Dear John
This past Wednesday at 8:25 p.m., I got a text from Kathy Fawcett Martin, a long-time (over 40 years) family friend. Dad actually walked Kathy down the aisle when she married her husband, Randy.
The text was just a video clip of James Spader, the TV and movie star, who plays the lead character on the show The Blacklist.
I have to tell you, I was blown away! We had no idea Dad's book was going to be used and that his name would be brought up. Yes, the legacy lives on and continues to grow.
The book in the video clip, Embrace the Struggle, was written late in Dad's life after he suffered a serious brain injury from a fall when he was 80 years old. My sister Julie did the writing of the book as she worked with Dad on the question almost all of us will have to answer in our life - what do you do when life knocks you to the ground? Accidents, cancer, broken relationships, and financial disasters are just a few of the things that can derail us.
Do what Dad did.
When life knocks you down - Embrace the Struggle.
After Dad's fall down the stairs, he lost nearly all of his short-term memory. On the second day of Dad's recovery in the hospital, the doctor came to him and said this: "Mr. Ziglar, you have suffered a very serious brain injury, a TBI, and your short-term memory may never come back. You need to consider strongly that your speaking career is over." Dad just smiled at him and said nothing. When the doctor left the room, Dad turned to my sister Julie and said, "Little One, I still have something to say; we just need to figure out a different way to say it."
Dad did lose his short-term memory. AND, over the next four years, he spoke over 100 times in an interview format with my sister Julie, who simply asked him the questions he knew the answers to and kept him on track - she became his short-term memory! Hundreds of thousands were reached by Dad and Julie over those four years with a message of hope and encouragement, and countless lives were changed when they saw Dad's faith and philosophy in action - "It's not what happens to you that determines your outcome, it's how you respond to what happens to you that matters." Zig Ziglar
Yes, Dad chose to Embrace the Struggle, and you can, too! If you are in a struggle right now, or know someone who is, then do what James Spader did -- get the book, read it, and share it.
Embracing the Struggle is a choice!
You are Born to Win, so go ahead and Live to Win!
Tom
P.S. If you know someone with a TBI, you will want to check out James Durham, one of our Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainers and Speakers, who has embraced his own TBI struggle and is impacting lives all over the world with his nonprofit TBIOneLove. Get to know James and you will know why he inspires me and is one of the most positive human beings I have ever met.
