There are four notable
contemporaries who's work has been consistently outstanding in the field. They
are people who have inspired and influenced the lives of millions of people.
Here are brief biographies of each
of my favourite Personal Development writers and speakers.
Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey was born in 1932. He lives with
his wife, Sandra, and their family in Utah; in the Rocky Mountains. Covey
achieved international acclaim, and is perhaps best known, for his self-help
book
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
which was first published by Simon & Schuster in 1989 and has sold around 12
million copies word-wide.
Covey has a Harvard MBA and has spent most of his
career at Brigham Young University, where he was professor of organisational
behaviour and business management. In addition to his MBA, he also has a
doctorate which he completed whilst at Brigham Young University.
Dr. Stephen R
Covey has received the Thomas More College Medallion for continuing service to
humanity and has additionally been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees.
Covey
is also a co-founder of the Franklin-Covey organization, which specialises in
the application of Covey's principle-centred approach to leadership and
management. He is
widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of
time-management. Thousands of organizations across the world, including many of
the Fortune 500 companies, have adopted his innovative techniques on leadership,
teamwork, and customer-focused service.
His best-selling book on time-management,
First Things First,
co-authored with A. Roger & Rebecca R. Merrill, according to Simon & Schuster is
the best-selling time management book ever.
The seven
principles he presents in the 7 Habits are not original thoughts - he does not
claim to have originated the ideas but simply to have found a framework and a
language for articulating the time-less principles embedded into the seven
habits. The 7 habits are to be found, he says, in all the major world religions.
He believes the principles themselves to be 'self-evident', that is, 'you cannot
really argue against them'. His view is that all highly effective people, and
enduringly effective organizations, have utilised the 7 habits, to a greater or
lesser extent, to sustain their success.
Covey says
that the 7 habits are 'common knowledge' but, he adds, are not necessarily
'common practice'. In fact, it could be argued that the habits actually run
counter to basic human nature. By our nature, we are reactive creatures and we
are inclined to act mainly out of self-interest. But we are also as human beings
capable of much higher thoughts and actions and by working hard to internalize
the 7 habits we are able to develop a proactive attitude. By so doing, we can
take charge of our own destinies and we are capable of exerting influence on
other people for the collective good.
Zig Ziglar was born in Alabama in 1926. He was given his famous nickname 'Zig'
at elementary school which he attended in Mississippi during the 1930's. His
real name is Hilary Hinton Ziglar. He went to college in Jackson, Mississippi,
and later to the University of South Carolina. Zig initially made his living as
a salesman and, later, decided to become a professional motivational speaker. He
speaks with a confident, Texan drawl (at least I think it is Texan).
His best-selling book
See You at the Top begins with the following words: 'You can go where you
want to go. You can do what you want to do. You can be what you want to be'. And
surely, in those words is captured the very essence of why we are interested in
the whole subject of personal development.
We want to learn how it is possible to become what we want to become. We want to
know how we can begin to do what we want to do. And we want to know how we can
actually go to the places we want to go.
Zig always ends his sessions with
the following words: 'If you will do these things, then I will see you -
and yes I do mean you - at the top'. This message almost always provokes
a deafening acolade from his audience. You see Zig is a person who is easy to
listen to; he seems to just talk common sense; and inwardly, we can all
recognise that his message is basically correct. He espouses principles such as
honesty, integrity and sheer hard-work; and when you hear him speak, somehow you
know that he is speaking from the heart. You seem to know intuitively that Zig
Ziglar was once where his audience is. He was once the person trying to figure
out the way to the top; and his words offer hope to those of us who are still
trying to make the ascent. He seems to be saying: 'You can do it. There is room
for you, too, at the top.'
Zig Ziglar's company has a client
list that includes Fortune 500 Companies, U.S. Government agencies, churches,
schools and non-profit associations. In addition, Zig has written twenty two
books on personal development, leadership, sales, faith, family and success,
including
See You at the Top, Raising
Positive Kids in a Negative World, Top Performance, Courtship
After Marriage, Over The Top and Secrets of Closing the Sale.
Nine of his books have been best-sellers His books and tapes have been
translated into over thirty-eight languages.
Jack Black comes from Glasgow,
north of the border in Scotland (UK). He is founder of Mindstore and author of
two best-selling books. He is a renowned speaker and a minor celebrity in
Scotland. Each year he addresses hundreds of companies and thousands of
individuals, focusing on all aspects of personal development
Jack Black's early career was in Education and Social
Services. He spent seven years investigating personal development and as a
result of his research decided to form his company, Mindstore, in 1990 in
order to teach his own personal development programme.
The programme is the culmination of Jack
Black's life work and it represents an innovative approach to personal
development. Through the Mindstore programme Jack demonstrates how the
application of mental tools can produce positive attitudes to help individuals
attain peak performance. He has taught this programme to people from all walks
of life including athletes, musicians and company directors.
Anthony Robbins
was born on the 29th of February 1960 in the USA.
He is best known
for a motivational technique - known as Neuro-Associative Conditioning
(NAC) - which is almost certainly derived directly from NLP. Tony has written
a couple of best-sellers in the field of Personal Development.
The essence of Tony's system - NAC
- is that
you are able to reprogram your mind to achieve the success you desire. Suppose
you wanted to give up smoking, for example. What you would do is: deliberately
create a mental association between the remembered pain of some past
unpleasant experience with the stimulus of the cigarette. The basic idea is
replace the positive associations of cigarettes - in the minds of smokers -
with negative ones. And as we know, Freud told us that human beings are
motivated (programmed) to want to move away from pain and toward pleasure.
Tony is indeed a strong advocate of this technique.
Like so many writers and presenters in this field, Tony has a humble background
and has managed to effectively apply the principles of success to his own life.
I understand he is now a multi-millionaire and his seminars are often sell-out
engagements played to large gatherings at venues all over the world. However,
Tony has a social conscience.
The Anthony Robbins Foundation is an organisation that provides help for the
people with social needs, such as the homeless and the elderly as well as
working with young people all over the world.
The contribution of Tony
Robbins to the field of Personal Development, I believe. really lies in his
unique ability to communicate the benefits of self-improvement to a mass
audience, in a thoroughly entertaining manner. He has certainly been
responsible for positively impacting the lives of very many people; and for
that, he deserves to be properly acknowledged.
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