education at a little community college. I will live cheaply. I will save my money. I will take advantage of the opportunities that are here,” and by the time they find out we’ve got problems, it’s too late. They’ve already made it. It’s GOSH when they see it.
In 1990 the number one-selling tee-shirt in Japan was, “We’re Number One.” The number one-selling tee-shirt in America was “Underachiever—and proud of it!” Too many people born in America get up every morning and say, “Big deal.” The immigrant gets up and says, “Wow! What a deal!” What a difference it makes. They come here with a vision, with a mission. A vision is a clearly articulated, results-oriented picture of a future you intend to create.
Let me say it again. I will not tell you this is easy; it’s not. Life is tough. But I also know that when you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you. In a church in Sussex, England, on the wall, here’s what they have: “A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without a vision is drudgery. But a vision and a task are the hope of the world.” I believe that is absolutely true. Not easy, but it’s worth it.
All of my life I have thought I was an optimist until I heard about this lady who had moved into a retirement home. On the very first day at lunch, she was seated across the table from a gentleman who was there, and after a moment or two he became concerned about the fact that she was really eyeballing him. I mean, she was staring a hole through him! He grew uncomfortable and finally he said, “Ma’am, I don’t understand. Why are you staring at me?”
She said, “I can’t believe it.”
“You can’t believe what?”
”I can’t believe that you look exactly like my third husband. The color of your eyes, your mannerisms, the way you talk, your age, your size! I mean, you look exactly like my third husband!”
“Third husband! How many times have you been married?”
”Twice.”
I want you to know that people can change. I want you to know even animals can change. This past week the Redhead and I were down at our home at Holly Lake, Sugarville. We were out walking our little dog, we have a little Welsh Corgi, and his name is Taffy. We were out walking and we met this other couple and they had a dog; he was about three times as big as our dog. He was beautiful with gorgeous fur, healthy-looking and the whole bit, and we got talking as dog owners always do. I said, “Well, you know, that’s such a beautiful dog. Looks so healthy. What’re you feeding that dog?”
The man said, “Turnip greens.”
I said, “I never heard of anyone feeding a dog turnip greens. My dog wouldn’t eat turnip greens.”
He said, “Mine wouldn’t either the first three weeks!”
Too many times we forget that we are measured by far more than just our intellect. For example, Mike Singletary played linebacker for the Chicago Bears. He was all-pro. He was drafted as late as he was because his time in the forty-yard dash was not really that good. Not only that, but he was too short. What they could not measure, though, was just how badly he wanted to be the best at what he was doing. Nor did they know, at that point, that there was a shorter distance that for linebackers was even more important, and that’s the way you get off of the ball. And so when he was playing linebacker for the Chicago Bears, when a running back would break through the line of scrimmage, the typical linebacker would cut him off about seven or eight yards down the field. Singletary started so fast that he caught them many times at the line of scrimmage. He held them to two-yard gains where the others were permitting five, six, seven and eight-yard gains. They couldn’t measure that.
This is what I really want to talk about to you. See, this man had tremendous pride in what he did. Now again, Bible students occasionally say, “Well, pride is kind of a dirty word.” Let me tell you something about words. They change meaning. For example, if I were to look at any one of you and say, “Why, you’re silly!” you’d be offended. Unless you knew that the word silly comes from the word selje, an old English word which means blessed, happy, healthy and prosperous. So if anybody ever calls you silly again, you ought to just grin and say, “Man, you don’t know how right you are! You got it right on the button!”
Now what’s this got to do with pride? The Bible speaks of false pride or vanity. Pride is an honest evaluation of that which is good.
Think with me as you read this book. Could it possibly be wrong for me to say to my children, “I am proud of the values you have”? Could it be wrong for me to say to my staff, “I am so proud of the job you do”? See, pride—I love the acrostic it forms. It is Personal Responsibility In Daily Endeavors. Pride’s important.
For the first fifteen years of my career I was in direct sales. I’ve knocked on tens of thousands of doors in my lifetime. I don’t ever remember getting excited about going out and knocking on doors. I did it because that was one of the things I had to do to make sales. After a period of time I started putting on cooking demonstrations where the hostess would invite in several couples and we’d cook up the meal and make the sales. I finally got semi-smart and realized I couldn’t do it all myself; ran an ad in Columbia, South Carolina, for a lady to help me. A lady named Gerry Arrowood responded.
Now, to give you an idea of what her personality was like; she baked cakes and took in sewing to help support her three daughters. Does that tell you something about her? Very quiet, very shy. But also very neat. I told her what I wanted and, in essence, I wanted her to do the cooking, wash the dishes, clean the cookware and clean the kitchen. I mean, a real top-level job! And we talked about it a little bit and she said, “Oh, Zig you know, I’d love to have that job. I love to cook. Don’t mind washing dishes. Don’t even mind cleaning the kitchen. But, as you can tell, I’m very shy. I gotta get a promise from you that you will never call on me to participate in the actual demonstration itself.”
I could instantly tell that Gerry and I were gonna get along real good! Well, we did for a couple of months and then one night my mouth overloaded my back. I made too many promises. I said, “Gerry, you gotta help me.”
“Whatchawanmetodo?”
“I want you to deliver these six sets of cookware I sold and teach the husband and wife how to use it on their own stove.”
Now, virtually everybody who will ever read this is not going to be able to relate to my next statement. Sheer terror filled her eyes. She literally, physically started shaking instantly. “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!”
“You can’t do what, Gerry?”
“I can’t deliver that cookware and teach those people how to use it on their stoves.”
I said, “Gerry, every night for the last two months, that’s what you’ve been doing to the host and hostess!”
“Yeah, but you’re always here. If I foul up I know you’ll bail me out!”
“Gerry, it’s not that big a deal!”
I didn’t even come close to making that sale. I mean, she just wasn’t buying any of it.
We had a twenty-five to thirty mile drive back home. It was very quiet.
Then, just as she started to get out of the car, she’d been thinking about it, obviously, she turned to me and said, “All right! I’ll do it. I’m not gonna sleep a wink
