Zig Ziglar, an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker, who touched millions of lives through his inspiring speech is no more. He succumbed to pneumonia yesterday as he breathed his last at the age of 86 years.

For more than 40 years, the motivational speaker has inspired millions to take the hard route to success instead of finding shortcuts. His clever use of words has made him a renowned motivational speaker internationally.

Zig Ziglar, as an author, has written over two dozen books, recording millions in sales. He has left the world with his inspirational messages in the form of cassette tapes, podcasts, and personal presentations.
At the peak of his career as a speaker, he gave about 150 speeches in a year. In his 70s, he spoke well about 60 times a year. He charged a fee of about $50,000 per speech, plus expenses.

Ziglar has served in the United States Navy during World War II and after coming back home, he began his career as a sales personnel. It was then when he got curious about human nature, the mystery behind why some people succeed and some fail. This was the turning point in his life. From there began his journey into motivational speaking.

He published his first book, “See You at the Top,” in 1975 at the age of 49. According to the Associated Press, he was notable in his field and hence got to opportunity to meet the U.S. presidents and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Ziglar was deeply religious and credited his success to his faith in Christianity and his wife Jean.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

- RIP Zig Ziglar

This news piece is an abstract of an article published in the Los Angeles Times