I recently listened again to How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
and took a few powerful lessons from it.
The first thing that struck me is how he starts the book almost like a YouTube video:
by establishing proof, authority, and clearly stating what’s in it for the reader.
Here are some of the key lessons from the book:
- Bring out the best in others. Don’t make them focus on the negative.
- Significant feelings drive our actions and our success.
- To get people to do things, you need to give them what they want.
- Learn people’s names. Repeat them three times when you hear them, ask how to spell them if they’re uncommon, and link the name to their identity while they speak.
- Listen. Listen. Listen.
- Always make people feel important and appreciated.
- You can’t win an argument, you can only hurt feelings.
- Take the blame to dissolve conflict.
- Ask for feedback while building something.
- Always try to see things from the other person’s point of view.
- People love to excel when faced with challenges.
- Make people feel like it was their idea.
- Make it human.
- Use praise generously.
- Make people leaders and help them feel responsible for others.
- Talk about your own mistakes to gently draw attention to others’ mistakes.
- You influence people by the way you treat them.
- Use positive reinforcement.
Everything you hear even when you’re not paying conscious attention is being registered by your subconscious.
It’s actually your subconscious that decides whether a sound is dangerous or not and whether you should focus on it.