BOOK REVIEW: How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
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ABOUT THE BOOK (from Amazon):
For more than sixty years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this book has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.
Now this previously revised and updated bestseller is available in trade paperback for the first time to help you achieve your maximum potential throughout the next century! Learn:
- Three fundamental techniques in handling people
- The six ways to make people like you
- The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
- The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment
MY REVIEW:
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a funny title to me. I didn’t choose this book because I’m trying to figure out how to make friends. I chose it because the staff at Buffer highly recommend it. If you’re on Pinterest and you enjoy business books, I recommend following the Buffer Books Board for ongoing reading recommendations. They do pin more than just business books, but I’ve found a lot of great business and personal development books on their Board.
This is a book you can read again and again and be challenged every time. Carnegie’s concepts are incredibly simple and yet so different from the way many of us think we need to act when in a position of authority or leadership. He discusses being humble, putting others before ourselves, listening actively, making others feel important (because, ultimately, that’s what everyone really wants), and being genuine and sympathetic.
How to Win Friends and Influence People should definitely be read by anyone in a position of leadership, but absolutely anyone would be inspired by this book. Its concepts can be applied to all relationships–business as well as personal. That’s where the title comes in, but don’t let that scare you away. It is well worth reading no matter who you are because all of us relate with a variety of different people every day and these concepts help us understand how to improve every one of those relationships.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.”
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain–and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
“Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them. Let’s try to figure out why they do what they do.”
“I have come to the conclusion that there is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument–and that is to avoid it. Avoid it as you would avoid rattlesnakes and earthquakes.”
“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.”