by Zig Ziglar
We visited one of these mammoth warehouses, and as we entered he paused in front of the switchboard operator and said, “I want to tell you what a beautiful job you are doing on the switchboard. You make people feel as though you are delighted they called.” The switchboard operator smiled broadly and said, “Thank you, Mr. Hailey, that’s what I try to do.” Next, we walked into the office section. As we passed one department, Mr. Hailey said, “Excuse me, Zig, let’s go in here. I want you to meet this man.” He walked in, introduced himself, and said, “You know, I haven’t gotten to know you, but I know your department and I wanted you to know I’m aware of what is happening. Since you have taken over this department, we haven’t had the first complaint, which is a tribute to you.” The man grinned and said, “Well, thank you, Mr. Hailey, I’m doing the best I can.”
We went upstairs and as we started to walk into the inner office, he stopped and said, “Zig, I want to introduce you to the greatest secretary who ever sat behind a desk.” Then to the secretary, “You know, I don’t think I have ever told you this, but my wife thinks you hung the moon, and she believes you can go take it down any time, so I’m going to ask you not to do that.” She smiled and said, “I appreciate hearing that.” We walked into the insurance office and he said, “Zig, shake hands with one of the greatest insurance men who ever put on a pair of shoes.”
The entire trip took less than three minutes, but Walter Hailey gave each of these people something to live up to. He left them better than he found them. He gave them some sincere appreciation, which built enthusiasm for their jobs and their company. As a result, I can assure you they worked more effectively and efficiently. I can also assure you Walter Hailey felt better as a result of the trip—and so did I. It is impossible to influence someone else for the good and give them a boost without gaining a benefit yourself.
THE PROBLEM IS
As a young salesman I read a story that made a lasting impression. A five-year-old girl had made her musical debut in a church cantata. She had a beautiful voice and from the beginning a great career was predicted for her. As she grew older she was more and more in demand for church, school, and social functions. Recognizing the need for professional voice training, the family sent her to a well-known voice teacher. The teacher knew his music as perhaps few others did. He was a perfectionist who demanded top performance at all times. Any time the girl would waver a bit or miss her timing in the least, he carefully pointed out her errors. Over a period of time, her admiration for her teacher deepened. Despite the age difference and the fact that he was more critical than complimentary, she fell in love with him and they got married.
He continued to teach her, but her friends started detecting changes in her beautiful natural voice. It took on a strained quality and no longer had the clear excitement that it formerly possessed. Gradually, invitations to sing came less frequently. Finally, they virtually stopped. Then her husband-teacher died and for the next few years she did little or no singing. Her talent was hardly used, and lay dormant until an exuberant salesman began courting her. On occasion, when she would hum a little tune or a melody would burst forth, he would marvel at the beauty of her voice. “Sing some more, Honey. You have the most beautiful voice in all the world,” he would say.
Now the fact of the matter is, he might not have known whether she was good, bad, or indifferent, but he did know he liked her voice very much. So he showered her with praise. Not too surprisingly, her confidence returned and she began to receive invitations to sing again. Still later, she married the “good finder” and went on to a successful career of her own.
I would like to emphasize that the salesman’s praise for her was totally honest, sincere, and much needed. In fact, a sincere compliment is one of the most effective teaching and motivational methods in existence. Compliments may seem to be just so much air, but like the air we use to fill the tires on our automobiles, they can really ease us along life’s highway.
YOU ARE A BUSINESSMAN
A New York businessman dropped a dollar into the cup of a man selling pencils and hurriedly stepped aboard the subway train. On second thought, he stepped back off the train, walked over to the beggar, and took several pencils from the cup. Apologetically, he explained that in his haste he had neglected to pick up his pencils and hoped the man wouldn’t be upset with him. “After all,” he said, “you are a businessman just like me. You have merchandise to sell and it’s fairly priced.” Then he caught the next train.
At a social function a few months later, a neatly dressed salesman stepped up to the businessman and introduced himself. “You probably don’t remember me and I don’t know your name, but I will never forget you. You are the man who gave me back my self-respect. I was a ‘beggar’ selling pencils until you came along and told me I was a businessman.”
A wise man said, “A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.” How do you see others? The greatest good we can do for anyone is not to share our wealth with them, but rather to reveal their own wealth to them. It’s astonishing how much talent and ability rests inside a human being. We devoted considerable time in the first two segments selling you on you. Just as the first step to success is knowing your own potential, the second step is knowing the potential of others. Fortunately, as we recognize our own ability, it’s easy to recognize the ability of others. Once we see it, we can help them discover it for themselves.
THE BANKERS SAID NO
By bankers’ guidelines and business logic, they should have said no. The applicant did not have banker’s collateral (she couldn’t prove she didn’t need the $6,000), she wanted to inject more capital into a new business, had no experience in running a company, had parted company with her former employer over a disagreement in philosophy, the economy wasn’t exactly booming, and besides all that she was a woman. Worse still, she had the peculiar notion that you could build a business on Christian principles.
Incredibly enough, she even had the idea that the customer, the company, and the sales person could benefit when a sale was made. To compound the “problem,” she believed in paying bills and bonuses when they came due and not when it was convenient.
But if you think that was bad (in bankers’ eyes) keep reading—it gets worse. Mary Crowley even believed that you should open a sales or training meeting with prayer. Later she and her son, Don Carter, who worked beside her in the business, had the revolutionary idea that it was good business to hire the handicapped. Good for them—good for you. Additionally, the business was already “out of control,” with a mushrooming sales force selling, building, and recruiting so fast the company could scarcely keep up with the orders.
It’s clear, however, that two bankers were wrong and the one who said yes was right, because Home Interiors and Gifts, formed by Mary Crowley of Dallas, Texas, is truly one of the Horatio Alger stories of this century. Starting from scratch—and she provided the scratch—Mary Crowley, through the utilization of all the principles for outstanding and lasting success, built a company that has become a model in the direct sales world. It is a company built on a bedrock of faith in Almighty God and the conviction that not only could a business be built on faith, integrity, hard work, and equal opportunity for all, but it must be built that way for permanence. Being a woman—and grateful for it—Mary felt the sting of prejudice and discrimination keenly enough to know that it must not exist in Home Interiors and Gifts.
The question most people ask is why and how Mary Crowley and her company achieved such remarkable success since it was founded in December 1957. The answer is simple, but it goes far below the surface. If I had to sum up Mary Crowley and her success in a few words, I would say that she reached the heights she did because of the depth of her beliefs. She believed that “one person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only an interest.” She believed in the enormous potential in everyone, and was determined to give her sales ladies an unlimited opportunity for gro
wth and financial success. She believed that if you build people mentally, morally, physically, and spiritually, they will build the business on the same foundation. By any standard, Mary Crowley was a “rich” woman, but she was rich not because of what she had (and that was a bunch), but because of what she gave away (and that was an even bigger bunch).
Mary said it beautifully in her book, Think Mink. A few of her real gems include, “Don’t get the rabbit habit—think mink,” “People need loving the most when they deserve it the least,” “Worry is a misuse of the imagination,” “God will mend even a broken heart if we give Him all the pieces,” “Don’t be an ‘if’ thinker, be a ‘how’ thinker,” “You may give out but never give up,” “Develop a swelled heart, not a swelled head,” “I love God’s mathematics. Joy adds and multiplies as you divide it with others,” and “Be somebody—God doesn’t take time to make a nobody.”
The story of Mary Crowley and Home Interiors hasn’t been all sunshine and roses. There has been much blood, sweat, and tears, but never any shortage in the important things—plenty of love, faith, enthusiasm, compassion, determination, and plain hard work. That, my friends, gives you all the good things life has to offer. Mary Crowley’s story is the classic case and it’s one any lawyer could use in court to prove that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
RATS
Several years ago at Harvard University, Dr. Robert Rosenthal conducted an intriguing series of experiments involving three groups of students and three groups of rats. He informed the first group of students, “You’re in luck. You are going to be working with genius rats. These rats have been bred for intelligence and are extremely bright. They will get to the end of the maze in nothing flat, and eat lots of cheese, so buy plenty.”
The second group was told, “Your rats are just average, not too bright, not too dumb, just a bunch of average rats. They will eventually get to the end of the maze and eat the cheese, but don’t expect too much from them. They’re ‘average’ in ability and intelligence, so their performance will be average.”
He told the third group of students, “These rats are really bad. If they find the end of the maze, it will be by accident and not design. They are really idiots, so naturally they will be low in performance. I’m not certain you should even buy any cheese. Just paint a sign at the end of the maze that says ‘cheese.’”
For the next six weeks, the students conducted experiments under exacting scientific conditions. The genius rats performed like geniuses. They reached the end of the maze in short order. The average rats—well, what do you expect from a bunch of average rats? They made it to the end but they didn’t set any speed records in the process. The idiot rats— oh brother, were they ever sad! They had real difficulty, and when one did find the end of the maze it was obviously an accident and not a “plan.”
Here’s the interesting thing. There were no genius rats or idiot rats. They were all average rats out of the same litter. The difference in performance was the direct result of the difference in the attitude of the students conducting the series of experiments. In short, the students treated the rats “differently” because they saw them “differently,” and different treatment brings on different results. The students didn’t know rat language, but rats have attitudes and attitude is a universal language.
KIDS—SALESMEN—EMPLOYEES—MATES
Here’s a question for you. What kind of children do you have? If you’re a salesman, what kind of prospects have you been seeing? If you are a sales manager, what kind of salesmen do you have? If you are a doctor, what kind of patients have you been treating? If you are an employer, what kind of employees do you have? If you are a husband, what kind of wife do you have? If you are a wife, what kind of husband do you have?
You might say, “Wait a minute, Ziglar, doggone it all, one minute you’re talking about those rats and the next minute you’re talking about my kids, my wife, my husband, or my prospects. Can you be a little clearer?” Obviously, I’m talking about attitude and the effect your attitude has on the people whose lives you touch. Let’s take our story about the rats another step, because the experiment was taken one more step and extended to a local grade school.
One teacher was told, “You’re in luck. You will be working with the genius kids. These students are so bright it’s frightening. They are going to be giving you answers before you ask the questions. They are extremely intelligent kids. One word of caution, however. They are so bright they will try to fool you. Some of them are lazy and will try to con you into giving them less work. Don’t listen to them. These kids can turn out the work. Just put it to them. Some of them will even say, ‘Teacher, that’s too hard.’ Don’t listen to them, and don’t worry about the problems being too hard. These kids can and will solve the toughest ones if you use your teaching skills and give them a vote of confidence along with some daily injections of love, discipline, and genuine interest.”
A second teacher was told, “You have the average kids. They’re not too bright nor too dumb. They have average IQs, background, and ability, so we expect average results.”
Naturally, the genius students did better than the average students. As a matter of fact, at the end of the year the genius students were one full year ahead of the average students. I’ll bet you don’t have to be a genius to figure out the end of this story, do you? You’re right. There were no genius students. They were all average students. The only difference was in the attitude of the teacher. The teacher thought the average students were geniuses, so they were treated like geniuses, expected to perform like geniuses, and they did. They were given something to live up to and not something to live down to. It’s true that the way you see “them” is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is the way they often become.
Here’s another question. Have your kids gotten any smarter the last five minutes? What about the sales people in your organization? Did your employees or associates become more productive, wiser, more professional and more skillful during those few minutes? How about your wife? Has she gotten prettier and more interesting? Or did your husband grow in stature? If these things didn’t happen, let me urge you to turn back the pages and read again, because you missed the point, and your family, friends, and associates have a problem—it’s you.
The poet expressed it beautifully when he said, “If you take a man as he is, you make him worse than he was, but if you see him as being the best person possible, then he, in fact, becomes the best person possible.” If your kids, while you were reading these words, have suddenly gotten smarter, if a husband, wife or associate improved, let me say, “Congratulations, you are the one who is making progress.”
An excellent example of this philosophy of seeing the good in the other person is former UCLA coach John Wooden, who, by the way, is the perfect answer to Leo Durocher’s famous and obviously wrong statement that “nice guys finish last.” Wooden saw the total person in his basketball players and was just as concerned with their morals as with their quickness. He also believed and taught that everything in life was enhanced by working with consideration for the other person. Team spirit, dedication, loyalty, enthusiasm, poise, and condition were all trademarks of his teams. Since his teams won 10 out of 12 national championships, including seven in a row, there isn’t much way we can disagree with his philosophy. It might surprise you to learn that this winner of all winners didn’t consider winning the most important thing. As a matter of fact, he never mentioned winning to his players. He stressed “best effort” for everybody and felt that a player should feel bad only if he didn’t give it his all.
YOU ARE A LOUSY FOOTBALL PLAYER
During a practice session for the Green Bay Packers, things were not going well for Vince Lombardi’s team. Lombardi singled out one big guard for his failure to “put out.” It was a hot, muggy day when the coach called his guard aside and leveled his awesome vocal guns on him, as only Lombardi could. “
Son, you are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling, you’re not putting out. As a matter of fact, it’s all over for you today. Go take a shower.” The big guard dropped his head and walked into the dressing room. Forty-five minutes later, when Lombardi walked in, he saw the big guard sitting in front of his locker still wearing his uniform. His head was bowed and he was sobbing quietly.
Vince Lombardi, ever the changeable but always the compassionate warrior, did something of an about face that was also typical of him. He walked over to his football player and put his arm around his shoulder. “Son,” he said, “I told you the truth. You are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling, you’re not putting out. However, in all fairness to you, I should have finished the story. Inside of you, Son, there is a great football player and I’m going to stick by your side until the great football player inside of you has a chance to come out and assert himself.” With these words, Jerry Kramer straightened up and felt a great deal better. As a matter of fact, he felt so much better he went on to become one of the all-time greats in football and was voted the all-time guard in the first 50 years of professional football.
That was Lombardi. He saw things in men that they seldom saw in themselves. He had the ability to inspire his men to use the talent they had. As a result, these players gave Lombardi three consecutive world championships at Green Bay. Later, when he moved to Washington, many people wondered how he would handle Sonny Jurgensen, the talented but undisciplined quarterback. They didn’t wonder very long. On the first day of practice one of the reporters baited him with a question about Jurgensen. Lombardi called Sonny to his side, put his arm around him and said, “Gentlemen, this is the greatest quarterback to ever step on a football field.” Is it any wonder that Jurgensen had his best year ever? Lombardi saw the good in others, treated them like he saw them, and helped develop the “good” that was inside of them.