From the beginning, we are taught by our parents what NOT to do. Don't cross the street without looking. Don't go to bed without brushing your teeth. Don't talk back. Don't get in trouble. And on and on.

Similarly, from an early age we are told by our parents, "Don't worry, honey. Everything will be all right." Or "Let me kiss it and make it well." From infancy up, we're inundated with platitudes that may provide short-term diversion but don't work in the long run.

One of my favorite books, Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking," is a classic bestseller that inspired an optimistic perspective for millions of Americans. I was deeply honored when Dr. Peale wrote an endorsement for my first book, "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive."

Now Bob Knight, the legendary college basketball coach, has written an inspirational and entertaining rebuttal to Dr. Peale's book, explaining why negative thinking will actually produce more positive results, in sports and in daily life. His new book is titled, "The Power of Negative Thinking."

Known for his fiery temperament, Coach Knight feels that most basketball games are not won; they are lost. That's why his coaching philosophy is to instill discipline by preparing to win, rather than hoping to win.

Preparation keeps you from beating yourself. In his locker rooms, he posted a sign that read, "Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes." He writes about the value of watching game film with his team to pinpoint mistakes "and especially patterns of mistakes so they don't occur again."

A coach is always teaching. He talks about free-throw shooting, which was typically a strength of a Bob Knight-coached team. He says many players struggle making free throws when the game is on the line. One of the reasons is the pressure.

He explains that it's really tough to simulate game conditions like that, so he would stop practice and pick a player to shoot two free throws. If he made both of them, they would go on with practice or practice would be over, but if he missed, it meant more running. This exercise helped players focus more at crunch time.

Coach Knight stresses the value of teamwork in having winning teams. He considered it his most important job as a coach to let every player know when he made a contribution to winning, no matter their role.

And when his teams did win, he made sure they didn't dwell on their success, but rather looked immediately to the challenges of the next game. He applies this lesson to business strategy as well.

"The Power of Negative Thinking" is punctuated with humorous stories. For example, when Coach Knight was about to take the court to coach his first game at Army, he thought the team should say a prayer in the locker room, like most of his prior coaches had done. As he was walking out to the court, an old trainer put his arm around his neck and said, "Son, for what it's worth, you and prayer are not a good mix."

Coach Knight provides his two candidates for the greatest words in the English language: "No" and "Don't."

"I've had players I've told over and over and over again, 'No, that is not what we want,'" Knight writes. "The words 'no' and 'don't' are important parts of the power of negative thinking, along with a whole long list of imperatives just as firm and final. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I said to a player: 'What is there about the word "no" that you don't understand? What is there about the word "don't" that you don't understand?'

"Don't and can't are obviously negative phrases, but putting the words into use can bring very positive results."

He points out that seven of the Ten Commandments start with "Thou shalt not ..." He even developed his own Ten Commandments, including:

-- Don't accept the status quo. Look for better when others are satisfied.

-- Always question. The best of all questions: Why?

-- Look for improvements to make in yourself or bad habits to break.

-- Never think talent alone will determine the outcome.

-- Never talk too much. Get yourself a degree from the Shut-Up School.

Mackay's Moral: "Everybody wants to win, but not everyone wants to prepare to win." -- Bob Knight

Many years ago, a management consultant named Ivy Lee was called in by Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Company, to give Schwab advice on how to better manage his time. After observing Schwab for several hours, Lee suggested: "Every evening write down the six most important things that must get done the next day, and list them in order of importance. Don't begin item two until item one is complete."

Schwab asked Lee how much he wanted for this advice. Lee replied, "Use the plan for six months and send me a check for how much you think it is worth."

Schwab realized the value of this advice, as well as the importance of time. How you spend your time can be as important as how you spend your money.

After six months, Lee received a check from Schwab for $25,000, which was a lot of money in the 1920s.

I would submit that time is an organization's most valuable commodity. Waste it, and you are throwing away an irreplaceable resource. Time is not an enemy unless you try to kill it. An hour lost is never found.

We all start out in life with one thing in common -- the same number of minutes and hours in each day. That remains constant whether we live 50 years or 100 years. So why is it that some people accomplish so much, and others, very little?

Do you complain that you never have enough time to finish projects or complete your work? The reason may be that you're wasting your time, because you haven't figured out how to use it well. Here are some ideas to get time on your side:

-- Begin your day with a plan. If you have no plan on how to tackle your workload, you'll end up battered by competing demands. Manage your time better by doing the right things well, not by doing the wrong things faster. At the end of your day, make a to-do list for the next day, so you can be productive immediately in the morning.

-- Prioritize, don't procrastinate. Many people like doing the easy things first and saving the harder things for the end. But what if those harder things never get done, or there are emergencies that come up? Your plan should be prioritized by order of importance, even if it means tackling the hard jobs first.

-- Take on what you can reasonably handle. Sometimes it's hard to say "no," but be careful not to let your work pile up, causing you to miss deadlines. This can lead to poor performance and unnecessary stress.

-- Tidy up your workspace. Studies show the average American worker is a disorganized mess. A minute here and there spent looking for stuff can add up fast. A messy desk wastes time and adds to your distractions. Organize and get rid of the clutter.

-- Focus. People lack productivity because they can't stay focused or they are continuously distracted and interrupted. If you are able to maintain your concentration, you will be amazed at the amount of work you can accomplish.

-- Get adequate sleep. Lack of sleep increases your stress level and intensifies feelings of being out of control. You'll spend time at work wishing you weren't so tired. It will also be hard to focus on the task at hand, which leads to a major time-waster: having to redo projects.

-- Take a break. Get away from work. Eat lunch somewhere other than at your desk. Take a walk around the block. A brief breather recharges your batteries and keeps you more productive, as evidenced in this story:

Two men were engaged in chopping wood. One of the men worked hard all day, seldom took a break, and took only 20 minutes for lunch. The other man took several breaks a day, spent 45 minutes for lunch, and even took a 15-minute nap before going back to work.

The first man became increasingly frustrated because, no matter how hard he worked, the other man's pile of chopped wood was always much bigger than his at the end of the day.

"I don't understand how you do it," said the first man one day. "Every time I look around, you are sitting down, and yet you cut more wood than I do. Why is that?"

With a smile, the second man replied, "Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my ax?"

Mackay's Moral: Killing time isn't murder, it's suicide.

Baseball has been in the headlines lately, and for the ugliest of reasons: cheating.

Not the old hide-the-ball-in-the-glove trick or greasing or scuffing the baseball. No, those would be too obvious.

In their pursuit of perfection, or at least superior performance, dozens of high-paid athletes, superstars and utility players turned to performance-enhancing drugs that they hoped would evade discovery. It didn't work, and America's pastime is plagued with scandal.

The sad thing is that cheating is not that uncommon. We see it on Wall Street, in politics, in famous marriages and just about everywhere you look. It seems it's become part of our culture. Is the spirit of competition that drives American progress creating a nation of cheaters?

People cheat on diets, at cards or on fitness programs. Bolder folks might cheat on taxes, resumes or dating profiles. But where do we draw the line in the sand? Is some cheating OK?

We need to examine that attitude. I still believe that trust is one of the most important attributes of any truly successful person.

In a Conference Board poll of 15,000 juniors and seniors at 31 universities, more than 87 percent of business majors admitted to cheating at least once in college, the largest such percentage. Engineering students came in second at 74 percent. Next came science students and Humanities majors, tied at 63 percent.

According to USA Today, college students on 27 campuses in 19 states were asked what they would do if they caught a classmate cheating. Would they report it? 81 percent said, "No." Are you as surprised as I am that there are more than 150 websites that offer essays, term papers and dissertations for sale?

Does that set the stage for life? Well, I surely hope not. But reading the headlines might make you think otherwise.

Political sex scandals are hard to ignore these days. Certainly not all politicians are cheaters, but when the news is dominated day after day by some outrageous behavior that most of us would never condone, it casts a long shadow. After all, if they'll cheat on the ones they love, what will they do to get votes or push legislation through?

When trust is eroded, an entire group suffers, even those who are squeaky clean.

Business is hardly exempt. A survey by CFO Magazine found that 20 percent of financial executives feel more pressure since 2001 to "make results appear more favorable." In a survey of students at the nation's top business schools, two-thirds of women and more than half the men said they do not believe that most companies are "run honestly or ethically."

In a speech, former Bank of America global risk executive Amy Woods Brinkley spoke about what the research firm Inferential Focus called the "gaming" of everything in our lives. "What they mean in short is that our passion in America for games -- for entertainment and competition -- seems to be exceeding its normal bounds. As a result, the lines between recreation and reality have grown blurry. More and more aspects of our society appear to be treated like a game to be won ... rather than a real life to be lived."

A baker bought his butter from a local farmer. After some time, the baker began to suspect that he wasn't receiving full pound bricks of butter from the farmer.

For several days, he weighed the butter after it was delivered. His suspicions proved correct. So he turned to the law to settle the matter.

The farmer was brought to court to answer for his act of fraud. "What kind of scale do you use?" the judge asked.

"I don't have a scale, your honor," replied the farmer.

"Then how can you weigh the butter that you sell?"

"It's pretty simple," the farmer said. "I have balances, and I use the one-pound loaf of bread I buy from the baker as a weight."

Case dismissed.

I learned a long time ago that by not cheating -- and doing the right thing -- you will live a much happier life than you will by trying to cheat your way through it. Just tell the truth. It's so simple, so basic -- and the cover-up is always worse. You'll also sleep much better at night.

Mackay's Moral: Sophocles said it best, "I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating."