How to make money and win friends

Title

Language

English

Year

1939

Subject

Conduct of life

Achievement

Success

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

1[Here is a practical suggestionHOW TO MAKE MONEY AND WIN FRIENDS THE best-selling volume in the world is the Bible, but a fortysix-year-old American named Dale Carnegie has soared to second place with his How to Win Friends and Influence People. In eight months 500,000 copies were sold. and United States bookstalls were soon swarming with similar works. Dale Carnegie was born on a Missouri farm and never saw a street car until he was twelve. To pack his mind with knowledge as a boy he went to bed at midnight with his alarm clock set for 3 o'clock. From college he went into the sandhills of Nebraska and W yarning selling correspondence courses to the ranchers •. became a schoolteacher, a motor salesman. and an actor. Then he started courses in public speaking for businessmen. and a book he wrote on the subject was adopted by the American Bankers' Association. the National Credit Men's Association. and all Y. M. C. A.'s. Nowadays more people go to Dale Carnegie for training in public speaking than attend all the extension courses of the twenty-two colleges and universities in New York City. The JANUARY, 1939 basis of How to Win Friends was a two-year survey which cost the University of Chicago and the American Association for Adult Education almost $25.000. This elicited the information that every normal adult wants (a) health and the preservation of life; (b) food; (c) sleep; (d) money and the things that money will bring; ( e) life in the bereaf ter ; ( f) sexual gra tification; (g) well-being of his children; (h) a feeling of importance. Almost all these wants are gratified. except the "desire to be important" or appreciated. and one of the secrets of winning friends. believes Mr. Carnegie, is to furnish the missing link. The late great Flo Ziegfeld scored phenomenal success as a showman because he had the knack of doing this. Often he selected for his "Follies" an unknown Cinderella. and then transformed her into a glamorous vision of mystery and seduction by the simple process of making her feel beautiful by treating her with intense gallantry and consideration. 15 Cultivate this habit of giving other people sincere appreciation and you will begin to win friends. Another Carnegie maxim is, "Arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the world with him." Andrew Carnegie, the poor Scottish lad who began work at two cents an hour and finished with a fortune of $165,000,000, once wagered his sister-inlaw $125 that he could get by return post letters from her two neglectful schoolooy sons. He wrote a cheerful letter, casually mentioning that he was enclosing five dollars, but purposely leaving the money o·ut of the envelopes. Letters from the two pen-shy boys soon arrived. Become genuinely interested in people. The individual who is not interested in his fellow men meets the greatest difficulties in life. Try to be a good listener, talk in terms of the other man's interests, and make him feel important. Show respect for the other man's opinions. Never tell him he is wrong. Socrates said repeatedly to his followers in Athens: "One thing only I know; and that is that I know nothing." And author Carnegie, who feels that he can't hope 16 to be smarter than Socrates, has quit telling people they are wrong, and finds it pays. "Most of us are prejudiced and biased. Most of us are blighted with preconceived notions, with jealousy, suspii;_ion, fear, envy, and pride. And most citizens don't want to change their opinions about religion or their hair-cut or communism or Clark Gable." If you are in the wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically. Let the other man do as much of the talking as he pleases and feel that the idea is his. Try honestly to see his point of view. Then you will be on the road to changing him to your point of view. A big problem in business is to criticize and not be disliked for it. The remedy for that is to call attention to mistakes indirectly. Employees have more regard, too, for the boss who avoids giving direct orders, secures the same result by suggestions and questions, such as "You might consider this" or "Don't you think this would work?" Petty? No. Almost everybody resents taking orders. Do you know how to spur men on to success? It is -to watch for and praise the slightest improvement. " I h a v e found," wrote Warden Lawes of Sing sing, "that the voicing PANORAMA of proper appreciation of the efforts of the inmates secures greater results in obtaining their co-operation a n d furthering their ultimate rehabilitation than harsh criticism and condemnation of their delinquencies." A boy of ten working in a factory in Naples longed to be a singer, but was discouraged by his teacher, who barked: "You can't sing. You haven't any voice at all. It sounds like the wind in the shutters." His peasant mother praised him and went barefoot to save money for his singing lessons. The boy's name was Caruso. Half a century ago a boy working in a London draper's shop usually rose at five o'clock, swept out the store, then slaved for 14 hours a day. In despair, the drudge wrote to his old schoolmaster, whose sympathy and praise were immediate. He gave the boy a job as a junior teacher. and so restored the lad's confidence in himself that he went on to fame. To-day he is renowned, has written nearly 8 0 books. and has made a fortune. Can you guess who it is? Of course, H. G. Wells. Carnegie's advice to those who would make their homes happier and fuller is to read a J.~NUARY, 1939 book on the sexual side of marriage. When How to Win Friends appeared through publishers Simon and Schuster, Sears Roebuck, a mammoth U. S. mailorder house, bought several thousand copies. In advising his Florida staff to spend two dollars on the book, W. R. Letcher, General Agent of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, wrote: "As soon as you have read it, read it again more slowly and carefully. Then make a written outline of it to impress it on your mind; then start practising its use. In a very short time it's yours, and then, as never before, the world is yours for the asking." Women have written to Dale Carnegie, thanking him for making t h e m popular and charming. Wrote one ecstatic high school girl: "On my first day in school I enjoyed a sincere, friendly, and unaffected manner, and eight boys I had never met before asked me for dates." Many readers have sent Carnegie their photographs. among them a prison warden, who forwarded "before" and "after" snapshots of himself, showing the transformation from grouch to optimist. -Michael Gelan, from Parade. 17

Media