Summary: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Review and Analysis of Carnegie's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782806229632
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Communication & Public Speaking

The must-read summary of Dale Carnegie's book `How to win Friends and Influence People: The All-Time Classic Manual of People Skills`

This complete summary of the ideas from Dale Carnegie's book `How to Win Friends and Influence People` shows that no matter your occupation, goals, ambitions or your position in a company, dealing with people is your biggest challenge. Therefore, if you learn how to do so effectively you will reap the rewards in terms of profitability, productivity and morale. This summary highlights how to work with rather than against people, and how to be successful in your personal and professional life.

Added-value of this summary: 
• Save time
• Understand the key concepts
• Improve your social and communication skills 
 
To learn more, read `How to Win Friends and Influence People` and discover how to motivate people and how to communicate efficiently. 

Summary of How To Win Friends And Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

Part 1
Fundamental Techniques In Handling People

1.1 If You Want To Gather Honey, Don’t Kick Over The Beehive

Main Idea

When you get the urge to criticize someone, stop and try to figure out why they say the things they do. Criticism never achieves a positive result.

Supporting Ideas

People never criticize themselves, but always rationalize that they are forced to act the way they do by factors beyond their control. Criticism is futile because it immediately puts the other person on the defensive.

Criticism is also dangerous as it fosters resentment that can smolder for years and come back to haunt us at the worst possible moment. In the long run, the short term satisfaction is not worth the long term pain.

Many studies show that people respond more completely to positive rewards than to negative scolding. Whenever you get the urge to correct someone through criticism, start on yourself. From a purely selfish point of view, you’ll gain much more.

People are creatures of logic, not reason. People are filled with passions, prejudices and contradictions. Why try to deal with a matter of emotion through the logic of reason. It just won’t work.

Key Thoughts

“God himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days.”

- Dr. Johnson

“Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean.”

- Confucius

“A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.”

- Carlyle

1.2 The Big Secret Of Dealing With People

Main Idea

People don’t have many wants, but what they want deep down they crave with all their hearts. Herein lies the key in dealing with other people - find out what it is they really want and show them how to get it. Do this for a person and they will move mountains for you.

Supporting Ideas

If our ancestors had not had a burning desire for a feeling of importance, civilization would have been impossible - we would be acting just like animals. If we can find out from what source a person draws their own personal feeling of importance, we have the key to their character.

Can you imagine the power that you hold in your control when you give people heart-felt appreciation and recognition. Correctly used, these people become highly motivated to help us do anything we want. Flattery is a pale shadow of honest appreciation, and people see right through it. The difference between flattery and appreciation is that flattery comes from the teeth out while appreciation comes from the heart. Flattery is telling the other person exactly what he wants to hear.

Key Thoughts

“Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him.”

- Emerson.

If you try, you can work out the good points in every person who crosses your path. All it takes is a bit of effort and the right attitude.

“I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

- Anonymous

“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.”

- Charles Schwab, one of the most successful American businessmen of the 1930’s.

Years ago, a teacher in Detroit asked Stevie Morris to help her find a mouse that was lost in the classroom. She knew Stevie had a marvelous gift of hearing to compensate for his blindness. This was the first time Stevie was shown appreciation for his gift, and it was the beginning of a new life for him. He went on to become Stevie Wonder, one of the most successful singers and songwrite...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of How To Win Friends And Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
• About the Summary Publisher
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