One rainy night many years ago, a gentleman and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. The man asked the clerk if he had any rooms available.

The clerk, who was actually the hotel manager, was a friendly man who prided himself on superior customer service. He said that unfortunately the hotel was completely booked. "However," he said, "rather than send you out in the rain at 1 a.m., I would be happy to offer you my room. It's not a suite, but it will be comfortable for the night."

The man tried to object, but the clerk insisted. The next morning, as he paid his bill, the gentleman said to the clerk: "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States."

Two years passed, but the two men stayed in touch. One day the clerk/manager received a letter from the guest, inviting him to New York for a visit and including a round-trip airline ticket. When the clerk/manager arrived in New York, the man met him and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He pointed to a brand-new building. "There is the hotel I want you to manage," said the man.

"You must be joking," said the astonished clerk/manager.

"I can assure you that I am not," said the man, William Waldorf Astor, and the palace that he had built was the original Waldorf (later Waldorf-Astoria) Hotel.

The moral of this story is you never know when kindness will come full circle.

Kind words and kind actions start with kind thoughts. In a hyper-competitive world, we might be tempted to take a dramatically different approach. But that tactic doesn't produce any winners.

Mean people are not happier, or necessarily more successful. If you don't believe me, spend a few minutes on Twitter or Facebook. The comments are too frequently cruel or extreme, and they breed even more ugliness. That's the definition of "anti-social media."

Pastor and author C. Neil Strait said: "Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person."

It even extends to the animal kingdom! Great Britain's Newcastle University found that cattle treated with care and a "more personal touch" tended to produce more milk for farmers. The school studied over 500 farmers across the U.K. and -– believe it or not -- found that cows given names by their owners gave over 3.4 percent more milk in a year than cattle that were nameless.

Contrary to the old saying, nice people can finish first. The key is to know how to use kindness to your advantage. If you think you might need a refresher course, here are some steps you can take to make kindness a habit.

-- First, be kind to yourself. You'll find being nice to others easier if you build your self-respect with positive thoughts about your personality and achievements. When you are good to yourself, you are good to others.

-- Treat everyone with respect. Don't worry about who's on top. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated, regardless of their position or job title. No one is too big to be kind and courteous, but many people are too small.

-- Say no when necessary. You can't do everything. It's kinder to say no to something when you cannot devote adequate time or attention than to do a half-hearted job.

-- Plant seeds of kindness. Do something nice every day. Kindness pays most when you don't do it for payback.

-- Take the high road. Trust me, it's the road less traveled. It's a big, wide highway with no traffic jams. And no road rage.

There's an old story about a king who had a beautiful ring and three sons who each wanted it. When the king died, he left three rings for his sons and a note that said, "My dear sons, one of these rings is real, and two are fake. The way you will know who has the real ring is that the son with the real ring will be kind and generous to all people."

Each of the three sons spent the rest of his life being good to others -- to prove that he had the real ring.

Mackay's Moral: Funny thing about kindness: The more it's used, the more you have of it.

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!