I will never forget the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta when Muhammad Ali was the surprise person to light the Olympic torch. I was sitting in the stadium, watching that spectacle with my entire family.

At the time, I was writing my third book, "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You Will Ever Need." I wanted to intersperse stories from the best networkers in the world. I thought, who better than the Champ? But how would I get to him?

Remember the Broadway play and movie "Six Degrees of Separation"? The title refers to the belief that there's a chain of no more than six people that links every person on this planet to every other person.

I often use that strategy in tracking people down, and it came in handy again this time. John Y. Brown, the former Kentucky governor, is a good friend. He put me in touch with Howard Bingham, Muhammad's longtime photographer and best friend. Howard introduced me to Muhammad, and I flew to his beautiful 80-acre estate -- the former hideout of Al Capone -- in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and interviewed the Champ for six hours for my book.

But first, I did my homework and completed a "Mackay 66" on Muhammad. (The Mackay 66 Customer Profile is a 66-question synopsis, available for free on my website, www.harveymackay.com.) At MackayMitchell Envelope Co., we require all of our salespeople to fill one out about each of our customers.

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 most proud of having achieved? Any status symbols in their office? In other words, we want to know what turns that person on.

In Muhammad's case it was magic, so I had a local magician teach me a few magic tricks that I could explain and teach to the Champ. We hit it off, and were great friends for the last 20 years. That relationship extended to a tremendous friendship between our wives, Carol Ann and Lonnie.

During a break from that interview, we headed out to lunch. I introduced Muhammad to my driver, Francis. Twenty minutes later, we rolled into a restaurant. As we were getting out of the car, Muhammad whispered to me, "Tell Francis to join us for lunch."

One thing's for sure, when Francis got up in the morning, picked up his work sheet, and read that he was assigned to pick up an envelope salesman from Minnesota for a routine run, he never imagined that he'd be invited by Muhammad Ali to join him for lunch. Muhammad was a master at trying to make everyone feel special.

The Champ also taught me many other lessons that apply to both life and business:

-- Don't be boring or predictable. Entertain your visitors.

-- Be your own self-promoter. Muhammad learned this lesson from pro wrestler Gorgeous George when the two were interviewed on a radio program. A flair for poetry proved helpful!

-- Stand up for your convictions. His faith led him to be a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, for which he was suspended from boxing for more than three years during his prime.

-- Reward your fans, not with a brush-off, like so many athletes today, but by taking genuine pleasure in honoring their requests. When I traveled with him, Muhammad would stop and talk to everyone. He strongly believed in answering his fan mail and sending out autographed photos.

-- Be generous with your time for worthwhile charities. Prime example: The Champ was an unstoppable force behind Celebrity Fight Night, which has raised $123 million to support the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix and many other charities.

-- The world always looks brighter behind a smile. Muhammad always had his 1,000-megawatt smile. He knew smiling was the universal language.

-- Deal with your own physical limitations in good spirits and with optimism, not bitterness and self-pity.

Ali once said: "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."

He has paid that rent many times over. Muhammad Ali will always be "The Greatest."

Mackay's Moral: You may not float like a butterfly or sting like a bee, but you would do well to learn from Ali.

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.