Two hikers were camped out overnight in the mountains. A thunderous voice roused them from their sleep. The voice said, “This will be the saddest day or the happiest day of your lives.” It then instructed them to pack up their belongings, make their way to the river, gather stones in their backpacks that they couldn’t look at until morning, and continue their journey, never to return to the river or the mountain again.

The hikers did as they were instructed and stumbled through the darkness to the river. They stuffed their packs with cold, wet stones and carefully trekked down the rocky trails that would lead them away from the mountain.

Shortly after sunrise, they reached a valley and decided to set up camp to rest for a while. But first, they pulled out their packs to examine the stones they’d collected from the river. To their surprise, what they’d thought were river rocks were actually diamonds and rare gems. Both hikers sat in silence, overwhelmed by the bounty before them.

The first hiker said, “Now I know why this is the saddest day of our lives. We should’ve gathered more stones.”

“You must be kidding!” the second hiker said. “This is the happiest day of my life. Look at the wealth we attained by simply taking advantage of an opportunity that was offered to us.”

Therein lies the perfect example of the saying: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Positive thinking alone may not ensure success, but it’s an important start. If you don’t believe in yourself, you’ll have a hard time persevering against the obstacles and setbacks you’re likely to encounter.

How you look at life can drastically affect how much you enjoy your life. Optimists expect the best out of life. Good news: It’s an attitude that can be learned.

Optimism is based on these tenets:

-- Bad things happen in life, but they are temporary.

-- Bad things in life are limited in scope.

-- People have control over their environments.

Pessimism is based on these tenets:

-- Good things in life are temporary.

-- Good things in life are limited in scope.

-- People have no control over their environments.

According to conventional wisdom, optimists and pessimists are both right about the same number of times, but optimists get to enjoy their lives more. Optimists help create some of the good they come to expect, so they are probably right more than not. And they don’t waste time worrying about what they’re not right about.

If you want to maintain the right attitude in the face of adversity, start by telling yourself you can change. Think of how you’ve changed throughout your life emotionally. You’re probably a different person today than you were five years ago, so don’t assume you can’t evolve further.

Use positive language. Replace words and phrases like “impossible” and “I can’t” with words that emphasize strength and success: “challenging” and “I must.”

Create the right environment. Listen to music that uplifts you. Watch inspirational movies and shows. Read motivational books. Don’t spend too much time on downbeat material. Mix it up, with a leaning toward the positive.

Appreciate your life. Take some time to enjoy what you’ve already achieved with your life. Think about what you did to get where you are, and use that as a reminder of your capabilities.

Let go of mistakes. You’re bound to fail at some things. Learn what you can and move on instead of beating yourself up over and over.

In the autumn of 1994, animated film studio Pixar was in trouble. According to “Likeonomics” by Rohit Bhargava, Pixar was deep in the red, due in part because its upcoming movie “Toy Story” was way over budget. Microsoft had expressed interest in buying the company to gain access to some of its 3-D graphic-design software. The deal fell through, and Pixar’s prospects were shaky in advance of the movie’s release.

That didn’t deter the team, though. As they were putting the finishing touches on “Toy Story,” the filmmakers met for lunch to discuss possible new projects.

The three ideas they came up with? “A Bug’s Life,” “Monsters Inc.” and “WALL-E,” all of which became blockbuster hits. Despite their financial uncertainty, the “creative types” retained their optimism about the future.

Do you suppose they ordered their eggs “sunny-side up”?

Mackay’s Moral: It’s just as easy to look for the good things in life as the bad.

When you offer criticism, be aware of whom you are criticizing, how you are delivering it and how they might receive it.

Case in point: A number of years ago, my son David was entering his senior year at Stanford University. He thought it might be fun to spend his last college summer freewheeling in San Francisco, working five or six shifts a week as a waiter. He figured he would earn enough money to really enjoy his leisure hours. He was pretty driven, and interviewed at a swanky brand-new restaurant called Stars, being opened by renowned chef Jeremiah Tower. It was scheduled to open three weeks later. Stars was a posh restaurant with a great location, catering to San Francisco’s elite.

David figured that what he lacked in experience, he could make up in enthusiasm and education. He got the job and started training a few days later surrounded by experienced, sophisticated servers twice his age with resumes at some of the best restaurants in the country. After three weeks of intensive training, the restaurant opened.

Things were going great and David was rewarded with generous tips. One night alone, he made more than a month’s rent. That same night, the headwaiter pointed out a classic service error to my son: failing to clear unused glassware. If someone wasn’t drinking wine or water, their glasses should be removed from the table. David told me this was like finding a needle in a haystack, considering that each place setting had three glasses even before anyone sat down -- add cocktails to that and a table of six would start out with 24 crystal glasses.

After the restaurant was open to the public for a week or so, my wife and I came to town and decided to check out the new restaurant and let David experience it from the other side, as a customer. He would have a chance to sample some of the food, assess the service and, in turn, become a better server himself.

My wife, Carol Ann, who has her master's in cooking and a doctorate in ordering, got the ball rolling with five questions regarding the menu selections. It seemed like we ordered almost everything on the menu. Carol Ann pointed out to us that the dressing on the salad was particularly oily, with much less vinegar than normal vinaigrette. Then when the entrees came, the food was not very hot. It was tepid at best. Everything was edible, but not spectacular. My veal stew was particularly bland.

The next day at work, David went right up to Jeremiah Tower and described the little experiment he’d done. First off, David asked him about the “oily salad dressing.” The chef explained that he thought that a heavy vinegar dressing was too hard on the palate, too early in the meal, so he created a dressing that was “soft on the palate.”

“Great, great!” David said, “This will be very helpful to know as a front waiter.”

As he turned to leave, David continued, “One more thing ... The food wasn’t very hot. Are you concerned that people might burn their tongues?”

“What?” exclaimed Tower. “The food should be piping hot, and it’s your job as a server to get it out there quickly!”

“Yes, sir, you got it. I will,” David said. So now he’s thinking he is two for two in valuable, practical observations.

The head chef again turned to leave, but David stopped him in his tracks. “Oh, one more thing. I wanted to talk to you about the veal stew ... I found it somewhat bland.” At this point, Tower looked David in the eye, then spun on his heels and marched into the kitchen.

David’s shift that night went well -- 20 percent in tips from seemingly very satisfied customers. At the end of the night, as he was tallying up his earnings, the headwaiter came up to him and mentioned that twice that evening he had failed to clear glassware. He was fired, effective immediately.

David was crushed. He had poured his heart into this job. As he was walking to the cable car, he heard a voice shout out his name. He turned around to see the headwaiter, jogging up to him. He looked upset and he quietly said, “David, it wasn’t the glassware. Next time, just be careful what you say to the head chef.”

Mackay’s Moral: Never tell a mother her baby is ugly.

Anyone who doesn’t understand the value of one minute hasn’t been paying attention to my good friend Ken Blanchard. Starting with his “One Minute Manager” and moving through a series of best-sellers, he has shown his millions of fans how just 60 seconds can improve your chances for success.

Good news -- he’s at it again, this time with “One Minute Mentoring,” a must-read for folks looking for some help and those who are prepared to offer it. He’s teamed up with Claire Diaz-Ortiz, a former Twitter executive and author of “Twitter for Good.” Their combined knowledge of intergenerational mentoring is presented in this fictional parable about the power of finding or being a mentor.

But shouldn’t mentoring be a longer process than just one minute? Ken and Claire would agree with that, but say that “the best advice we ever gave or received was given in less than a minute. In other words, the guidance that really made a difference did not come in the form of long, complex theories -- it came in short, meaningful insights.”

As one who has been on both sides of the conversation, I couldn’t agree more. I am fortunate to have learned from a variety of mentors: my father, Jack Mackay, my father-in-law, Rudy Miller, my University of Minnesota golf coach Les Bolstad, my college adviser Harold Deutsch, businessman Curt Carlson, and many others. I owe much of my success to their guidance.

Understanding that I had a responsibility to give back, I have also mentored over 100 young -- and not so young -- entrepreneurs. I usually learned as much from the experience as my mentees did. And it was worth every minute.

How did we find each other? Sometimes through mutual friends or work events, even by sitting next to one another on a plane. As the authors say, “When the student is ready, a teacher appears. Mentors are all around you once you start looking for them.”

And it works both ways, they say. They encourage people to become mentors because “you won’t fully discover, appreciate or leverage what you have until you start giving it away.”

Compatibility is important, and they describe two aspects of working with someone -- essence and form. “Essence is all about sharing heart-to-heart and finding common values. Form is about structure -- how you might work together.”

Ken and Claire say that one of the biggest barriers people worry about is time: “It’s true that a mentoring relationship will take a little time, but a few hours a month is not going to do people in, especially when they realize how energizing and inspiring those few hours will be.”

They also acknowledge a couple other things that get in the way of mentoring -- fear and uncertainty. A lot of people are afraid to approach potential mentors, they say, and potential mentors may be afraid that they don’t really know how to mentor.

Added to that, uncertainty about what mentoring really is and how the relationship works scares people away. I’ve found that there isn’t a specific set of guidelines. Every mentor/mentee relationship needs to be tailored to the situation.

Ken and Claire created the MENTOR model to help people build successful relationships:

“By creating a Mission, you’ll put the relationship on solid footing.

“By deciding how to Engage, you’ll have clarity about how to work together.

“By Networking, you’ll expand your horizons.

“By building Trust, you’ll deepen the bond.

“By creating Opportunities, each of you will grow.

“And by Reviewing and renewing your partnership, you’ll know if and when your season of mentorship has ended.”

Exactly what is a “season of mentorship”? From my own experience, I can tell you that I have mentored some people for a few weeks and others for years. As their needs have changed, I have sometimes directed people to other mentors who might have different insights. I know my limitations!

Similarly, I have relied on my mentors, sometimes with months or years between those contacts. But I made a point of staying in touch so that they would realize how much I valued their help. I made sure they knew about my successes and appreciated their contributions toward my goals.

“Mentoring will take some time and intention,” Ken and Claire say. “It also takes time and intention to learn to drive -- but once you know how, you can really go places!”

Mackay’s Moral: One minute truly can change your life.