Two young men were out in a rowboat when it overturned. Luckily, two women were nearby in another boat and came to their aid. The men were a long way from shore and needed medical attention. Unfortunately, the women had neither a radio nor a motor on their boat.

The women screamed for help at each passing motorboat on the waterway, but their pleas were ignored. By the time they were finally able to secure help, one of the young men had perished from his injuries.

This was the story Lorraine Jara read in her local newspaper one day, more than 30 years ago. Though Jara did not know any of the people involved in this tragedy, it touched her so deeply that she had to do something. So, on August 25, 1988, Jara created Be Kind to Humankind Week.

To encourage others to engage in kind and civil behavior, Jara created the following themes for each day of the special week:

-- Sacrifice Our Wants for Others’ Needs Sunday

-- Motorist Consideration Monday

-- Touch A Heart Tuesday

-- Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

-- Forgive Your Foe Friday

-- Speak Kind Words Saturday

Imagine how much nicer the world would be if each one of us committed to adhering to these concepts during this week and every week thereafter.

The smallest act of kindness can have a significant impact on a person’s life. Nice people can finish first. And they have in common some habits that are practically second nature to them. You can develop them too.

First, be kind to yourself. You’ll find being nice to others easier if you build your self-respect with positive thoughts about your personality and achievements.

Treat everyone with respect, and I mean EVERYONE! Don’t worry about who’s on top. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated, regardless of their position or job title.

Say no when necessary. You can’t do everything. But when you do say no, be polite and positive. And when you are making requests, be gracious when someone needs to say no to you.

Plant seeds of kindness. Do something nice every day, even when your kindness may not have an immediate payoff. If you are being kind for some specific reward, you are not being kind, you are being selfish.

Every form of kindness you show doesn't bounce, it reproduces itself. It is good to be good. Be nice. Take the high road.

Here's another story that illustrates this point. A young boy, out on a ramble to study wildlife, became very hungry and decided he would stop at the next farmhouse. A lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he just asked for a glass of water. The woman thought he looked hungry, so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”

“You don't owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother taught us never to accept pay for kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

Years later, that young woman became ill. The local doctors sent her to the big city, where Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation.

When he heard the name of the town where she came from, his eyes lit up. Immediately, he went down the hall of the hospital to her room. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to cure her illness. From that day, he gave special attention to that case and saw her through her recovery.

Dr. Kelly, one of the four founding doctors of Johns Hopkins Hospital, requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on it. When the woman received the bill, she feared opening it because she was sure it might take the rest of her life to pay for it. Finally, she looked, and noticed something was written at the edge of the note: “Paid in full with a glass of milk.” Tears filled her eyes as she made the connection and remembered the hungry boy she had helped years before.

By the way, Dr. Kelly had a habit of taking care of the bills of three out of four of his patients. Surely this kindness made many of his patients feel much better.

Mackay’s Moral: Being kind should be celebrated every day, not just one week out of the year.

One day, more than one hundred years ago, two young fellows were in a quarrel, and it showed signs of becoming serious. Future President Abraham Lincoln, himself a young man at the time, was called upon to decide the difficulty. One of the combatants, who had been defeated in the decision, and above whom the towering Lincoln stood head and shoulders, boastfully threatened Lincoln.

“See here, Lanky, I’ll lick you!” he shouted.

Abe looked down comically at the small challenger. “All right,” he said, “but let’s fight fair. You are so small there isn’t much of you for me to hit, but I am so big, you can’t help but hit me. So, you make a chalk mark on me that will show just your size. When we fight, you must be sure to hit me inside this mark or it won’t be fair.”

The idea was so ridiculous, the little bully began to laugh, and the quarrel ended as a joke.

Everyone seeks to be treated fairly. Remember when you were growing up and you had a teacher or coach or parent who played favorites? I bet that didn’t make you feel very good.

Fairness is important to employees, but that doesn’t mean you must treat everyone equally. Not everyone is the same. You have high-level producers and others who are content to just do their jobs. If you treat these people equally and pay them equally, you’re also not going to be seen as fair.

The truth of the matter is that life isn’t always fair. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to be as fair as possible.

According to RISMedia, fairness means treating each employee appropriately and individually, based on their circumstances and contributions. Fair companies “treat like cases alike and unalike cases unalike,” says ethics expert Bruce Weinstein.

Bottom line, you can’t play favorites. You hold everyone to the same standards. If employees think they’re not getting a fair deal from your company, they won’t perform as well as you need them to. In fact, morale can be destroyed. The best advice is to follow the Golden Rule: Treat everyone you encounter as you would like to be treated.

Equally important is to lead by example. Be a role model for your employees. If you want them to be at work by 8 a.m., you should be at work before 8 a.m. If you tell an employee they are spending too much time on personal items, you must use your time appropriately.

It’s so much easier when you establish crystal-clear rules. Let employees know what is expected of them in terms of criteria for performance reviews, promotions, raises/bonuses, qualifications for benefits and disciplinary actions. If you judge a rule to be unfair and need to change it, be honest and up-front so employees understand what is happening. Rules always go over better when you have buy-in from employees.

Maintain an open line of communication. I tell my employees that my door is always open. You must give employees a voice and listen to their feedback. And then act on their concerns promptly.

Finally, don’t be afraid to apologize if you make a mistake. No one is perfect. It’s best to admit your mistake and move on. If you fail to acknowledge your own mistakes, your employees won’t think you are fair. Be honest with your employees.

If you truly want to know how employees feel about conditions at your company, here are some questions to ask and then give fair hearing to the answers:

-- Is management’s treatment of all employees respectful and evenhanded? Or are some employees getting the “star” treatment and others offered more leeway in getting assignments completed?

-- Do the organization’s policies for promotion and advancement always seem fair?

-- Does favoritism or special treatment appear to be an issue in raises or promotions?

-- Is management consistent in administering employee policies and rules?

-- Do you feel you always get fair treatment from your manager?

Mackay’s Moral: You must play fair at work if you want to be excellent at work.

A firm needed a researcher. Applicants were a scientist, an engineer and an economist. Each was given a stone, a piece of string and a stopwatch and told to determine a certain building’s height. The scientist went to the rooftop, tied the stone to the string and lowered it to the ground. Then he swung it, timing each swing with the watch. With this pendulum, he estimated the height at 200 feet, give or take 12 inches.

The engineer threw away the string, dropped the stone from the roof, timing its fall with the watch. Applying the laws of gravity, he estimated the height at 200 feet, give or take six inches.

The economist, ignoring the string and stone, entered the building but soon returned to report the height at exactly 200 feet. How did he know? He gave the janitor the watch in exchange for the building plans. He got the job.

Of all the skills I admire, being resourceful is among the most important. I don’t want to be surrounded by ordinary thinkers. Rather, I want to be with people who, if they don’t know an answer, know how to get it. Or if we have a problem, know how to solve it.

Resourceful people think outside the box and visualize all the possible ways to achieve things. They are scrappy, inventive and driven to find a way to get what they need and want.

As one of my very favorite authors, Napoleon Hill, said: “A resourceful person will always make the opportunity fit his or her needs.”

Here are some characteristics I look for when determining a person’s resourcefulness:

-- Open-mindedness. Know what is and isn’t possible. Embrace different possibilities, people and views to broaden your perspective. Expand your comfort zone by trying different things.

-- Self-confidence. Believe that you can handle any problem you encounter and that there is a solution to it. Visualize yourself overcoming any obstacle.

-- Innovation. Resourcefulness is about optimizing what you have to work with. A fun example is the old TV show “MacGyver,” starring Richard Dean Anderson. There wasn’t any situation that MacGyver couldn’t handle, any problem he couldn’t fix, be it with his Swiss Army knife, a roll of duct tape or both. Thinking is the hardest, most valuable task any person can perform.

-- Adaptability. Don’t box yourself into doing things a certain way. Experiment.

-- Persistence. Try many different things until you succeed. Never give up. Many things can get in your way, but don’t let them until you get what you want or achieve your goal. Practice until you get it right.

-- Optimistic. If you have the right attitude, the solution is easier to find. You must believe that you can get through any issue and come out better and stronger.

All these things are crucial in anticipating problems and being prepared. I understand that you can’t predict everything, but I’m a big believer in asking what can go wrong in any situation.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

A story shared by Vladimir Karapetoff provides a perfect illustration. When St. Petersburg was laid out in the early 18th century, many large rocks had to be removed. One especially large piece of granite was lying in the way of a main road. Bids for its removal submitted by contractors were exorbitantly high because there were no mechanical means for removal, no hard steel for drilling or cracking the stone and no explosives except inferior black powder.

Lo and behold, an insignificant-looking peasant appeared and offered to remove the boulder for a fraction of the other bids. Since the government ran no risks, he was authorized to try his luck.

He assembled many other peasants with spades and timbers, and they began digging a deep hole next to the rock. The rock was propped up to prevent its rolling into the hole. When the hole was deep enough, they removed the props and the boulder dropped into the hole, where it rests to this day below the street level. The rock was covered with dirt, and the rest of the earth was carted away. Since he could not remove the rock above the ground, he put it underground.

Mackay’s Moral: Mine your natural resources for uncommon results.