A sixth-grade girl was running for the post of secretary of her school class. A major part of her campaign was a speech to be given to her classmates, but she had no idea what to say. So she asked her mother for ideas.

“Well, you love to cook,” her mom said. “Why don’t you look in a cookbook?”

It was the stupidest idea she’d ever heard, but, desperate, the young girl followed her mother’s advice. Then, flipping through the pages, it hit her: Why not write a recipe for what would make a good class secretary? Two cups of good handwriting, one cup of dependability and so on.

Jan Bolick, now a management coach, won the election. And she also learned to look in unusual places for creative solutions. As it turns out, creativity is part of the “recipe” for attaining success.

What is success? The answer might depend on whom you ask and the particular stage of their own journey. Yet, no matter your age, occupation or dream for the future, achieving success comes down to a few basic factors that will likely shape your future.

-- Know what you want. Build your dream, craft your vision, write down your goals and then create a plan. Whether or not you ask for advice, never let someone talk you out of something that you have your heart set on doing. As I always say, believe in yourself even when no one else does.

-- Search for creative approaches. Sticking to the old formula will produce old results. If you can find a new or better way to build the proverbial mousetrap, more power to you. Even little tweaks and bright ideas can make the difference.

-- Avoid comparisons. You have goals and aspirations that have little to do with what your friends, neighbors or colleagues are doing. Focus on what you are trying to accomplish and your plan for making that happen.

-- Cultivate patience. Worthwhile success takes time. If you’re in a rush, you’ll cut corners and ignore warning signs. Take a step-by-step approach that’s focused on long-term results. Go for quick wins only when they’re realistic and valuable.

-- Cut out negative self-talk. Perfection often gets in the way of achievement. Successful people stick to a path of continual growth and self-improvement; they are constantly working to become a smarter, better version of themselves.

-- Admit your mistakes. Failure/mistakes are not fatal. When they happen, learn from them. Figure out what went wrong, if you can. Then pick yourself up, get back on your feet and keep moving forward.

-- Don’t go it alone. Network. Get involved with a group or professional organization of individuals in your field. Include people at all stages of their careers. Stay connected through social media channels, and make an effort to meet in person regularly. Don’t take these relationships for granted.

Life should teach you who you are, Oprah Winfrey said in a commencement address at Wellesley College. The media mogul and former talk-show host says for a long time she spent her life wanting to be someone else. She recalled wanting to be like legendary television personality Barbara Walters, and discovered she was not when she could not pronounce “Barbados” on air.

She said she started to laugh on air, which was not very Barbaralike. From that moment on, Oprah says she knew that she could be a better Oprah than a Barbara, and she decided to pursue just being herself once and for all.

Her phenomenal success was the result of being “demoted” from news anchor to talk show host. She said, “I am just thrilled that I get paid so much money every day for just being myself. But it was a lesson long in coming, recognizing that I had the instinct, that inner voice that told me that you need to try to find a way to answer to your own truth, was the voice I needed to be still and listen to.”

Mackay’s Moral: Success is the difference between jumping on the bandwagon and leading the band.

Have you ever heard the expression “seeing the elephant”? It’s an expression that came out of the California gold rush. Those planning to go west in search of gold announced to their friends that they were “going to see the elephant.” Those who turned back discouraged claimed they had seen “the elephant’s tracks” or the “elephant’s tail,” and admitted that view was sufficient.

The Oxford Dictionary defines it this way: “to see the elephant: to see life, the world, or the sights; to get experience of life, to gain knowledge by experience.”

Here’s my take on it: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Or take the road yourself and see what you learn. Of course, it’s a lot easier to learn from others’ mistakes, and often much less costly.

But for most of us, we have to experience things for ourselves. When the outcome is good, we call it a successful experience. But when things don’t work out as we hoped, we call it a “learning” experience.

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. It is an expensive teacher sometimes. Experience is the dividend you get from your mistakes. Reportedly, Thomas Watson, an early CEO of IBM, was asked if he was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost IBM $600,000.

He said, “No, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody else?”

I’ve always said if you want to triple your success ratio, you have to triple your failure rate! I would submit that we learn as much from our failures as we learn from our successes. That may sting a bit, but there is no free tuition in the school of experience. Every time you graduate from the school of experience, someone thinks up a new course.

Consider the man who asked his boss why three other people were promoted past him. He said, “Boss, I have 20 years of experience in this job.”

The boss replied, “No, you don’t have 20 years of experience. You have one year of experience 20 times. You’ve been making the same mistakes since you first started.”

Some learn from experience. Others never recover from it.

And the most important lesson we should learn from our experiences is that we can move past failures and put the errors to work, preparing us for better days ahead. Realize that the lessons learned are valuable, even if they are embarrassing, depressing or seemingly insurmountable. Giving in to failure is letting the bad experience win.

As tempting as it can be to want to forget about bad experiences, don’t. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The past should be a guidepost, not a hitching post. Use those difficult lessons to demonstrate your resilience and ability to learn from your mistakes.

Even better, learn from the mistakes of others. I strongly encourage newcomers to connect with a mentor and extend that advice to folks at all stages of their careers. The experience you can absorb is priceless, and the guidance that might prevent you from having too many bad experiences is invaluable.

Here's a story to further illustrate my point: The promoter for a local boxing champion arranged a match with an opponent he had never seen. He had simply asked for an experienced fighter. On the day of the fight, a middle-aged man with a crooked nose, a punch-drunk manner and two huge cauliflower ears arrived in the dressing room. The promoter was aghast.

“I asked for an experienced fighter,” he complained, “but not a damaged one.”

Experience is a good teacher, but a hard one. It gives the test first and the lesson afterward. Experience enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.

Mackay’s Moral: There is no free tuition in the school of experience.

The dominant sports media personality in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for most of the last 75-plus years never played any of the games he wrote about and never made it to college, much less journalism school. But he became one of the most popular newspaper and radio personalities in town, with a broadcast style that was no more polished than his writing style. And he blew away all competitors because of his network of relationships and pure doggedness.

Sid Hartman went to that great stadium in the sky on Oct. 18, at age 100. Affectionately known around Minnesota and the entire sports world by his first name, Sid may never make it to any sports Halls of Fame, but if they ever get around to building a Networking Hall of Fame, he would be the first one they would call.

Sid never quit working and scooping his competitors. If you demonstrated any athletic talent in Minnesota, he knew who you were by the time you were in high school, because he called you. You became fodder for his column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, or he interviewed you on one of his innumerable sports shows on radio or TV. He kept calling. He followed you through high school. He knew your background, your record, your coach. He tracked you through college. He tracked you through the pros. He even tracked you when your athletic career was over.

Once you were a part of Sid’s team, you never got cut. You were a part of it for life, as I was for 70 years. You became a “close personal friend,” his reference to anyone in his vast network. He knew more about athletes, coaches and owners than any sportswriter anywhere. And when some of these people became really big-time pro stars, coaches and executives, he had greater access to them -- and often to other stars through them -- than anyone else because he dug his well before he was thirsty.

Talent is a gift, but like many gifts, we often take it for granted. If Sid Hartman had applied equal energy, dedication, and perseverance to another career -- such as sales -- I’m positive he would have achieved the same great success he attained as a sportswriter.

Competition is what made Sid Hartman the best sports reporter around. He hated to get beaten to a scoop. Sid was an inspiration not only to legions of sports personalities, but also to his readers and listeners, who appreciated his work ethic and dogged pursuit of a good story. He understood that slacking off would take away his edge. He saw sports reporting as a competition in itself. He almost always won.

No matter what industry you are in, competition is healthy. It keeps you sharp. It improves quality. Competition is like exercise; it makes you better.

Many people don’t seek out competition because of the fear of losing. They give up too easily and then never really find out how good they can be. Welcome competition so you can gauge how good you are and where you need to improve. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.

I like to say, if you can’t win, make the person ahead of you break the record.

Outsmarting the competition has taken on a whole new meaning, with competition being stiffer than ever. As we watch longtime successful businesses crumble under economic pressure, we must constantly look for ways not only to survive, but to thrive.

Consider the two hikers who spotted a mountain lion stalking them. One of the hikers calmly sat down, took off his hiking boots and began putting on his running shoes.

“What good are those shoes going to do you?” asked his buddy. “You can’t outrun a mountain lion!”

Lacing up his shoes, the friend responded, “I don’t have to outrun the lion. I just have to outrun you.”

Sid outran the lions every day. He was a competitor to the end.

Mackay’s Moral: The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it’s competition.