A young vice president was appointed by the board of directors of a bank to replace the retiring president and founder. With fear and trepidation, he made an appointment to visit with the seasoned retiree to seek his advice.

"Mr. Clark, I need your counsel," the vice president said. "How can I possibly be successful in this job?"

The elderly man leaned forward in his chair. "Young man," he growled, "these two words are the key to your success -- RIGHT DECISIONS!"

"Thank you, sir. But how can I make sure I am making right decisions?"

"Experience. Experience will ensure you make right decisions."

A long silence followed. "That's helpful," said the young executive, "but how do I get the right experience?"

The elderly man stood, looked him directly in the eye, smiled and responded, "WRONG DECISIONS."

This retiring president admitted to making mistakes and learned from them. I've discovered that the biggest mistake people can make is to be afraid to make one, and perhaps the next biggest is to be afraid to admit having made one.

If you make a mistake, 'fess up. Most of the time people respect those who take responsibility for their own mistakes. Regardless, you will be better off admitting it than spending considerably more energy trying to avoid the subject. Everyone makes mistakes, after all, and if you take the time to learn from what went wrong, you'll be a lot less likely to make the same mistake again.

Be accountable. No one likes doing business with someone who makes excuses. If you don't accept responsibility for the mistakes you make, you'll lose customers and the trust and respect of employees.

As Winston Churchill said, "If you simply take up the attitude of defending a mistake, there will be no hope of improvement."

Don't waste time pretending you've still got a chance at success when your plans are crumbling around you. You've got to be hard-nosed about deciding where to put your resources, and cold-blooded about pulling the plug on projects and goals that aren't working out.

Even geniuses must admit mistakes: Thomas Edison once spent more than $2 million on an invention that proved useless. In today's dollars, we're talking about serious money!

Also, don't downplay negative results. Some people try to act as if their failures are no big deal. Don't lose hope or abandon your efforts, but be open about your feelings with yourself and other people.

Author Mortimer Feinberg illustrates that point: "When John Kennedy lost a bid for the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1956 to Estes Kefauver, he didn't quit. He said, 'OK, now we know the mistakes we made; we know what we have to do to win. In 1960 we'll go for the big job.' The rest is history."

Once you make a mistake and admit it, 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 great Babe Ruth held the record of 714 career home runs for years, but he also held the record for strikeouts at 1,330. Would he have been so successful if he had focused on the strikeouts every time he was up to bat?

Above all, don't blame others. Focus on solving problems, not finding someone or something to blame. Good managers (and employees) analyze what they did wrong and learn from it. When you take this tack with yourself, your employees will be encouraged to learn to look objectively at their own performance.

Remember the old proverb: Stumbling is not falling. And falling does not have to mean failing. Most important, failure is not final.

Christopher Columbus made the mother of all mistakes. When he set out in 1492 on his first trans-Atlantic voyage, he announced that he was going west to get to the east. He had plenty of skeptics, but refused to be deterred.

Other explorers had preceded his arrival in North America, but perhaps Columbus' biggest mistake was that he never admitted he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. Columbus always insisted the lands he visited during those voyages were part of the Asian continent. While not without controversy, Columbus' "mistake" changed the course of Western history.

Your mistakes will not likely have that kind of impact. Keep your mistakes in perspective so you can react to them appropriately.

Mackay's Moral: Mistakes can be steppingstones to success.

“If you were to go around asking people what would make them happier, you’d get answers like ‘A new car. A bigger house. A raise in pay. Winning the lottery.’ Very few would say, ‘A chance to help people.’ And yet that is what brings about the most happiness of all.”

I wish I would have said that, but the late comedian George Burns did. Still, that’s how I’ve felt all my life. And I am a very happy guy.

I love sharing what I have learned over my lifetime of business and community involvement. That has been my motivation for writing what turned out to be seven New York Times best-selling self-help business books, speaking to audiences on six continents and writing this nationally syndicated column for the last 24 years.

Over the years, our sales force at MackayMitchell Envelope Company has questioned me about sharing my secrets, be it the Mackay 66 Customer Profile, sales techniques or networking secrets. My response is simple. I’d rather share, especially since only a small percentage of people take action and use my street smarts learned from many years of business. I’m even willing to let the competition in on a few of my techniques. Many have thanked me for it.

Much of what I have to offer is not the kind of information that business schools teach. I call them “street smarts,” and I’ve shared many in past columns. Here are a few more ideas to consider:

Idea 1: When you are calling someone who has an assistant, take the time to talk to that person and get to know them. If a spouse answers at home, extend the same courtesy to show them they are important to you as well. And if you must make a business call to the home, be sure to ask if it’s a convenient time. Home time is sacred, so limit those calls to emergencies unless it’s prearranged.

Next idea: Stay in the moment. This is a lesson I learned firsthand from Goldie Hawn, who also wrote about it in her book “10 Mindful Minutes.” She writes that it’s important “to learn how to concentrate, so that we’ll become aware of when we’ve lost focus and be able to maintain our attention for longer periods of time.” That is all-star advice for our busy lives full of distractions.

Next idea: The single most powerful tool for winning a negotiation is the ability to get up from the table and walk away WITHOUT a deal. Deals seldom get worse when you walk away ... but they often get a lot better.

Years ago, I was honored with being the leader of a trade delegation to China. I had been warned by a grizzly old seasoned veteran who had traveled to China 50 times and had done lots of negotiations in the country. He warned me that the Chinese would be tough negotiators and that I needed to insist that they honor contracts.

After five days of our tour, his warning came true. They exorbitantly charged us for travel and hotel -- much more than the contract allowed. I immediately called a summit meeting with the two top Chinese officials traveling with us. I stated my case, but they held firm. I immediately got up, shook their hands and said we would be going back to the States in the morning.

After dinner that evening, I returned to my hotel room to find a note that they had changed their minds and would honor the terms of our contract.

Next idea: Knowledge is power. It’s not just what you know, but when you know it.

Next idea: If you ever lend money to a friend, never, ever do it without a certified statement from their accountant and possibly putting it in their will. I’m not talking about a few bucks, of course, but a significant loan. Then repayment is understood and there will be no surprises. It’s a business deal, after all, and it can save a friendship.

Last idea: Every person you sit next to at an event or on a plane, the person on your left or right -- introduce yourself to them. Do not judge a book by its cover. To many people under the age of 35, I am an old geezer, so I often make the first contact to put them at ease. It’s surprising how much you have in common with people you thought were strangers.

Mackay’s Moral: When you help others, you are also helping yourself.

June 14 is Flag Day, celebrating the 13 stripes and the 50 stars that symbolize our humble beginnings and our growth into one unified nation.

On June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution that read the following: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.”

The resolution didn't mention the significance behind the choice of red, white and blue -- because the three colors did not have any official meaning when the flag was adopted in 1777.

But have you ever stopped to think about the meaning of the flag’s colors? There’s plenty of symbolism there too. Red implies hardiness and valor. White stands for purity and innocence. Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. These qualities that our country was founded on should carry through in our lives and businesses today.

In an article on Time.com, Mike Buss, a flag expert with the American Legion, says that the most obvious reason for the flag’s colors is that they were simply taken from our mother country’s flag -- the Union Jack of England. “Our heritage does come from Great Britain, and that was some of the thought process that went about in coming up with our flag,” Buss says in the article.

I think it’s also important to connect how these colors relate to our working lives.

RED: Hardiness and valor stand for the ability to endure difficult conditions; determination in facing great danger, courage and bravery.

Determination keeps people hammering away. Determined people possess the stamina and courage to pursue their ambitions despite criticism, ridicule or unfavorable circumstances. In fact, discouragement usually spurs them on to greater things. When they get discouraged, they recognize that to change their results, some change is in order.

Courage is regarded as one of the major human virtues. Courage is bravery, valor, standing up to danger, guts and nerve all rolled into one. It’s easy to be ordinary. Courage is what sets us apart from the crowd.

WHITE: Purity and innocence are synonymous. They stand for freedom from moral wrong and simplicity. Those are tall orders in our complicated world, but worth striving for. Way back in 1872, Sen. Carl Schurz of Missouri paraphrased Naval hero Stephen Decatur with these patriotic words: “Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.” That sentiment is purity at its best.

Sen. Schurz would settle for nothing less than the best for his country. Similarly, we should demand the best of our businesses. Doing things right should be a way of life.

BLUE: Vigilance, perseverance and justice are self-explanatory. Justice translates to fair play, honesty and integrity.

Perseverance separates the winners from the losers. Success in life depends on your willingness to never give up, even when the reward is delayed.

Honesty, ethics, integrity -- in my estimation, you can interchange them, because they all convey the single attribute that determines whether a person or an organization can be trusted. Honesty is always the best policy. You must be able to trust the people with whom you work. Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing to do.

Integrity: either you have it or you don’t. It’s not something that you can have one day and not have the next. Integrity begins at the top. As leaders, we must set the example -- that alone inspires employees to do right. Enduring leaders know that the numbers will be better if integrity is not optional.

Our national values are well represented in the colors of our flag. Fly it proudly.

Mackay’s Moral: People who love their country best strive to make it best.