Master Your Mindset

How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

“If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.” ~ Dale Carnegie.

Dale Carnegie offers straightforward guidance for maximizing the benefits of utilizing the concepts in his book.

They are as follows:

  1. Develop a deep, driving desire to master the principles of human relations.
  2. Read a chapter twice before going on to the next one.
  3. As you read, frequently stop to ask yourself how you can apply each suggestion.
  4. Underscore each important idea.

5. Review this book each month.
6. Apply these principles at every opportunity. Use this volume as a working handbook to help you solve your daily problems.
7. Make a lively game out of your learning by offering a friend a small wager each time they catch you violating one of the principles.
8. Check weekly on the progress you are making. Ask yourself what mistakes you have made, what improvements, and what lessons you have learned for the future.
9. Keep notes showing how and when you have applied these principles.

Breaks down into four distinct parts:

Part Three: How to Win People To Your Way of Thinking

  1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
  2. Show respect for other person’s opinions. Never say “you’re wrong .”
  3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
  4. Begin in a friendly way.
  5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
  6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
  7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
  8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view. 
  9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
  10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
  11. Dramatize your ideas. 
  12. Throw down a challenge.

Part Four: Be a Leader: How To Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment 

  1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
  2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
  3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person. 
  4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
  5. Let others save face.
  6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. 
  7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. 
  8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. 
  9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

How To Win Friends & Influence People has sold millions of copies, is a quick and easy read with simple and actionable steps you can take to shift your mindset and create more opportunities for yourself and others. If you haven’t read it already I’d highly recommend diving into it for yourself; it’s one of those books you can reread for years to come and always get some timely wisdom from. 

As Carnegie puts it, “The more you get out of this book, the more you’ll get out of life!”