For all you salespeople over a certain age...

(CNN) -- Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar died Wednesday in Dallas "after a short bout with pneumonia," his spokesman said. He was 86.

The self-described "Undisputed King of Motivation" was known for his seminars, which grew into large gatherings held in packed arenas.

Ziglar wrote more than two dozen books on salesmanship and motivation over five decades.

He spread his message of positive attitude, motivation and success through stories punctuated with short quotes that became legendary among his followers, such as:

• "Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street."

• "Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have."

• "Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis."

After suffering injuries in a fall in 2007, Ziglar continued his tour schedule with fewer events and help from his daughter onstage.

He was born Hilary Hinton Ziglar in Coffee County, Alabama. His family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, and later to New York City.

In his autobiography, Ziglar described a challenging childhood that taught him to connect with people.

He began speaking in public as a salesman in the 1950s, although his professional speaking career did not start until the 1970s.

A collection of Ziglar quotes pulled from social media users is displayed at the top of this story.

Yeah, I've seen him. He was way too Christ-y for my liking. Give me Tom Hopkins any day.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I saw him too with a cavalcade of guest stars when my company sent our whole "team" on a whale discount package. Lots of happy talk about attitude that really had no place in my everyday worklife. You would get as much by using the daily motivation desk calendar--"Ask yourself, is my attitude worth catching?" etc.
Gotta admire him for making a good living on the arena tours that probably did not have much effect on most of the addendees.

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

I had a sales manager once who played Zig's tapes in his car all the time. I think the similarity in their voices and deliveries is the reason I can't stand Matthew McConaughey. Zig always comes across as if he's a preacher. There is some valuable sales stuff in there but you have to wade through Christian life lessons to get to it. I'm sure Zig would have said those things are inseparable. I just remember this sales manager playing a particular tape over and over again wherein Zig related the story of some retarded child in a Chicago hospital whose parents refused to treat him like he was retarded and the kid grew up to go to Harvard or whatever and Zig is still great friends with the parents and he called them up on stage. I just don't think that Napoleon Hill stuff works all the time. Positivity is great but it only goes so far. I remember seeing Evel Knievel on the Mike Douglass show or some shit and Evel scoffed at the "power of positive thinking" and said he wanted Napoleon Hill to get on his Harley and jump twenty cars and then Evel would visit him in the hospital and Hill could tell him how he can't do it. But I have used Zig's voice inflection techniques to overcome objections.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don