A father who had been laid off from his job had been watching expenses for months. He'd made a promise to his two sons -- twins -- that he'd take them to a nearby amusement park to celebrate their tenth birthday.

When the day came, the father withdrew some money from his savings, and he took his two sons on the bus to the amusement park. When they reached the front gate, he saw a sign:

"General admission: (ages 10 and up) $10. Children under 10: $5."

If he'd come a day earlier, the father realized, he could have saved $10 -- $5 for each of his twin sons. With a sigh, he led the boys up to the ticket window and said, "Three general admission tickets, please."

The woman in the booth looked them over and smiled. "How old are you boys?"

"I'm 10 years old today," said one son.

"So am I," said the other. "We're twins!"

The woman leaned forward. "You know," she whispered, "you could have asked for two 'under 10' tickets, and I never would have known."

"Yeah," said the father, "but they would have."

Why do so many executives and employees apparently go along with blatantly unethical and illegal conduct in their organizations? The answer may be that people don't always know what to do when confronted with requests (or demands) that aren't on the straight and narrow -- but that's not a good enough answer. Organizations need to be clear and specific about what is acceptable and what is expected.

Here are some suggestions on how to respond when someone in your organization asks you to do something unethical:

-- Explain your concern. Tell the other person how you feel. Use "I" statements that describe your position without attacking the other person: "I have some reservations about that plan because ..."

-- Offer an alternative. Chances are there's an honest way to accomplish the same goal or a similar one. Concentrate on that, emphasizing your common interests: "We both want to make more money on this product, and I think we can do it better by cutting some less-important features rather than by using cheaper materials."

-- Go upstairs. This should be a last resort, but if the other person insists on behaving unethically, you'll have to protect the company -- and yourself -- by discussing the matter with a trusted superior.

Careful hiring can often help avoid problems from the outset. I have found a reliable method that we use at MackayMitchell Envelope Co. to supplement our usual background screening process called the Merchants Integrity Test, developed by Merchants Information Solutions. The � HYPERLINK "http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=882162&id=1562410&type=1&url=https%3a%2f%2fmerchantsinfo.com%2fmit%2f" �Merchants Integrity Test� will help you reduce the number of criminal records you are required to review under the new EEOC guidelines. Using this test will speed up the hiring process and keep you in compliance, without reducing the scope of your candidate review.

It is a self-admitting "overt" test that has been validated and adheres to non-discriminatory standards required by the EEOC. In fact, Merchants' website identifies integrity testing as an acceptable pre-employment screening tool, especially effective in identifying applicants with a propensity to commit employee theft. The Merchants Integrity Test is proven to identify applicants who are engaged in employee theft, have a high level of hostility which can spill over into workplace violence, abuse drugs and alcohol and other high risk behaviors. You can learn more about the test at merchantsinfo.com.

Honesty is always the best policy. You must be able to trust the people you work with.

The king visited his dungeon once a year to talk to the prisoners there. Every year, each inmate insisted that he or she was the picture of innocence: They'd all been framed, treated unfairly at trial, victims of circumstances or otherwise completely free of all guilt.

One year, the skeptical king asked the newest prisoner in the dungeon, "I suppose you're as innocent as a lamb, too?"

This man shook his head sadly. "No, Your Majesty. I'm a thief. I was caught fair and square, and my sentence was just."

The king blinked in surprise. "Release this man!" he proclaimed, and the thief was promptly set free.

The other prisoners began shouting. "Your Majesty, how can you do such a thing? How can you free a confessed criminal while we rot in here?"

"I'm doing you a favor," the king said. "I can't risk leaving that evil scoundrel in here to corrupt all your innocent souls, could I?"

Mackay's Moral: Corporate integrity begins with personal integrity.

With each passing birthday, some wise guy asks if I'm finally going to retire. Oh, how I hate that question! I love my work, and I love to work. As it turns out, I'm part of an emerging demographic: the longevity revolution.

To learn more about this over-50 generation, I turned to a real expert in the field. My good friend Ken Dychtwald is North America's foremost visionary regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health-care and workforce implications of the 50-plus generation. American Demographics magazine honored him as the single most influential marketer to baby boomers over the past quarter century. He's the best-selling author of 16 books on age-related issues, available at www.agewave.com.

If that's not impressive enough, he's also a psychologist, gerontologist, documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur. He's devoted nearly 40 years to studying what happens when more and more of us live longer and longer.

Ken started his explanation by asking some basic questions: What happens to media, marketing and advertising that have been oriented nearly exclusively toward 18- to 34-year-olds when that age group diminishes in size and the 50-plus population, which has always been a throwaway group, suddenly has all the money and growth?

What business opportunities are going to emerge as we have new bunches of 50-year-olds, 60-year-olds, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, maybe 110-year-olds, in the years to come? How might that indeed be a new frontier?

Those are important questions. The widely accepted retirement age of 65 is a number that many consider "old." But Ken is quick to point out that 65 was established by Otto von Bismarck in the 1880s, when he was designing Europe's first pension plan -- and when the actual average life expectancy was 45! Clearly, 65 looks dramatically different in 2012.

That fact should shape the market, which we mostly think of as being shaped by young trendsetters, Ken says. But targeting young people is not the best strategy, because as that group ages, you have to go back and start over with the next group of young people. And they don't have the power or the money.

Ken argues that rather than focusing on trendsetters, we should turn our attention to the "influentials" -- the people whom other people take note of and want to be like. Young people are looking up to those who are successful, powerful and good at what they do. It is not true that kids have all the power in this country.

"Young people are broke and have been made more broke by the recession," Ken says. "If you do all the analytics on this last five years, the age groups that have gotten battered the hardest in terms of losing money, losing their homes, losing their jobs, are people in their 20s and 30s.

"People 50-plus have actually done not bad. Look simply at net worth, and the portrait becomes quite compelling. The older population, whether you like them or not, whether you want to be one or not, is where the money is. Seventy percent of all the wealth in North America and Europe is controlled by people over 50.

"The growth is coming from people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. What kind of industries will take off in the next decade?"

Then Ken unleashed another statistic that should refocus marketing strategies: The most entrepreneurism in the last 10 years in America has happened among 55- to 65-year-olds.

But he's not convinced that money is the ticket to a happy retirement. Some people work because they have to, but many continue working and exploring new careers because they like to. Perhaps they aren't planning to work full time, but they are looking for a good balance between work and leisure.

What do people really want? "It's freedom," Ken says. "I'm going to do what I want to do, how I want to do it, on my own schedule. People also want to be respected for their wisdom, for their power, for their coolness, for their influence, for their experience."

Ken Dychtwald gave me plenty to think about as I defer "retirement." And maybe even a couple ideas for my next career!

Mackay's Moral: We all have to grow up, but we never have to get old.

On a national sports radio program recently, two talk show hosts were discussing star quarterback Peyton Manning and the enormous impact he is having in his new football home, Denver. They mentioned that Manning had already learned the entire playbook, but even more interesting was that he had learned the names of the entire press group and as much as he could about them and their families. One host opined how "brilliant" that was of Manning.

Perhaps Manning does this because he knows the value of scouting reports, which colleges and major sports leagues use to assess their competition and draft choices.

I don't know if Peyton Manning is familiar with the Mackay 66-Question Customer Profile, which I wrote about in my book, "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive," but Manning certainly knows the power that it yields when used properly to build relationships.

I have been preaching about the power of the Mackay 66 for my entire career. It's a tool to help you humanize your selling strategy. To be successful in life -- and especially in sales -- you must have a desire to help people. Studies show that you can't talk business all the time. Your customers are people first!

I developed this 66-question customer profile when I was 21 years old. (The Mackay 66 is available for free on my website -- www.harveymackay.com.) At MackayMitchell Envelope Co., we require all our salespeople to fill it out about every customer.

You wouldn't believe how much we know about our customers. The IRS wouldn't believe how much we know about our customers.

And I'm not talking about their tastes in envelopes. We want to know, based on routine conversation and observation, what our customers are like as human beings. What do they feel strongly about? What are they proudest of having achieved? Are there any status symbols in their offices? In other words, we want to know the person behind the desk.

And remember ... this is not just for our customers. It's also for our suppliers. We want the best paper suppliers in the country. We want the best ink suppliers.

Use the Mackay 66 for employees and competitors -- anyone you can benefit from knowing more about. Every time you encounter those people, you learn a little bit more about them. You will probably never fill out all 66 items, but 30 are better than 20, and 15 are better than 10. They cover things like education (high school and college), family (spouses and kids), anniversaries, hobbies and interests, favorite sports teams, vacation habits, previous employment, professional and trade associations, clubs and so on.

Question No. 66 -- Does your competitor have more or better answers to the above questions than you have?

The Mackay 66 is a concept, philosophy and tool. You still must perform. But if you perform and build a good relationship, you not only get the order, you get all the reorders.

You simply cannot know enough about your customers, employees, suppliers and competitors.

Here's a story that dates back about 100 years that illustrates the importance of noticing the little things and knowing your audience.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was quite impressed with the observational powers of a cab driver who picked him up at the train station after a vacation to the south of France. As he stepped into the cab and put his suitcase on the seat next to him, the driver surprised him by asking, "Where would you like to go, Mr. Doyle?"

Doyle was shocked that the man knew his name, and asked whether they had ever met.

The driver said no, which prompted Doyle to ask how he knew who Doyle was.

The driver replied, "This morning's paper had a story about you being on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi stand where people who return from Marseilles always come. Your skin color tells me that you have been on vacation. The ink spot on your right index finger suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English, and not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I deduce that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

"That, and your name is on your suitcase."

Mackay's Moral: People don't care how much you know about them ... once they realize how much you care about them.