If you’ve ever had to deal with the thoughtless behavior of someone, you’ll appreciate this story about the great composer and pianist Franz Liszt.

The virtuoso musician once found himself at odds with a very important member of his audience. The czar of Russia, Nicholas I, made a late entrance during Liszt’s concert. Even after being seated, the czar continued to talk loudly with members of his entourage. Liszt realized that Nicholas had no intention of ending his discourse, so he stopped playing and bowed his head.

Noticing the silence, Nicholas dispatched one of his aides to find out why the pianist was no longer performing.

“Music herself should be silent when Nicholas speaks,” Liszt replied.

After that, Liszt was able to finish his recital with the czar’s full attention.

Poor manners are difficult to navigate around in most arenas. No matter what your rank or position, there is no excuse for rudeness. Bad manners are bad form.

At work, where many of us spend a large share of our waking hours, bad manners are bad business. Good manners build good relationships.

The key to a good relationship at work can be as simple as saying “please” and ”thank you,” and asking people how their children are or how their spouses are, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. Manners are the lubricating oil of any organization -- or any society, for that matter.

Good manners are not phony or forced. They are a habit that has been developed and nurtured so that they are an automatic response. Good manners are not an invitation to let others take advantage of you, either. Rather, they provide you with the confidence and responses that will allow you to take the high road no matter how nasty the other party gets.

Good manners also provide a leg up when it’s time to find a new job, whether it’s starting your career or moving up the ladder.

Getting your foot in the door is hard enough, so don’t let your manners slam the door on you. Looking for a job has always required impeccable behavior on the part of the job-seeker. According to etiquette consultant Jodi R. R. Smith (mannersmith.com), it’s important that job-seekers not overlook propriety in their search. Here are a few of Smith’s tips:

-- Be professional, especially when communicating electronically. There are a lot of people out there crafting outrageous emails when they are inquiring about job openings, Smith says. Don’t relax the old rules of job-hunting and interviewing just because you’re using modern modes of communication. As Smith says, an email that reads, "Dude, so what is this job about?" just isn’t going to cut it.

-- Have an error-free resume ready to go. When a recruiter calls, you should be able to email your resume to him or her while you’re speaking.

-- Make sure you have a professional-sounding voicemail message on whatever phone number you give to recruiters. You don’t want a potential interviewer to call you and get a long, silly message you’ve designed for your friends’ amusement.

-- Smile and be pleasant. Your disposition makes the first impression on interviewers. Extend kindness to everyone you meet, including receptionists and anyone else who may not be involved in the interview process.

Interpersonal relations will always make a difference. Displaying good manners will never hurt you, so don’t be afraid to be nice. You can still be funny, serious, self-confident and determined.

The old adage still holds true: You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

A man was seated on the bus having an animated conversation with someone via cellphone. He fumed. He swore. He shouted and swore a lot more. The other passengers dared not look at him for fear of being on the receiving end of his ire.

“I need to get off here!” he shouted as he raced to the front of the bus and disembarked.

“Excuse me, sir,” the bus driver said to the man, “you left something behind.”

The man stood outside of the bus checking his pockets. He then asked, “What did I leave?”

“A very bad impression,” the bus driver replied as he closed the door and drove away.

Mackay’s Moral: Good manners are never a bad idea.

A famous art professor died and went to heaven. At the pearly gates, the professor asked St. Peter, “Sir, I spent most of my life on Earth studying great art, but I have a question that has puzzled me for 30 years: Who was the greatest painter in history?”

St. Peter pointed to a nearby cloud. “See that woman right over there? She’s the one.”

The professor frowned. “But I knew that woman on Earth! She ran the cafeteria at the university where I taught! How could she have been the greatest painter in history?”

St. Peter shook his head sadly. “She could have been, if she ever picked up a brush and tried to paint.”

I suspect that woman had been good at her job, but did she reach her real potential? Did she follow her passion? Was she content to let her dreams evaporate?

Those are tough questions to answer, especially when you consider that most of us find something we are reasonably good at where we can earn a living and leave it at that. But is that the legacy you want to leave?

What do you want to be when you grow up? Good news: There is rarely just one answer. I am of the opinion that we all have tremendous potential if only we allow ourselves the freedom to try. The problem starts when we box in our futures according to what we studied in school or family expectations or staying in a job that doesn’t challenge us to grow and flourish.

But you are ultimately responsible for your own success, in both your career and personal lives. What do you really hope to accomplish in your life? And do you have a plan for getting there?

It starts with figuring out your purpose in life. As lofty as that sounds, I assure you, it’s not rocket science. I’ve shared my story often: At a young age, I imagined myself owning a factory and being an entrepreneur. I had to fill in a lot of blanks along the way and learn some very difficult lessons, but in my heart I knew it was worth it.

Ask yourself some helpful questions. What excites you? What do you want to learn? What do you love to do? That last question is especially important, because as I like to say, find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Then develop your personal mission statement. In 25 words or less, define what makes you uniquely qualified to achieve your dream. Say it out loud every day to build your confidence and commitment.

Think about what you have already accomplished and what steps you need to take both short- and long-term. Do you need to learn new skills, line up funding, work with a business partner?

Are you building a network of contacts that can help and advise you as necessary? You need to connect with people in many fields and professions.

Define what success will look like. Will you recognize it when you achieve it? Are you prepared to change your definition as circumstances change?

The cafeteria worker may not have been able to give up her job and benefits to paint full time, but she could have pursued art as a hobby. Starting small is a practical way to test whether you can achieve your dream.

An Irish missionary shared this inspirational message in a London church:

“Consider the walnut: If you compare a walnut with some of the beautiful and exciting things which grow on our planet, it does not seem to be a marvelous creation. It is common, rough, not particularly attractive, and certainly not valuable in any monetary sense. Besides, it is small. Its growth is limited by the hard shell which surrounds it. The shell from which it never escapes during its lifetime.

“Of course, that’s the wrong way to judge a walnut. Break one open and look inside. See how the walnut has grown to fill every nook and cranny available to it? It had no say in the size or the shape of the shell but, given those limitations, it achieved its full potential of growth.

“How lucky we will be if, like the walnut, we are found to blossom and bloom in every crevice of the life that is given to us. Take heart. If one nut can do it, so can we all!”

Mackay’s Moral: The only person who can limit your potential is you.

A farmer famed for his agricultural knowhow once hired a neighbor's teenage son to help him do the spring plowing. The farmer believed in letting people do their work without undue supervision, so he placed the boy on the tractor and went over the hill to work on another field. Anxious to plow straight furrows, the inexperienced teenager kept looking over his shoulder to check how he was doing.

Despite this precaution, he was dismayed to find that by the time he reached the edge of the field, the row he was plowing was noticeably crooked. He tried and tried, but he was unable to keep the rows straight.

When the farmer came back to see how the young man was doing, he instantly saw what was the problem. Taking the boy aside, the farmer told him in a calm voice, “You can't plow a straight row if you continually look back. You must keep your eyes focused straight ahead. And always remember where you've been.”

So it is with a lot of important tasks in life -- don’t just look back; instead focus on the future. Our eyes are in front of our heads because it is more important to look ahead than to look behind.

Satchel Paige, one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time, was asked by a writer for Collier’s magazine about his philosophy of life since he seemed ageless. One of them was “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

I don’t know of a single company that doesn’t hope to be in business beyond the end of the day. That’s why planning and goal-setting are such important activities. An organization that doesn’t take those jobs seriously has already doomed its own future.

Whether you hope to start your own business, aspire to advance in the organization you currently work for, or just want to support your employer’s success the best you can, understanding how a business grows and survives is a critical skill. These factors influence your fortunes and your organization’s growth over the long haul. Pay close attention to them.

Trust -- Whatever your role, concentrate on keeping your word and living up to your values. Customers and co-workers want to know they can depend on you. Management takes notice of and values trustworthiness above just about every other trait. You also need to be aware of your organization’s trustworthiness as perceived by customers and vendors.

Decisiveness -- Learn to make decisions promptly instead of waiting for every last piece of data. An imperfect decision that you can correct later is usually preferable to a right answer that comes too late. Every decision you make could potentially affect your organization’s future.

Competition -- Study your market and get to know everything you can about other players in your industry. You don’t want to be caught off guard by a rival’s new idea, and you don’t want to always be on the defensive against what the competition is up to.

Records -- Be meticulous in documenting your activities. Good records help you preserve ideas, establish your credibility, and prove your point when the facts aren’t clear. This applies to finances, employees, ideas and everything else you and your organization are responsible for.

Network -- Build relationships and connections with a wide variety of people in and out of your industry. Your network can be a source of ideas, employees and advice, but it can take time to build up. Take advantage of any opportunity to meet new people who can help you and whom you can assist in return. As I like to say, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty.” The time to establish a network is before you need it. And in the future, you will in all likelihood need to turn to your network for a variety of issues.

Patience -- Concentrate on incremental progress, not blockbuster victories. Establishing a habit of slow but steady success will build everyone’s confidence and minimize risk. Overnight successes almost never happen overnight; they are usually the result of months or years of hard work.

Learning from the past is perhaps the best way to prepare for the future. Always remember where you’ve been.

Baseball “philosopher” Yogi Berra offered a memorable observation about the nature of the future. Having witnessed the extraordinary progress of a rookie just breaking into the major leagues, Yogi remarked: “His future is ahead of him.”

Mackay’s Moral: The person who does not look ahead remains behind.