For those of you who expressed interest in reading and giving comments on my new (un-published) book: “A Life Without Limits” instead of printing it out on my home computer/printer (which is not working) I thought I would post it on FB. I welcome your commitments. So here is the Forward from my friend and mentor the late Zig Ziglar -was given permission to use what he wrote about me in his book: “Success for Dummies” I will take a small part each day and post it on FB. Thanks Forward By the Late Zig Ziglar What you are about to read is the story of a man worth knowing and a life worth emulating. He overcame adversity and found success by having a plan and setting goals. It was in the early spring of 1997 when I first met Steve. He came to see a Peter Lowe Success Seminar in Houston Texas. He had met a dear friend of mine Charlie “Tremendous” Jones a few weeks before. Steve wanted to start his professional speaking career and wanted some advice. Steve told me about his life and heartwarming story. I took an instant liking to this cheerful, down to earth, self-made man. I thought his message and story needed to be told. I included his story in my book: “Success for Dummies” with IDG books in 1998. This story will truly inspire you; it is a story of how he overcame adversity to achieve success. His book recounts his remarkable battle to overcome the devastating effects of over 20+ years of literacy and child abuse. It requires courage for a man-especially a successful man-to stand up and acknowledge publicly that he could only read and write at a fourth grade level. Through his personal failures and successes, Steve reveals the principles of leadership, teamwork, and the keys to success, his business strategies are timeless and on target. Steve repeated the first grade because he could not read. He was put into special education classes but still was unable to keep up academically. However, he was passed from one grade to the next, and because all learning is sequential, he fell further and further behind. He was 20 pushing 21 years old when he graduates from high school. Steve held and loss countless entry-level minimum wage dead-end jobs from part-time stuff in high school working at a grocery store, and flipping burgers to construction during the summers. Then he spent a few years in the United States Marine Corps and saw the world thanks to Uncle Sam. After the Marines he was a ranch hand and semi-professional rodeo cowboy, and horse trainer and blacksmith. He was told more than once that he would never amount to much. Steve has always loved horses, so starting a horse-drawn carriage service seemed natural. But the business failed because he did everything wrong. He mismanaged his money, had his truck repossessed, was evicted from his apartment, and found himself homeless. Steve spent six months in a homeless shelter and wound up in New Jersey, where he met and married the woman who changed his life, Angela. She encouraged him to return to school, where he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability in which words are scrambled during reading and writing, making written communication difficult. Then to top off his difficulties, the most devastating event in his life occurred: the death of his infant son, Paul Joseph. One heartbreaking part of this tragedy for Steve was that his son would never experience the simple things that children do, such as play with toys. Perhaps that was the motivation behind Steve’s next step, which was to design toys for children. A native Texan, Steve has always loved the West and Cowboys. One day, he made a trick lasso he begin to refine it into a safe toy-the type of toy he felt that Paul Joseph could have played with. With this endeavor came a vision that became Steve’s obsession: creating safe toys for children. This mission helped him work through his grief. Steve went on to become the winner of the highly prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year, Who’s Who of Business, SBA and SBDC’s Small Business Success Award just to name a few. Because of his own difficulties in life and the double appeal of hiring the disabled a creating toys that his own son would have enjoyed playing with Steve became even immersed in doing things for others. The philosophy that you can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want emerged. By giving jobs to hundreds of people with disabilities, he helped others to circumvent their limitations, just as he was trying to conquer his own. When you ask Steve how he went from being homeless and a terrible D&F student to being a very successful business person, and entrepreneur he tells you that the answer lays in his deep-rooted faith. He believes that to be truly successful in every aspect of life, your life must be centered around and founded in God. Steve constantly reminds himself of the words from the Bible: What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Faith, hard work, and persistence are powerful factors in success. Though he was discouraged, Steve never gave up on himself. It’s ironic that the death of his son, the most devastating event in his life, provided his inspiration and broughout of him the commitment and desire to do something that benefited others and, in the process, benefited him. Steve conquered his in literacy and now holds a BBA, MBA and Ph.D. in Business and Finance from the University of Northern Washington. In 1995, Steve sold his company to one of the largest toy companies in the world and remained with them in a senior management position until early 1997. He wrote several books and also writes columns in several magazines on running a successful business. He has had his own radio business talk show and is a highly sought after professional speaker and consultant. Steve not only became successful himself, countless others have become successful as result of his efforts and advice. This book/workbook is a resource guide to setting goals and planning your own success! The American dream! This book explains how to develop your plan for success. It’s all here. Steve is living proof that failure is an event, not a person. Zig Ziglar. (NOTE: The author Stephen E. Bacque Ph.D. had been working on this book project off and on since 1998. Author submitted a draft to Mr. Ziglar-who was happy to write the Forward, sadly before the book was finished the author’s friend and mentor went to be with the Lord. Rest In Peace my friend).
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:57:28 +0000
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