Zig Ziglar – The Language Lady

Zig Ziglar – Attitude Makes All The Difference (transcript)

A number of years ago, Lori Majors, my executive assistant, got a phone call from a lady in Birmingham, Alabama. At the end of the conversation, she said, “Zig,” she said, “I believe this woman thinks she’s got an impossible problem but I believe you can solve that problem with her in just a few minutes if you will spend that time with her.”

I said, “Well, Lori, tell her to meet me backstage. I’ll get there about 10 minutes early.” My schedule was such that that was about all I had.

Meeting the woman on the backstage

Well, I got there and I was on the backstage behind the curtain on one side. She spotted me from the other side and as she walked across the stage, I have never seen as much anger in a human being in my life as I saw in her. She almost started crying when she saw me.

She said, “I’m just so glad to see you. I’ve got this horrible job, I hate it, I hate everything about it. I hate everybody down there.” I mean, you talking about negative nails, she was it. She said, “Can you help me?”

Now, understand, I’ve only got about 10 minutes. So I looked at her and one thing I have learned… I don’t do counseling, but I talk with a lot of people who do in psychology, psychiatry and the ministry and they tell me that everybody who comes to you with a problem are not necessarily looking for a solution. I couldn’t understand that for a long time. Why do they bring you a problem if they don’t want to solve it?

Well, I can tell you why. They want to tell you about it, you about it, you about it, you about it, you about it and if you foul up the deal and solve the problem, they can’t tell you again, you again… They want the attention that goes with the problem and every company, just about it, has that kind of an individual. They want the attention that goes with griping and complaining.

The shock treatment

Well, I looked at the lady and I wasn’t unkindly but firmly I said to her, “Yes, and you know, Ma’am, I am afraid your problem is about to get worse!”

She said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “I believe they’re going to fire you!”

She was stunned. I couldn’t have stunned her more if I had hit her in the face with a bucket of iced water. She said, “Fire me! Why on earth would they fire me?” The inflection in her voice clearly said, ‘They are the bad guys, I’m the good guy, why don’t they fire them and keep me?’

Have you ever noticed that people who are the problem never recognize that they are? They’re in complete denial. They think ‘denial’ is just a river in Egypt!

“Why would they fire me?”

I said, “Ma’am, I don’t believe there is a company in America big enough to contain this much poison in one small spot.”

Have you ever noticed that when somebody is about to lose something they’ve been complaining about, whether it’s a car, a home, a mate, a job, or whatever… when all of a sudden it appears they are going to lose them, it takes on a brand new value.

She looked at me and said, “What can I do?”

I said, “Do you really want to know?”

She said, “Yes. I do. That’s the reason I came to see you. I came looking for help but you sure haven’t been any help so far.”

I said, “Well, Ma’am, I’ve got an idea and I will absolutely guarantee you, it positively, definitely, absolutely will work if you will just do it.”

She said, “I’ll try anything within reason.”

Technique of listing down the things you like about your job

I said, “Okay, when you get home tonight, all of your household tasks are complete, it’s bedtime, get off in a room right by yourself, get a sheet of paper out and at the top of it write, ‘I like my job because…’

She interrupted me. She said, “That’ll be easy, I don’t like nothing about that job, I don’t like nothing about those people down there!”

And I said, “Well, just as a matter of curiosity, do you work there for benevolent reasons or do they pay you for working there?”

She said, “Well, I got to confess they pay me.” And I said, “You don’t like to be paid?”

“Oh”, she said, “Yes, I do.”

I said, “Okay, tell you what to do, open your notebook right now. We’ll start our list of the things you like about your job. They pay you for working there and you do like it, don’t you?”

She said, “Absolutely”, but she just stood there.

I said, “No, open your notebook now and we’ll get busy on the list.” She just stood there. I said, “Ma’am, let me, let me tell what my experience in life has been. I’ve discovered that in 100% of the cases — no exception — people who won’t take step No. 1 never take step No. 2.”

You see she had come to me with an impossible dream. Her dream was that nice Mr Ziglar was going to solve all of her problems and she would live happily ever after. Well, folks, I got news for you. I can’t solve her problems, I can’t solve your problems.

But I will give you some steps that’ll absolutely, definitely and positively will work for you, as it worked, eventually, for her. I said “Well Ma’am, let me tell you something, unless you’re willing to take step No. 1 right now, it’s been nice talking with you.”

She angrily opened her notebook. Before we got through there were 22 things she liked about her job. Not only did they pay her for working there:

They paid her above average.
She had 3 weeks vacation with pay.
She had a retirement program.
She was in on profit-sharing.
She had health insurance, life insurance, and accident insurance.
She lived less than 10 minutes from work.
She was in on management decisions.
The company sent her to 3 seminars a year, all paid for.
She had her own private office and parking bay.

22 things that she liked about her job. Now I said, “Ma’am, when you get home tonight, everything is finished. Get off in a room right by yourself. Close the doors, change one word from ‘I like my job’ to ‘I love my job.’ Get in front of that mirror” and folks, I cannot say this strongly enough but I’m going to try, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.”

Look yourself in the eye and with excitement and enthusiasm say, “I love my job because they pay me for working there. I love my job because they pay me above average for working there. I love my job because I have a wonderful insurance program. ‘I love my job…’ before every one of the statements. You will sleep better that night.”

You see, there is something hidden in what I am saying to you now, when she says, “I like my job”, she is really saying, “I’m grateful for my job.”

And of all of the emotions we can have, according to Hans Selye, the No. 1 stress specialist in America, the healthiest of all human emotions is gratitude.

I said, “You go down that list. ‘I like my job, I love my job rather.’ That is a way of gratitude. You’ll sleep better the first night. Tomorrow morning, when you get up, get back in front of the mirror, just before you go to work. Get back in front of the mirror and repeat the process again with excitement and enthusiasm, ‘I love my job because…’ and take the list with you.”

Because the reality is, you see, you will have started the change from a fault-finder to a ‘good-finder’. Some people do really find fault like there was a reward for it. They really do. “Take the list with you and you will be able to add to that list, absolutely guaranteed. Do this every morning and every night and you will have an astonishing recovery from this advanced case of stinking thinking.” Now, I didn’t say that to her but I am saying it to you. That’s what it was. It was an advanced case of stinking thinking.

6 weeks later…

Well, 6 weeks later, I was back in Birmingham, Alabama. I was doing a follow-up sales seminar. Now, the lady was not in sales but she had been listening to my tapes. She had been listening to Automobile University and she had discovered that everybody sells. Everybody who’ll ever hear this is in selling. Whether you are a schoolteacher, a civil service worker, a military personnel, an executive secretary, it doesn’t make any difference what you do, you sell every day of your life.

There she was at the sales seminar, seated on the front row, grinning so wide she could have eaten a banana sideways. I’m telling you, you talking about somebody who was excited, she was turned on! I said, “Well, how are you doing?” She grinned even more broadly, and said, “Mr Ziglar, I’m doing wonderfully well and thank you for asking.” She said, “You cannot believe how much those people down there have changed.”

I got to lay it on the line, folks. You’re not going to change anybody else, until you change you. Everything really does begin with you.

Now, you see the unfortunate thing, this lady had been raised in a very negative environment. First, her parents had told her that she would never amount to anything. They said, “You know, you’re always late, you’re always sloppy, why can’t you be like your brother or your sister or whatever.” When she got married, her husband had continued it and so, her self-talk had become completely negative. Everything she said about herself was negative. “Like Dad said, I will never amount to anything”, or like my husband says, “I can’t do anything right.” But, when she started changing the input, then some radical changes took place…

http://zigziglar.libsyn.com/

Meeting the woman on the backstage

The shock treatment

Technique of listing down the things you like about your job

6 weeks later…

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