SEE YOU AT THE TOP

by Zig Ziglar

  This little story Charles Getts tells in Guideposts emphasizes the attitude of “enjoying” the price.

  In old age, Pierre Auguste Renoir, the great French painter, suffered from arthritis, which twisted and cramped his hand. Henri Matisse, his artist friend, watched sadly while Renoir, grasping a brush with only his fingertips, continued to paint, even though each movement caused stabbing pain.

  One day, Matisse asked Renoir why he persisted in painting at the expense of such torture.

  Renoir replied, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”

  THIS WAY TO A RAISE

  In your present situation or job, when you show up for work on time, give an honest day’s effort, are loyal to your employer, and accept an agreed-upon sum of money for your work, you and your employer are exactly even. You are doing enough to keep your job (unless there is a recession) but not enough to get the raise your employer would like to give you. My observation is that your employer is almost always anxious to pay you more money, but he/she runs a business—not a charitable institution. In order for him to pay you more, you must make yourself more valuable to him. You do this with extra effort—extra loyalty— extra enthusiasm—extra hours, and by assuming extra responsibilities. In a nutshell, you go the extra mile, which is one stretch of highway where there are never any traffic jams. These steps guarantee your job in hard times and earn you raises and promotions in good times.

  Your present employer will probably be the one to give you the raise, but the law is clear: “As ye sow, so also shall ye reap.” So if you don’t get the raise on your present job, you will get it from somewhere else. As a youngster in the grocery store I did a lot of running to the other stores to borrow and return items. My opposite number in the store across the street was a boy named Charlie Scott. Charlie “hustled” like nobody I’d ever seen. He never walked while on an errand for his boss. One day I asked Mr. Anderson, my boss, why Charlie Scott was always in such a hurry. Mr. Anderson explained that Charlie was working for a raise, which he was certain to get because if his present employer didn’t give it to him, he (Mr. Anderson) would. Like the man said while talking to an employee seeking a raise, “I will give you the raise you seek and it will become effective when you do.”

  That loud “amen” you just heard came from Lou Scott, vice president of Management Recruiters International, which has over 300 offices nationally and is the largest executive placement organization in the country. Their experience shows that over 95% of the people their offices place, excluding trainees on their first job, come to them employed. They also found that the “above average” worker who goes the extra mile and does more than he is paid to do has tremendous job security. To quote Lou, “The good ones just ain’t laid off.”

  Yes, it’s the extras that produce dramatic results. We seldom, if ever, hear of the person who makes it big only by doing what he is paid to do. The reason is competition. Virtually everyone is willing to “show up” for forty hours. Beyond that point, however, most aren’t interested, so competition drops tremendously. As a practical matter, it’s fairly easy to win a race or a promotion when competition either quits or quits trying.

  I’ll concede that perhaps I feel the way I do about work because I was raised during the Depression. As a small boy, I saw grown men leave home day after day, seeking any kind of work doing anything, requiring only that it be honest. Their joy was so total when they found a job, it made quite an impression on me. I consider work a privilege because it gives us more than a living; it gives us a life, or for a youngster it is preparation for life, as this story indicates.

  A farmer had several boys and he worked them extremely hard around the farm. One day, one of the neighbors pointed out that it wasn’t necessary to work the boys that hard to raise a crop. The farmer, quietly but firmly responded, “I’m not just raising crops, I’m raising boys.”

  SURRENDER A “LITTLE”—LOSE A LOT

  I love the story of the old man in the Smoky Mountains. A number of years ago, some hogs escaped in a remote area of the mountains. Over a period of several generations, these hogs became wilder and wilder, until they were a menace to anyone who crossed their paths. A number of skilled hunters tried to locate and kill them, but the hogs were able to elude the efforts of the best hunters in the area.

  One day an old man, leading a small donkey pulling a cart, came into the village closest to the habitat of these wild hogs. The cart was loaded with lumber and grain. The local citizens were curious about where the man was going and what he was going to do. He told them he had “come to catch them wild hogs.” They scoffed, because no one believed the old man could accomplish what the local hunters were unable to do. But, two months later, the old man returned to the village and told the citizens the hogs were trapped in a pen near the top of the mountain.

  Then he explained how he caught them. “First thing I done was find the spot where the hogs came to eat. Then I baited me a trap by puttin’ a little grain right in the middle of the clearin’. Them hogs was scared off at first but curiosity finally got to ’em and the old boar that led them started sniffin’ around. When he took the first bite the others joined in and I knew right then I had ’em. Next day I put some more grain out there and laid one plank a few feet away. That plank kinda’ spooked ’em for awhile but that ‘free lunch’ was a powerful appeal so it wasn’t long ’fore they were back eatin’.

  “Them hogs didn’t know it but they was mine already. All I had to do was add a coupla’ boards each day by the grain they wanted until I had ever’thing I needed for my trap. Then I dug a hole and put up my first corner post. Ever’time I added something they’d stay away a spell but finally they’d come back to git ‘somethin’ for nothin’.’ When the pen was built and the trap door was ready, the habit of gittin’ what they wanted without working for it drove ’em right into the pen and I sprung the trap. It was real easy after I got ’em coming for the ‘free lunch.’”

  The story is true and its point quite simple. When you make an animal dependent upon man for his food, you take away his resourcefulness and he’s in trouble. The same is true of man. If you want to create a cripple, just give a man a pair of crutches for a few months—or give him a “free lunch” long enough for him to get in the habit of getting something for nothing.

  START ME—AND I’LL GO

  There are three things that are hard to do. One is to climb a fence that is leaning toward you. Another is to kiss a girl who is leaning away from you. The third is to help someone who doesn’t really want to be helped. Now, I have to be honest and admit to you that I’ve never tried to climb the fence. (You might need to think on that one for a moment.) Many times I’ve had people say, “If someone would give me a stake so I could ‘get current’ one time, pay all my bills and have $10,000 in the bank, I could go the rest of the way on my own.” The unfortunate thing is, many people believe this and they “wait” for someone to come along and give them that start. I advocate helping people, but as I indicated in an earlier chapter, I believe if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for life.

  I believe in giving “fishing” lessons. Just helping someone get current and giving him a cash reserve is generally the wrong way to help. Invariably the individual takes the “bonanza” and spends it either to “catch up” or to get something he’s been wanting but couldn’t get. This simply continues and even reinforces the habit of spending which put him behind the financial eight ball to start with. Once you get the habit (whether it’s a good one or a bad one) the habit gets you.

  For example, during the 1960s, television featured a number of gigantic quiz shows. Many of you will recall that on these shows the winnings were $75,000, $100,000, and more. Seven years later a survey was conducted among “the big winners” of the shows. Interestingly enough, there wasn’t a single person who had won $75,000 or more who had any more money than he had before he won that large sum of money. Each winner apparently
took the bonanza and spent it instead of investing it, which would have meant a permanent rise in living standards.

  More recently the huge winners on the state lotteries of millions of dollars have had an overwhelmingly negative result. Lives have been disrupted, families upended, careers wrecked, old friends lost, and attitudes and images have been severely damaged. Free lunches do not put you on easy street. More often, you lose more than you win.

  This was largely validated when on September 4, 1997, John Stossel and ABC News aired a fascinating program which revealed that one year after a person wins a multimillion-dollar lottery he or she is less likely to be happy than an individual who was seriously injured and became a paraplegic. Here’s why. The lottery winner believes he is now on easy street and that all his problems are solved—which in most cases is not true. The money dissapates and the winner looks back with bitter regrets. On the other hand, every step of progress the paraplegic makes builds hope. Then gratitude, the healthiest of all human emotions, begins to bear fruit.

  WORK WEEK OR WEAK WORK

  The tragic story of the American Indian will emphasize what happens when someone else “takes care of you.” Around the turn of the century, the U.S. Government made a long series of treaties with the Indian tribes, particularly in the western portion of the country. The treaties involved many things, but the prime requirement was for the Indians to lay down their arms, go to reservations, and let the Government “take care” of them. Today, all you need to do is visit a reservation and observe the plight of the Native American to see what happens when man is forced to turn his self-respect over to someone else. When you give a man a dole you deny him his dignity, and when you deny him his dignity you rob him of his destiny. I recognize that Washington is passing out a lot of apparently free lunches today, but those lunches are on consignment. Sooner or later you and I, as well as the people who receive them, will pay full price with interest.

  We hear considerable talk about changing the work week nowadays. Many people feel we should only work 30 hours instead of 40 per week. They prefer a four-day week to a five-day one. I believe more would be accomplished if we concentrated on changing the “weak work” and let the “work week” alone.

  Fewer people are bent from hard work than are crooked from avoiding it. Actually, life is like a grindstone. The “stuff” you’re made of will determine whether it grinds you down or polishes you up.

  WORK FOR YOUR LIFE

  In my talks with companies and individuals around the country, I frequently ask people what they would put at the top of their list of desires for the tomorrows of their lives. One thing frequently mentioned is security. When I discuss the dignity of work and the security it affords, there is an example that intrigues (but doesn’t surprise) me. It pertains to what’s happened in Sweden the past several years. The Swedish Government assures every individual that he will “be taken care of” from birth to death. Despite the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that those who don’t work shouldn’t eat, many Swedes believe the government owes them a living, that it should “take care of them.” To a large degree it does exactly that. When a citizen goes to the doctor, dentist, or hospital, there are no bills to pay—the government pays them. When a baby is born, the government pays the bills and contributes to the support of the mother and child. If the income is not adequate to maintain a minimum standard of living, the government steps in and makes up the difference.

  To the casual observer, it would appear the Swedes should be the happiest people in existence because of such a magnificent arrangement. They have got it made—or do they? In addition to having one of the highest tax structures of any Western nation, Sweden also has the fastest growing rate of juvenile delinquency. It boasts the fastest growing drug problem, the highest rate of divorce, and the greatest decline in church attendance. All this adds up to problems now and still more problems in the future.

  This data tells us a considerable amount about the young and the middle-aged, but what about the old folks in Sweden? This “land of security” has the highest rate of suicide among the retired of any Western nation. It’s obvious that there’s a vast difference between building your own security and retirement as opposed to having someone else take care of you. Yes, real security is truly an inside job. It can’t be given or provided—it must be earned.

  Security is accurately spelled out by using each letter as the first letter of another word: (S)ecurity (E)arned (C)arefully (U)sually (R)esults (I)n (T)reasure-filled (Y)ears.

  GET BUSY—AND DO YOUR BEST

  In America, leisure time increased tremendously during the years after World War II. In that same time period, social problems, and maladies also increased. Frustrations, nervous breakdowns, broken marriages, alcoholism, drug problems, and crime rates are directly related to too much time with nothing to do. Combine this with the permissiveness that has permeated our culture, and the attitude of doing just enough to get by, and the problems are multiplied.

  Workers often lose pride in their workmanship and their performance begins to go down. When performance goes down, the quality of merchandise produced declines, and inferior merchandise doesn’t find a ready market because American consumers demand quality. They turn to foreign imports and the American producer is caught in the squeeze by lowered sales volumes.

  As a nation, we must resell the idea of performance and honest effort for an honest day’s pay. Surely the world owes us a living, but we have to work for it. We have to reverse the philosophy of doing little and collecting much or we’ll be caught in the pinch of pricing ourselves out of quality products and services. The only plan that is going to work over the long haul is an internal change in our philosophy. We must produce the quality merchandise people demand, at the right price, or the American consumer will turn more and more to imported products.

  Fortunately, we can do this. We say this without any mental reservation, because the American worker, under controlled tests, has consistently out-produced his Japanese or European counterpart on project after project. Better quality—better price. When we do as much as we can, American know-how and productivity is still the best in the world. Unfortunately, our recent efforts have not been the best. A 1974 survey of the 12 most highly industrialized nations in the world revealed that the American worker actually rated 11th in production. The net result is lower quality and higher price, which means more foreign imports. Honest effort—not higher tariffs—is the solution to this problem. We don’t “pay a price” for best effort, we “enjoy” it.

  This Warner and Swasey ad says it quite well:

  Order of the White Jacket. At the annual Homecoming of William and Mary College in Virginia, you might see a famous governor, or a college president, or any number of prominent busi

  ness and professional people, proudly wearing a white jacket. The jackets signify that these men earned all or most of their way

  through college waiting on tables.

  They weren’t ashamed of menial labor, they didn’t hold out for the job they liked, they didn’t ask for government help—they

  waited on tables, and it helped them earn the education they have

  since put to such splendid use.

  The Order of the White Jacket has a roster of which any group in the land could well be proud. Perhaps there ought to be a chapter on every college campus in America.

  That last “amen” came from the author’s corner.

  The dictionary indicates that security is freedom from risk or danger, to be free from doubt or fear, not anxious or unsure, etc. Personally, I think General Douglas MacArthur had a better definition. He said, “Security is the ability to produce.” I agree. The person who gains his own self-respect and self-confidence by producing for his own needs is infinitely more secure than the one who leaves the solution to his problems or needs in the hands of someone else. As I’ve said earlier, “Work gives us more than our living, it gives us our life.” A man or woman is seldom really happy unless he or she
is sustaining him or herself and making a contribution to others.

  FIRST—GET STARTED

  Employers agree that an employed person is far more likely to get a better job than the unemployed one. This is especially true if the unemployed person has been out of work very long. Employment is the first rung on the ladder, and it’s the toughest one to reach. If you have what it takes to get a job, it’s easy to move up—after you move in.

  One major problem that many people have is they place too many qualifications on a job. They seek the “perfect” job or employer without recognizing they might not be perfect employees. Many have been overly sold on the fact that a job should offer fulfillment, vacations, sick leave, and retirement. For the successful, already employed individual who seeks a change, those factors are all obtainable in a job. For the unsuccessful and the unemployed, they might be overly ambitious objectives to seek at the starting point. Remember, grave diggers are about the only people who start on top—and they always end up in the hole.

  You get to the top of any business by getting started, and a sense of urgency about getting started is necessary. Once you’ve started, it isn’t so hard to keep going. If a job is difficult or unpleasant, do it immediately. The longer you wait, the more difficult and frightening it will become. It’s something like standing on the high board of the swimming pool for the first time. As you try to decide whether or not you’re going to dive in, the longer you wait the less chance you have of making the dive.

  CHAPTER 21

  Be Ready

  PATIENCE, PERSISTENCE, AND PERSPIRATION

  It’s impossible to discuss work without weaving attitude into the subject. Thomas Edison is a classic example of how attitude relates to work. While being questioned by a young reporter about an invention he had been working on for a long time, he revealed one of the secrets of his greatness. The young reporter asked, “Mr. Edison, how does it feel to have failed 10,000 times in your present venture?” Edison replied, “Young man, since you are just getting started in life, I will give you a thought that should benefit you in the future. I have not failed anything 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”