Schooling vs. Education

By Zig Ziglar

My Executive Assistant, Laurie Magers, has worked with me for thirty-five years as of June 27, 2012.  Although her formal education ended with the tenth grade, Laurie is far more educated and competent than any college graduate I have ever had in that position.  Here’s why.
Laurie clearly understands that you can finish school—and, incidentally, she encourages everyone to do exactly that—but you never finish your education.  You can make school easy; that’s not true with education.  Many times it’s very difficult and it is a lifetime project.
Laurie keeps her dictionary handy, reads a lot of exceptionally good material, attends seminars, is a student of human nature and learns constantly.  The result is significant.  When anyone on our staff has a question about grammar or punctuation, they go to Laurie and get her input.  Several years ago we conducted an evaluation of our key employees, and Laurie graded out at slightly above the Master’s Degree level.  The exciting thing is that she has not really done anything that’s not available to most people who will be reading this column.
The neat thing about America is that if you are reading this article you can get a brilliant education for no more than the cost of getting back and forth from the library.  You can read the world’s great authors in the library itself, or you can check the books out and take them home.  Commitment, persistence, and a plan of action will provide you with the education you need to climb much higher on the success ladder.
The message I’m communicating should be quite clear: Don’t let a lack of schooling be an excuse for not getting an education.  I can assure you it will affect your personal life, your family life and your career.  So, get that education and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Zig Ziglar is known as America’s motivator.   He is the author of 31 books .  Check out his new book, Born to Win. 

Article courtesy of: Zig Ziglar Newsletter

You can also get other great books and LIFE changing information online at:  LIFE

But I Haven't Done Anything Wrong

Another night that will forever be etched in my brain. I'll never forget it, I was at work right about closing time and my new wife called. She said "Jimmy, the police were just here looking for you". I asked her what they wanted and she said they wouldn't say but they did ask her if I was still at work. I told her to sit tight and that I would be in touch.
At that moment about a million things rushed through my mind. What now I thought, I had been cleaning up my act. Yes, I was still partying but I hadn't sold any drugs in a number of months. I was sticking close to Debby and was really playing it pretty straight. Of course there were any number of actions in my past that could have prompted them wanting to talk to me.
I looked at my boss and said, "I gotta go and I'm not sure if I'll be here tomorrow". He's like, hold on. Whats happening? I told him that the police were on their way and that I had to get out of there before they arrived. He then asked me what I had done and I explained, I haven't done anything illegal in a long time. He then suggested that I stick around to see what they wanted. As I contemplated this I started moving toward the front door because I was out of there.
It was too late, as I went through the office door here came two officers through the front door of the bike shop. They had saw me so I decided to try my bosses route after all. As I approached them they asked me if my name was Jim Bull and before I could reply properly they had me in hand cuffs and were reading me my rights.
I had no idea why they were arresting me and my boss inquired as he knew both of these officers personally. You see we had a gun shop in the back of the motorcycle store so Skip knew most of the local police. They did business there. When they wouldn't share with him what was going on I knew something big was going down.
Just as they were placing me in the back of the patrol car my wife came pulling into the parking lot. She frantically approached the cruiser with all of her 8 months of beautiful pregnancy with her and asked what was happening.
All they would tell her and my yet to be born child was that I was going to the police department, to go home and wait and she would later get a phone call from me.
Turns out that old friend of mine that we bumped into in the bar a couple of times was working undercover with the police. You see he had been busted with pounds of cocaine in his possession and he had cut a deal with the police to help take down all of the dealers in the bar we were working out of.
The crimes had been committed almost a year prior but they were just wrapping up their investigation. The first thing they told me is, we don't want you Bull, that if you can help us out that the judge would look kindly on that. After all, you don't want your new wife to have to raise your new child all by herself do you?
I made a decision at that moment, one that would be tough on both Deb and the new baby. I took my chances as we headed for the magistrate. Yes, Mr. Bull - your bail is set at $100,000.00. It cost me $10,000.00 to get out of jail that night. Deb was due in less than a month and I was determined not to let her go through the birth alone. We had a deposit on a piece of land, our first born was due in less than a month and here I was, screwing up again...

Selling More All the Time

So after my father passed I talked to my mom about moving back to her house. I knew she would like the comfort of knowing someone else was around and as I mentioned in my previous ramble, it was time for another change. So I moved home and we made some modifications to the house to give me a more private living area. I'm not really sure why other than to give me a private place to hang out and do my drugs late at night after I returned home from the bar.
You see, as in the past I found a new bar to hang out at, at least one that I hadn't frequented for a few years.. There were some of the same old faces but also a few new acquaintances thrown in for good measure. After all, I needed to expand my territory. The biggest difference with this move was that I still wasn't ready to give up the cocaine. Before I was always at a very low spot but I wasn't quite there yet. I knew at some point I needed to slow down and start thinking about getting on with my life, but not yet.
This meant more dealing to support my habit and this particular bar was larger and more of a club scene, so business was good. Matter of fact there were a number of us selling drugs there from any number of different suppliers. It seemed we were all one big happy family with plenty of business to go around.
Same deal as before, work til 8:00, drink and move drugs till midnight or so, then home alone for a few hits before trying to get to sleep for the night. This was the weekday routine, weekends were different, close the bar at 2:00 or 3:00 AM then where ever the party went, I followed and partied till dawn.
We did this day after day and week after week with no regard for other people or the law for that matter. We operated in the open and did whatever we wanted. There were a lot of close calls over time that I haven't gone into but we always seemed to skate by and that was all that mattered, the pistol stayed in the boot.and the law at bay.
Then it happened, and it happened so stinking quick that I didn't know what hit me. You see up to this point it was almost a game to see how many different girls you could get with on a weekly basis. Then one night a girl I knew who was actually an ex wife of a guy I worked with and he was a close friend but that didn't matter to me, I had no morals then. This girl, she came into the bar on a Friday night and I locked in the radar. Nothing else mattered, I was finally going to have her on this night.
It's funny, I eventually married the girl I met that night (not the one I'm speaking of now) but my beautiful wife of over 20 years always says, if you want to make God laugh just tell him your plans. We'll God had other plans for me that night. You see after about an hour or so of this, the girl I was trying to hook up with that night looked me square in the eye's and said "Jimmy forget it, it' s not happening". She did however introduce me to her girlfriend she had with her that night and the rest is history.
I sunk like a ship, head over heals in love and married within a year. It's been the greatest thing other than finding Jesus that's ever happened to me, but the madness wasn't over yet.
I met Debbie and convinced her I was the guy, actually I think she was pretty crazy about me too. We had some issues to deal with before we could get married but a year later, married we got. The problem is, I was still doing all that dumb stuff that I was when we first met. She was slowly getting me off the coke pipe, that really scared her. But we were still drinking and I was hanging at the bar when she wasn't around. I had even slowed down on the drugs because I loved this girl and then one night I ran into an old friend at the bar. He asked me if I could get him some coke and he introduced me to a friend he had with him.
I was dumb and wanted to impress my new girlfriend (this was months before we were married) so I went and picked up the drugs, took a little out for me and my new girl, then delivered the drugs to this friend of mine back at the bar.
No harm no foul, Debbie and I took off for my place and had a great night and life went on. Matter of fact we ran into these same guys a few weeks later and performed the same ritual. Life was good, a few months later we were expecting our first child, a wedding date was set and the local police were knocking on my door...