How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
It sounds simple – be nice to people, and they will be nice back! Treat a friend with interest and respect and guess what, they will probably do the same back. Treat employees well, and they will be more productive. Sounds simple. Yet there are still plenty of people who do things the nasty way to get what they want – and the world over businesses that treat their employees like scum in the hope of squeezing that little extra out of them. Well, such people need to read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie!
First published in 1936, this mother of all self help books as seen plenty of predecessors – yet it remains one of the most interesting and accessible guides on how to survive and thrive in a competitive and often unpleasant world. Since that first publication and Dale Carnegie’s talks all that time ago, millions of people have benefited from the simple and appealing wisdom to be found in this book. Of course no book can simply turn your life around without some effort, and although there is guidance there is no magic forumula guaranteed to work – life is no an exact science! But if you take even a quarter of the principles in this book and embed them into your life, I am willing to bet you would see some positive changes!
I had great fun trying out some of the techniques, and was delighted to see them work. I tried some out on complete strangers and the smiles were very rewarding – but I also saw relationships with people I knew improve as well. People who read this book reviews blog know I try to be a positive person – and this book is based on positive thinking, and the positive idea that you CAN appeal to people’s better natures – maybe not always, but definitely a lot of the time.
Just one example – today I had something go wrong with a website. I remember countless times before I read this book, sending snotty emails to the tech support, complaints, etc, and the problems would drag on. Well, this enquiry today, I followed some of Dale Carnegie’s advice, the problem was solved quickly and cheerfully, and everyone was happy. Now if only we could get just about everyone to read this book – what a world we’d live in!
(But you can make a start right now by ordering this book and learning how you too can win friends and influence people – or see below for some more great Dale Carnegie books 
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