Harvey Mackay

Long before his name appeared on bestseller lists and in business columns across the country, Harvey Mackay was learning the value of work one small job at a time in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Born on October 24, 1932, to Jack and Myrtle Mackay, he grew up as the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants in a household tied to words, teaching, and hustle. His father, an Associated Press correspondent, headed the AP’s Saint Paul office for 35 years. His mother was a substitute schoolteacher. Mackay sold magazines door-to-door, delivered papers, shoveled snow, cut grass, clerked in a men’s store, and worked weekends as a golf caddy.

That early mix of discipline, conversation, and observation helped shape the practical tone that later made him a favorite with readers looking for career advice they could actually use. Mackay graduated from Central High School in Saint Paul in 1950, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 1954, and lettered in golf while there. He later graduated from the Stanford University Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1968. After college, he became an envelope salesperson for Quality Park Envelope Company. He also joined Minneapolis’ Oak Ridge Country Club, where golf put him in contact with area business leaders. Using those relationships, he became Quality Park’s number one salesperson.

In 1959, Mackay used his proceeds from Quality Park to buy an insolvent envelope manufacturer with 12 employees. The business became Mackay Envelope Company, and later MackayMitchell Envelope Company LLC. In 1985, the company introduced the Photopak, an envelope for processed photo prints, and became an industry leader in that product. MackayMitchell Photopak, privately owned by Mackay and Scott Mitchell, became the largest North American supplier of photo envelopes. The company grew to employ 500 people, produce 25 million envelopes a day, and reach sales of $100 million. Mackay sold Mackay Envelope Company to a management group in 2000, while remaining an equal partner and chairman.

His public profile widened sharply in 1988 with Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive, published by William Morrow and Company. The book stayed on the New York Times bestsellers list for 54 weeks and sold more than 5 million copies. More bestsellers followed, including Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, Pushing the Envelope, We Got Fired! . . . And It’s the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Us, Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door, and The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World. In all, he authored seven New York Times bestselling books, three of them number one bestsellers. His first book also launched a public speaking career, and in 1993 Toastmasters International named him one of its top five speakers in the world.

Mackay’s reach has never been limited to business. From 1977 to 1981, he chaired Minnesota’s Stadium Task Force, which lobbied for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. In 1984, he joined other Twin Cities business leaders in buying thousands of Minnesota Twins tickets to help keep the team from being sold to outside investors and relocated. He served on many boards, including the American Cancer Society in Minnesota, where he began volunteering after his mother died from cancer and later became state chairman. His weekly column, begun in 1993, offers career and inspirational advice and appears in more than 100 newspapers. Mackay’s appeal comes from clear, tested advice about selling, networking, resilience, and preparation. As one of his lines puts it, “If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.”