I first met Art Linkletter on the speaker’s circuit. We shared a platform on many occasions and were together in Orlando, Florida before a national association of real estate professionals.

Right before I went on stage, Art told me “break a leg.” I proceeded to give the entire speech and walked off a darkened end of the platform and, wouldn’t you know it? I broke a leg.

Such is life in the world of public speaking. You meet the nicest people in the world like Art Linkletter. He recently died. An icon is gone. Art almost reached his goal in life to make it to age 100. Like my dear friend Charlie Barcio, who is a modest 106 years old, Art Linkletter was a hero to many. And like Barcio, Linkletter was orphaned as a child. He was placed up for adoption at the age of seven.

The ancient Chinese proverb suggests that “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

Make no mistake; Linkletter had plenty of “trials” in his 97 years here on earth. A son, Robert, died in a car accident in 1980. Another son, Jack, died of lymphoma in 2007. The greatest challenge all was the loss of his 20 year old daughter, Diane, who jumped to her death from a sixth-floor Hollywood apartment. Art blamed drugs and took up a crusade against them. That defined the second half of his life on the speaking circuit.

Art Linkletter was a friend to many fellow professional speakers. He held the prestigious CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame honor bestowed by the National Speakers Association. I first met him when we were speaking together at the 1986 Toastmasters International Convention where he received the Golden Gavel Award, their highest honor.

Art was best known for his television shows “People Are Funny” and “House Party” and “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” a line that’s repeated daily all over the world.

Among all the things Art Linkletter was in life, I saw him first and foremost as a very successful businessman. He once told me that he owned 74 different businesses around the world. At one time, he was the second largest landowner in Australia, right behind the government.

Art once told me of the smartest and dumbest decision he ever made in business. Walt Disney had come to him to ask him to do the kickoff for Disneyland back in 1955, but he had no money and couldn’t pay him anything. Linkletter not only agreed, but he got his buddy, Ronald Regan, to help out as well, successfully kicking off the Disney dynasty.

Having no money to pay his friend, Disney offered Linkletter any concession that the park they had not yet sold. Linkletter chose the photo concession, which he sold for millions a year later. “That was the smartest decision I ever made,” he told me.

Years later, Disney called Linkletter again and asked him if he would join him on a flight to Florida. Disney always felt that the biggest mistake he made at Disneyland was not purchasing enough property. He had nowhere to expand. The pair took a chartered aircraft and flew over a central Florida swamp. “That’s where I’m going to put Disney World,” Disney declared. “Do you want in on the ground floor?”

“I told him he was nuts,” Linkletter joked later. “Boy was that the dumbest business decision I ever made!”

Linkletter was kind enough to do the forward for my fourth book, “The Toastmasters International Guide to Successful Speaking” (Dearborn Publishing/1996) and had agreed to contribute to my sixth book “It’s the Customer, Stupid!” (John Wiley & Sons/March 2011). We never got that done, but his kindness and generosity will always be remembered by me and others.

Indeed, the proverb is true. “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” Art Linkletter, a native Canadian, was not only an icon and an institution. He was an inspiration to many for the way he handled the trials and tribulations of his long and illustrious life. We will miss him so!