Brian Tracy, the bestselling author and motivational speaker who urged readers to tackle their hardest task first in Eat That Frog!, died on Nov. 12 at age 82, Business Street Magazine reported. His grandson, Will Stein, paid tribute to him on Instagram, remembering Tracy as a mentor who believed in him and encouraged his ambitions. A cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.
Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Tracy worked in sales, marketing, real estate and management consulting before founding Brian Tracy International. He drew on that experience in seminars on selling, leadership, time management and goal-setting. According to the company, Tracy spoke to more than five million people across some 5,000 talks and seminars. His professional biography credits him with more than 70 books translated into dozens of languages.
Eat That Frog! distilled his advice into a rule readers could put to work the next morning. Identify the important task you're most tempted to put off and do it first. In Goals!, he encouraged readers to write down what they wanted to accomplish and build a plan they could follow. No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline took up the difficulty of sticking with those decisions once the initial enthusiasm wears off.
In his Instagram tribute, Stein recalled speaking with his grandfather the night before his death. He told Tracy he wanted to start a business that would make a difference. Tracy smiled, and Stein took it as a sign that his grandfather had heard him and believed in what he wanted to do. Stein said he planned to carry those lessons into his own work.
Julien Backhaus, publisher of Germany's ERFOLG magazine, also paid tribute. Backhaus, who interviewed Tracy in Vienna in 2017, remembered him for showing readers how to pursue ambitious goals through small, deliberate steps. He singled out Eat That Frog! and Goals! as books that would outlast their author.
