The great American film maker Cecil B. DeMille said, “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.”

As I’ve said in the past, I always try to start each day with a healthy dose of vitamin C -- creativity. I believe that creative ideas and actions are what make life interesting.

More important than drugs and vitamins are having a thick skin and being unfazed by criticism. Even the most unstoppable ideas in history have been criticized. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

“Mr. Bell, please remove that silly toy from my office. There is no room in the market for a telephone.”

“Watches with no hands? You’re crazy.”

“You can’t put a crocodile on a shirt to replace the pocket. Nobody will buy them.”

“You want to sell me a chicken recipe? You’ll never get this idea off the ground, Colonel Sanders.”

“I’m sorry, but your ‘Gone With the Wind’ manuscript will have little public appeal.”

“How dumb do you think I am? You can’t put music on a roll of tape.”

The history books are full of people who realized that creativity begins with destroying perceived limitations and proving the skeptics wrong.

Advertising genius Alex Osborn integrated creativity into everything he did. Considered the “father of brainstorming” -- a term he helped coin in 1939 -- Osborn devoted his life to promoting and teaching creative thinking. The fiercest enemy of creativity, he believed, was criticism.

Creativity doesn’t run in a straight line. It can run into roadblocks. They’re not always obvious. You may have to go around them or over them or tunnel beneath them. But first you must recognize them. Among the obstacles you need to steer clear of:

-- Excessive rationality. The creative process doesn’t always follow logical rules. It often involves looking for connections among unrelated (and sometimes contradictory) objects, goals, processes or ideas. Excuse yourself of the need to make sense all the time, and let your intuition guide you. When you stick to conventional techniques, you cannot expect unconventional results.

-- Obsession with size. A big idea is sometimes the sum of a lot of smaller ideas. Facebook began with a few hundred students at Harvard. Now it dominates the internet in most of the world. Don’t reject a concept or approach because it doesn’t feel like an instant home run. Giant leaps usually begin with baby steps.

-- Need to be productive. You can’t always predict where an idea will lead, so don’t rule anything out, even if it doesn’t seem immediately practical. You may be able to adapt it, or it may become useful in the future when your situation has changed.

-- Fear of (fill in the blank). If you’re hesitant, ask what you’re afraid of. Failure? Success? Drawing attention to yourself? Criticism? Creativity always involves an element of risk. You may not be able to make it disappear, but your fear will lose much of its power if you confront it directly.

One of the most prolific periods of creativity in history occurred during the Renaissance from the 14th to 17th centuries in Europe. According to a Huffington Post article by Anurag Harsh, people realized creativity was a talent that could be cultivated.

Among his points, he said Renaissance thinkers were contrarian. They didn’t settle for the status quo; they challenged conventional wisdom and took new approaches to the world.

In addition, they were nonconformists. They wanted to revolutionize the culture in technology, the arts and philosophy. They dismissed the tried and true in favor of novel ideas.

Finally, he said that instead of limiting themselves to a single area of knowledge, they connected different ways of thinking that led to advances in science, art and many other areas.

Consider Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate symbol of the Renaissance, who was interested in invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history and cartography.

You may never paint a "Mona Lisa" or draw the "Vitruvian Man," but what inspiration his creativity offers! Start your day with a healthy dose of vitamin C and watch what happens!

Mackay’s Moral: Creativity, not necessity, is the true mother of invention.

Several years ago, a seasoned plumber wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Standards promoting a new procedure for cleaning pipes. The bureau replied: “The efficiency of the recommended solution is completely undisputed. However, there is an inherent incompatibility between the aforementioned solution and the basic chemical structures of the commonly used materials in current household and commercial pipeworks.”

The plumber wrote back saying, “Thanks, I really liked it, too.”

Within a few days, the bureau responded with another letter: “Don’t use hydrochloric acid! It eats holes in pipes!”

Wouldn’t it have been so much easier -- and less expensive -- to put it simply the first time?

The word "communication" comes from the Latin "communico," meaning "share." We share ideas, thoughts, information and concerns. Communication can start friendships or make enemies.

Communication needs to be clear and understandable. Communication requires both effective sending and receiving. And if we don’t do it effectively, we have wasted our time.

Research psychologists tell us that the average 1-year-old child has a three-word vocabulary. At age 2, most children have a working knowledge of 272 words. A year later, that number more than triples. At age 6, the average child has command of 2,562 words.

As adults, our word accumulation continues to grow, but the effective use of them does not necessarily follow. We can speak up to 18,000 words each day, but that doesn’t mean those messages are clear or correctly received. In fact, words can often obscure our messages instead of clarifying them.

No one can succeed in business, or in life, for that matter, without developing good communication skills. The most basic yet crucial leadership skill is communication. It’s important to continue to evaluate your performance in these fundamental areas:

-- Speaking. Good verbal skills are essential. You must be able to explain your requests and instructions, your ideas and your strategies to people inside and outside your organization. Look for opportunities to hone your speaking skills at conferences, in meetings and among friends.

-- Listening. Pay attention to the people around you. Repeat and paraphrase what they say to make sure you understand and to show that you take their opinions seriously.

-- Writing. The paper trail you leave tells people a lot about how clearly you think and express yourself. Don’t send even the simplest email without rereading it critically to be sure it says just what you want.

-- Leading meetings. You should encourage other people to share their ideas without letting discussions meander aimlessly. Sharpen your ability to keep meetings on track and elicit productive comments. Remember that every meeting should begin with a solid agenda and conclude with a commitment for action.

-- Resolving conflict. Conflict can be subtle, but you still must defuse it if you want things to get done. You’ll use a lot of the skills already discussed to encourage people to open up and clear the air about their disagreements.

-- Persuasion. The right words can stimulate agreements, offer alternate points of view, provoke thoughtful consideration and bring people around to your way of thinking. This is an especially critical skill for salespeople, which is all of us in one capacity or another.

Perhaps the most helpful advice came from Peter Drucker, the late management guru, who said, “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”

Beware of misinterpreting simple messages because of your perception of the sender’s meaning or intent. Here’s an eye-opening fact: The 500 most common words in the English language have more than 14,000 definitions. That explains why so many verbal interactions often create confusion and misunderstanding.

Two people meet at an art exhibition. “What is your line of work?” asked the woman.

“I’m an artist,” came the reply.

“I’ve never met a real live artist before,” said the woman. “This is so exciting! I’ve always wanted my portrait painted. Could you do that?”

“That’s my specialty!” the artist said.

“Wonderful!” she said. “I just have one request. I want the painting done in the nude.”

The artist hesitated for a minute and then said, “I’ll have to get back to you.”

A few days later the artist called the potential customer to discuss the plan. “I’m willing to do the painting as you requested,” the artist said, “but I have one stipulation. I want to leave my socks on. I need somewhere to put my paintbrushes.”

Mackay’s Moral: It is wiser to choose what you say than say what you choose.

A famous trapeze performer and teacher was instructing his students. After full explanations and instruction in this complicated skill, he asked them to demonstrate.

However, one of the students, looking up at the insecure perch upon which he was expected to perform, was suddenly paralyzed with fear. He had a terrifying vision of falling to the ground and being seriously injured. Frozen with fear, he was unable to move a muscle.

“I can't do it! I can't do it!” he cried.

The instructor put his arm around the boy's shoulder and said quietly, “Son, you can do it, and I will tell you how.” Speaking slowly and with conviction, he said, “Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow.”

That is what the boy did, and he turned in a performance on the bar high above the ground that surprised even him. He was never afraid again.

If you are human, you will feel fear, says psychologist Tara Brach, author of “Radical Acceptance.” But often what makes fear powerful is our resistance to it, such as when we brush it away as if it doesn’t really exist, or pretend that we don’t feel what we really feel. Instead, Brach says, a better approach is to accept that we are feeling fear (or anger, or whatever emotion you might be struggling with) and acknowledge it. Say to yourself, “Yes, I am afraid of making a mistake at work.” Follow up with a statement to yourself such as, “I accept this fear of making mistakes.”

That has been my mantra since I followed my dream to own a factory. I was fraught with fear of making mistakes, but somehow convinced myself that making a mistake was a temporary setback, one that I could eventually overcome.

Success usually depends on overcoming our fears: fear of taking a risk, fear of asserting yourself, fear of exposing your deepest self to other people and, ultimately, fear of failure. But for some people, the real fear is -- success itself.

Have you ever thought that perhaps being afraid and uncomfortable can be a positive sign? Dr. Larina Kase, author of a piece appearing in the book “Life’s Missing Instruction Manual,” by Joe Vitale, says that when you feel afraid and anxious it can be a sign that you are stretching yourself to get over your fears.

Kase also recommends that when you are feeling afraid, start the practice of doing the opposite of your instincts. This, she says, will help you start to eliminate your fear and improve your life. Avoiding your fears, she says, is one sure way of making them grow. And the more your discomfort grows, the more you will not live up to your potential as a human being.

Fear of failure can be crippling, but fear of success can paralyze your efforts just as severely. Avoiding success may seem irrational, but success brings change, and change is usually threatening. Success can bring some unsettling worries, but that is fatalistic thinking.

I prefer to take the position that success breeds success.

So, what aspect of success are you fearful of?

Expectations of continued success? Achieving a major goal is hard work. What happens if people expect you to keep doing it indefinitely? Forget about others’ perceptions and expectations. Wouldn’t you rather they expect you to continue to be successful than a one-hit wonder?

Higher stakes? Once you’ve reached a certain pinnacle, what if others will look at you differently? They’ll expect you to continue doing higher-quality work, and you may worry that you are incapable of it. Instead, build on what you have learned and find ways to improve. Keep growing your skills and see how far you can really go.

More attention? People may look to you for advice or assistance once you’ve proved you can succeed. You may worry that you will lose control over your time or privacy. But look on the flipside: Being asked to be a mentor is not only a great compliment, it is a badge of honor. Take pride in the knowledge that others look up to you because of your hard-won success.

Making enemies? Some people delight in taking down successful people. You may worry about having to defend yourself from envious or hostile peers. Let your successes speak for you. When you keep producing, they will be exposed for what they are.

Mackay’s Moral: Would you rather live in fear or bask in success?