The world is getting smaller every day. Thanks to advances in technology, we can be connected to points around the globe in seconds through our computers and telephones. We can even be on the other side of the world almost in person in a matter of seconds. Businesses can easily reach people and places that were inaccessible just a few years ago.

This is why I say the phone is one of the most awesome tools available. We’ve all had years and years of experience using a phone, so why are so many people bad at it?

Here are some of the techniques that I use.

First, when your call is answered, always ask if this is a good time to talk. This simple step can add years to your life -- and your career.

Get the assistant’s name if he or she answers the phone. And use their names when you talk to them. They are very important in getting your message across.

Obviously, you want to answer the phone on the second or third ring. Speak slowly and project so people can understand. When I switch to speakerphone, I want to make sure the connection is still acceptable. Try not to interrupt. Don’t get distracted when you are on the phone. Focus on the caller. Listen to what they have to say. Turn your cellphone ringer off on important calls when talking on your office line. Be sensitive to the tone of your voice. Don’t eat, chew gum or shuffle papers.

When someone calls you on the telephone, you should always greet the person pleasantly. Your pleasure at talking to this person must be evident in your voice. I ask our employees at MackayMitchell Envelope Company to answer the telephone with a smile because you can hear it in a voice. You want every customer to feel like they are your most important customer and virtually the only customer you have.

Try to start every phone conversation with good news, even when you have bad news to report. Also, have a good close. Have an agenda of what you want to accomplish. Every crucial phone call should have clarity of focus and clarity of purpose. Think through what you want to say and discuss before you even make a call. That’s how you build a network.

Start early in your career to keep track of the 100 to 300 most important people in your network. Find out their birthdays and call them every year on their special day. If you work in sales, make sure to call your customers on their birthdays. You won’t believe how much business you will write up.

I was one of the first people to get a car phone, and now it is hands-free. Driving is every salesperson's biggest time-waster. I'll do anything to make the time more productive, so I stopped making cold calls. I called ahead to make sure the buyer was in.

I never leave my name for a return phone call without a designated time I can be reached. Don’t risk playing telephone tag. I don't care to squander my time any more than the other person cares to squander his or hers.

And this is especially crucial: If my assistant or gatekeeper answers the call, I make sure they say, “Mr. Mackay is expecting your call.” This makes the caller feel special.

Can’t get a call back? Leave a message no one can ignore. I picked up this tip from my Florida Realtor. Start with your name, day, date and time, and then a pledge: “Leave your name and number, and I guarantee I will call you back within 24 hours. If I fail to do so, I will make a $100 contribution to your favorite charity -- as long as the charity is not you.”

Keep to a schedule whenever possible. Minimize interruptions by returning phone calls at a specific time of day. For me, it’s usually the end of the day. Of course, you will need to take some calls, but those that aren’t urgent, you can return when you have time to best deal with them.

I’ll let you make the call: How important are your phone skills to your career?

Mackay’s Moral: Don’t let your phone skills be a hang-up.

Life is funny. As a businessman, public speaker and author, I especially love clever stories with a message because they make important points more memorable.

Over the years I have collected a filing cabinet full of great material. Since April is National Humor Month, I thought I would package up some of my favorites, which cover a variety of topics. Enjoy!

Unless you are a one-person shop, teamwork is not optional. This story says it all:

A minivan pulled into the only remaining campsite. Four youngsters leaped from the vehicle and began feverishly unloading gear and setting up a tent. Two kids then rushed off with their dad to gather firewood, and two others helped their mother set up the camp stove and cooking utensils. A nearby camper marveled to the father, "That is some impressive display of teamwork."

"Actually," the father replied, "I have a system. No one goes to the bathroom until camp is set up."

It's all a matter of perspective. When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist.

It's like the two salesmen who fell on hard times and ended up broke in a small town in Montana. They needed money to move on and learned that the town paid $20 each for wolf pelts. They sensed an opportunity. That night, they set out with a couple of clubs and some borrowed supplies and made camp in the distant hills. They were no sooner asleep than one was startled by an eerie howl. He crawled outside the tent to find himself surrounded by hundreds of snarling wolves. Back into the tent he crawled and shook his buddy.

"Wake up!" he cried. "Wake up! We're rich!"

Believe in yourself, even when no one else does. At the end of a particularly frustrating practice one day, a football coach dismissed his players by yelling, "Now all you idiots, go take a shower!" All but one player headed toward the locker room. The coach glared at him and asked why he was still there.

"You told all the idiots to go, sir," the player replied, "and there sure seems to be a lot of them. But I am not an idiot."

Confident? You bet. And smart enough to coach that team someday.

Take care of the customers you have, and they’ll take care of you. A man who had lived an exemplary life died and was given a preview of heaven and hell. In heaven, people were peaceful, serene and smiling. In hell, he was given a stretch limo, the best of food and drink and an endless list of parties. He chose hell.

As soon as he walked through the gates, the devil began flogging him with a whip and he was thrown into a fiery chasm. “Wait!” he said. “Yesterday I was treated like a king, and now this. Why?”

“Ah,” said the devil. “Yesterday, you were a prospect. Today, you’re a customer.”

If you’re not in it to win it, you’ve already lost. Determination is what keeps us hammering away. It’s like the young high school sophomore who was doing his best to land a job for the summer.

“Look here,” said the office manager, “aren't you the same young man who was in here a week ago?”

“Yes, sir,” said the applicant.

“I thought so. And didn't I tell you then that I wanted an older person?”

“Yes, sir,” said the young man. “That's why I'm back. I'm older now.”

Every survival kit should include a sense of humor. Albert Einstein’s driver used to sit at the back of the hall during each of his lectures. After a period of time, the driver said to the famous scientist, “Boss, I’ve heard you give that speech so many times ... I could give it in my sleep.”

So, at the next lecture, Einstein and the driver switched places, with Einstein sitting in the back, dressed in the driver's uniform. The driver gave the lecture flawlessly. At the end of the lecture, a member of the audience asked a detailed scientific question. Without missing a beat, the “lecturer” replied, “Well, the answer to that question is so simple, I’m going to let my chauffeur who is sitting in the back answer it.”

Mackay’s Moral: You can take your work seriously, but be careful not to take yourself too seriously.

Life is not a parabolic curve, nor does it go straight up. There are a lot of lumps, a lot of bumps. I have never yet met a successful person who hasn’t had to overcome either a little or a lot of adversity in his or her life. Overnight success is much more of a myth than reality.

Remember the four-minute mile? Humans had been trying to do it for centuries, since the days of the ancient Greeks. Historians found old records detailing how the Greeks tried to accomplish this. They had wild animals chase the runners, hoping that would make them run faster, among other measures. Nothing worked.

So, the experts decided it was physiologically impossible for a human being to run a mile in four minutes. Our bone structure is all wrong. Our wind resistance is too great. Humans have inadequate lung power. There were a million reasons -- until one day a human being proved the doctors, the trainers and the athletes all wrong.

In 1954, Roger Bannister showed the world that it could be done. Over the next few years, more and more people broke the four-minute mile once they realized that yes, it was possible.

When Bannister passed away this month, it brought back a lot of memories from that time in history that I remember so well.

The world was changing a great deal. People around the world were overcoming the long-perceived physical boundaries of nature. American pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. And who can forget Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, conquering Mount Everest in 1953?

Many famous people have overcome tremendous adversity to triumph:

-- Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, dropped out of school and had his first business fail.

-- Oprah Winfrey overcame terrible poverty growing up in rural Mississippi to become a billionaire media mogul who has inspired millions around the world.

-- According to some sources, Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was 4 years old, and couldn’t get a job in physics for two years after graduation.

-- Richard Branson didn’t let his dyslexia stop him from founding Virgin Group and controlling more than 400 companies.

-- Popular recording star Jay-Z came from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, but couldn’t get signed to any record labels as a rapper. In 2013, Time magazine ranked him as one of the most influential people in the world.

-- Vincent van Gogh is considered one of the greatest painters of all time, yet he only sold one painting during his lifetime.

-- Simon Cowell, star judge from “American Idol” and “The X Factor,” had a record company fail.

Botanists say trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so that the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps people need to meet the stresses of life in the same way, though we dislike enduring them. A stormy period in our lives can be a prelude to a new spring of life and health, success and happiness. That is, if we keep our self-confidence and faith in the future.

Everyone faces adversity, pain, loss and suffering in life. When you go through those periods, it’s hard to remember that the emotions you’re feeling are only temporary. The best thing to do is to develop a plan for what you will do when these times hit and find your way to the silver lining -- the place where you can feel hopeful again.

You need a personal sense of commitment, the ability to let go when appropriate and strong values. Take charge of the things you can control, such as your treatment of others, the way you spend your time outside of work, how you think about yourself, how often you exercise, when and how to share your feelings, how to let others know you’re stressed and how mature you act.

Who says that you can’t accomplish your goals? Who says that you’re not tougher, better, smarter, harder-working and more able than your competition? It doesn’t matter if they say you can’t do it. The only thing that matters is if you say it. So, we all know, if we believe in ourselves, there’s hardly anything that we can’t accomplish.

Mackay’s Moral: How you handle adversity says a lot about how you will handle success.