Things have been busy this Spring at MackayMitchell Envelope Company.  As well I’ve given several graduation speeches the past few months.  The kids today are smarter than ever.  They use technology to keep learning and connecting with each other 24 hours a day.  They twitter, they facebook and they IM all the time.  Even when they are sitting next to each other!   Join me on Twitter. I will announce new technology connections later this summer. I hope you’ll join me. Next week I head off to Italy, but I am going to get back into the blogging habit.   Over and out.

I just returned from the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, which
more than 900 million people from around the world watched.  Since I
spend a bit of time in Arizona, I went to the game to support the
Cardinals.  Unfortunately they went down to a gripping defeat.  However,
99.9 percent of the people in Arizona are proud of the run they made.  A
lot of people say second is last but not in this case.
By attending in person, I missed all the ads but recorded the
game in its entirety, so I wouldn’t miss anything.  It always amazes me
how much a 30-second ad costs — $3 million.  However, one thing that
never gets covered in the media is that some ads cost $2 million to
produce, so the cost is really $5 million.  It was interesting to see
that a couple amateurs knocked off the pros by having the best ad for
Doritos.
I had a great opportunity last summer to play golf with Arizona
Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt.  When I came off the golf course I
said to myself, “This is a real winner.  He can’t miss long term, with
his integrity, focus, goal-oriented skills and smarts.  Of course, I
never thought he’d get to the Super Bowl this quickly.
The Sunday before the Super Bowl, I had another great
opportunity to be with Muhammad Ali and Willie Nelson when the country
singing legend performed at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix.  Over the last
dozen years, I have become close friends the former heavyweight boxing
champ, and we took our wives to the concert.  The Champ was even able to
get us backstage and meet Willie in person.

Last Wednesday, Jan. 21, I had a chance to have dinner with Bobby Knight and Brent Musberger, who were in Minneapolis for the ESPN telecast of the University of Minnesota and Purdue men’s basketball game the following night.  Joining us were Bud Grant, the former Minnesota Vikings coach.
What struck me so much is how sharp that the three musketeers were when it came to politics, sports, business or whatever subject we talked about.  They all have a marvelous sense of humor.  It was great to be with them and Sid Hartman, our local sports columnist legend.  Unfortunately, the game was forgettable, as our Golden Gophers were defeated.
When I told Bobby Knight that I had just returned from Patagonia in Chile and went fly fising, he almost fell off his chair.  It has long been one of his goals to get there.  He is an avid fisherman.  In fact, many of his close friends say Bobby would rather fish than coach.  Patagonia was some of the most scenic country I have ever seen, and the fly fishing was outstanding.  Despite living on a lake in Minnesota, I’m not much of a fisherman, but I caught dozens of large brown trout during the week we were touring on the Nomads of the Sea ship.  It was a vacation – and a dinner – I will always remember.
I’m off to the Super Bowl, so will write something about that experience next week.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved golf. Over the years, I’ve encountered many thrills. I had a couple more this past week at the U.S. Open Women’s Golf Championship at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. For people not familiar with the Twin Cities, that’s a suburb of Minneapolis.
Not only did I get a chance to witness Anika Sorenstam make eagle on her last hole of a U.S. Open, but I had the opportunity to play the course less than 24 hours after the best women golfers in the world – same tees and pin placements. I’ve been lucky enough to play Augusta National two weeks before and after the Masters. It’s incredible how tough they can make a golf course – Greens as hard as concrete. Rough as long as an African prairie.
I just wrote a column about the power of golf. Look for it in another week. It touched on how golf is a powerful networking game. 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? In the United States, an estimated $28 billion in annual sales is attributed to contracts and relationships initiated on the golf course. That’s why more than 20 million rounds of business golf will be played this year.
Golf has exploded and one of the reasons is that women are taking up the game in droves. More than 25 percent of the golfers in this country are now women, up significantly since the early ’90s. The U.S. Open crowds set records, including almost 11,000 juniors (ages 17 and below).
If you aren’t playing golf, you should consider taking it up. The least you should do is make it part of your vocabulary. After all, you can’t talk about business all the time.

Spring. The final four. Minnesotans golfing one day and snow another day. It’s amazing what we can see happen in the span of a week. I fly back to Minnesota for the Minnesota Twins Opener and it snows. Then the next day I’m watching basketball in Arizona in a short sleeve shirt. I know for me, I travel to so many different cities for speeches and it is always exciting to see the natural changes that come about this time of year. Flowers blooming. Trees starting to bud. Kids riding bikes outside. If you’re involved in business, you can relate to how quickly things change no matter what time of year. Things change quickly whether it’s facebook, plaxo or linked in or any of the other networking tools people use on the internet. I believe it’s important to use these tools but to keep making personal contact with your customers, vendors and employees. To me that means sending a birthday card, walking by and saying hello. A handwritten note with a printed article you saw means more than a forwarded email. Think of it like sending a real flower versus a virtual flower there’s no comparison.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend 25 Super Bowls, but I’d have to say this year’s game was definitely one of the top three.

When I picked up USA Today several days before the game, nine of their 10 sports writers predicted New England would win. This was the mood of the entire sports world. And just to show you how much I know about athletics, I was proud to predict that New England would bury the Giants. In fact, the day before the game I called my close friend, Lou Holtz, and told him of my prediction. He told me to stick to the envelope business. I should have known not to make a prediction to an ESPN football analyst.

I thought this Super Bowl would be like so many before it. BORING!!! I’d rather watch two guys fish. Most of the games have been over by the third quarter. Not this one. I was sitting in the Giants section, and people stood all game long. And I’m accustomed to sitting down, except for big plays.

Earlier that day, I attended a big breakfast party on Super Bowl Sunday in which Tony Dungy was one of the speakers. After the speech I went up to Tony and told him that on a scale of 1-10 – with 10 being the highest, he was a 12. It was music to his ears. The surprise of the breakfast was LaDainian Tomlinson who received the Bart Starr award, which goes to the NFL player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community. Bart Starr presented it personally. LT was so choked up that it was difficult for him to give an acceptance speech. The honor overwhelmed him.

When you see a superstar this human and humble, he serves as a great role model. And I would say of the 1,000-plus people in attendance, 25 percent had to be young kids who are impressionable. No sport has enough role models like Tony Dungy and LT.

The day before I attended a fashion show with NFL star quarterback Rodney Peete and his wife Holly, who is a superstar in her own right. The fundraiser featured the Best Damn Sports Show personalities and a bunch of celebrities modeling clothes to raise money for Parkinson’s disease. It’s great to support superstars doing work for a cause.

Now I’m off to Myanmar (Burma) for 10 days to the Cheif Executive Organization meeting… until then.

For the last six years I’ve been ringing in the holidays by volunteering as a Salvation Army bell-ringer. For years I walked past these hearty souls and threw a couple bucks in the kettle to make me feel good about myself and the great things these contributions do.

Every little bit helps. It doesn’t take that much to make a difference if we all give. That concept was reinforced dramatically when a Salvation Army representative told me that one year more than $3 million in pennies alone was collected in kettle contributions worldwide.

One thing that shocked me during my experience was the number of people who put in bills. The majority of people contributed $1s, $5s, $10s and even $20s. I thought most people would contribute loose change, especially when leaving the store. But some people contribute on the way in the store AND the way out.

A lot of parents give money to their kids to put in the kettle to teach them a valuable lesson about giving. Most of the kids are thrilled to contribute, although a few are reluctant. I’m sure they are thinking of the things they could buy with the money.

What a lesson to teach your son or daughter at an early age – to contribute to society. It reminds me of many things my parents taught me. When I was 20 years old, my father made a point of telling me that one-fourth of my life should be devoted to volunteerism. And I have followed that advice, volunteering with a variety of organizations over the years and serving on many non-profit boards.

Giving is a year-round activity. A good New Year’s resolution would be to find a worthy cause and support it wholeheartedly throughout 2008.

It’s been a busy 72 hours as I provide tips on the Mackay 66 to the internet world.  I’ve been interviewed on podcasts, radio shows and soon to be filmed on a live webcast.  It’s a great reminder to me about how the book tours I’ve done recently added a virtual component.  While I still spent time in nearly 45 cities, the email announcements were a large part of the past book tour book building.

It’s all about learning new skills.  Often with technology I ask the salesman to give me extra tips so I am better equipped to use the newest tool.  This both saves me time and gets me maximizing the technology.  I am able to learn faster when I practice and have someone better than me showing me how to use the tools.

Today I keep in touch with my kids and grandkids through email, letters, phone and Internet pictures.  What’s next for staying connected in 2008?  How do you keep in touch with your customers, family and friends?  I’d like to hear more how you keep up with the newest technology changes.

I had the great honor of speaking to the Notre Dame MBA program last Thursday, Sept. 20. I try and do one MBA program every year and have now spoken to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Michigan, USC and many more. There’s nothing like getting in front of hungry students who have had a little taste of the business world. It’s completely different from my typical raucous sales and marketing audience. You could hear a pin drop, as the students listened intently and took notes.

Being at Notre Dame brought back a lot of memories from my dozens of visits to that campus when my close personal friend, Lou Holtz, was the head football coach there. I recruited Lou to the University of Minnesota in 1984 and he followed with 11 glorious years at Notre Dame.

Even though the football team is off to a poor start, Notre Dame is a special place. As I wrote in my book, “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty,” Notre Dame has one of the three best networking alumni clubs, along with Wellesley and USC. After another trip to that campus, it’s clear to see why.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional athlete, businessperson, actor or politician.

Brian Kilmeade, cohost of Fox & Friends on the Fox News Channel, interviewed me and 90 other people for his new book, It’s How You Play The Game: The Powerful Sports Moments That Taught Lasting Values to America’s Finest. Kilmeade, author of the New York Times bestseller The Games Do Count, writes about how a defining moment in sports changed each individual’s life. Many talk about how the discipline and rules they learned on the field, prepared them to handle life and overcome adversity with dignity and sportsmanship.

Individuals featured include Arnold Palmer, Terry Bradshaw, Mia Hamm, Dorothy Hamill, Richard Nixon, Bob Dole, Gene Kelly, John Wayne, Simon Cowell, Jeff Immelt, Rush Limbaugh and many others.

My story starts on page 257 and goes back to when I was 15 years old playing in the St. Paul Open golf tournaments, which was one of the top tournaments in the country at the time.

I was having an incredible experience and was playing well when I reached the 18th hole. I looked up and saw 20,000 people – including my family and friends – standing there, watching me. It was a par five. I had a 2 iron in my hand, and I rimmed the cup for what could’ve been a double eagle. I couldn’t even see the ball. I just saw the crowd’s reaction, and I knew that something special had happened. When I got up there, I saw that the ball was just 10 inches from the cup. I couldn’t believe it. With all those people watching me, I didn’t want to seem like I had to think through a shot like that, so I just went for the tap-in, and I missed it.

I still think about that moment today. But it taught me a lesson that I still adhere to today: Never take anything for granted.