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| Alumni Association Home > Past Issues > 2003 > May-June 2003 | ||||||||
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5/12/2003
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| Harvey Mackay |
Mackay is also a civic leader and staunch University of Minnesota booster, recently heading up the campaign to save three Gopher sports programs faced with elimination. Mackay lettered in golf at the U and has helped raise money for U causes almost since graduation. "If you open my veins," he has said, "I bleed maroon and gold."
In early April, Minnesota caught up with Mackay outside Coffman Union, where the Annual Celebration will take place.
Q: I understand that your love for the University goes back to attending Gopher games with your father.
A: In 1939, when I was in second grade, my father started taking me to Gopher football games. We had the best seats in the house because he was the Associated Press correspondent in St. Paul. I can still remember those games as if they were yesterday. Every Sunday morning I couldn’t wait to get up and read the sports section about the game and then cut out the action photos and Scotch tape them to my bedroom wall. Ever since those early days my heart was set on attending the University of Minnesota.
Q: Did you dream of being a Gopher golfer the way some kids dream of being a Gopher hockey player?
A: From grade school on I dreamed of becoming another Ben Hogan. . . . He was my idol. My father arranged for me to take golf lessons with Les Bolstad, the legendary Gopher golf coach. From the first lesson on, I knew I wanted to play for that incredible human being.
Being a Gopher athlete meant a gazillion dollars worth of pride. It’s a little embarrassing, but I was so proud to be a Gopher athlete I wore out my M sweater and letter jacket by my senior year.
Q: How did your U experience and education help you start Mackay Envelope Company and grow it into the firm it is today?
A: My father taught me the advantages of building a super Rolodex, [and] the University was an unlimited resource of contacts. By the time I graduated, I had hundreds of long-term relationships that continue today. . . . Being a history major, and especially having Professor Harold Deutsch as my adviser, I believe positioned me to have a well-rounded outlook on life and business.
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur—I still have trouble spelling the word, but that’s what I wanted to be. I must admit, however, that when I quit my envelope sales job to buy a failing competitor, I was scared. I asked my bosses if it didn’t work out, could I have my old job back. That was in 1959, and I’m still going strong at Mackay Envelope Company, now as chairman.
Q: When did you realize you had things to share with a wider audience, through books, columns, and speaking engagements?
A: Early in my career I had a lot of unusual opportunities to speak to a wide variety of audiences. My Toastmasters training was invaluable. . . . On many occasions after my speeches, people would come up to me and ask for a copy of my speech. I told them I didn’t even have any notes. Then they asked if I had an audiotape. I said no. Then they asked if I had a book. Again I replied no, but it got me thinking. And thus Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive was born. The success of my books led to an international speaking career and to my nationally syndicated business column.
Q: You speak an average of once a week to major corporations and organizations and are working on your sixth book. You also play a mean game of golf and tennis and run a $100 million company. How do you find time to do it all?
A: I’m a time-management freak. We all start out in life with one thing in common: We all have the same amount of time. It’s just a matter of what you do with it. I honestly hate to go to sleep at night because I’m afraid I’m going to miss something.
Also, I inhale and study every time-management book that comes out [and] I surround myself with a superior staff, which allows me to find extra hours in the day.
Q: You’ve said it takes an hour of work for every minute of a speech. What do you do to prepare?
A: I have never given a speech to a corporation without doing a tremendous amount of preparation. For example, when I speak to a Fortune 500 company, I talk to a minimum of eight to 10 people [in the firm] beforehand, as well as to their competitors, customers, and suppliers. I sometimes visit some of their locations. By the time I’m introduced, I feel like I have a better feel, touch, and pulse of the audience. There is no substitute for the constant, immediate, unfiltered feedback you get from your audience.
Q: What kind of work have you been doing to get ready for your appearance at the alumni association’s 100th anniversary kickoff?
A: I’ve been going back to my U of M scrapbooks, contacting old friends, reviewing commencement speeches I’ve delivered over the years, digging into the Gopher archives, and researching college statistics, just to name a few.
Q: Without giving too much away, what can people who attend that event expect to hear from you?
A: I, along with tens of thousands of alumni, will always be thankful for the unusual opportunity we had to attend the U of M. I’ll talk about some of my experiences at the U of M and the life lessons that I learned and was able to apply during my years in the community.
Q: What can alumni do to make a difference for the University of Minnesota?
A: There are some really effortless things we can do: hanging your diploma on the office wall, introducing yourself as a University graduate when making a speech, talking to your state legislators about how much the University meant to you, advising a good student to look at the University. . . . The cumulative effect could be a tidal wave of goodwill for the University.
I often talk about teamwork, about how much more we can accomplish by working together. We couldn’t have saved Gopher sports without each of the 1,000 new donors from around the country. That’s why I stressed membership when I was the alumni association president. I know that there are now more than 50,000 members of the alumni association, but there are also 350,000 living graduates of the Twin Cities campus. Imagine what it would be like if every alum joined the association during this birthday year. I have always felt that the U of M is the crown jewel of the state of Minnesota.