How To Win Friends And Influence People | Page 5

Who was he? A naive, untrained individual ready to gush over any
new theory that came along? No, Far from it. He was a sophisticated,
blasй dealer in art, very much the man about town, who spoke three
languages fluently and was a graduate of two European universities.

While writing this chapter, I received a letter from a German of the
old school, an aristocrat whose forebears had served for generations
as professional army officers under the Hohenzollerns. His letter,
written from a transatlantic steamer, telling about the application of
these principles, rose almost to a religious fervor.

Another man, an old New Yorker, a Harvard graduate, a wealthy
man, the owner of a large carpet factory, declared he had learned
more in fourteen weeks through this system of training about the
fine art of influencing people than he had learned about the same
subject during his four years in college. Absurd? Laughable?
Fantastic? Of course, you are privileged to dismiss this statement

with whatever adjective you wish. I am merely reporting, without
comment, a declaration made by a conservative and eminently
successful Harvard graduate in a public address to approximately six
hundred people at the Yale Club in New York on the evening of
Thursday, February 23, 1933.

"Compared to what we ought to be," said the famous Professor
William James of Harvard, "compared to what we ought to be, we
are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our
physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human
individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of
various sorts which he habitually fails to use,"

Those powers which you "habitually fail to use"! The sole purpose of
this book is to help you discover, develop and profit by those
dormant and unused assets,

"Education," said Dr. John G. Hibben, former president of Princeton
University, "is the ability to meet life's situations,"

If by the time you have finished reading the first three chapters of
this book- if you aren't then a little better equipped to meet life's
situations, then I shall consider this book to be a total failure so far
as you are concerned. For "the great aim of education," said Herbert
Spencer, "is not knowledge but action."

And this is an action book.

DALE CARNEGIE 1936

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Nine Suggestions on How to Get the Most Out of This Book

1. If you wish to get the most out of this book, there is one
indispensable requirement, one essential infinitely more important
than any rule or technique. Unless you have this one fundamental
requisite, a thousand rules on how to study will avail little, And if you
do have this cardinal endowment, then you can achieve wonders
without reading any suggestions for getting the most out of a book.

What is this magic requirement? Just this: a deep, driving desire to
learn, a vigorous determination to increase your ability to deal with
people.

How can you develop such an urge? By constantly reminding yourself
how important these principles are to you. Picture to yourself how
their mastery will aid you in leading a richer, fuller, happier and more
fulfilling life. Say to yourself over and over: "My popularity, my

happiness and sense of worth depend to no small extent upon my
skill in dealing with people."

2. Read each chapter rapidly at first to get a bird's-eye view of it.
You will probably be tempted then to rush on to the next one. But
don't - unless you are reading merely for entertainment. But if you
are reading because you want to increase your skill in human
relations, then go back and reread each chapter thoroughly. In the
long run, this will mean saving time and getting results.

3. Stop frequently in your reading to think over what you are
reading. Ask yourself just how and when you can apply each
suggestion.

4. Read with a crayon, pencil, pen, magic marker or highlighter in
your hand. When you come across a suggestion that you feel you
can use, draw a line beside it. If it is a four-star suggestion, then
underscore every sentence or highlight it, or mark it with "****."
Marking and underscoring a book makes it more interesting, and far
easier to review rapidly.

5. I knew a woman who had been office manager for a large
insurance concern for fifteen years. Every month, she read all the
insurance contracts her company had issued that month. Yes, she
read many of the same contracts over month after month, year after
year. Why? Because experience had taught her that that was the
only way she could keep their provisions