Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) was an American author, salesman and motivational speaker. A former cookware salesman, he became one of the best-known sales trainers and speakers of his generation, and wrote more than 30 books, including See You at the Top (1975) and Secrets of Closing the Sale (1982), according to Wikipedia.
Who was Zig Ziglar?
Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar was born in Coffee County, Alabama, on 6 November 1926, the tenth of 12 children, according to Wikipedia. His family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, when he was five, and his father died the following year. Between 1943 and 1945 he took part in the Navy V-12 College Training Program at the University of South Carolina.
In 1947 he left college to sell cookware for the WearEver company. He struggled for two years but kept an optimistic attitude, and was promoted to field manager and then divisional supervisor in 1950, according to Wikipedia. Interested in self-help, he began giving speeches of his own, and in 1963 was a charter member of American Salesmasters, which ran sales seminars with speakers including Norman Vincent Peale and Maxwell Maltz.
In 1977 he founded the Zigmanship Institute, later Ziglar Inc., and wrote more than 30 books, according to Wikipedia. His son Tom Ziglar became CEO in 1994. After a fall in 2007 left him with short-term memory problems, he continued speaking until he retired in 2010. He died of pneumonia in Plano, Texas, on 28 November 2012. He was married to Jean Ziglar, and they had four children.
Brian Tracy named Ziglar among the practical thinkers on success who influenced him (according to Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (Wiley, 2003), acknowledgements), and the two belonged to the same generation of American success speakers. Read more in our Brian Tracy article and on our Brian Tracy page.
His key ideas in brief
- Help others. Success follows from helping other people get what they want.
- Attitude. Your attitude matters more than your circumstances.
- Goals. Who you become matters more than what you get.
- Integrity. Honesty is the most important persuasion tool.
- Failure is an event. Not a person: yesterday ended last night.
At a glance
Born: 6 November 1926, Coffee County, Alabama
Died: 28 November 2012, Plano, Texas
Career: Salesman, sales trainer, speaker
Founded: Ziglar Inc. (1977)
Books: More than 30
Website: Ziglar.com
Good fit if
You work in sales, want a warm, story-driven approach to motivation, or are interested in combining faith and personal development.
Our take
A gifted storyteller whose central idea, that you succeed by helping others, has aged well. Start with the attitude video, then See You at the Top.
Zig Ziglar’s key ideas
Ziglar’s teaching combined sales training, motivation and Christian faith. Tap a card to read more.
Help others get what they want
Ziglar’s best-known line appears in Secrets of Closing the Sale: “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”, according to Wikiquote. It sums up his view of selling and of success: serve other people well and the rewards follow.
Attitude
Ziglar taught that attitude shapes results more than circumstances. He called the world’s most deadly disease “hardening of the attitudes” (according to Wikiquote), and in See You at the Top he wrote that “failure is an event, it is not a person — yesterday ended last night”. Our positivity and motivation pages cover related ideas.
Goals and who you become
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals”, according to Wikiquote. In See You at the Top he advised: “Go so far as you can see and when you get there you will always be able to see farther”, adjusting your course without changing your decision to go. Goal-setting research supports specific, challenging goals, according to Locke and Latham. See our goal-setting guide.
Selling with integrity
Ziglar started as a cookware salesman with WearEver in 1947 and was promoted to field manager and then divisional supervisor in 1950, according to Wikipedia. He later became a major sales trainer, including for Mary Kay Cosmetics, and wrote Secrets of Closing the Sale (1982) and Selling 101 (2003). He is quoted as saying that “the most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity”, according to Wikiquote. See our sales psychology guide.
Faith, family and character
Ziglar was baptised a Christian in 1972 and integrated his faith into his motivational work, according to Wikipedia. He defined success broadly: “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting”, according to Wikiquote. His books include Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World (1985) and Courtship After Marriage (2004).
Videos with Zig Ziglar
Hand-picked and checked one by one, mostly from his company’s official YouTube channel.
Start here
Ziglar in his own words
Articles about Zig Ziglar
Books by Zig Ziglar
Ziglar wrote more than 30 books, according to Wikipedia. These are good places to start.
Courses and free resources
What the Research Shows
Ziglar’s ideas were based on experience, not research, but several have been studied.
- Goals. Specific, challenging goals improve performance across hundreds of studies, according to Locke and Latham.
- Selling. A meta-analysis found that selling-related knowledge and adaptiveness were the strongest drivers of sales performance (according to Verbeke, Dietz and Verwaal), which fits his emphasis on preparation and serving the customer.
- The goals study myth. In 1996 Fast Company traced the story of a Yale or Harvard goals study back through several speakers, including Ziglar, and found no evidence that the study ever took place, according to Tabak.
His company continues to offer training at Ziglar.com, according to Ziglar Inc..
Frequently asked questions
Who was Zig Ziglar?
An American author, salesman and motivational speaker (1926–2012), best known for See You at the Top and Secrets of Closing the Sale.
What is Zig Ziglar’s most famous quote?
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want,” from Secrets of Closing the Sale.
What was Zig Ziglar’s first job?
He sold cookware for the WearEver company from 1947, and was promoted to divisional supervisor in 1950.
When did Zig Ziglar die?
On 28 November 2012, of pneumonia, in Plano, Texas.
What are Zig Ziglar’s best books?
See You at the Top (1975), Secrets of Closing the Sale (1982) and Top Performance (1986).
How was Zig Ziglar connected to Brian Tracy?
Brian Tracy named Ziglar among the success writers who influenced him, and both were leading American success speakers of the same era.
Books and sources
- Wikipedia: Zig Ziglar (accessed 13 November 2026)
- Wikiquote: Zig Ziglar (sourced quotations)
- Tracy, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (Wiley, 2003), acknowledgements
- Tabak, If Your Goal Is Success, Don’t Consult These Gurus, Fast Company 1996
- Locke and Latham, Building a practically useful theory of goal setting, American Psychologist 2002
- Verbeke, Dietz and Verwaal, Drivers of sales performance: a meta-analysis, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 2011
- Ziglar Inc. official website
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