Drawing On The Moon

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Week 20 ~ "People Often Say...." ~ Zig Ziglar

For a long time I resisted anything or anyone resembling someone like Zig Ziglar. He was a renowned salesman and a motivational speaker and author, and he and his kind were just too "sales-y" for my tastes. Also, being a New York City-educated artist, all that smiling went against the grain. Not to mention so did the whole idea of sales....I was an artist after all.

As interested as I have been in self-development pretty much my whole life, I still had never so much as picked up a book by Zig Ziglar or read anything by him. Of course, times are a-changing and today, sales is something that lots of people are interested in. Even looking for a job involves knowing that you are indeed, selling something, in this case yourself and your skills. Artists also need to develop skills in selling. (And this would involve dumping those myths about the "starving artist." It is a bunch of hooey.)

I still have not read a thing by Zig Ziglar, but after finding this quote - which I like because it's funny and makes a lot of sense! - I did visit his website. And it didn't look too scary and/or cheesy. Mr. Ziglar, who was born in 1926, passed from this world in November 2012, but there seems to be a lot of very nice people who continue to write helpful and informational articles for his site. One of these days, I may sit and read one or two or twenty of them. This will come in handy because motivation really does need to be a daily practice, and a nice big selection of resources makes that more fun.

Whoever, and whatever, inspires you, I hope you stay motivated to pursue your dreams.

Have a wonderful week!