When I was cutting my teeth in the sales game right after college, I made sure to read or listen to everything I could get my hands on from several sales and motivational legends -- Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar.

I, like many people around the world, was saddened to hear about the recent death of my friend Zig. He was one of a kind. I was fortunate to share the stage with him several times, and I will be forever grateful for those opportunities.

His inimitable style was contagious. If you were lucky enough to ever hear him speak, you understand how he stayed at the top of his game for more than 40 years. As he was fond of saying, "People often say motivation doesn't last. Neither does bathing -- that's why we recommend it daily."

Zig was simply one of the greatest motivators and sales trainers of all time. He made everyone better with his extremely positive attitude. Who can forget his classic line, "I'm so optimistic, I'd go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me"?

He espoused the theory that everyone can develop an enthusiasm for life. He told a story about a woman who was the top salesperson in her company of 1,200 salespeople. She broke every record in the industry. Zig asked her, "How did you do it?" She said, "God didn't make me with an off-switch."

Another big subject for Zig was balancing work and family, which was so important to him. One of his pearls of wisdom on this subject: "Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they are on the same side."

We were both active in the National Speakers Association and members of its Hall of Fame. We shared a similar speaking philosophy. Both of us realized that in order to educate, you need to entertain. Make your audience laugh every five to 10 minutes. Introduce a new lesson, concept or idea to your audience every few minutes as well, to keep their attention.

Zig was genuinely friendly to everyone. After every speech, he hung around and answered any and all questions until the lights went out. Motivational speakers come and go, but his work will live on because he practiced what he preached.

Zig loved comic strips and sports, especially the amazing feats of teams. He also collected anecdotes because he knew stories can be great teachers.

Zig started out in sales, just as I did. He hawked everything from lawn-mowing services to cookware and insurance. He said, "Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust."

After many years in sales, he realized that his real gift was his positive attitude and energy. He became a full-time motivational speaker and author. He wrote more than two dozen best-selling books, chock-full of take-home value. Gems like these, short and sweet and definitely to the point, will live on and on:

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude."

"There are no traffic jams on the extra mile."

"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

"Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission."

"If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost."

"People don't buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons."

"A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job."

"Every choice you make has an end result."

"Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days."

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

"If you go out looking for friends, you're going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you'll find them everywhere."

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."

"It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action and discipline that enabled us to follow through."

"Failing is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night."

Mackay's Moral (from Zig): "You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind."

The old saying goes: "If you can dream it, you can do it."

I think that's more than just an axiom. I believe that visualization is one of the most powerful means of achieving personal goals. To have an idea or dream, and then to see how you can make it happen, helps shape your plans and defines your goals more clearly.

Many people, especially athletes and celebrities, have discovered the amazing power of visualization and have used it to enhance their careers and achieve their goals and dreams.

Actor Jim Carrey wrote a check to himself in 1987 in the sum of $10 million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and added the notation, "for acting services rendered." He visualized it for years, and in 1994, he received $10 million for his role in "Dumb and Dumber."

Oprah Winfrey openly used visualization techniques on her talk show. She often talked about the power of the subconscious mind and goal-focusing techniques. Oprah said, "The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams."

Nobel Laureate Jonas Salk was asked how he went about inventing the polio vaccine. His reply: "I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like."

When I was 13 years old, I dreamed about owning a factory. Then when I actually owned the factory, I visualized selling the largest and most prestigious account in town -- General Mills. And I finally did it.

One of the most well-known studies on creative visualization in sports occurred when Russian scientists compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their physical and mental training ratios:

-- Group 1 received 100% physical training.

-- Group 2 received 75% physical training and 25% mental training.

-- Group 3 received 50% mental training and 50% physical training.

-- Group 4 received 75% mental training with 25% physical training.

Group 4 had the best performance results, indicating that mental training or visualization can have significant measurable effects on biological performance.

Similarly, for many years Russian gymnasts dominated the Olympic Games. The Americans trained hard, but they couldn't compete with the nearly flawless Russians. It wasn't until many years later that the Americans and others discovered the Russians used sports psychologists to help with mental training techniques. They spent a few hours each day visualizing their routines with perfect landings, twists and jumps. Today, most top athletes use the power of visualization to perform at their peak.

People who soar refuse to sit back and wait for things to change. They visualize that they are not quitters. They will not allow circumstances to keep them down.

Back in 1952, Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. She had to make two attempts before she achieved her goal. On her first try, she quit after swimming 21 1/2 miles and finishing only a half-mile from shore. The reason? It wasn't the freezing cold water, or the fear of the sharks circling around her. Or even her fatigue. She told reporters later it was because she couldn't see the shore through the fog. She had lost sight of her goal.

Two months later, she swam the channel again -- this time with a clear mental picture of the shore that lay beyond the fog. She not only became the first woman to swim the channel -- she beat the existing world record by two hours!

History teems with tales of experts who were convinced that the ideas, plans and projects of others could never be achieved. But then someone else came along and accomplished those dreams with a can-do attitude.

The Italian sculptor Agostino d'Antonio worked diligently on a large piece of marble. Unable to produce his desired masterpiece, he lamented, "I can do nothing with it." Other sculptors also worked this difficult piece of marble, but to no avail. Michelangelo discovered the stone and visualized the possibilities in it. His I-can-make-it-happen attitude resulted in one of the world's masterpieces -- his statue of David.

Are you reading these stories with the aid of an electric light? Consider the plight of Benjamin Franklin. He was admonished to stop his foolish experiments with lighting. What a waste of time! It was absurd to think anything could outdo the fabulous oil lamp. Thank goodness Franklin "saw the light" -- and made it happen.

Mackay's Moral: If seeing is believing, visualizing is achieving.

Education is a steppingstone to success, but some of the most important lessons aren't taught in class. There are plenty of life lessons that we need to know, and the textbooks often do not have chapters on them. Here are some lessons you should learn in order to grow both in your career and in your personal life.

-- You can't do everything yourself. Control freaks make the job harder and foster resentment among the troops. Learn your limits so you can concentrate on what you do best and delegate the rest to people (or tools) capable of doing as good a job, or better.

-- You need to understand finance. No matter what field you're in, a basic understanding of how money flows in and out of your organization will help you stand out from your peers and enable you to make better professional and personal decisions.

-- You don't always get a second chance. Failure isn't necessarily fatal, but that doesn't mean you'll get unlimited opportunities to try, try again. Learn to distinguish between foolhardy gambles and reasonable risks. Do your best -- but be ready to move on if things don't work out. Failure is not falling down, but staying down.

-- Your attitude is paramount. Stay upbeat no matter what happens. Employers and co-workers respond to your positive energy and outlook. You'll be more motivated and productive if you approach your work with optimism and a can-do spirit. Your attitude and your aptitude will determine your altitude.

-- Take your work seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously. Starting your day with a good laugh is as beneficial to your health as it is to your mood. There is no place that needs humor more than the workplace. Human resources directors will tell you that employees with a sense of humor are more creative -- and much more fun to be around.

-- Everyone smiles in the same language. I learned years ago that one of the most powerful things you can do to have influence over others is to smile at them. A smile comes as standard equipment for everyone!

-- Your boss doesn't have all the answers. Listen to your managers, but remember that they're human, too. They don't always have the best answers, so be prepared to offer solutions. Your job is to help them get things done, not dump problems in their laps. Offer solutions and support wherever and whenever you can.

-- You never really know it all. Arrogance is one of the deadliest of all human failings and can destroy a business. It is the easiest to rationalize and the hardest to recognize in ourselves. Don't confuse arrogance with confidence, which allows you to perform up to the level of your capabilities. As I like to say about arrogance, I know that you don't know, but you don't know that you don't know.

-- You have to market yourself. You're responsible for your own success. Most of your managers and colleagues are too busy with their own issues to look out for your career. Look for opportunities to shine. Let people know what you're capable of. And be ready to prove yourself.

-- Beat rejection before it beats you. Rejection is -- and always will be -- part of business. For example, if it were easy to succeed in sales, everyone would want in. Rejection helps knock out the weak. You can't take it personally. People don't realize that in order to get the yeses, you must hear the nos.

-- Honesty is the best policy. If truth stands in your way, you're headed in the wrong direction. As the father of three children, one of my rules -- especially when they became teenagers -- was to tell me the truth immediately. That philosophy seemed to work for me, and quite frankly, I've always believed that telling the truth is the best policy. In business, it's the only policy.

-- You don't always get a trophy. Don't let ups and downs leave you down and out. Handling disappointment is one of life's challenges, and often an indication of how you deal with adversity at work as well. Achievers focus on the road, rather than the bumps in it, to reach their destination. Rough spots sharpen our performance. And more often than not, the obstacles can be turned into advantages. You just can't let your disappointment get in the way.

Mackay's Moral: You learn something new every day -- if you are paying attention.