Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker and Author, dies at 86

Mr. Zig Ziglar

Mr. Ziglar, a motivational speaker whose “Success Rallies,” “Born to Win” seminars, more than 25 self-help books and countless audiotapes attracted millions of devoted followers with homespun advice on career advancement and moral uplift, died Nov. 28 at a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Plano. He was 86.

He had pneumonia, said his executive assistant, Laurie Magers. Rising by one’s bootstraps through the “power of positive thinking” has long been a compelling narrative in American lore.

Zig Ziglar! A human exclamation point! The world’s most popular motivational speaker, as he was often described, was always excited because “you never judge a day by the weather!”

Some of their quotes described below:
     “If you’re going to have to swallow a frog,” he said in his Southern drawl, “you don’t want to have to look at that sucker too long!”
Or
      “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want!”
Or
      “Have you ever noticed that people who are the problem never realize it? They’re in denial. They think denial is a river in Egypt!”
Or
      “The more you gripe about your problems, the more problems you have to gripe about!”
 
His other books included “Courtship After Marriage” (1990) and “Staying Up, Up, Up in a Down, Down World” (2000). He wrote a memoir in 2002.

Mr. Ziglar, who sometimes earned tens of thousands of dollars per speech and other times waived his fee, kept up a rigorous touring schedule until retiring in 2010.

Mr. Ziglar adapted his maxims to every aspect of his life, not least the golf course. Every day, he sought to break 70 but never did.
 
“Yesterday ended last night,” he liked to tell himself. “Today is a brand-new day. And it’s yours.”