My friend the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar liked to tell the story of his friend Walter Hailey. Although he became a star salesman, Hailey's early career in insurance sales was rough. He endured frustration, anxiety, slammed doors, low sales figures and uncertainty about his future.

One day he grew so discouraged that he went to his boss and told him that he was going to quit. His boss's response? "You can't."

Hailey repeated that he was quitting. The manager repeated, "You can't."

Angry now, Hailey shouted, "Yes, I can!"

His manager replied, "Walter, you can't get out of the insurance business because you have never really gotten into the insurance business."

The words hit Hailey like a ton of bricks. For the first time in his life he realized that you can't get something out of an endeavor if you never put anything into it. Or as Zig put it, "There are many people who 'join' a sales organization but never get into the business of selling."

As the job market has fluctuated over the last decade, attitudes toward work have changed too. People who have jobs they love consider themselves lucky. But studies have found that up to 70 percent of workers indicated a dislike for their jobs. That's unbelievable! Do you think their hearts are in their work?

Or do you suppose they could find something in that job that would inspire them to do their best?

Harry S Truman was a no-nonsense U.S. president whose attitude toward life was summed up in this sentence: "I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work."

Will Rogers had plenty of witty sayings, but my favorite was what he said about success: "In order to succeed, you must know what you are doing, like what you are doing, and believe in what you are doing."

Let's dig a little deeper into that wisdom.

Know what you are doing. Winners prepare, apply themselves and work to become the best at what they do. They are willing to do what others refuse to do. They have a grasp of the situation and the challenges involved. They make the necessary adjustments and learn the important skills.

Like what you are doing. The bottom line is not doing what you like, but liking what you do. There are good and bad parts of every job, and if the good doesn't outweigh the bad, you are in the wrong job. Most organizations do not have tailor-made jobs designed for specific preferences. They have jobs that need to be done, and need committed people who are willing to do their level best to be successful.

Believe in what you do. Forget the job description, the title and the salary. Focus on what you can accomplish. Trust me, an employer can easily tell the difference between the workers who are there for something to do and those who are there to really do something.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Remember, your first job was probably not your dream job. Maybe your second job wasn't either. But the lessons you learned early on were invaluable in terms of seeing how the world works. Keep learning! The only limit to success is the amount of effort you are willing to invest.

One of my mentors, Curt Carlson, who founded Carlson Companies (now known simply as Carlson), used to tell me: "You work the first five days of the week to keep up with the competition. It's on Saturdays and Sundays that you get ahead of them."

That attitude was not unique to Curt Carlson. I met the son of Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn, some years ago, and he shared this story with me about his father. Kemmons Wilson never finished high school, yet his high school later invited him to give the commencement address.

He got up in front of the students and said: "I really don't know why I'm here. I never got a diploma, and I've only worked half-days my entire life. I guess my advice to you is to do the same. Work half-days every day. And it doesn't matter which half ... the first 12 hours or the second 12 hours."

Mackay's Moral: There are many formulas for success -- but none of them work unless you do.

Some people walk into a room and all heads turn. When they begin to speak, people are mesmerized. They instantly gain respect and trust. In a word, they have charisma, one of the most desirable and enviable qualities in the world.

What is charisma? It's hard to define, but it is many things, including likability. If you want to influence people, they must like you and respect you. But charisma is so much more. I believe the definition is found in the letters of the word itself.

Confidence -- Confidence doesn't come naturally to most people. Even the most successful have struggled with it in their careers. The good news is that you can develop confidence, just like any muscle or character trait, if you're willing to work hard. Charismatic people believe in themselves, and share that confidence with the people around them. We want to follow leaders who believe they (and we) can do anything. Don't ignore obstacles, but focus on what you can achieve.

Happiness -- I believe we were born to be happy. The happiest people I know are not the richest or the most attractive or even the best at what they do. The happiest people are those who discover that what they should be doing and what they are doing are the same things. True happiness lies in satisfaction, which is an essential element of charisma. People who are happy are much more pleasant to be around. And they tend to spread happiness.

Authenticity -- Be real, be yourself, be consistent. When people know what to expect from you, they are more comfortable approaching you. Even if there may be disagreement or difference of opinion, they know whom they are dealing with, and that you have values and standards that are constantly demonstrated.

Respect -- Charismatic people not only command respect, they offer it in return. You will never meet a charismatic bully -- no one likes to be pushed around. I think that one of the most important skills to master is learning how to respectfully disagree with someone. Even when you don't agree with people, or you want them to do something different, you should give supporters, potential allies and even adversaries your full attention when they're speaking. Show that you respect their viewpoint, and they'll more readily listen to you and your ideas.

Interest -- Are you the person who walks into a room and announces, "Here I am!" or are you more likely to say, "It's so good to see you!" Putting the emphasis on others is not only charming, it's a wonderful way to acknowledge that they are important to you.

Smile -- It's so simple, yet so significant. People like to be around pleasant people, and nothing communicates a sunny disposition better than a smile.

Mannerisms -- Body language must match speech. Watch how charismatic people walk into a room, how they shake hands, how they hold themselves while listening to others. Good posture and confident body language can win people over on a subliminal level.

Attitude -- The late Steve Jobs, the computer genius who co-founded Apple, was a very charismatic leader of technical people. When his group was designing Apple's Macintosh computer, Jobs flew a pirate flag over his building. Its purpose? To signify his team's determination to blow the competition out of the water. He demonstrated the kind of can-do attitude that is contagious -- with confidence in the people around him to produce successful results. Such validation makes a leader very charismatic indeed.

"The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with people," President Theodore Roosevelt said. I believe that statement is timeless. I have never met a successful person who hasn't figured out how to get along with others.

To that end, I have relied on the guidance of two of my favorite authors throughout my career. Here are a couple nuggets of their wisdom:

Norman Vincent Peale, author of "The Power of Positive Thinking," said, "Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them."

Dale Carnegie, author of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," said: "You can win more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you."

I recommend you put these two authors at the top of your reading -- or re-reading -- list.

Mackay's Moral: Charisma is likability on steroids.

When you are fired, you're rejected -- it's as simple as that. It's the end of the road for that job. But it might put you on the superhighway to the Super Bowl!

Look no further than Gary Kubiak, who is the newest poster child for rebounding from adversity. He was fired as head coach of the NFL's Houston Texans in the middle of the 2013 season, when the team won only two of 16 games. If you had predicted that less than two years later, he would coach the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl championship, people would think you were delusional. But good things happen to people with experience who continue to work on improvement.

Professional sports, entertainment and the business world are filled with stories of people who got second, third, fourth and more chances. That's because there is no substitute for experience.

Kubiak also exhibited a strong leadership trait in loyalty. He brought seven assistant coaches from his previous head-coaching job in Houston with him to Denver, and he also signed a few players who were cut from his previous team after he left.

It's interesting that the two competing coaches in last year's Super Bowl -- Bill Belichick of New England and Pete Carroll of Seattle -- were both fired from previous jobs as well.

I interviewed Bill Belichick for my 2004 book "We Got Fired! … and It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Us." Belichick was axed by the Cleveland Browns after the 1995 season and became head coach of the New England Patriots in 2000, after Pete Carroll had the job for three seasons and was fired.

Belichick said: "I think every game, every week, every year is a great experience. I'd say I've learned every year I've been in the league no matter what capacity it's been in. Hopefully I'll keep learning. I've got a lot to learn." And this from one of only two NFL coaches with four Super Bowl championships.

One thing Belichick mentioned, which I also heard Gary Kubiak talk about, was about delegating. Belichick said that he learned to delegate more with the Patriots, focusing more time and energy into some bigger-picture things and less on the details.

After a small stroke during a game in 2013, Kubiak also said he has learned to delegate more and not be a control freak, as he was in his previous job. He empowered veteran players to make decisions and impose team policy. It helps that he inherited a veteran team, including his quarterback, Peyton Manning.

Yes, the same Peyton Manning who won a Super Bowl in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts and was also later "fired" when the Colts were able to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

For the rest of us, getting fired may not be as public an affair. So it's important to figure out why you were fired. Most people are mistaken in their beliefs about why they lost their jobs. Some will say that they're failures, others that their boss had it in for them, and others that they were sure their career ended because of a faux pas they made at the company picnic.

Often, firing is a straightforward cost-cutting measure. When you're fired, it's easy to weave fantasies and imagine villains. But if you are going to spend even an hour feeling miserable, make sure that you are miserable for the right reason.

Tony Dungy, whom I was instrumental in recruiting to the University of Minnesota and who was recently elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is another Super-Bowl-winning coach who was fired. For the record, he coached the Indianapolis Colts to the 2007 championship after being fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dungy said: "When I got my first head coaching job at 40 years old, I thought I was ready. I was shocked at how much better I was at 47."

"Because you get fired doesn't mean you were a bad coach," Tony added. "It doesn't mean you weren't smart. It means it just wasn't the right situation."

Mackay's Moral: The way to douse a firing is to use what you have learned for an even better hiring.