Here’s an extremely cute & funny story from the old-school Christian motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar…

“Mr. B was the CEO at a very large company. One day, he called a meeting. Had all of his people together. He said that we have a wonderful company here, we’re growing, expanding and things are going well. But I have noticed that some of us are getting a little slack. Some of us come in a little late. Some leave a little early. Some spending too much time on coffee breaks. Some spend too much time on lunch breaks. I recognize that a lot of that is my fault that I have not set the kind of example that I should have been setting. So in the future you can absolutely count on this, I’m going come in a little early; I’m going to stay a little late. I’m going to restrict all personal phone calls. None of them. I’m not going to do anything while I’m on the job except be ON-THE-JOB. I will take shorter coffee breaks, shorter lunch breaks. He really made the commitment. It was quite a little speech and he was very serious about it.

But you know that sometimes in the excitement of the moment, we make those speeches and then over a period of time we kind of forget them and that’s what happened. About three weeks later, Mr. B was at a luncheon at the country club when he became engrossed in a business conversation and forgot about the time. Then all of a sudden he looked at his watch and said oh my goodness; I’m due back at the office in ten minutes.

He hopped up and made a mad dash to the parking lot. Hopped in his automobile, scratched off, burning rubber, doing about 90 miles an hour down the freeway. Then the long arm of the law entered the picture. Gave him a ticket. Mr. B was absolutely furious. He said this is ridiculous; here I am, a peaceful, taxpaying, law-abiding citizen, minding my own business. I was going a little fast, I admit that. But what these guys ought to be doing is out looking for the robbers, the murderers, the rapist. Those really bad guys. Leave us peaceful people alone. Oh, he was really upset and by time he got to the office he was quite late. And he did what management has done in some cases since the beginning of time. You know, when they get their hand caught in the cookie jar, they say lookie yonder instead of look here.

So in a loud voice he called for his sales manager. And everyone could hear him as he said what I want to know is did you close the deal on the Armstrong account? The sales manager kind of ducked his head and said, Mr. B, I don’t know what happened on that deal. I thought I had it, I thought it was all wrapped up and was signed, sealed and delivered. But, at the last moment something happened and it came unglued. Well if you think Mr. B was upset before, you should see him now. He was absolutely furious.

He said this is ridiculous. You’ve been my sales manager here for 15 years and I’ve depended on you to bring in business and now we have the chance to get the biggest account of them all and what do you do? You blow it. Well, let me tell you something friend. Just because you’ve been here 15 years doesn’t mean you’ve got a lifetime contract. I want that business replaced. We needed that to build the expansion that we needed to do and here you’ve lost the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had. You replace that business, or I’m going to replace you! Oh, he was upset.

But if you think he was upset, you ought of seen the sales manager. He goes storming out of his office. He slammed the door behind him muttering under his breath; this is ridiculous. I’ve been here 15 years and I’m the one that’s brought in all the business. If it hadn’t been for me, this company would have gone down the tube years and years ago. And now, just because I’ve missed one lousily sale, he uses a cheap trick, he threatens to fire me. This is NOT fair. Oh, he was upset.

He called his secretary in and said, you know those five letters I gave you this morning; have you gotten those out or have you been fooling around, making excuses not getting your job done? She said no, don’t you remember, you said to me that the Heidiger account took precedence over everything else and that’s what I’ve been working on. He said don’t give me anymore lousy excuses. I told you I wanted those letters out and I’m going to tell you right now, if you can’t get them out, I’ll get someone who can! Just because you’ve been here 7 years does not mean you’ve got a lifetime contract. Oh, he was really upset.

But if you think he was upset, you should have seen that secretary. She goes storming out of his office saying this is ridiculous. For 7 years I’ve been running this company. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for me, they’d this would have gone down the tube years and years ago. And now, just because I can’t do two things at once, he uses that cheap, lousy trick, threatening to fire me. And him fire me as much as I know about him? Who is he kidding? Oh, she was really upset!

She went out to the switchboard operator’s desk and said I’ve got these letters and I want you get them out. Now, I know ordinarily this is not your job but you don’t do anything anyhow but sit out here and occasionally answer the telephone. I want these letters out and if you can’t get them out, I’ll get somebody who can. Oh, she was upset!

But if you think she was upset, you should have seen that switchboard operator. She said this is ridiculous; they don’t do anything in the back but gossip, drink coffee, and talk on the telephone. Every once and a while, they get a little bit of work out. But when they get behind, they come out here and put it on my desk and say, now you’ve got to get this out. And I’m the only one who does anything around here. If it hadn’t been for me, they’d this would have gone out of business years and years ago. Oh, she was really upset! But she got the letters out.

She got home, she was still furious, walks through the front door and first thing she saw was her son lying there in the floor watching television. The second thing she saw was a big ole rip right across the seat of his breeches. She says, son how many times do I have to tell you, when you come home from school put your play clothes on. Mother has a hard enough time as it is working and sending you through school. Now since you’ve been disobedient, upstairs right now, there’s going to be no supper for you tonight and no television for the next three weeks. Oh, she was really upset.

But if you think she was upset, you should’ve seen that little boy. He hopped up, running out of the room saying this is ridiculous. I was doing something for my own mother; she doesn’t even give me a chance to explain this. It’s not fair! He was upset! Then about that time, his tomcat walked right in front of him. Which was a mistake. The boy reaches down gives the tomcat a big ole boot and says now you get out of here. You probably been up to some no good yourself.

Now here’s my question: Wouldn’t have been much better if Mr. B had just gone directly over from the country club to that switchboard operator’s house and kicked that cat himself and left all those other people out it?

Now I’ve got a very important question for you: whose cat have you been kicking, lately? Or have been letting somebody else kick your cat? You see the truth is; we live in a negative, cat-kicking world.”

–Zig Ziglar, author of ‘Secrets of Closing the Sale’

Blessings,
Stephane