Anytime you feel like quitting throughout your career, perhaps you’ll remember this story of one of our people:

When he was born, he was given the nickname “Sparky.” School was very difficult for Sparky, and he failed eighth grade. He also flunked several subjects in high school, the same high school that I attended a few years later.

He wasn’t very good in sports, either. He did make the school’s golf team, but he lost the most important match of the season and the consolation match too. Throughout his youth, Sparky was awkward. He felt he was a loser and other kids avoided him.

One thing that was important to him, however, was his artwork. He spent most of his free time drawing. He offered sketches to the high school yearbook, but they were rejected. Later on, he submitted his cartoons to many publications and studios, including Disney, and he was turned down by every single one.

Sparky was drafted into World War II, later stating, “The Army taught me all I needed to know about loneliness.” After the war, he dated a woman who rejected his marriage proposal and then married another man the following year.

He decided to tell his life story in cartoons and was picked up by United Feature Syndicate in 1950, but they forced him to rename his comic strip from “Li’l Folks” to “Peanuts.” Sparky did not like the idea, but he was ecstatic that his comics were finally getting published.

"Peanuts" would go on to become a cultural phenomenon because people could relate to the lovable loser main character, Charlie Brown, who reminded people of their own embarrassing and painful moments. But he never gave up. Nor did Charles Schulz.

We all face discouragement and rejection in our lives, but we have a choice in how we handle it. You can’t avoid rejection. The sooner you find out that rejection is a part of life, the better off you will be. It’s how you deal with it that sets you apart.

A prime example comes from Charlie Brown himself. In the first panel of a classic strip, he tells his buddy, “I learned something in school today. I signed up for folk guitar, computer programming, stained glass, art, shoemaking and a natural foods workshop.

“Instead, I got spelling, history, arithmetic, and two study periods.”

The next panel shows Charlie’s pal asking, “So, what did you learn?”

In his infinite wisdom, Charlie replies, “I learned that what you sign up for in life, and what you get, are two different things.”

In my book, “We Got Fired! ... and It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us,” I featured businesswoman and author Deborah Rosado Shaw, who rose from poverty to create a multimillion-dollar umbrella-making business, Umbrellas Plus.

The secret of her success? As she described in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article some years ago, she learned to play beyond the rules.

Refused admission to law school 11 times, she went into sales, which led to the creation of her company. She offers the following advice on getting ahead:

-- Be willing to sacrifice.

-- Get used to fear.

-- Know where you’re going.

-- Enlist the help of a business coach or mentor.

-- Be creative about what you want.

-- Make noise.

-- Trade what’s predictable for what’s possible.

I’ve dealt with plenty of rejection over the course of my career, and I always offer the same advice. I usually focus on sales rejection, which constitutes most of my dealings.

First, don’t take it personally. You must remember that the person isn’t rejecting you; they’re rejecting what you’re selling. Always leave the door open. I always thank the person I’m calling on because they took valuable time out of their day to meet or talk with me. I’m grateful because we never know if our paths might cross again.

My absolute biggest rule on rejection is to never say no for the other person. Don’t anticipate rejection because then you won’t even try, let alone give your best effort. If you don’t believe in what you are selling, how can you expect a prospect to buy it?

I’m careful to analyze every rejection. I always want to know why people say no, and I’m not afraid to ask.

It’s helpful to remember past achievements. Look back to your past successes. Never pass up an opportunity to hone your skills and be ready for better times.

Mackay’s Moral: As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I was being rejected from something good, I was being re-directed to something better.

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.