Ray Zinn is not just the Longest Serving CEO in Silicon Valley History, he’s a man that does not retire or quit. In this special edition of the Tough Things First Podcast, Ray talks about his new book aimed at inspiring the next generations to do the same. One day at a time. Zen of Zinn Daily is 365 days of inspiration with action and you can start at any age. (Listen here or watch on YouTube)
Ray Zinn: Hey, Rob. Good to be with you.
Rob Artigo: Ray, this, we did it last year and we enjoyed doing it when you did The Essential Leader. Back behind me here, we have the Zen of Zinn Daily Reader. This is the cover of the book. When you’re looking for it, this is it right here. This is the new book, Ray. Congratulations. This is an excellent start to a new year is to get a book out. And this is very exciting. So we have the Zen of Zinn Series I, II, and III, but this, you take some of your favorite quotes from the series, Zen of Zinn, and then you expand on it and do some actionable items, some comments. And it’s basically a daily reader. It’s a 365. You start on Day 1, January 1st, and you can work through the whole book throughout the course of the year. It’s pretty cool, Ray.
Ray Zinn: I know. I’m really, really excited about it. So it’s like a calendar. So you pick a date and you look at that date, and then that’s the thing you should work on for that day. And so I had a friend of mine over a few days ago, back on actually February 26th, I think it was. And so what he was telling me about was you have to know, because he was having some issues, and he said that you got to know the bitter in order to enjoy the sweet. And he was just discussing that with me and talking about his situation at home and the issues he was facing.
And so I said, “Well, you know, it’s interesting.” I said, “I have a book that I just brought out called The Zen of Zinn Daily Reader.” And I said, “It’s based on helping people through difficult times.” So he says, “Oh, where do I get it?” And I said, “Oh, you get it on Amazon or your favorite bookseller, but I’ll give you one.” So I went to my stash, as you would, and I gave him a copy and he said, “Oh, let’s look at February 26th.” Because that was that day, and so he flipped the book open. And sure enough, that book talked about on that day, February 26th, talked about knowing the bitter and enabling you to enjoy the sweet. And so it blew his mind. He just was, “What?” He says, “This is crazy.” We were just talking about this subject. And there it was in the book, how to deal with the bitter in order to enjoy the sweet.
Rob Artigo: And that’s really what you hope to get from reading this book, that the readers will use it on a daily basis to adapt it to what’s going on in their personal lives. Whether it’s work or whether it’s a business life or whether it’s their personal life at home, there’s a lot of wisdom in these pages here. And like you said, there’s dates.
So we’re recording this on March 5th. And so I’m going to read what it says on March 5th here. “When push comes to shove means you are going to get ‘er done, come heck or high water.” And so you elaborate on that by saying, “To finish the tougher of tasks, I like to lean on the inspiration of phrases like these. They have such staying power in the American lexicon because they are easy to understand and stimulate a sense of self-determination and motivation. Today, embrace critical, decisive action as an ethos with these phrases in mind.”
So your original writing in Zen of Zinn takes on a special quality to it when you elaborate and say, “Hey, this is how you can make it work for you today.” And say, “Today, do something. Today, take this action.” And in this case, it says, “Embrace critical, decisive action as an ethos.” And I think it’s inspiring. The whole book is really inspiring.
Ray Zinn: Well, you know, you talk about this particular date, the push come to shove. There’s that saying, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a present, that’s why we call it a gift.” You can’t deal with yesterday. You can’t change it. Yesterday’s done. Can’t deal with tomorrow because tomorrow’s not here. So the only thing you can deal with is what you can do today. And that’s why they call it a present. It’s a gift. Don’t worry about tomorrow or don’t worry about yesterday, just focus on what you can do today. That’s what that saying and that musing is all about is focusing on doing something of value today.
Rob Artigo: And I think that a lot of what is written in these pages here is critical for recognizing that today has value. Really, you start the day by opening it up and saying, “All right, so today is February 26th or it’s March 5th or it’s December 19th or something,” and then you open it up and you read it and it gives you a chance to reflect before you get started. And it’s really, we always talk about get the day started by doing the tough things first. I mean, it’s your famous saying. And this is the way to put that foot forward and make sure that you’re starting the day off on the right stride.
Ray Zinn: That’s like calling getting off on a right foot, that’s another saying. So let’s look at yesterday and so let’s see what we should have done yesterday as just a comparison or example.
Rob Artigo: And then I was just flipping through here and noticing that June 23rd, I don’t know the… We’re looking into the future now and we don’t know what people’s experiences will be between now and June 23rd. And if you are inclined to think about the future, I wouldn’t suggest people dwell on worrying about what’s going to happen tomorrow, but at the same time, we know that things change. We live in an existence of life where circumstances change and then you don’t know what might come up. And on June 23rd, perhaps you wake up in the morning and you flip open to June 23rd and you see that it says, “Come as you are if you are proud of who you are.” I have been trying to read this without my glasses, so this is really great. “I have been taught that if you are not your best, why aren’t you your best? Strive to be the best and you will surely be blessed.” And then there’s a writing here about how to apply that to your life.
Ray, I think that people will get a great deal of benefit out of this. You can call it a self-help book, you can call it an inspirational book. I mean, how would you characterize it?
Ray Zinn: I think it’s a motivational book. It helps you get started in the morning. It gets your day off on the right foot, as we talked about. So that’s the purpose of the Zen of Zinn Daily, is to get you to look at your day, not yesterday or not tomorrow, but looking at this day and saying, “Here’s what I need to do,” or, “Here’s what I should do.” And it will help you. It’ll motivate you, especially if you take it seriously, you will become a better person. That’s the whole concept of the Zen of Zinn Daily is to help you become a better person.
Rob Artigo: We talk about ethos, which we were sharing in a previous reading, is that’s part of your legacy, that’s part of your life. It’s been this idea that you want to be able to inspire people, and this really does it.
I want to open the book up just so people can see how it’s laid out on the pages. So each one of these has a date, and you read the little italic segment, which is from your original writing, and then you write a little bit on how people can apply that to their daily lives. This is the Zen of Zinn Daily Reader, and I hope that people will go out and get it.
I know that, for example, it’s a soft launch. We call this a soft launch for a reason because it takes a while for the tentacles of this book to get out to all the distributors in the paperback and also getting it out there in the digital form. And right now you can get it just about anywhere in digital. Some places take a little bit longer to get the paperback in place.
But BookBaby put this together for us and they do a good job, so a little shout-out to those guys. And if you want to go to bookbaby.com, you can actually buy the book right now if you want to get the printed version. And that’s really the best way to apply this to your life is to get the print version so that you can have it sitting there on your bedside table, which was the inspiration behind this. And Ray, any words of wisdom to get this… We’ll close out this soft launch for Zen of Zinn Daily. What do you have to say to the listeners?
Ray Zinn: Well, I recommend you get the hard copy or the paperback copy because it’s like a calendar. You don’t do all your calendaring online. We have a calendar in our drawer that we pull out and look at. So what’d be interesting is if we came out with an actual electronic calendar that when they clicked on it, that it would load up their digital calendar and then they could go grab their book and it’d remind them to look at their Zen of Zinn Daily reader. And so that would be an interesting one for us to do as a follow-on as to how we could populate that into their calendar, their digital calendar, not their manual calendar, their physical calendar, but their digital calendar. So anyway, that’s a suggestion.
Rob Artigo: I mean, if we could figure out how to get it to vibrate on the phone and just like…
Ray Zinn: There you go.
Rob Artigo: Hey, pick up your book and then set off on the right foot for the rest of the day.
And I want to thank all the listeners for joining us for this soft launch of Zen of Zinn Daily, and please get the book and the other books. We have Zen of Zinn I, II, and III, which is a compendium of all those musings and writings that you’ve done over the years. And then, of course, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals that Make Up the Essential Leader. That’s the, really, a must read for folks out there wanting to make it in the business world, and of course, in their lives. They can adapt that to their daily lives as well.
Right now, Zen of Zinn Daily available. Right here, you can see it behind me. This is the cover you want to look for. Get the book, check it out, and make it part of your life every day.
Thanks, Ray. A great contribution to humanity. Am I overstating it?
Ray Zinn: No. Well, it’s a launch.
Rob Artigo: All right. Well, it is a book, and it’s a healthy thing to do every day. Always be positive when you wake up in the morning. That’s the way to live. And I think that’s the message we get regularly from Ray. Thanks, Ray.
Ray Zinn: Yeah. We have our other books, Potential Leader. And so our first book is the Tough Things First, and the series of Zen of Zinn, they can still get I, II, and III. And of course, the new one, The Zen of Zinn Daily. We’d invite everybody to grab those copies and put them on your bookshelf. And not just leave them on your bookshelf, but also read them. You’ll —
Rob Artigo: And you mentioned, Ray, that you have a stash of these books, and maybe one lucky listener will send you an email or something and ask for a signed copy or something, you know? You never know.
Ray Zinn: Never know.
Rob Artigo: All right, Ray, thank you.
Ray Zinn: Thanks.
