A Lesson Learned From My Mother -- And Reinforced From My Brother Zig by Hall of Fame Speaker Floyd Wickman

As a new real estate salesman, I heard Zig Ziglar’s message before I ever met the man.  Those were the days of records (for you young folks, that’s like a big cd that was played on a phonograph). Since the time Zig started in the training business, his core message was about helping other people get what they want.  For me, those words changed my entire perspective about selling.  According to the old saying, “Selling is simple:  Find out what people want and show them how to get it.”  That’s classic Zig.   Suddenly, sitting at a kitchen table with a potential client was more than just “qualifying.”    I began to think in terms of finding a problem and offering a solution.  That kind of thinking would shape the future of training in real estate.

In fact, it even won me a car.  Late one evening I was sitting in a lounge when a fireman walked in.  He went around the room asking everyone, “Would you like to buy a ticket to the Detroit Fireman’s Field Day?”  I had a new awareness of giving to others, and as I bought a ticket, I felt that desire bubble to the surface.  I knew just what he could say that would help him get what he most wanted.  I said, “Could I give you a tip that would help you sell more tickets?”  With his permission, I suggested that instead of asking them to buy one ticket he could say, “Do you have children?  How many?”  And then peel off one for each kid.   He replied, “That’s a great idea   By the way, how many kids do you have?”  He peeled off two more tickets which, chuckling, I bought.  It was the third ticket he sold me that won the car.  It was awarded on the field of a Detroit Tigers game and while the car was wonderful, its message in my life was more profound:  When I put others first and help them get what they want, I can have anything I desire.

Zig says it this way:  “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”  

This is not a new concept.  Two thousand years ago Luke included it in his gospel.  See chapter 6, verse 38, and you’ll find this: "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you."

Read that verse again.  Read “…the same measure you measure…” and think about the scale you use to measure your own generosity.  Have you been expecting to receive more than that measure which you use to give?

Do you know what happens when you give?  You get to be a giver.  It’s my mother, Gertrude, who planted the first seeds of that lesson in me.

Giving thanks and living a grateful life is an everyday way of being.  I'm grateful for the lessons taught to me by both my mother and of course, my amazing friend Zig.  Learn more of the lessons Zig taught in our timeless new book, Lessons From My Brother Zig. 

Love,