Griffin Speaks

How to Win Friends and Influence People

When I was sixteen years old my family moved from Tarboro, North Carolina to Raleigh, North Carolina. The kids across the street from me were zoned for Broughton Senior High School and I was zoned for Garner Senior High School located in Garner, North Carolina. When I arrived at my new school I did not know anyone. I was a complete stranger to the 1000 plus student population.

Since I had been student body president of my elementary school and junior high school I always dreamed of becoming student body president of my high school. It now seemed like an impossible dream since I had moved to a totally strange school. I almost won student body President at my new high school because of knowledge I gained from a paperback book that I found at a yard sale.

The book changed my life. It is a book that I have read over a hundred times. It is a book that I continue to read. A book that has made a tremendous difference in my life. The book is “HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE” by Dale Carnegie.

The best seller that presents—Six Ways of Making People Like You * Twelve Ways of Winning People to Your Way of Thinking * Nine Ways to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment * Seven Rules for Making Your Home Life Happier *, has sold millions of copies throughout the years.

By the time I met and married Debra I had perfected the rules that I learned from this book. Debra has to this day been incredibly impressed with the quality and number of close friends that I am honored to call friends.

The book started me on a road to success and happiness. It helped me to arouse enthusiasm among people that I met. It made the principles of psychology easier for me to apply in daily situations. It helped me to become a better speaker and a more entertaining conversationalist. I have been able to handle complaints, avoid unnecessary arguments and keep my human contacts smooth and pleasant. I have used the knowledge from this book to enhance my earning power. My ability to influence people and get things done is the result of mastering the rules set forth in this book. I have been successful in winning people to my way of thinking easily because of this book. This book got me out of a mental rut gave me new thoughts, new visions and new ambitions.

Debra is always impressed how my friends roll out the red carpet wherever we travel and visit them. She finds it incredibly amazing that all of my close friends are better looking and wealthier than me. She always asks me “How do you get these type people to fall all over you when they have so much more than you?” Each time she poses that question I refer her back to Dale Carnegie’s book.

These are a few of the rules that I have mastered to perfection: 1.) The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. 2.) Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell another person that they are wrong. 3.) If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically. 4.) When you wish to win people to your way of thinking always begin friendly. 5.) Always 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 ideal is his. 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 nobler motives. 11.) Dramatize your ideas. 12.) Throw down a challenge.

If you take the time to read this book and master the rules as set forth in it your life will change for the better. Take it from a man that has a wonderful life in part because he stumbled across a paperback book at a yard sale that changed his life.

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to www.greggriffin.com