J.M. Haggar was fascinated with Henry Ford's idea of the production line and mass production. He thought if cars can be mass-produced, why can't men's trousers -- and at popular prices?

Many clothing manufacturers doubted Haggar's potential. But he proved them wrong.

The first lesson in all my corporate speeches is creativity. I think it is that important. Creativity is not rocket science. It's just finding a new or improved way to do something.

Haggar did exactly that and became a household name.

When I am giving a speech, I prepare by talking to eight to 10 people who will be in the audience to try and find creative stories. I hit the jackpot recently when I spoke to a couple of real estate agents.

One told me that he traveled to India for his brother's wedding in 1999. He brought along a portable SOLD sign and posed with it in front of the Taj Mahal. He used that photo as a postcard to send out to his clients. It read, "One man built the greatest monument to love the world has ever seen." Below, in smaller print, he wrote, "I just sell real estate, but I do it with great passion."

His clients still talk about that postcard years later. He's done other versions featuring Buckingham Palace and Mount Rainier. These have helped him stand out in his local market.

Another real estate agent told me that she scours current listings by competitors. She then sends out a large red mailing tube with a fuse that looks like a stick of dynamite. Inside is a large flier that reads: "BAM! Your listing has expired! Do you want to know why?" She gets lots of replies.

She also mails letters introducing herself. Then she sends a second mailing: She crumples up the first letter and writes, "Don't throw me away again!" on the outside. She gets lots of responses to this second mailing.

Another real estate agent in the Twin Cities told me about a marketing opportunity that she'd jumped on. She is a big fan of the Cities 97 Sampler -- a music CD produced by a local radio station -- that Target sells exclusively every November to benefit local charities. On release day, people line up hours ahead at every Target store, waiting to buy the disc. Nine years ago, while waiting in line, she realized that she had ready-made prospects. For the last eight years, she has passed out hot coffee, breakfast bars and hand warmers along with her contact information, introducing herself and working the crowd. She donates 3 percent of her commissions generated from this event to the same charities. She lists and sells five to six homes each year from this event.

What do these people have in common? They took something familiar in a different direction. That's creativity. Here's how to follow their examples:

-- Crossbreed your ideas. Instead of looking for one great concept, grab hold of two good ideas and look for interesting connections and juxtapositions. Reptiles and airplane disaster movies were unrelated concepts until someone came up with "Snakes on a Plane."

-- Refine other ideas. Don't directly steal anyone else's work, but look at what's been done with an eye toward doing it differently.

-- Repeat. Analyze what you've already done, and try creating it all over again. Chances are you'll find a way to improve it, or at least give it a fresh angle. You may also find a way to save time or use new resources by exploring what you're already comfortable with.

But back to Henry Ford. According to an old story, he once hired an efficiency expert to go through his plant and find the unproductive workers. The expert made the rounds with his clipboard in hand and finally returned to Ford's office with his report.

"I've found a problem with one of your administrators," he said. "Every time I walked by, he was sitting with his feet propped up on the desk. The man never does a thing. I definitely think you should consider getting rid of him!"

When he learned the name of the man the expert was referring to, Ford shook his head and said that the man had once come up with an idea that saved the company millions, and that he'd thought of it with his feet in the same position.

Mackay's Moral: Great ideas don't have to be new -- just improved!

Try to remember the last time you uttered the words "I made a mistake." Was it painful? Expensive? Career-changing? Or therapeutic?

When my kids were young, they used to sing along with a little ditty on "Sesame Street" that went something like this: "Everyone makes mistakes, so why not you?" That's the wisdom of children speaking: Everyone makes mistakes. Including me and you.

In business, mistakes can derail a career. But is that fair? I completely agree with what my friend William R. Brody, former president of Johns Hopkins University, said in a 2005 speech: "Mistakes are the downside of risk-taking. And it seems as if we've become very unwilling to tolerate mistakes. We're willing to risk failure in our games, in extreme sports, in our competition on TV reality shows. But not in our business. Not in our research and development -- not in our careers or in our medicines or homes, our schools or our personal lives. ... Being risk-averse is hurting our global competitiveness and stagnating our incomes."

So when you risk something new or different, you must be prepared for both good and disappointing results. And try as you might, you may not be able to avoid business mistakes. Keep your boss, employees or associates informed and make adjustments as issues arise.

And when a problem develops -- as it often does -- here are some thoughts on how to turn your mistakes around:

-- Be honest. Never try to cover up mistakes. The earlier you 'fess up, the faster you'll be able to correct the problem while maintaining your credibility.

-- Take responsibility. Your bosses and employees don't want to hear excuses. It's a powerful way to show a sense of accountability for your actions and those of your team.

-- Don't cast blame. Focus on solving problems, not on finding someone or something to blame. Good managers and employees analyze what they did wrong and learn from it. When the manager takes this tack, employees will be encouraged to learn to look objectively at their own performance.

-- Follow up and follow through. Sometimes simple mistakes point to more complex problems that need to be corrected. A thorough evaluation can reveal something about your habits or the work processes that need to improve.

-- Use the opportunity to change a situation. Mistakes are often prime opportunities for people to turn bad situations into positive ones. Any customer service guru will tell you that a complaint can be the perfect time to provide the best customer service you have to offer.

-- Move on. Beating yourself up publicly or privately doesn't do much good. You need to keep your focus and not get distracted when things go wrong.

The following story, taken from the book "Art and Fear" by David Bayles and Ted Orland, illustrates the power of taking chances and risking failure when you're trying to achieve something of quality. On the first day of class, a ceramics teacher announced that he was sorting his students into two groups. Half the students would be graded on the quantity of works produced, the other half on the quality of just one work.

On the final day of class, the instructor looked at the pots from both groups and realized that the best pots -- those with the most creative designs and those that seemed most beautiful -- all came from the group graded on quantity.

As the authors put it: "It seems that while the 'quantity' group was busily churning out piles of work -- and learning from their mistakes -- the 'quality' group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

Mackay's Moral: The biggest mistake you can make is pretending that you didn't make one.

A father and his young son were out walking one afternoon, when the boy asked how the electricity went through the wires stretched between the telephone poles.

"I don't know," said the father. "I never knew much about electricity."

A few blocks later the boy asked what caused lightning and thunder.

"To tell you the truth," said the father, "I never exactly understood that myself."

The boy continued to ask questions through the walk, none of which the father could explain. Finally, as they were nearing home, the boy said, "Dad, I hope you don't mind me asking you so many questions."

"Of course not," replied the father. "How else are you going to learn?"

Sooner or later, of course, the boy will stop asking his father questions, and that will be unfortunate. Curiosity and the desire to learn should always be encouraged and nurtured.

It's quite possible that the son's curiosity piqued the father's interest in learning something new. Google might be a good place to start. It is never enough to be satisfied with "I don't know."

Just as parents should encourage their children to remain curious and respect learning, the same is true for managers and supervisors. They must set an example for their employees. If they have stopped learning and growing, they will be hard pressed to inspire their subordinates to do so, no matter how much they may pretend to encourage it.

New products, new solutions and new methods are often the brainchildren of curiosity. Is necessity really the mother of invention? Or is it curiosity?

We should really strive to learn something new every day. There's certainly no lack of opportunity. Be curious about everything around you. Read a book on a topic you've never studied. Listen to a TEDtalk. Take a nature walk with a child. Do something that you've never done before, just for the experience. It's not that hard to pique curiosity!

The future belongs to the curious -- the ones who are not afraid to try it, explore it, poke at it, question it and turn it inside-out.

One of the world's greatest scientists, Albert Einstein, described the value of curiosity this way: "The important thing is not to stop questioning. ... One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day."

To the great thinkers, curiosity is essential. But they don't have a corner on the market. We all need to question what we do not understand, and keep asking until we find answers. Will we solve all the mysteries of the universe? Probably not, but we didn't get to the moon by wishing on a star.

Eleanor Roosevelt, author, diplomat, humanitarian and wife of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said of curiosity: "I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity."

That view is quite evident in works of the Nobel-winning British author Rudyard Kipling. (You might remember his "The Jungle Book" and "Just So Stories"). He wrote the following poem about the curious nature of man:

I keep six honest serving men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

and How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,

For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast, lunch and tea,

For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views,

I know a person small -

She keeps ten million serving-men,

Who get no rest at all!

She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,

From the second she opens her eyes -

One million Hows, two million Wheres,

And seven million Whys!

Mackay's Moral: Let curiosity turn "I don't know" into "I want to find out."