Born to Win

I just wrote a blog stressing the importance of getting back to basics in marketing. Part of the reason I wrote it was from a phone call I had received; part of it was due to a book I had received from my friend Doug Dimick.

The book is Born To Win by Zig Ziglar and Tom Ziglar. It is ironic that in my first job in this industry the owner of the company forced us all to listen to Zig Ziglar cassettes. I say forced because listening to Zig is an acquired taste that I had not developed at that young age. The message was good I just couldn’t get past his style. So for the last 30 years Zig did not make it into my extensive library or into my audio selections.

Then Doug sent me the book. I am ashamed that I had ignored his books all these years and missed many opportunities to go listen to the man. Only a few authors such as Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale were recognized before Zig came on the scene. Since then everyone who is a speaker/author owes a debt to Zig.

One of my favorite quotes and deepest beliefs comes from Zig: “You are who you are and what you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change who you are and what you are by changing what goes in your mind.”

Born To Win is broken into three parts: Planning to Win, Preparing to Win, and Expecting to Win.

Planning to Win

Within each of those segments are charts and lists to help you develop your plan of success. One of the best is a checklist for goal setting, breaking down your life into 7 areas: family, mental, financial, spiritual, career, personal, and physical. Once you have created this chart called “the wheel of life” you can see what part of your life needs help.

Preparing to Win

Tom Landry, legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys said “If you are prepared, you will be confident…and you will do the job.” So much of success  is about positive thinking and self talk. Much of our confidence comes from knowledge. This doesn’t mean to be successful you need an MBA from a prestigious university. It means you are in control of your learning. Peter Drucker said “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly or it vanishes.” In other words skip an hour of daily TV and you will have the time to read or listen to 25 books a year.

Expecting to Win

If you talk with a world-class athlete they always expect to win every event. Aren’t you amazed at some of the last second victories from people or teams that had no chance of winning. A recent stage of the Tour de France cycling race, one of the cyclists crashed at 45mph going down a mountain road. He got up bleeding profusely, straightened out his bike, remounted, and eventually caught the leading riders and passed them for victory. He expected to win that morning as he started out on his 100 mile journey and a little thing like a bike crash only intensified his desire to win.

Zig gives details his six principles of performance and mostly they deal with what you expect from yourselves and others is normally what you get. But you can’t expect much out of your employees without giving them proper training. He also explains what is the greatest source of happiness.

Zig Ziglar has written 29 books throughout his life. Born To Win takes those 29 books and boils them down to the basics. If you want to be a winner then you need to read and put into practice these basics and principles. And don’t forget to get a copy for each of your people. Tom Landry didn’t score a single touchdown for the Cowboys, but I can guarantee he prepared his team to win.

Bill Yeadon