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Master Your Winning Edge
WHAT WILL YOUR LEGACY BE?
WHAT LASTING IMPRINT DO YOU WANT TO MAKE ON THE WORLD?
In the world of personal development, motivation, public speaking and sales, there will never be another Zig Ziglar.His infectious sense of humor, his masterful storytelling skills, his uncanny ability to inspire, and his downhome Southern charm will last forever. That is the legacy of Zig Ziglar.
With this classic collection of success ideas from Zig Ziglar, you won't leave your legacy to chance. You will be intentional about the impact you make on your loved ones, your friends and your business associates. You will learn timeless lessons on success and happiness from Zig Ziglar that have inspired millions of people for more than a generation and see that despite the modern world of technology and rapid change, you must keep your focus on the “truths that never change.”
Here is just a sampling of what you will Winners respond, not react Identifying and correcting image problems Steps to a healthy self-image Succeeding in a negative, cat-kicking world Common sense human relationships Winning relationships at home and at work ZIG ZIGLAR was a talented author and compelling speaker. He traveled over five million miles and worked with clients and corporations of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to churches, schools and non-profit associations. He wrote 25 books on personal growth, leadership, sales, faith, and success, nine of which have been bestsellers.
WHAT LASTING IMPRINT DO YOU WANT TO MAKE ON THE WORLD?
In the world of personal development, motivation, public speaking and sales, there will never be another Zig Ziglar.His infectious sense of humor, his masterful storytelling skills, his uncanny ability to inspire, and his downhome Southern charm will last forever. That is the legacy of Zig Ziglar.
With this classic collection of success ideas from Zig Ziglar, you won't leave your legacy to chance. You will be intentional about the impact you make on your loved ones, your friends and your business associates. You will learn timeless lessons on success and happiness from Zig Ziglar that have inspired millions of people for more than a generation and see that despite the modern world of technology and rapid change, you must keep your focus on the “truths that never change.”
Here is just a sampling of what you will Winners respond, not react Identifying and correcting image problems Steps to a healthy self-image Succeeding in a negative, cat-kicking world Common sense human relationships Winning relationships at home and at work ZIG ZIGLAR was a talented author and compelling speaker. He traveled over five million miles and worked with clients and corporations of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to churches, schools and non-profit associations. He wrote 25 books on personal growth, leadership, sales, faith, and success, nine of which have been bestsellers.
- GenresAudiobook
184 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2015
16 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Zig Ziglar
398 books1,378 followersZig Ziglar was a motivational teacher and trainer who traveled the world over, delivering his messages of humor, hope, and encouragement. As a talented author and speaker, he had international appeal that transcended every color, culture, and career. Recognized by his peers as the quintessential motivational genius of our times, Zig Ziglar had a unique delivery style and powerful messages that earned him many honors. Today he is considered one of the most versatile authorities on the science of human potential. Ten of his twenty-eight books have been on bestseller lists, and his titles have been translated into more than thirty-eight languages and dialects. He was a committed family man, a dedicated patriot, and an active church member. Zig lived in Plano, Texas, with his wife, Jean.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 30, 2022
Love Zig Ziglar's positive outlook , encouragement, reminders for a successful career, relationships, and personal life. Every day steps to improve, be disciplined, and achieve goals.
Zig always has great anecdotal stories for a laugh, but also reinforce the point he's trying to make.
I was actually fortunate enough about 20 years ago to attend Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, TX where Zig taught a Sunday School class for adults. He was a great man.
Zig always has great anecdotal stories for a laugh, but also reinforce the point he's trying to make.
I was actually fortunate enough about 20 years ago to attend Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, TX where Zig taught a Sunday School class for adults. He was a great man.
July 12, 2024
I've been feeling a bit like I'm stuck in a rut lately and that I might need a bit of a kick in the butt to jar my brain into a different perspective. Occasionally, I'll grab a self-help business book from one of the big names to see what they say that might resonate with me.
Stuff from Zig Ziglar has been around for a long time, and lots of people have bought his tapes etc. I'm often suspicious of certain types of self-styled "gurus" who are about an inch-deep and 10 miles wide in their approach, and after reading MYWE, Ziglar is one of the best/worst examples.
I really struggled with his writing style for two reasons. First, he uses a strong "selling" approach to persuasion…basically, the methodology is that if I tell you 10 superficial things that are simplistically true, you'll likely agree with them all and then when I feed you malarkey as the 11th, you're already agreeing to the other 10 so you'll swallow it as truth. One of the biggest criticisms of this type of persuasion is in biased research where it is "acceptance by association", not because the logic holds or because you actually agree with the 11th statement. Most of the chapters are cliché after cliché, and I started to be reminded of a Yes, Minister episode. A string of relatively unrelated statements that get you agreeing so that you want to agree with the last one like you were "convinced" even if the 11th has very little to do with the previous 10. Reading a long series of very short anecdotes left me practically exhausted trying to figure out where the "wheat" was compared with all the "chaff".
The second element is one of credibility, and it started to grate on me with all the anecdotes. For example, he would say "This famous person told me this." Which would be some perfectly crafted line that the person likely never said, and likely NEVER said it to them, it was like a talk show or something. But I searched on a couple of the quotes, and they were attributed to that person, but with different language and syntax. Kind of like reading a Grade 9 essay by someone who thinks 20 quotes strung together makes an argument. Then he would refer to one of the people that he has helped … say for example, an almost illiterate high-school dropout who listened to his tapes and it transformed his life. Which is demonstrated by the 20 lines of perfect prose that the person wouldn't have been capable of actually saying, given their background, and they would never have talked that way. But the text swears that this is verbatim what he said. The credibility gets strained.
But what bothered me most was that he would have these series of anecdotes, all of which he says he experienced personally with the people quoted, and then he'll throw in a joke that happened to a specific person or him personally, but it's a joke that is 50 years old. He includes it for a laugh, sure, but he presents with the same approach as the other 10 stories. Which really makes most of the stories seem "faked".
I don't really care when he proselytizes about the amazing benefits of teaching values from the Bible (ignoring that many of the largest scandals of the 20th Century were those that devoted their life to the same "teachings"), or that he associates the downfall of society with television and soap operas in particular. It just makes him look stupid.
And yet, some people have found some nuggets in his work. So I stuck with it. And found a few lines that resonated with me.
You’re not going to change one whisper about yesterday (Chapter 1). It's a typical quote about not letting the past define you, but it's well-framed here.
Failure is an event, not a person (Chapter 1). This is a popular theme that people often pitch as just dusting yourself off, to keep going, let the past be the past, not the definition of your future. Often with some example of baseball players who don't bat 1.000 or clichés like "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." But it's a slightly different framing. Failure is a moment in time. It's something that "happens", shifting the idea a bit away from you. I prefer to think of it a bit like a Star Trek: The Next Generation quote from Picard to Data about how you can do everything exactly right and still lose/fail.
Quoting Dr. Joyce Brothers about self-image (Chapter 2). Paraphrased, but that you cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself. I've seen this used before, and often mischaracterized as the more popular form, "If you want to be a success, you have to visualize yourself as a success." But that's not what the quote is about…it's more about a double-edged sword. How you see yourself guides how you perform, and if you are just pretending, your performance will not measure up to the real you. People often want to use it as "fake it until you make it", when in reality it is more about "being honest with yourself". Good quote, totally misused here though.
You can’t make a good deal with a bad guy (Chapter 3). It's a nice framing of something I have heard in a different way from a lawyer who writes about the publishing industry. His version is more like "don't do business with crooks". Or the ever popular, "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas." They are all variations on a theme, but again, it is nicely framed here.
Platitudes from his mother (Chapter 3). While hardly original, I liked the phrases he heard from his mother -- “When a task is one begun, you leave it not until it’s done,” and “Be a matter great or small, you do it well or not at all.”
Don't try to change the boss (Chapter 4). I think this one resonates a bit with me as there are some things I'm dealing with where it is really frustrating that someone else is not doing their job. I want to enter their lane and correct it, but it's not really my place to correct it. I think it's stupid, but it's also not a good investment of my time. I do like the framing, and linked to a stronger element of "don’t let the way the other person treats you affect or determine the way you treat them".
At work you can fool the boss, you can even fool the people around you, but as employers, you will never fool the people below you. (Chapter 5) It's a great life lesson to remember, although Ziglar presents it more about managing your self-image.
The Bottom Line
A lot of hard digging to find any gold
Stuff from Zig Ziglar has been around for a long time, and lots of people have bought his tapes etc. I'm often suspicious of certain types of self-styled "gurus" who are about an inch-deep and 10 miles wide in their approach, and after reading MYWE, Ziglar is one of the best/worst examples.
I really struggled with his writing style for two reasons. First, he uses a strong "selling" approach to persuasion…basically, the methodology is that if I tell you 10 superficial things that are simplistically true, you'll likely agree with them all and then when I feed you malarkey as the 11th, you're already agreeing to the other 10 so you'll swallow it as truth. One of the biggest criticisms of this type of persuasion is in biased research where it is "acceptance by association", not because the logic holds or because you actually agree with the 11th statement. Most of the chapters are cliché after cliché, and I started to be reminded of a Yes, Minister episode. A string of relatively unrelated statements that get you agreeing so that you want to agree with the last one like you were "convinced" even if the 11th has very little to do with the previous 10. Reading a long series of very short anecdotes left me practically exhausted trying to figure out where the "wheat" was compared with all the "chaff".
The second element is one of credibility, and it started to grate on me with all the anecdotes. For example, he would say "This famous person told me this." Which would be some perfectly crafted line that the person likely never said, and likely NEVER said it to them, it was like a talk show or something. But I searched on a couple of the quotes, and they were attributed to that person, but with different language and syntax. Kind of like reading a Grade 9 essay by someone who thinks 20 quotes strung together makes an argument. Then he would refer to one of the people that he has helped … say for example, an almost illiterate high-school dropout who listened to his tapes and it transformed his life. Which is demonstrated by the 20 lines of perfect prose that the person wouldn't have been capable of actually saying, given their background, and they would never have talked that way. But the text swears that this is verbatim what he said. The credibility gets strained.
But what bothered me most was that he would have these series of anecdotes, all of which he says he experienced personally with the people quoted, and then he'll throw in a joke that happened to a specific person or him personally, but it's a joke that is 50 years old. He includes it for a laugh, sure, but he presents with the same approach as the other 10 stories. Which really makes most of the stories seem "faked".
I don't really care when he proselytizes about the amazing benefits of teaching values from the Bible (ignoring that many of the largest scandals of the 20th Century were those that devoted their life to the same "teachings"), or that he associates the downfall of society with television and soap operas in particular. It just makes him look stupid.
And yet, some people have found some nuggets in his work. So I stuck with it. And found a few lines that resonated with me.
You’re not going to change one whisper about yesterday (Chapter 1). It's a typical quote about not letting the past define you, but it's well-framed here.
Failure is an event, not a person (Chapter 1). This is a popular theme that people often pitch as just dusting yourself off, to keep going, let the past be the past, not the definition of your future. Often with some example of baseball players who don't bat 1.000 or clichés like "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." But it's a slightly different framing. Failure is a moment in time. It's something that "happens", shifting the idea a bit away from you. I prefer to think of it a bit like a Star Trek: The Next Generation quote from Picard to Data about how you can do everything exactly right and still lose/fail.
Quoting Dr. Joyce Brothers about self-image (Chapter 2). Paraphrased, but that you cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself. I've seen this used before, and often mischaracterized as the more popular form, "If you want to be a success, you have to visualize yourself as a success." But that's not what the quote is about…it's more about a double-edged sword. How you see yourself guides how you perform, and if you are just pretending, your performance will not measure up to the real you. People often want to use it as "fake it until you make it", when in reality it is more about "being honest with yourself". Good quote, totally misused here though.
You can’t make a good deal with a bad guy (Chapter 3). It's a nice framing of something I have heard in a different way from a lawyer who writes about the publishing industry. His version is more like "don't do business with crooks". Or the ever popular, "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas." They are all variations on a theme, but again, it is nicely framed here.
Platitudes from his mother (Chapter 3). While hardly original, I liked the phrases he heard from his mother -- “When a task is one begun, you leave it not until it’s done,” and “Be a matter great or small, you do it well or not at all.”
Don't try to change the boss (Chapter 4). I think this one resonates a bit with me as there are some things I'm dealing with where it is really frustrating that someone else is not doing their job. I want to enter their lane and correct it, but it's not really my place to correct it. I think it's stupid, but it's also not a good investment of my time. I do like the framing, and linked to a stronger element of "don’t let the way the other person treats you affect or determine the way you treat them".
At work you can fool the boss, you can even fool the people around you, but as employers, you will never fool the people below you. (Chapter 5) It's a great life lesson to remember, although Ziglar presents it more about managing your self-image.
The Bottom Line
A lot of hard digging to find any gold
June 26, 2023
Zig Ziglar has always been endearing to me because he reminds me of my grandad, both in tone of voice and through his mannerisms. Both Ziglar and my grandad passed away several years ago, but each live on in my memory. This particular book was released after Ziglar's death, but contains a collection of his thoughts on having the right attitude to successfully approach daily life, regardless of your given profession.
His teaching on the difference between reacting and responding to our circumstances is timeless. The cat-kicking analogy he shares later in the book is pretty eye-opening and describes how our actions towards others, especially at work, can profoundly affect other people's personal lives and cause them to, in turn, impact someone else in ways that are good or bad, depending on how we've treated them. This book starts out good and gets better as it goes.
His teaching on the difference between reacting and responding to our circumstances is timeless. The cat-kicking analogy he shares later in the book is pretty eye-opening and describes how our actions towards others, especially at work, can profoundly affect other people's personal lives and cause them to, in turn, impact someone else in ways that are good or bad, depending on how we've treated them. This book starts out good and gets better as it goes.
July 23, 2018
Ziglar is supposed to be the best but I found his stories outdated and at a few points, I cringed. I am so glad that there are more motivational speakers today that can retell the messages of perseverance and work habits for today's reader
January 1, 2018
*I will update my review and shelves later.*
July 19, 2018
Although another audio book, this one was very easy for me to listen to. I think it was because Zig Ziglar speaks loudly and very clearly. He had good ideas and was funny and I really enjoyed it.
May 11, 2021
Zigs good stuff with more from his son.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews