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can be dramatic, and others may be subtle. I want to encourage you to be looking for these turning points and seeking out your purpose and passion as you engage in the planning, preparing, and expecting to win process.
I vividly remember the exact day one of these turning points happened in my professional life. I was one of twelve children raised by a single, widowed mother in Yazoo City, Mississippi, during the Great Depression. We struggled and worked hard to make ends meet, and although we never had a lot of “extra” things, we always had what we needed. When I was a young boy I worked around our little home doing chores, and when I was nine I got a job at a grocery store in town. At that point in my life, I saw myself as a little guy from a little town who would always live in Yazoo City. That type of thinking was the result of my experience growing up. I had no idea that other possibilities might exist for me. I entertained the idea of owning my own store, or meat market to be exact, but I never really felt over-the-top excited about it. I wasn’t excited about it because it was not my vision—it was just an idea that was presented to me by my boss as a possibility. You might say I was a wandering generality instead of a meaningful specific. I was wandering around with no direction and no plan to win.
After I grew up and married my beautiful Redhead, Jean Abernathy (whom I call “Sugar Baby”), I got a job as a door-to-door salesman in the cookware industry. The first two-and-a-half years I sold a lot—I sold our furniture, our china and silver, the dog… just kidding. But it was no joking matter that we struggled financially and were in hot water all the time. One cold, snowy morning I went to a meeting where Mr. P. C. Merrell, the divisional supervisor from Tennessee, took an interest in me. Mr. Merrell said, “Zig, you have the ability to be a great one.” Frankly, I’d never heard words like that. As a child raised during the Depression, the emphasis was on survival—not being “great.” Now here was a man for whom I had the utmost respect, a man who was my hero, a man of integrity, and he was emphatic that he really believed I could be the best cookware salesman in the country. But he also had some constructive criticism. He said, “You know, Zig, I’ve been watching you for twoand-a-half years and I have never seen such a waste.” (Now, friends, that will get your attention!) Somewhat startled, I asked what he meant. He explained, “You have a lot of ability. You could be a great one and maybe even become a national champion.” Naturally, I was flattered, but a little skeptical, so I asked if he really meant it. He assured me, “Zig, there is no doubt in my mind if you really went to work on an organized schedule and started believing in yourself, you could go all the way to the top.”
Mr. Merrell’s words gave me hope that I could change and caused me to believe for the first time in my life that maybe I did have more to offer than I’d ever realized. Looking back, Mr. Merrell’s words helped me make the decisions that changed my life. I turned his words over and over in my mind and got more excited by the minute. On that day, for the first time in my life, I suddenly had a clear vision of a future I really wanted, and I also noticed that something else was building inside of me. It was desire… the desire to make it happen started to build! Mr. Merrell planted a seed when he told me I could be great at something, and I believed him. My vision of my future started to change immediately, and I wanted that new future. As my desire grew, I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. I wanted to change, and more important, I felt empowered to turn that new vision into reality. I took immediate action.
You may be reading this book and thinking, “Zig, I don’t have a Mr. Merrell in my life.” Yes, you do. I am your Mr. Merrell. I honestly believe I have felt your feelings, I’ve walked in your shoes. You have made some mistakes, and you may not be where you want to be, but that has nothing to do with your future. I’ll say it again and again: you can start from where you are with what you’ve got and go to where it is you want to go.
Yes, you were literally born to win. My goal is to give you new hope in this game of life and turn that new hope into a brilliant new picture for your future. I want you to know that when you prepare yourself, you can expect success.
Many decades have passed since Mr. Merrell’s empowering words gave me a new vision for my life and the powerful desire to become what he said I could be. Looking back, I see that even though we may have a vision and a strong desire to attain it, seeing the end of it is not always possible. We can only see so far, because our experience limits us. But I also learned that we should embrace the vision and fuel our desire. As we work with purpose and pursue our passion, we will be able to see farther, and when we get there we’ll be able to see farther again!
In my case, I first had a vision of becoming a national sales champion, and I accomplished that in a few short years. In the process of accomplishing that goal, I developed another vision that was even more powerful. I wanted to become a public speaker. That turned out pretty well, too.
COMMITMENT AND PERSEVERANCE ARE POWERED BY DESIRE
If you could somehow count all the books that have been written on what it takes to be successful, the number would be astronomical. A significant number of those books (including several I have written) emphasize the importance of taking action on the ideas and opportunities that present themselves in life. The fact is that you can have lots of good ideas and you can be exposed to many great opportunities, but if you don’t do something about them, they might as well be non-existent. It’s pretty amazing how most people put off taking the necessary actions to acquire the things they want and then complain about how they never get a break! There are many reasons people find to justify not taking action, but the absence of desire is one of the root causes. They just really don’t want it badly enough. This is a fatal condition when you are trying to be successful.
We all know that life is tough. Many times our best plans turn sour as we pursue our goals and dreams. For that reason, there are two qualities every person must have to fuel their desire and sustain their pursuit of success. Those two qualities are commitment and perseverance. You need commitment to produce the focus and consistency you need to keep your eye on the target. Then you need perseverance to make it over the rough spots and setbacks you will most certainly experience along your journey to success.
Commitment is the solution to help you overcome the distractions you will face in life and help you stay focused on what really matters. Today, most of our society is up to their necks in the Internet and all that comes with it. Don’t get me wrong. I think the information we now have at our fingertips is astounding, and information is a key ingredient in being informed and equipped with the knowledge we need for success. But the level of information in this day and time is far more than any one person can possibly handle and process. You might say we live in a time of “information overload.” The result of information overload is usually distraction, and it dilutes your focus and takes you off your game.
In golf, if you take your eye off the ball, you will flub it, top it, slice it, hook it, or maybe miss it entirely. Information overload has the same effect. It can cause us to take our eye off the small things we need to consistently do in order to get the results we need. Commitment is about binding ourselves to a specific course of action. People who are committed realize that they have to do specific things to get specific results and they know the results they want. Simply stated, commitment—which is fueled by desire—helps us stay on track to achieve our goals and ultimately win.
Many of you may have heard me tell the story of how I was a boxer earlier in life, but I had to quit because of my hands. The referee kept stepping on them. When Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman in 1974 for the heavyweight championship of the world, he used a strategy he called “Rope a Dope.” Ali leaned on the ropes, covered his head, and let Foreman pound on him for seven rounds in hopes that Foreman’s superior strength and punching power would be exhausted and make him vulnerable to Ali’s speed and quickness. I don’t know about you, but the idea of letting someone like George Foreman hit me repeatedly is pretty frightening—and I’d feel that way before he threw his first punch at me. After he actually started pounding on me, I might have second thoughts about maintaining the strategy! But Ali did maintain the strategy, and it paid off for