| "Zig" Ziglar | |
|---|---|
Ziglar in March 2009 |
|
| Born | November 6, 1926 Coffee County, Alabama |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Hilary Hinton Ziglar |
| Alma mater | University of South Carolina |
| Occupation | Salesman, motivational speaker, author |
Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar (born 6 November 1926) is an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.
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Zig Ziglar was born in Coffee County, Alabama, to parents John Silas Ziglar and Viola Ziglar. He was the tenth of 12 children.[1]
In 1931, when Ziglar was five years old, his father took a management position at a Mississippi farm, and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he spent most of his early childhood. In 1932, his father died of a stroke, and his younger sister died two days later.
Ziglar served in the Navy during World War II (circa 1943 to 1945). He was in the Navy V-12 Navy College Training Program, attending the University of South Carolina.
On September 15, 1944, he met his wife, Jean, at the YWCA in Jackson, Mississippi, when he was 17 and she was 16; they married in late 1946.[2]
Ziglar later worked as a salesman in a succession of companies. In 1968 he became a vice president and training director for the Automotive Performance company, moving to Dallas, Texas.
In 1970, Ziglar went into the business of motivational speaking full-time, with an emphasis on Christian values. Until then, he had called himself by his given name, Hilary, but now started using his nickname, Zig, instead.
As of 2010[update], Ziglar still travels around taking part in motivational seminars, despite a fall down a flight of stairs in 2007 that left him with short-term memory problems.[3]