My friend Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the NBA's Orlando Magic and author of several books including "Go for the Magic," has a great analogy when it comes to attitude.

He uses this comparison: On the instrument panel of every airplane is a device called the attitude indicator. This instrument shows the pilot the airplane's true orientation relative to the horizon.

Even if the ground is invisible to the pilot, he or she can know with certainty whether the plane is level or banking and if the nose of the plane is pitched upward or downward -- thanks to the attitude indicator.

If the nose is pitched upward while power is applied, the plane will climb; if downward, the plane descends. The plane's attitude is a key factor in determining whether an airplane goes up or down -- and the same is true of you and me.

We can go as high as our attitude will take us. Our attitude determines our altitude.

As a frequent flier who has logged millions of miles in the air, I know a thing or two about altitude. Once the plane leaves the ground, "wheels up" as they say, altitude is a good thing. A very good thing.

As a business owner and author, I also know a thing or two about attitude. If an employee is enthusiastic about the job, the results show it. If an organization has a collective positive attitude, the chances for success increase exponentially.

A positive business atmosphere is necessarily guided by its leadership. A good leader needs an "instrument panel" that shows the organization's true orientation relative to its goals. It involves leading by example, clear and specific training and direction, and listening to and responding to concerns.

If you want to remain or become a positive force in the workplace, you need a strategy. Wolf J. Rinke, author of "The 6 Success Strategies for Winning at Life, Love & Business," offers these suggestions:

-- Ask people you consider positive forces how they maintain their attitudes.

-- Survey your use of language, and change it when necessary. This includes inner talk and outer talk. Change your negative words and thoughts into positive ones.

-- Appreciate yourself. Accept yourself for who you are, not who you ought to be.

-- Don't worry about something that has already happened. If there is a lesson to be learned, learn it and move on. Accept that you are going to make mistakes.

-- For one entire day, commit yourself to using all of your energy to be positive.

-- Realize that how you feel about something is your choice.

Changing your attitude takes practice. But finding the positives in situations is worth the effort. Would you rather spend time working next to a pessimist or an optimist? Would your co-workers prefer to have you complain or tackle challenges with enthusiasm?

It might not be easy, but it is simple. You, and you alone, have control over your attitude.

I'd like to leave you with part of a poem I often recite when I'm speaking to corporate audiences. It's from "Attitude," by Charles Swindoll.

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day

Regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past ... We cannot change the fact

That people will act in a certain way./We cannot change the inevitable.

We can rely on the one thing we have -- Our Attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me

And 90 percent how I react to it.

And so it is with you ... We are in charge of our Attitudes."

Mackay's Moral: When your attitude is flying high, there's no stopping you.

Two leaders whom I respect a great deal and whose work I have studied both stress the importance of asking questions to find answers that will unlock your success.

Dale Carnegie wrote about the 10 ways to be a leader. No. 4 is to ask questions.

In April, John Maxwell was named the No. 1 leadership guru in the United States by the American Management Association (AMA). John hosts leadership conferences, and late last year I was invited to speak at one in the Atlanta area. He talked about the power of asking questions. In fact, the title of his new book is "Good Leaders Ask Great Questions."

According to John, you are perhaps only one question away from an answer that will dramatically change your life.

John said: "When you think of leadership, you think of direction. You think of vision. You think of somebody pointing the way and saying, 'This is the way to go.' But what I want you to understand ... is that the impetus of leadership is asking good questions. ... Ask the right questions because it's the key to success."

John listed nine values of asking questions:

-- You only get answers to questions you ask. If you don't ask the questions, you don't get the answers. Don't cheat yourself. I've always said the only dumb question is the one you don't ask. The person who asks may feel like a fool for five minutes, but the person who does not ask remains a fool forever.

-- Questions are the most effective way to connect with people. One of the points that I stress with my Mackay 66 Customer Profile is to find common ground, and one of the best ways to do this is by asking questions.

"People connect when they understand, but they commit when they feel understood," John said. He added that when you ask good questions and listen and learn, you become a better leader.

-- Questions unlock doors that otherwise would remain closed. John says most of the doors to opportunity and success are locked. But asking the right questions is like having a key to open them.

-- Questions cultivate humility. When you ask questions of someone, you are telling them that they know something you don't. You value their opinion as a teacher.

-- Questions allow us to direct the conversation. If you like to control your conversations, there is no better way than asking questions. John is a big believer in scheduling learning lunches with smart people. He has a list of seven questions he always asks:

1. What is the greatest lesson you've ever learned?

2. What are you learning now?

3. How has failure shaped your life?

4. Who do you know that I should know? And will you help me meet them?

5. What have you read that I should read?

6. What have you done that I should do?

7. How can I add value to you?

-- Questions allow us to build better ideas. John is a big believer in sharing his ideas with others. That way, ideas can be expanded upon and become great ideas.

I always say: if I give you a dollar and you give me a dollar, we each have a dollar. But if I give you an idea and you give me an idea, we each have two ideas.

-- Questions give us a different perspective. John says: "Before you attempt to set things right, you've got to make sure you see things right. And the only way that you can see things right is by asking questions."

-- Questions challenge mindsets. "In other words, questions get us out of ruts," according to John. "Questions precede discovery, and discovery precedes change."

-- Questions set us apart from other people. Questions are a great differentiator, especially if you ask better questions than the other person.

John told us his story about when he was 23 years old and just out of college. He was a pastor at a little country church and a parishioner gave him a list of the 10 largest churches in America. John wrote the pastors of all 10 to see if they would meet with him for 30 minutes. Two agreed. By the time he was age 29, John had the 10th largest church in America.

Mackay's Moral: You are only one question away from success, if it's the right question.

How much would you pay for an egg? Fifty cents? Two dollars? How about $6,000?

That's how much it cost one restaurant in Newport Beach, California, which refused to honor a customer's request. The money wasn't lost through legal action or any formal process. Rather, it represents the lost business that eatery suffered -- because of one egg.

Let me explain. Authors Deb and Todd Duncan, whose careers also include television production and peak performance training, detail the 10 new golden rules of customer service in their new book, "The $6,000 Egg."

Deb and Todd were frequent patrons at a chic test kitchen that experiments with new menu items. One day, the featured special was a waffle served with an egg on top. The couple wanted a cheeseburger, which was on the menu, but asked to have a fried egg added on top of the burger. They were surprised to hear from the server that the kitchen might not be able to do that. Sure enough, even though they were making eggs for the waffles, the server told them the kitchen was too busy to make one for the burger. So they asked a different server who knew them well.

The answer was still no, because it wasn't on the menu. When they asked to speak to the manager, she approached without a smile. After yet another request, she stood firm, explaining the restaurant only orders a certain number of eggs per day, and they couldn't sacrifice one for a cheeseburger.

Todd was incredulous. He asked her, "So a one-time visitor who orders a waffle for $15 is more important to you than a $6,000 customer who comes in at least four to six times a month?"

Her response was a textbook lesson in terrible customer service. "If we run out of eggs, we can't serve the waffle." So when Todd suggested she might be able to send a busser down the block to buy a few extra eggs, she offered to cover their check for their inconvenience.

He couldn't believe she would rather pay their $75 tab than sell them a single egg. They left, and vowed never to return.

They wound up at a restaurant next door, where they shared their experience. There, the server told them that their company creed is "We don't say no here." And they don't need the manager's permission to satisfy customer requests.

Guess where they go for breakfast now.

So many of the rules the Duncans include in their book are simply common sense, yet they are broken over and over again.

Perhaps the most frequent complaint I hear from readers is that they are repeatedly disappointed in the service they receive, even from companies they have done business with for years. Those companies would be wise to remember that one bad experience can destroy customer loyalty. And anyone in business knows it is much more expensive to find new customers than to retain existing ones.

Our motto at MackayMitchell Envelope Co. is: "To be in business forever." That's getting to be a tall order, since technology has replaced the need for envelopes in many instances. Fax machines, email, text messages, Snapchat, online bill paying -- you name it, another bite out of our industry. So we need to keep our customers happy, because their options seem to expand daily.

You can have the finest products, the best food, the most incredible hotel rooms and the trendiest styles -- but if you don't deliver quality service, you have nothing. Even in this instant-gratification world, customers relish personal service. They want to feel important. They want to know that someone cares about their needs.

Want to know what really says that a company doesn't care? The phone call that's answered by a voice telling you to hold, but "your call is very important to us." And then you wait. And wait. And the message is repeated. And you start to wonder how important your call really is.

I understand the economic considerations, but I wonder how many businesses are actually losing business when you can't connect with a live person in a reasonable amount of time.

Remember, most customers aren't asking for miracles. They might have special requests or needs that are not part of your usual offerings. But if you can accommodate them, do it. Don't make your customers walk on eggshells.

Mackay's Moral: Great customer service is the goose that lays the golden egg.