Dale Carnegie was a famous lecturer and writer as well as the developer of very popular courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, interpersonal skills, and public speaking.
He is the author of many well-received books including “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” and “Lincoln the Unknown”.
Although born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, Dale Carnegie managed to become quite successful. He advised that you can change other people’s attitude and behavior towards you by reacting positively towards them.
Here are the 10 success lessons from Dale Carnegie – “Best-Selling Author” for entrepreneurs,
1. Avoid criticizing, condemning, or complaining
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do,” Carnegie writes. “But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
Anyone in a leadership position should acknowledge when a subordinate is not meeting expectations or when a competitor’s approach is inferior to their own, but do so in a way that acknowledges what is working, avoiding resentment and encouraging improvement.
2. Create your own emotions
“If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.”
Emotions work backwards too. You can use that to your advantage. If you are stuck in a negative emotion then you can often shake it off. Change your body – how you move, sit and stand – and act as you would like to feel. Enthusiasm and other positive emotions are much more useful and pleasurable for everyone in an interaction.
3. Be empathetic
Carnegie writes that “the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.”
He refers to a quote by Henry Ford: “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”
4. Praise others’ achievements
“Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement,” Carnegie wrote. Be lavish with praise, but only in a genuine way, he advised.
“Remember, we all crave appreciation and recognition, and will do almost anything to get it,” he said. “But nobody wants insincerity. Nobody wants flattery.”
5. Learn from your mistakes
“Admitting one’s own mistakes – even when one hasn’t corrected them – can help convince somebody to change his behavior,” Carnegie wrote.
We are mortals and hence bound to make mistakes. The trick is not to get disheartened by them but to learn useful lessons that can ensure you do not repeat them. Failure can be a stepping stone to success if we are open-minded about it and learn our lessons. Do not get stressed by mistakes and failure. Use them as an opportunity to analyze, learn and improve.
6. Encourage people to talk about themselves
Most people loosen up even in tense situations if they start talking about what they know. Namely, themselves.
Listening closely to someone “is one of the highest compliments we can pay anyone,” Carnegie writes.
7. Learn to prioritize
Effective time management is one of the keys to success. Try to complete the important and hard tasks first at the beginning of the day when you are fresh and raring to go. The easier and less important ones can be completed at leisure later on.
Use your common sense and intelligence to differentiate between the profitable and mundane tasks and prepare an appropriate time-table to complete them all within the scheduled time.
8. Do not fear “fear”
Many people are simply too scared to succeed in life. Don’t be one among them, but imagine the worst case scenario and then make plans to accept and improve it if it actually occurs that is.
Face your fears head on with the heart of a lion, soak in the pressure and continue to do a great job every day. You will begin to understand that fear is just a trick of the mind so learn to ignore it with time.
9. So, what’s in it for me?
“There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.”
If you want someone to do something then will they care about your motivation for getting this thing done? Perhaps. Often they will not have that great of an interest in what you want out of something.
They want to know what they will get out of it. So, for the both of you to get what you want out of something tell that person what’s in it for him/her. And try to be genuine and positive about it. A reason for them to do it delivered in a lame, half-assed manner may not be so persuasive. And so you both lose.
10. Love your work
You should learn to love your work which is the basic prerequisite to do a good job every day and excel in your career. If you love your daily job, work will become play and you will love every minute of the day. Plus, you will not feel like taking a holiday as you are thoroughly enjoying yourself doing your daily tasks.
So take up a profession that you like and try to make a career in it. You will feel that getting paid at the end of the month is an additional bonus to the daily joy you get from doing your job.
