Meet Zig and Dave, my new best friends

I want you to meet a couple of good friends of mine. Perhaps you’ve heard of them or know them yourself. They are Zig Ziglar and Dave Ramsey.
No, I have never met either one. I highly doubt either of them knows I exist. That isn’t important. What is important is what they have done in my life and what they can do for you. These two gentlemen are turning my life around. If you don’t know these men, let me introduce you.
Ziglar is the world’s foremost motivational speaker. His books, recordings and lectures have reached millions of people. He is a champion of positive thinking. He preaches success, motivation, achievement and positive self-image.
Ramsey is a financial guru who uses his daily radio program, books, recordings, lectures and frequent television appearances to teach people to get out of debt and build wealth.
These men are world-changers and they do it the same way. They use proven, time-tested, biblical principles to change attitudes and behaviors of people. They change hearts, challenge minds and inspire the spirits of those whose lives have become unmanageable.
My life was unmanageable. For most of the last seven years I have been toiling in the miserable pit that is my mind. The result of my severe depression has been a succession of failures, poverty and wasted time and talent.
My last two jobs came with hour-long commutes. I began listening to audio books in my car. I caught up on a lot of reading and it helped pass the time. I finally listened to Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” That set me on a path of self-help and self-discovery. From there I latched onto recordings by Ramsey and Ziglar.
Those guys – Ziglar in particular – have done more for me in a couple of months than years of medication and counseling. I’m setting goals, feeling motivated and desiring to make a difference in the lives of others.
As Ziglar says and Ramsey often repeats, “You can get what you want when you help enough people get what they want.” Delaying gratification, saving money, giving of your time and resources and following a strategy of achieving your goals through hard work will result in a wealthy, successful and positive life.
Ramsey is fond of saying that “first you must live like no one else so that later you can LIVE like no one else”. This is a pay-to-play world. You get out of it what you put into it. If you don’t make a contribution up front you won’t get to collect at the end. If you think it’s OK to slack off because the government will take care of you, you can bet that the government will take care of you alright.
Social Security is an oxymoron. It doesn’t work. Stimulus funds didn’t boost the economy; they just sank us deeper in debt. They made us more dependent on the government. The best thing the government can do to boost the economy is get out of the way. It needs to stop punishing success with higher taxes and allow those who are successful to create and provide jobs for those who need them. We’re better off having the entrepreneurs of the nation paying the employed masses than having their profits siphoned off by the government so it can give the money to those who don’t work.
Conventional wisdom over the years is that we grow our economy by spending what we earn. It supposedly spreads the wealth. I disagree. We grow our economy by selling, not buying. Americans are spending their money on foreign goods. Rather than buying from Japan and China, we should be selling to them. We should be creating and manufacturing products and exporting them. You employ more people and create more wealth that way than you do by buying things that come primarily from overseas. Our money can’t work for us if it’s in a bank in Hong Kong.
As the saying goes, charity begins at home. The more we give the more we help ourselves. When you help others get what they want/need, you will get what you want/need (sound familiar?). Government takes before it gives and it gives (spends) more than it takes. That’s why government is growing and our debt is increasing.
I’m no economist. I’m just a guy coming out of depression with the help of a couple of good friends. Would you like to meet them?