You need not fear the big, bold and jam-packed idea

I've always considered myself quite bold when it comes to business and risk-taking. I can live with failing a few times, knowing that I will eventually be successful because I am determined to be.

I've found a like-minded colleague in Jeffrey Hayzlett, host of Bloomberg Television's "C-Suite With Jeffrey Hayz­lett" and author of an inspirational new book, "Think Big, Act Bigger."

Hayzlett embraces big and bold without apology or inhibition. "Thinking big and acting bigger is all about action and attitude: being fearless and bold, steamrolling obstacles, ignoring perceived limitations, and even being a little irrational and pigheaded at times," he writes. "I've learned it is about being relentless in all I do but especially trusting in who I am because I can."

He shared an important philosophy in an earlier book, "Running the Gauntlet," where he wrote: "No one is going to die from changes you make in business." He has since refined that idea, but the importance of the message remains.

He shares five important lessons in that vein:

• No one is going to die when you think big and act bigger, so get over yourself.

• Stop overthinking things, coming up with reasons not to do something and then playing it safe. You still might fail. And that's OK.

• Passion fuels that momentum and drowns out the negative voices in your head.

• Passion can override your fears and inhibitions, but it cannot override facts. Yet it can also lead to overindulgence, obsession and lost perspective.

"Passion comes from our hearts and guts, not our heads," he continues. "It's a strong emotion and can lead us into bad decisions and questionable actions. But it is the adrenaline we need to succeed."

My opinion is that it's OK to be passionate, but you better be good at what you're passionate about.

Hayzlett says successful leaders have to strongly identify with what they don't want as well as what they do want. Being genuine in character makes people willing to follow them even when they are pigheaded or irrational.

One of my favorites is the following story, which Hayz­lett tells in a chapter about the importance of maintaining a constant state of awareness: On a fishing trip to Canada, Hayzlett's guide served a specific brand of blueberry jam, which came in a can, and which Hayzlett liked so much that he bought a case and shipped it home to South Dakota at a very high price.

His wife was stunned. Why would he do that?

Despite his best explanation about the special jam, she was unimpressed and teased him about it over the next couple of weeks.

On a trip to their local supermarket together, she needled him again about his expensive purchase. He told her that she really didn't understand how special this jam really was. The clincher: "You can't get this anywhere else …"

And that's when she told him to turn around. There, on the shelf, was his prized jam — for $2 a can.

Mackay's Moral: Bigger risks reap bigger rewards.