Motivational maestro Zig Ziglar dies at 86 - Washington Times

Sad news of the loss of an icon in the motivational and self-help area. I was struck by a note he sent to another giant in the industry -- and another favorite author of mine, John C. Maxwell as noted in his book Ethics 101 -- regarding the loss of leadership in this country.

At the beginning of Chapter 3: The Golden Rule Begins with You, Zig noted to Maxwell the following:

I believe the reason we had so many outstanding leaders in the early part of our country's history is the fact that, according to the Thomas Jefferson Research Institute, in the days when men you were mentioning ( the founding fathers) were growing up, over 90 percent of the educational thrust was of a moral, ethical, religious nature. And yet, by the 1950's, the percentage of that same educational thrust was so small it could not be measured. I wonder if that's the reason three million Americans in 1776 produced Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, etc. and why in the year 2002 we have no one to equal men of that caliber.

Zig Ziglar, letter to author, 15 April 2002.

Three million Americans produced so many great leaders and today from a population of over three hundred  million, we cannot produced a single politician worthy of standing in the team photo with any of these guts in terms of leadership. 

I know it's fashionable today to denigrate the founding fathers due to their failure to deal with the evils of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans, but we're doing some things today that history will look back on and shame us for as well.

I don't see any these folks dropping their keys off at any Indian reservation or donating to any reparation for slavery efforts. But they do talk a nice game.

R.I.P. Zig Ziglar ( 1926 - 2012 )   

from the Washington Times:
Motivational maestro Zig Ziglar dies at 86 - Washington Times:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last,”  Mr. Ziglar noted in one of his dozens of quotable maxims liberally sprinkled throughout his pep talks.  “Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend [both] daily."

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