There was a young boy who liked to gossip. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he gossiped, he should hammer a nail into the back fence.

The first day, the boy drove 37 nails into the fence. After that, they gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his tongue than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't gossip at all. He told his father about it, and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he exercised restraint.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things about other people, they leave scars just like these."

Think of gossip like the game most of us played as children where everyone sits in a circle and one person starts by whispering something in their neighbor's ear. That person then whispers what they heard in the next person's ear, and so on, until the last person is reached. The last person then tells what he or she heard. It's often fun to see how the initial message changes, drastically and quickly.

"Some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them," said Pierre de Marivaux, a French playwright from the 18th century.

Gossip and rumors have probably been part of the workplace culture since the days of the pyramids. ("Psst! I heard Cleopatra and that Roman dude are an item! Pass it on!") Although a certain amount of personal chitchat goes on in any workplace, gossiping employees can erode trust among co-workers and infect a team with dissension and hostility.

To keep rumors from gaining a foothold in your organization, follow this advice:

Improve general communications. Employees will believe rumors if they don't have access to facts. Even in tough times, give your people as much information as you can so they can rely on solid data, not half-truths. If you can't share news, explain why, so you don't appear to be hiding anything.

Confront rumors directly. If you catch wind of an untrue rumor, go to the source and set him or her straight, explaining the damage that false information can cause. Clear up the confusion with your entire workforce right away. They may think twice about spreading or believing rumors if they know you're ready to step in.

Set the right example. Don't listen to gossip that comes your way. Either correct any misinformation immediately, or explain that you're not interested in rumors. Don't pass along any unsubstantiated stories yourself. Let the gossip stop with you. If people persist in spreading rumors, suggest that they need more work to do.

Research has found that the people who talked trash about someone else unwittingly painted themselves with the same brush. When queried, recipients of gossip (the listeners) consistently attributed any negative traits they heard about a third party to the person delivering the gossip. The finding held even when listeners were told that the statements did not describe the person doing the sniping.

On the bright side: The same is true when the talk is positive. Believe it or not, not all gossip has to be bad. The grapevine can be a valuable source of information that can help you in your career.

Consider that some gossip can be intentional leaks of information you should know, and if you learn who is worth listening to, you can develop a sense of what's ahead for your organization.

Listen thoughtfully and don't feel like you have to add a comment. Adding grist to the mill may come back to haunt you, so hold your tongue and weigh the information you are receiving before you pass judgment.

Think of gossip like soft butter. It's easy to spread and adds a little flavor to just about everything. But trying to "unspread" it is just about impossible. There is always a little residue left behind, a greasy spot that's hard to clean up.

Think about that before you try to butter someone up with a little juicy gossip.

Mackay's Moral: If people would not carry gossip, it would not go so far.

Creativity fuels innovation, and innovation is essential to business. So I’m sharing my thoughts on creativity, yet I’m using one of my favorite formulas: a simple list of ABCs.

While the ABC approach itself may not be entirely creative, I think the message will bear me out. I have covered nine of the topics that I believe are the most important concepts in business over the years: customer service, leadership, networking, negotiations, sales, dreams, entrepreneurship, public speaking and team building.

Now it’s time to dissect creativity. Truly successful people understand the fundamental value of setting yourself apart from the competition or finding a creative way to stand out from the crowd.

A is for advertising. Expand your brand beyond media-generated advertising. For example, we painted our company name and phone numbers on top of our delivery trucks so they were visible to people who worked on upper floors of tall buildings.

B is for bold. People are not inspired by ordinary messages, so give them a reason to remember you.

C is for curious. Curiosity may not have been good for the cat, but it’s a winning formula for people.

D is for different. Don’t be afraid to do things that have never been tried before. You have to have enough faith in yourself to trust your instincts.

E is everyone. I firmly believe that everyone has the capacity to be creative, if only they allow themselves to be.

F is for funny. Most products or services can benefit from a creative and humorous approach. When you make people laugh or make them feel good, they are more likely to remember.

G is for genuine. Creativity does not include stretching the truth.

H is for head. Use yours to go to the head of the creativity class.

I is for ideas, which are like rabbits. If you can get a couple, pretty soon you have a dozen.

J is for January, which is International Creativity Month -- a time to remind individuals and organizations around the globe to capitalize on the power of creativity. Creativity is important all year long.

K is for kids. Kids are unafraid to take gigantic risks. They haven’t been trained yet to take the safe approach. Creativity comes naturally to kids.

L is for listen. We learn more by listening than talking. That’s why we have two ears and only one mouth.

M is for mistakes. Give yourself permission to try things even if you’re not sure they’ll succeed. Often, you’ll stumble across a different strategy or a better path along the way.

N is for nature. New evidence suggests you can boost your imagination and creativity by getting outside and spending some time in nature. Take a walk and clear out the cobwebs.

O is for open mind. Like parachutes, minds work best when they are open. Let ideas develop before you dismiss them.

P is for patience. You can’t hurry creativity, so take time to ponder your ideas. Sit back and think things over. Let the seeds of ideas bloom into full flower.

Q is for quest. When you are on a quest for new business or promoting a new product or service, you need to employ every creative strategy that you can muster.

R is for relax. Most people are at their creative best when they are relaxed and not under pressure.

S is for simple. No, this is not a contradiction. Creativity need not be complicated to be effective. Sometimes a simple approach is the most creative.

T is for thinking outside the box. Look for a fresh perspective or unconventional method instead of the same tired approach.

U is for understanding your limitations and then finding a creative way to blast beyond them.

V is for variety. Variety truly is the spice of life. Changes and new experiences make life more interesting.

W is for wonder. Creativity embraces the wonder of novelty and ingenuity, and turns them into wonderful results.

X is for exceed expectations. (That is my creative spelling.) Find creative ways to achieve awesome outcomes.

Y is for yesterday. If you did it yesterday, it’s not creative today. Look toward tomorrow instead.

Z is for zeitgeist. Catch the spirit of creativity!

Mackay’s Moral: Start every day with a healthy dose of vitamin C -- Creativity!

Once upon a time, there was a king who wanted to pick the wisest person among his subjects to be his prime minister. He decided to put three finalists to an unusual test.

He placed the three candidates together in a room at the palace and told them the door had been fitted with the most complicated lock ever designed by the royal locksmith.

“Whoever is able to open the door first will be the prime minister,” the king declared.

The pressure in the room was palpable. The three set to work immediately. The first began to work out complicated mathematical formulas in search of the secret combination. The second scoured thick volumes on lock construction. The third sat quietly by a window, lost in thought.

Watching the clock and feeling the need to come up with a solution as soon as possible, the first two worked feverishly to open the door, growing ever more panicked. But then something unexpected happened.

The third candidate walked over to the door and simply turned the handle. With no effort, the door swung open! It had been unlocked all the time.

For this common-sense and active approach, the king named the third person to the coveted post. Such a shining example of grace under pressure convinced the king that he had indeed chosen well.

Pressure, stress, angst -- call it whatever you want. If you let it take control of your mind, you will struggle to open every door that you need to walk through. You must learn to master that pressure or stress in order to make it work for you.

An article in Bits and Pieces magazine describes how certain types of stress can actually be good for you. Citing the Mother Nature Network, the article explains how moderate and intermittent amounts of stress, such as a project deadline that gets moved up, can actually help us become more aware of our situations and motivate us to find creative solutions to problems. In addition, stress teaches us how to operate outside our usual comfort zone.

Life will hand us occasional curveballs. Understanding how to approach them is the first step to navigating the next one that will inevitably present itself. True, it may throw us off-balance at first. But reacting appropriately and swiftly becomes more manageable each time.

A recent survey published by the American Psychological Association found that as many as 70 percent of Americans reported suffering from workplace stress. Separating work-related tasks, such as resisting the urge to catch up with emails in the evening, from leisure and family time can help prevent workplace stress from spilling into other areas of your life.

The Society for Human Resource Management found that more than half of workers who put in more than 40 hours a week do so not because of pressure from management, but because those demands are self-imposed. For them, working hard isn’t necessarily so much a stressor as a source of fulfillment.

I personally thrive on pressure. The more balls I’m juggling, the more I feel like I’m spending my time well. I turn pressure into purpose. True, there are necessary tasks and projects that I don’t relish and work to finish simply so I can cross them off my list. The payoff comes when I see that list with a number of accomplishments at the end of the day. That’s my motivation.

Learning how to deal with pressure and stress is critical to your health and success. Whether that means an attitude adjustment, a job change or a heart attack is up to you. Don’t make your situation more difficult by doing things the hard way.

In other words, walk right up to the door and try the handle first.

Mackay’s Moral: Pressure turns a diamond in the rough into a precious stone.