How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
When I was in the ninth grade, I ran for student council and was desperate to win. I had an ulterior motive: I wanted to be as popular in school as my older brother Dennis, because I thought that was why he was my father’s favorite.
As the saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” I came upon Carnegie’s book and one of the principles that changed my young life—Principle 3: “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
I memorized the names of all my classmates and began to call them each by name whenever we met in the hallway, in class, or outside school. It worked! I was elected a student council member!
More important, I realized that people’s names are indeed music to their ears—and that you can learn success strategies from books! The latter discovery is responsible for all that I have become or will become.
Many years later, I continue to use this wonderful book as a reference tool. First published in 1936, it remains one of the best books on human relations ever written.
Favorite insight from the book: Always make the other person feel important.
