Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar dies at 86
BY Wire reports
Thursday, November 29, 2012
11/29/12 at 4:52 AM
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, who wrote more than 30 books and focused on positivity and leading a balanced life, died Wednesday in Plano, Texas. He was 86 and had been suffering from pneumonia.
With an aim at helping people achieve success in their careers and personal lives, in addition to a focus on Christianity, Ziglar was a prolific speaker who appeared at events alongside world leaders including several U.S. presidents and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Prestonwood Baptist Church Pastor Jack Graham, Ziglar's friend and pastor, said Ziglar "truly was filled with faith."
"He was positive. He was hopeful. You just never heard negativity from Zig Zig- lar," Graham said.
Ziglar started his full-time career in motivational speaking when he was in his 40s. His first book was "See You at the Top."
Ziglar was a World War II veteran who grew up in Yazoo City, Miss., and then went to work in sales for a series of companies, where his interest in motivational speaking grew, according to his Plano-based company's website. He moved to Dallas in the late 1960s.
Ziglar's company, which features more than a dozen speakers advocating the "Ziglar Way," offers motivation and performance training.
His book, "Confessions of a Grieving Christian," was written after the 1995 death of his oldest daughter, Suzan Ziglar Witmeyer, at age 46.
After a 2007 fall down a flight of stairs left him with a brain injury, Ziglar, along with another daughter, Julie Ziglar Norman, wrote "Embrace the Struggle," a book that described how his life changed after the injury.
