When I started writing my column 15 years ago, I decided to follow Aesop’s lead and put a moral at the end of each lesson — and my readers often tell me that they remember those morals, as well as the 700-750 words that preceded them. We live in a world of 10-second sound bites, so messages wrapped up in tight little packages really grab attention. Here’s a refresher course — some of my favorite morals from the last three years:
• A foot in the door is worth two on the desk.
• Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
• Negativity makes a person look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol.
• The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat.
• You’re never old enough to stop learning.
• You don’t have to shout to get your point across if you use the right words.
• A person without a sense of humor is like a car without shock absorbers — jolted by every pothole in the road.
• The more you exercise your networking muscles, the stronger they get.
• Live — and work — like your mother is watching.
• People like to do business with people they like.
• Money can buy a lot of things except common sense, which is free.
• Love your competitors. They are the only ones who make you as good as you can be.
• In business, you should walk your talk … and know when to talk before you walk.
• If you want to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, say something stupid.
• Don’t just mark time; use time to make your mark.
• Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.
Keep Your Cool
• The hotter things get, the more important it is to keep your cool.
• Entrepreneurs are people who take the cold water thrown on their idea, heat it with enthusiasm, make steam and push ahead.
• Technology should improve your life, not become your life.
• Arrogance is believing that you are so high up you don’t need an ear to the ground.
• The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.
• Control yourself: Remember, anger is just one letter short of danger.
• Keep an open mind. Your first job may not be your dream job, but it doesn’t have to be a nightmare.
• If you want a place in the sun, you’ve got to expect a few blisters.
• Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.
• Remember the 10 most powerful two-letter words in the English language: If it is to be, it is up to me.
• What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others lasts forever.
• Positive thinking turns obstacles into opportunities.
• Smart people spell service, “serve us.”
• All the world’s a stage, and most of us need more rehearsals.
• It’s easier to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent.
• You can’t count your days, but you can make your days count.
• Rough water is no place to check to see if you packed your life preserver.
• Stress often gives a little thing a big shadow.
• If you don’t speak up, prepare to put up.
• The most powerful single thing you can do to influence others is to smile at them.
• Helping someone up won’t pull you down.
• How people play the game shows something of their character. How they lose shows all of it.
• The wise person isn’t the one who makes the fewest mistakes. It’s the one who learns the most from them.
Mackay’s Moral: One of my favorites: Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to.
Harvey Mackay is president of Mackay Envelope Corp. and a nationally syndicated columnist.
