Zig Ziglar - Golden Rule Relationships

Welcome to Zig Ziglars G OLDEN R ULE R ELATIONSHIPS . I know youre going to enjoy this e-book. I am the CEO of Ziglar, Inc., and Zig Ziglar is my father. Id like to tell you about Golden Rule Relationships in this story that I watched play out literally hundreds of times in my life.

You see, I was the last born in our family. Im the baby by almost ten years, so I was at home by myself from the time I was about eight years old. My sisters had moved out, so it was me, Mom and Dad. Mom had already proven that she knew how to cook so Mom would say, Hey, its time to go to dinner, and we would all get in the car and go to Lubys Cafeteria. Now if youve never had the privilege of eating at a Southern-style cafeteria, next time youre in the South or in the Dallas area you need to check out the cafeteria. Heres how it works.

You get in line and go down this long buffet line. Its incredible, all these different foods. There are servers on the other side and they serve you food, so you get your salad, you get your meat and your entre and your vegetables and your desserts and your breads. And there are about 100 choices to choose from and youve got to narrow that down to the four or five or however many that you want.

It was always an amazing show because we went there two or three times a week, and Mom and Dad knew everybody at Lubys. So Mom would walk in -- and Dad called her the happy hugger. She hugged everybody -- so shes hugging the cashier and shes hugging the lady who was driving the cart of drinks they used to roll around and serve you at your tables. Then we would get in line.

When I was younger, I never noticed this, but sometime around age 12 or 13, I realized that Dad was different. You see, Mom would go first down the line, I would go second, and then Dad would go third and wed each have our own tray. I noticed that Dad would give a motivational talk to every server in line. No matter who they were, no matter how long they worked there, hed asked them how they were doing and hed give them a word of encouragement. Hed ask them about their family. I want you to know that the people who worked in this line came from all backgrounds, many of them immigrants to our country, most of them trying to get an entry-level job. Life had been hard on many of them; this wasnt the first place you would think to go and work.

And I noticed the smiles on their faces. Dad would give them this motivational message, and as he was talking to them they would start piling the food on his plate. Every time we got through the line, I noticed that Dad would have two or three times as much food on his plate as we would. You see, he was practicing his philosophy: you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

When he walked into that place, everybody smiled. Everybody wanted to be a part of his world. He was practicing Golden Rule Relationships. So, you see, I learned about life in a cafeteria line. The way you treat people, the way you respect them, the way you find out whats personal and unique about them, about their kids, about their dreams, about their hopes, I saw Dad was doing all of that in a five-minute trip down the cafeteria line. Imagine what you could accomplish if you employed that same attitude and those same actions with the people who matter most to you -- your friends, your family, those you work with on a daily basis. Thats what this program is about.

Right now, you have in your control the ability to create Golden Rule Relationships. Youre going to learn so many different ideas and ways to help create and enhance these and, after reading this, whether you do or not is really your choice. I want you to know that if you make the right choice, youll never regret it.

And now its my pleasure to introduce my father, Zig Ziglar.