by Zig Ziglar
PERFORMANCE PRINCIPLES
* * *
Take time to get started.
Take time to grow.
Take time to be healthy.
Take time to play.
Take time to be quiet.
Take time for those you love.
Epilogue
A Unique Opportunity
When I was a small boy in Yazoo City, Mississippi, I worked in a grocery store. Now, you must understand that in the late ’30s and early ’40s, things were dramatically different from what they are today. At that time very few kids had money to buy sweets. Molasses candy was one of the delicacies of the day. People would buy molasses and make candy from it. The molasses was kept in a big barrel at the store. When customers brought their jars or jugs in for molasses, we simply filled them from that huge barrel. From time to time one of the little guys in town who had nothing to do would come into our store to kill time and hope for a handout.
One day he was in the store, and when he thought no one was looking, he carefully took the top off the molasses barrel, stuck his finger in, and put it in his mouth. As he was licking his lips, my boss suddenly appeared and grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him, and said, “Son, don’t you ever do that again! That’s not sanitary and we won’t stand for it!”
The boy was somewhat shaken, but as he left the store I could tell he was going to survive. A few days later he showed up in the store again. He walked around a few minutes, carefully looked, and when he did not see the owner, he removed the top of the barrel and ran his finger through the molasses. Just as he popped his finger into his mouth, suddenly out of nowhere my boss appeared. This time he swatted the little guy across the rear a couple of times and told him to get out of the store and never come back.
You would have thought the kid had learned his lesson, but about ten days later that sweet tooth obviously had gotten to him again, and there he was, in the store. Again the owner was nowhere to be seen, so the little guy carefully, cautiously removed the top of the barrel and again ran his finger through the molasses. Just as he was putting it in his mouth, my boss mysteriously reappeared. This time he said nothing as he picked the little guy up and dropped him right into that big barrel of molasses. As he was sinking out of sight, you could hear him praying, “Oh, Lord, please give me the tongue to equal this opportunity!”
Your Challenge
As I put my thoughts on Top Performance on paper, it has been my prayer and my plan to share some information and inspiration that will make a difference in your life. The need for both information and inspiration in our personal and corporate worlds is enormous. The opportunity to benefit many people is great. My prayer is that some idea has struck a responsive chord in you that will enable you to enjoy your life more and be even more effective today than you were yesterday.
Theodore F. MacManus wrote the following piece, The Penalty of Leadership, as an advertisement, and though it appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on January 2, 1915, the message is timeless.
The Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity.
Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction.
When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone—if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting.
Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or to slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the riverbanks to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy—but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.
There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions—envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains—the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live—lives.
Yes, leadership has its penalties, but fortunately, it also has its rewards. Here’s hoping—and believing—that the principles taught in Top Performance will help you reap those rewards.
Notes
1. The I CAN course is currently distributed by an independent organization, The Alexander Resource Group, headed by Bob Alexander. For information on the course, contact Bob Alexander, Pres., The Alexander Group, 176 Lake View Dr., N., Macon, GA 31210. Phone: 877-USA-ICAN. Web site: www.yesican.net.
2. Printed by permission from Dr. Michael H. Mescon, dean, College of Business Administration, Georgia State University, and Holder, Ramsey chair of private enterprise, and Dr. Timothy S. Mescon, assistant dean, School of Business Administration, University of Miami, and published by Mescon Group, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia.
3. Ziglar Training Systems, 2009 Chenault Drive, Suite 100, Carrollton, TX 75006. Phone: 972-233-9191. Web site: www.zigziglar.com
4. Adapted from Assuring Customer Loyalty, Ziglar Training Systems © 2000.
Zig Ziglar is an internationally renowned speaker and author. His client list includes thousands of businesses, Fortune 500 companies, U.S. government agencies, churches, schools, and nonprofit associations. He has written twenty-one books, including See You at the Top, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, Secrets of Closing the Sale, Success for Dummies, Over the Top, and Zig: The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar. Nine of his books have been on best-seller lists, and his books and tapes have been translated into more than thirty-eight languages and dialects.
Bryan Flanagan is director of corporate training at Ziglar Training Systems and lives in Plano, Texas.
Krish Dhanam, a native of India, is director of international operations at Ziglar Training Systems. He lives in Flower Mound, Texas.
Jim Savage served as a teacher, coach, and administrator on the high school level. He was also special assignments coach for the NFL Washington Redskins football team under Coach George Allen. In 1981 Jim joined the Zig Ziglar Corporation, where he designed and delivered training programs. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, and is employed with Franklin-Covey.