, and in our conversation, he verified the fact that these are the things that he wanted.

Wanted to be happy, wanted to be healthy, wanted to be at least reasonably prosperous and secure and have friends and peace of mind and a good family relationship. I said, in other words, if you had all of those, you would consider yourself to be successful. He said, yes. Well, I knew that he had been modeling his life after a friend of his, who was his boss, who had been enormously successful in his business. And so I ask him why he modeled his life after this young man.

The guy in my office was 22, his hero was 27. I asked why he admired him so much. He said, well, he's just so successful. So after we define success, then I ask him the question. I said, tell me, how happy is your friend? And he looked at him, and he said, well, I can't say for sure. I can tell you he has ulcers. Well, I said, you know, you get ulcers, not because of the whole.

what you eat, but because of what's eating you. So that would indicate that he is really not very happy, wouldn't he? He said, yeah, sure would. I said, well, let's go ahead and give him a failing grade on happiness. Now, since his health is being destroyed there with those ulcers, I said, that indicates he's not very healthy, doesn't he? He said, yeah. I said, well, that also tells us that he really doesn't have peace of mind, doesn't it?

He said, yeah. I said, well, let's give him a failing grade on that. Then I pointed out to the young man, I asked him one question, we get three failing grades because of it. I said, tell me about his prosperity. And he said, well, he's doing extremely well. I said, okay, let's give him on that one a plus mark. He said, okay.

I said, tell me about his security, how financial is. And he said, well, as I know, he's very secure. And I said, well, interestingly enough, we just had two billionaire brothers here in Dallas to declare for bankruptcy. Does he compare to them? He said, no way. I said, we had another man worth a half a billion. He just declared for bankruptcy. Does he compare that?

He said, oh, no. I said, okay, we had another one worth a hundred million. And these literally all came right together. I said, how does he compare with that? And he said, well, he doesn't compare with that very favorably. I said, in other words, we would have to put. put a question mark after whether or not he was secure. And he said, yeah, we would.

I said, tell me about his friends. And he said, well, he doesn't have any except me. And I'm not really his friend. I just happen to admire him. I said, okay, we're going to give him a failing grade on that one then. Then tell me about his family. And he said, well, his wife's divorcing him. Well, I said, we've got to give him a failing grade on that one then, don't we?

He said, yeah, we do. And I said, well, let me ask you a question. of the seven things you want in life, your hero flunked out on five of them and got a question mark after another. And I ask him this question, and I would ask every person who ever will see this, whether it's today or 10 years from today,

I want to ask you the same question. Would you swap places with this guy? You see, ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to swap places with him. Did a study, the May 1989 issue of science, psychology today did a study or reported on a study of 1139 CEOs of the Fortune 2,000 companies. Average income, $356,000. 90% of them exercised regularly. Most of them can tell you their cholesterol level, less than 10% of them smoke and their number one priority is their family.

What am I saying? I'm saying that when you go for a standard of living first, That doesn't necessarily mean your quality of life is going to improve. But I can tell you based on my own life and based on the lives of literally thousands of other people whom I've read and studied, if you go for quality of life first, standard of living is invariably going to go up. And those of you who have something to do with employment in your company, would you hold up your hands, please? just stick up your hand. If you're an employer, make decisions along those lines.

Okay. Now, those of you who have to answer to the employer, would you hold up your hands, please? Okay. Here's what I want to do. I want you employers to imagine that you've got an immediate opening in your company, and what you want to do

is you want to find the dream person to fill the opening. You've just heard a computerized service that will, in every... able you to locate this dream person. You can literally get on that computer and program in every desirable quality that you want that employee to have.

So employers start thinking about the dream employee. And for you employees, I want you to think like this. Imagine, if you will, that when you go to work tomorrow, they will ask you, are say to you, we now have got a new boss. Your boss has just been promoted. And we want you to choose your new supervisor boss. We want you to come up with every quality you want this supervisor boss to have. That's what I want you to do. Okay, what's the first dream quality that you think about?

Integrative. That is number one. Okay, you want somebody who's loyal. Give me another one. Dependability. All right. Put that one down. Positive mental attitude. Enthusiastic. Okay. Boy, that is so important. Motivated. Somebody who is motivated. Absolutely. Humility. Somebody who is humble. Absolutely. That is so important. Humility. Give me another one. Somebody with a sense of humor. Okay. You got, hey, we're sure getting some good one. Loves people. And a sense of humor. Just put humor there. Give me another one. Somebody who.

is prompt. We can write that a little easier and we can punctuality. Somebody who is there. Okay, give me another one. Good communicator. Somebody who is a communicator. Absolutely. You got to have a lot of people think when you take turns talking, that's communication, and that simply is not necessarily so. Now, let me take a count on that. That's two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, 14, that is 28 magnificent qualities. Let me ask you folks a question. How many of you believe that anybody with those qualities right there would make a magnificent employee at the place you're working right now?

Can I see your hand? How many of you believe they'd make a magnificent boss? How many of you believe that anybody with those qualities could get a job anywhere at any time, under any circumstances, and be successful in that job? Can I see your hand? Okay. How many of you would just love to have a mate with all of those qualities?

How many of you'd love to have kids with all of those qualities? All right. How many of you would love to have all of those qualities? How many of you believe that if you had all of those qualities, you could take the job you've got right now doing exactly what you're doing and move right up to the top in that job? Can I see your head if you had all of those qualities right there? How many of you believe that if you had all of those qualities,

that you could get all of those things that we want. Happy, healthy, prosperous, you know, the whole bit. How many of you believe you could get all of those things if you had all of those qualities? Okay. Now, here's the question. What are those qualities? That's the question.

Are they attitudes or are they skills? I want us to go back down the list and I'm going to call out the quality and I want you to simply say attitude or skill. Now some of them might be both, so if they are, don't let one person snooker you out of it, you still say what you think it is. Starting at the top, integrity.

Is that an attitude or a skill? Attitude, okay. Now, integrity is an attitude, dependable. Come on, need to hear from you. Attitude, honesty, enthusiastic, judgment. Some say attitude, some say skill. How many, everything, it might be a gift. Okay, we'll just give that one all three of. We'll give that one the gas, okay? Motivated, is that attitude or skill? Attitude and compassionate. Humility, sensitive. Sinner. A competent skill, all right. Sense of humor.

Somebody who's creative, an attitude. How many of things you might be a gift too? Well, we'll just give that one the guest too. Somebody who's open-minded, attitude or skill? Attitude, ethical. Somebody who is loyal. Positive mental attitude. Attitude, okay.

Hey, somebody who's fair. Somebody said attitude, some said skill, we put them both, somebody who's interested. Attitude and hardworking. Some say attitude, some say skill, somebody who's self-directed. And some say skill, some say attitude, we'll put them both. Somebody who's a goal setter. Skill, okay, somebody who's admirable.

Come on, need to hear from you. Attitude, somebody with a good self-image? Somebody who loves people. Somebody who is prompt. Somebody said skill. They live across the street and we're running late. Okay, that's your only the way it happens. Somebody who's a good communicator.

Somebody who is caring. Attitude and somebody who is long-suffering. Somebody said give, some said attitude, and some said skill. Okay. Out of the 28, let's see what we've got. We got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 of the 28 are straight attitudes. And let me see, we've got one, two, three, four, five, six of the additional ones, which also involve attitude, 24 of the.

the 28 involve our attitude. Now let me ask you a question. How many of you believe, based on what you just said, that your attitude is pretty important? Can I see your hands please? Okay. There's no doubt about it.

How many of you believe that if we taught these qualities in our schools that we would have an even better America? Can I see your hand? How many of you believe that this would be a strong step toward solving our drug problem today. You think about it.

Can you imagine a youngster or an oldster? Getting involved in drugs and crime and promiscuity, if they had these qualities going for them, I absolutely cannot imagine it. How many of you, and I'd like to see your hands, I can only see at the moment in Salt Lake City, but how many of you believe that these qualities should be taught in our public school system?

Can I see your hands? Okay. How many of you believe we'd really have something in America if we taught these at home initially and then reinforce them in school? Wouldn't that be wonderful? Now, a lot of people say, but wait a minute, Zig, those are values,

and you can't teach values in school, my friend, that is all. We really teach. We teach values, everything in every way about life. We teach them. We really do. Let me ask you a question. Whose values are these?

Who gave me the words? You did, okay, whose values are they? Whose kids are they? Okay, whose schools are they? Now think about it, can you think of any reason why you should not be teaching your kids, your values, and your schools? Let me tell you a fact of life. I've been beating the bushes for 43 years.

Not once in my, 63 years. Not once in my entire lifetime have I ever had an employer say to me, Well, Zig, I really appreciate you sending that young lady to me for an interview. But Zig, we couldn't use anybody like her in our company. Well, you realize she has integrity, is completely dependable, is absolutely honest, is tremendously enthusiastic, as tremendous judgment, is highly motivated. No, Zic, we couldn't use anybody like that.

like that. You know what they've told me 10,000 times? You send me somebody with those basic qualities. Now, I'll teach them how to run the gizmo that manufactures the widgets. Send me those qualities, and I'll teach them the other. Now, I want to emphasize a point. That's the place you start, folks. When you have those qualities, amazing things happen. Now, if you want to be a physician, you've still got to go to medical school and learn medicine. If you want to be a physician, if you want be a dentist, you still got to go to dental school. If you want to be an accountant, you still got to study that. But what we've discovered is this. Anybody who has these basic foundational qualities can learn and do learn the other things far more easily and quickly, and

they become better at it. Now, here's a question. I keep using a specific word. I keep saying, teach, teach, teach. Can you actually teach this kind of thing? How many of you believe you can teach integrity? Can I see your hands? How many of you believe that you can teach dependability? How many of you believe you can teach

honesty? How many of you believe you can teach enthusiasm? If you will go down the list, you will discover that of the 28 qualities that you have identified, ladies and gentlemen, 28 of those qualities can be taught. Don't miss this. Because if we clearly communicate this, it can have a dramatic impact in your life. If they can be taught, their skills. If they can be taught, their skills. And let me tell you why I get so tremendously

excited about that. That tells me I got a chance in life. That tells me that my children and my grandchildren have a chance in life. That tells me that you and your children and your grandchildren have got a chance in life because if they can be taught, then my friend, you can learn those skills. That tells me that that youngster who left the slums this morning without a bite of food to eat and literally almost with a kick in the rear has never had a word of encouragement that tells me that a fat youngster is fortunate enough to encounter a Jaime Escalante

stand and deliver. If you didn't see it when it was on television, you have a responsibility and a tremendous opportunity to go to the video store and pick up a copy. It's a story that takes place in the barrio in Los Angeles. a Mexican community. The kids there are high on drugs. Teenage pregnancy is literally running rampant all over the place.

And here they have so many dropouts. And the kids who graduate from high school don't really have an education. There's little hope. And then along comes Jaime Escalante, a businessman. And he looks at those kids and he said those kids can learn if somebody will love them enough to discipline them enough to require that they learn.

A Gallup poll revealed that 90% of our graduating seniors wish that their parents and their teachers love them enough to discipline them to do the things they need to do and expected them to do more.

Hamie Escalante knew he could teach those kids and he knew those kids could learn. He introduced a far-un-subject their thinking it was advanced calculus. Man, they couldn't multiply 40 times 40 in a lot of cases. And here comes a guy coming in, advanced calculus, the school board and others fought him. He persisted.

Bottom line is this. 18 of his kids, second year he was there, 18 of those kids won college scholarships by passing an exam in advance. calculus that is so difficult that less than 2% of the high school seniors in America will even take the test. And seven years later, 85% of those kids are professionals. Let me say it again. Failure is an event. It is not a person.

You are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are. You can change where you are by changing what goes into your mind. I want to say also as strongly as I possibly can that you, yes, you. And this is the thing, ladies and gentlemen, that gets me so excited about what I do. Earlier you have said that anybody with those qualities could be enormously successful. You've said anybody with those qualities could take the job.

You've got it and go right to the top, I'm going to tell you without any fear of error. I can look you straight in the eye, and yes, I do mean you, and I do mean I'm looking you right in the eye, and I can tell you that you already have every single quality that you have identified right there. Every one of them. Are you going to sit there and tell me, no, you don't, you have no integrity, nobody can't, can count on you. As far as being honest, forget it. I'm so crooked that when I die, they're going to have to screw me in the ground? Are you going to sit there and say, hard work? Man, I'm so lazy. I wouldn't hit a lick at a snake. You have got, my friend, some of every one of these qualities.

Now, you are pitifully, woefully short in many of them, as are all of us. But let me say it again. You are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are. change where you are by changing what goes into your mind. You might have a little argument there and say, but Zig, me, man, if I had all of those qualities, I would be doing so many things, I wouldn't be sitting here listening to you. I'd already have it made, man. Not necessarily. Years 1901, it's down in Beaumont, Texas. A man has having to sell part of his property to feed his family. There's a depression on. There is a drought on. An oil company came to him one day and said, Sir, we believe there might be oil on your property. Let us drill for it. And if we discover any

oil, we will pay your oilies on every single barrel that is pumped out. Well, the man had absolutely nothing to lose. He had a tremendous amount to gain. So he said, let's do it. Well, in those days, the Derricks were made out of wood. And when they brought in a gusher, it literally destroyed the derrick. And the greater the destruction, the greater the excitement, because that indicated an enormous amount of oil underneath. When this oil well came in, it came in with such force that it literally destroyed the derrick, blew it into a thousand pieces,

and for the next 11 days in excess of 100,000 barrels of oil, per day were pumped out of that oil well. Most productive oil well in history, that was spindle top. The man became an instant multi-millionaire, or did he? You see, the reality is this. He had been a multi-millionaire ever since he had acquired the property. but until they discovered the oil and brought it to the surface and took it to the marketplace and cashed it in,

it literally had no value. My friend, please hear this. You see, the reality is you have some of all of these qualities. I can say that again without any fear of error. But I also will say this to you that until and unless you recognize an acceptance, that fact, then there's not going to be the use of those qualities that will enable you to be the complete success you are capable of being. There's a beautiful lady. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

She has an IQ of 141. When she was a teenager, she was literally a traffic stopper. She'll still slow traffic down, incidentally, quite a bit. She's an outstanding conversationalist. She can talk with you in great depth about a dozen different subjects. But until a few years ago, had you asked her to describe herself to you, she would have said, I am fat, dumb, and ugly. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to be honest. And one of the things that is so exciting is that before this seminar is over, I'll be sharing with you specifically how you can begin to develop the qualities you've already got.

because it would be a tragedy beyond belief to have the very foundation that would enable you to be enormously successful and never literally use what you have got. You see, if you had a million dollars in your checking account, you would never write a check on it. If you did not know, it was there. But the moment you discovered, it's, presence, then at that precise moment there would be a boom in the local economy.

I want to add in one other thing at this point, because I want to emphasize that I think it is so important. I'll tell you again, folks, life is tough. But when you're tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you. Several years ago, I was speaking down in San Antonio. you in one of the breaks. A lady came up to me. She had a question. She wanted to ask it. But she didn't want to look me in the eye

in order to ask the question. So she lowered her head looking at the floor, and she said, Mr. Ziegler, she said, you kind of make a nice little old fee when you make them little old speeches you make. Now, don't you? Then she looked up grinning so wide she could have eaten a banana sideways.

I mean she was grinning. Now I looked at it and I said, now, ma'am, I don't have any idea where you heard that. Have no idea where you got the message. But it's absolutely incorrect. It is a vicious rumor, and I don't want that to ever spread out of this room. I want to stop it right here.

I said, the truth is I really make a great, for them little old speeches I make. But you know what? I didn't tell her, folks. I didn't tell her the number of times that I've spoken to the lines and the J.C. is in the rotaries for no fee. I didn't tell of the number of times

I've gotten up early enough to go down and speak to the men who delivered the bread and cakes and pies to the restaurants and to the stores and to the outlets that are retailing those products three, four hours before you even turned over. I didn't tell the number of times

I've been into schools and prisons, and halfway houses and drug rehab centers. The number of times I have spoken to vacuum cleaner and cookware and real estate and life insurance companies the number of times I've driven 50 miles, 100 miles, 200 miles on three different occasions to speak to a dozen people free. And then I have to drive back that night, my expense, because I did not have enough money to pay the motel bill.

But I did those things because I honestly believed I had something to say. I did those things because I knew in my own heart and mind that if I were ever going to be paid for saying what I had to say, but I not only had to say something that had value, but I had to say it in a way that they would be able to accept the message. And I did it because, as my good friend Steve Brown from Atlanta, Georgia says, anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you can learn to do it well.

Now think about that. If we could all take three lessons from the pro at the country club and then be good enough to make the PGA tour, there'd be thousands and thousands of people on the PGA tour and then there'd be nothing in it for anyone. If you could become a super salesperson by taking a weekend course in selling and then you'd be just absolutely professional,

then I can sure all of you salespeople that the rewards would be almost non-existent. If you could become a physician, by taking a three-week course at the university, we'd have millions of physicians, and then there'd be very little compensation and no satisfaction. No, if it's worth a few week course at the university, doing. It's worth doing poorly until you can learn to do it well. Never making the same

mistake again. Learning from each one, getting better and better, understanding always that failure is an event. It is not a person. Thank you for tuning into this episode. If you're enjoying the content, you can access exclusive material by becoming a subscriber. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.