Zig Ziglar (1926–2012)

This is a collection of talks by a variety of motivational speakers, so I expected it to be a bit of a mixed bag but thought most of them would be pretty good, having enjoyed some of Made for Success's other offerings. Instead, I found them almost uniformly disappointing.

Some are just bad (e.g., those by Jennifer Sedlock and Sarita Maybin). Some, such as Les Brown's, almost have the feel of a religious revival meeting, so that I half expected the audience (in cases where it was recorded show more live) to start shouting "Hallelujah!" That's more in terms of the style of presentation than the content, but even the content veers in that direction occasionally as Zig Ziglar, for example, insists on promoting some religious ideas and even quotes Bible verses. I found Charley "Tremendous" Jones's attempts at humor rather forced so that they mostly fell flat, and his over the top energy level to be kind of off-putting. I kept wondering what kind of drugs he was doing, so I could avoid them. Even Laura Stack, who's done some excellent work (I'd recommend her Ultimate Time Management System and The Exhaustion Cure over this), is not at the top of her game here. The sad thing is that there's actually some decent content here if you can get past all these distracting elements, but it's pretty difficult.

Probably the best contribution is Mark Victor Hansen's, who as far as I could tell had some really good material, but by the time I got to his at the very end, I had a hard time caring enough to really focus as much as I would have liked. What does it say about an audio program on motivation that its effect is that demotivating?

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Everyone should read this classic book. So much that you may have heard before comes from here. You can truly make the world better if you focus first on just building a better you! Then focus on what you can do to make other's lives around you better. As Zig says "you can get everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want."

It took a little while to get through, but that may have been that there is just a lot to digest, think about, write notes on, etc. And in show more the end I'm sure it will be one I read again (and again) show less

I have read many of Zig Ziglar's books even though I am not much of a non-fiction fan. Mr Ziglar has a way of writing that lends a fiction feel to a non-fiction topic, its truly amazing. This book makes you think and feel your way through life's problems, and helps your reaction to each problem you face turn more and more towards a solution as opposed to just crying about it all. I do give it four stars because Mr. Ziglar is very religious and this book has a STRONG Christian undercurrent show more that, as being not Christian, completely turned me off for most of the actual message...but I did read it and I got the point, however heavily saturated, I just substituted my own religious Diety in for his and then it was great show less

Are you looking for something inspirational to read? Embrace the Struggle is just what you need. Zig Ziglar is best known for his motivational speeches. he openly shares his faith. This is a compilation of success stories of people who have overcome major obstacles. Zig's own tragic accident that left him with a permanent brain injury inspired this book. For those who may have wondered about how positive he was in real life wiil find he not only talks the talk but walks the walk. You don't show more have to be in sales to enjoy this book. You just need a desire to want to change things in your life. I have had the privilege of listening to him speak a couple of times when I was in my early twenties. His positive message still rings true today. show less