Golf has been a big part of my life. When I was growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, I dreamed about making a living playing golf professionally. I wanted to be the next Ben Hogan, the top golfer at that time. When I was competing in the NCAA golf tournament as a member of the University of Minnesota golf team, I realized that wasn't going to happen.

I still love golf after all these years. It's been a hole-in-one opportunity to build my envelope manufacturing business. Whether you're opening doors or closing deals, golf can enhance almost any business opportunity.

Earlier this month I was privileged to play golf with another links hero of mine, Jack Nicklaus, regarded as the greatest golfer of all time. He won 73 PGA tournaments, including a record 18 major championships. We played his home course -- The Bear's Club in Florida -- and I was a sponge as I soaked up his golf wisdom.

I asked Jack about his tremendous success, especially in making crucial tournament-winning putts. He thought about it for a bit and said, "I never missed a putt in my mind."

Jack Nicklaus is not considered to be the best at hitting his woods, long or short irons, or even chipping and putting. But almost everyone considers him the greatest thinking golfer of all time. He had no equal at the mental part of the game, which makes up 50 percent of competitive golf.

As an example, golf great Ben Hogan stood over a crucial putt. Suddenly, a loud train whistle blared in the distance. After he had sunk the putt, someone asked Hogan if the train whistle had bothered him.

"What whistle?" Hogan replied.

Jack said: "Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety. I have always felt that the sheer intensity Ben Hogan applied to the shot-making specifics was one of his greatest assets. It left no room in his mind for negative thoughts. The busier you can keep yourself with the particulars of shot assessment and execution, the less chance your mind has to dwell on the emotional 'if' and 'but' factors that breed anxiety."

Nicklaus put great effort into preparation. I can't think of another golfer who was better prepared. He would often arrive at a tournament a week early to study the course, prepare mentally and relax. He always kept his focus on the game.

We discussed how much you can learn about a person when you play golf with them. The game tends to expose your real character. One study found 47 percent of those surveyed believed that behavior on the golf course usually paralleled behavior in business. It tests your fortitude, your confidence and your humility.

Golf is a networking game par excellence. In what other environment can you see your customer for four to five hours straight, without interruption from phones, meetings or competitors, for that matter? And no one knows this better than Jack.

If you're making a key hire or closing a business deal, the golf course is an ideal test because you see how people act in all kinds of circumstances. You can take note of their appearance, how they carry themselves and how well they follow the etiquette and rules of the game -- even if they know how to have fun. And remember, they can see how you handle yourself as well!

Jack joked that most people work their entire lives so they can play golf in retirement, whereas he played golf most of his life so he could retire to work. His Nicklaus Design company has opened more than 400 courses in 42 countries around the world.

Nicklaus is also a big believer in philanthropy and volunteerism. He and his terrific wife, Barbara, who entertained our group for dinner at their home, have raised tens of millions of dollars for the hugely impactful Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, which provides families access to world-class pediatric health care.

Those activities illustrate his priorities in life: family, golf and business. He skipped a lot of tournaments because of family activities. He also would leave in the middle of a tournament and fly somewhere to watch his kids and be back the next day to tee off.

One final point I found interesting. When Jack was giving me a putting lesson, he told me that Barbara devoted 40 years to his life in golf. Now it is his turn to devote the next 40 years to her life. Family really is No. 1 with Jack Nicklaus.

Mackay's Moral: Golf is so much more than just a game; it's a slice of life.

Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, talked about the three jobs he had growing up in Salem, Massachusetts: caddying, punching holes in a piece of cork and selling shoes. He loved being out on the golf course because he’d hear about the big deals being made by affluent businessmen, according to a story on the Reader’s Digest website.

“It was like being a fly on the wall at a meeting,” he recounts. As for the second job, punching holes into a piece of cork for a Parker Brothers game called “Dig” was his first glimpse into monotony. “It lasted about a month,” he says, “and I concluded that I never wanted to do anything like that again -- ever.” And he kept his promise; he never returned to anything remotely similar.

It was through his third job, selling shoes, that he learned the basic tenet of business: close the deal. “If they didn’t like a shoe,” he says, “I always tried to be thinking ahead to a pair they might like better.” Every time someone walked into that store, he said, he felt he was going to bat and taking a swing.

“Today I believe that the worst sin in running a big company is to manage its size rather than using that size,” he said. “The advantage of size is the resources it gives you to go to bat often. You have to take risks in business. If you take a risk and fail, get up to bat and swing again.”

Risk is necessary for a company to grow and prosper. Pharmaceutical manufacturers always take a risk when bringing drugs to market. But because they are willing to take these risks, lifesaving drugs have dramatically extended our life expectancy.

Business is filled with stories of companies that took risks and succeeded. My favorite quote on risk-taking is from one of my heroes, Earl Nightingale, a pioneer of the personal development industry. Earl said: “You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved. They go together.”

King Camp Gillette, who founded the company that bears his name, dreamed of developing a disposable shaving razor that caused investors, metal engineers and even experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to question his invention. Gillette worked four years to develop a razor sharp enough to provide a clean shave and yet cheap enough to be thrown away when dull. It took him another six years to get it in stores, and he sold only 51 razors the first year. However, his disposable razor went on to transform the shaving industry.

Mary Kay Ash similarly revolutionized women’s beauty products. Her first home show in 1963 produced sales of only $1.50. However, after modifying her selling techniques, refining her packaging and adjusting her attitude, she had sales of $34,000 in her first year. Mary Kay Cosmetics today has more than 3 million consultants in 37 countries and sales in excess of $3 billion.

Spanx founder Sara Blakely knew little about business and was told over and over that her idea of seamless pantyhose and women’s shapewear was crazy. Today, her undergarments are everywhere.

Perhaps the biggest threat to businesses is remaining comfortable. The co-founders of Whole Foods Market dared to leave a successful grocery store business in the 1970s and invest in a supermarket devoted exclusively to natural foods. Whole Foods is one of the most successful supermarkets today.

A story in “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland illustrates the power of taking chances and risking failure when you’re trying to achieve something of quality.

On the first day of class, a ceramics teacher announced that he was putting his students into two groups. Half the students would be graded on quantity of works produced, the other half on the quality of just one work. On the final day of class, the instructor looked at the pots from both groups and realized that the best pots -- those with the most creative designs and those that seemed most beautiful -- all came from the group graded on quantity.

The authors noted: “It seems that while the ‘quantity’ group was busily churning out piles of work -- and learning from their mistakes -- the ‘quality’ group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

Mackay’s Moral: Even a turtle sticks its neck out once in a while.

Two brothers in a small town had a reputation for bad behavior. But they were rich enough to avoid the consequences. The pastor of the local church knew them well and tried to find the good in both of them, although this was next to impossible.

One day, one of the brothers died suddenly. The other came to the church and asked the pastor to speak at his funeral.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t know what to say,” the pastor replied.

The brother took out his checkbook. “I’m writing you a check for $10,000 for the church renovations you’re always talking about. All you have to do is tell everyone at the funeral that my brother was a saint.”

The pastor thought for a moment, then accepted the check.

At the funeral, the pastor stood before the townspeople who had come to see the last of one of their disliked neighbors. “I didn’t know this man well,” he said. “I do know that he cheated on his wife, and cheated everyone he did business with. But I can say one thing about him: Compared to his brother, he was a saint.”

My father, Jack Mackay, used to tell me, “You can’t buy a good reputation; you must earn it.” He also offered this advice: “You spend your whole lifetime building a good name and reputation, and one foolish act can destroy it.”

I took his words to heart, and aside from building long-term relationships, there is nothing more important than a good reputation in building a successful business. Without a positive reputation, success is elusive.

Richard Branson, who founded the Virgin Group that controls more than 400 companies, told me in an interview, “All you have in business is your reputation -- so it's very important that you keep your word.”

There are many people who were at the top of their game when they made one fatal mistake -- due to poor judgment, arrogance or the inability to do the right thing. Reputations are destroyed, and all the money in the world can't buy them back.

As Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”

How true! You can do things right 99 out of 100 times, but mess up once, and the consequences can be severe.

Reputation doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. But if you do the right thing consistently, you will build a great reputation. Reputation is never completely secured -- it is being continually earned.

Elizabeth Arden, the founder of the cosmetics, skin care and fragrance company, said, “Repetition makes reputation, and reputation makes customers.”

Building a great reputation is like building a company; you need to do it one brick at a time. While you cannot build reputation on what you are going to do, you do build expectations with your customers. And if you don’t meet those expectations, you can’t expect your customers to trust you. Your reputation is always on the line.

So, which companies have the best reputations? Rolex topped the list, according to recent research from the Reputation Institute. The report was based on data from more than 170,000 ratings of companies in the first quarter of 2017 by consumers from around the world. Each firm was assigned a score by the researchers based on its reputation in seven areas: products/services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.

Rolex was recognized for its strong reputation with consumers across all seven performance areas, especially quality of products/services. Lego ranked second for best reputation with consumers. The Walt Disney Company was third, followed by Canon, Google, Bosch, Sony, Intel, Rolls-Royce and Adidas.

Fastcompany.com lists seven habits of people with great reputations, and I think they are worth sharing: They get things done. They take ownership of their mistakes. They are generous. They listen to other points of view. They’re decisive. They don’t sacrifice principles, and they’re resilient.

That list is a perfect guideline for those who aren’t sure what they need to do. Pay particular attention to the final habit: resilience. You will make mistakes, you will upset some people, and you will be blamed for things that aren’t your fault. But your reputation will take a beating if you react rashly. Take the high road, not the shortcut. That’s the brilliance of resilience.

Mackay’s Moral: Your reputation depends on your past and determines your future.