How To Win Friends and Influence People – A 2017 Book Review

    ​Book number two for the year, and a great one to kick off 2017. To be honest, its not the first time I have read this classic by Dale Carnegie. But in your first reading of the book it actually instructs you to “review this book each month”.
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    Written in 1936 it is as relevant now as it has ever been (excluding the dated characters in the anecdotes including old US Presidents etc). Its broken into several sections;

Suns out.. Books Out?

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
Six Ways To Make People Like You.
How To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking
Be A Leader: How To Change People Without Giving Offence Or Arousing Resentment.

    Each section is concluded with a great conclusion of the key points called “In A Nutshell”. These are just dot points of each of the detailed and practical series of advice.

    I gave this book to a friend to read also, who had concerns that perhaps the book encourages people to be disingenuous. So I think that it is important to note that simply following instructions about going through the motions of caring is not something that works in the long term. Pretending to care is one of the great blockers to long term success, so either don’t care and take that path, or work on developing real empathy and understanding of others.

    For me the book isn’t simply a collection of steps that you can pantomime on your way to success, influence and getting people to like you, but more of an insight into human nature so that you can best give people what they want, in the way that means the most to them.

    I may be guilty of the occasional ‘rant’ from time to time, and I can get carried away with passion when I talk about things that are important to me. Likewise, I have always had a hard time with patience when it comes to explaining things to people more than two times at work, so it’s a good reminder to be patient and see things from the perspective of the other party.

    I don’t want to give the book away, and it is the kind of resource that is good to go back to and re-read from time to time, mine looks pretty worn by now. I will give my favourite “In a nutshell” tips from each chapter;

FUNDAMENTAL TECHNIQUES IN HANDLING PEOPLE.
My favourite tip: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
Ok, so I said its my favourite tip, and not something I do all the time! We are all prone to criticizing, condemning and complaining, but I certainly enjoy the reminder to reduce the amount of time we spend doing any of these.

SIX WAYS TO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU.
My Favourite tip: Become genuinely interested in other people.
Oh how I believe this one so! Not just interested for personal gain, but genuine interest in other people. Period. Imagine a world where everyone was genuinely interested in other people, people who don’t all look like you, live where you live, do what you do etc. The world would become a much better place, when misunderstanding, or a lack of understanding underpins so much fear and anger in the world, I believe that the more people that make this change the better the world would be.

HOW TO WIN PEOPLE TO YOUR WAY OF THINKING.
There are 12 tips in this one, so picking one was hard. Especially since this one is packed with stuff I have to use ALL THE TIME! So;
My Favourite Tip: Try Honestly to see things from the others point of view. 
I have always said that it is important to try to speak the language of the person who’s mind you are hoping to change, to do this you really need to see things from their point of view to start with!

BE A LEADER: HOW TO CHANGE PEOPLE WITHOUT GIVING OFFENCE OR AROUSING RESENTMENT.
My Favourite Tip: Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
If you show belief in people and set the ‘belief bar’ high often they will do better than if you set those same expectations lower. There is a saying that its more dangerous to set small goals and achieve them, than to set big ones and not quite get there. I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but I know from having been an apprentice, and having had apprentices, that when you instil a belief in them to do a task, they certainly ask less questions and usually do a better job afterwards.

    All in all, for one of the enduring ‘self help’ type books, this one is a classic, and really shows that no matter how innovative or revolutionary someone claims to be, the basic principles of adding value and paying attention to people around you in order to be successful in business, leadership and other ventures hasn’t really changed in nearly 100 years (even longer as we read through ancient texts).

    This book retails for not much in most good book shops, and I’m sure there is an audiobook of it somewhere. I think this is one that benefits particularly from hard copy, especially seeing as it is recommended that you make notes and highlight passages that matter to you as you go. 

     As a side note, my friend who borrowed this prior to some difficult work conversations did an awesome job after reading this and resolved multiple issues without any conflict with her employees, so in practice it is as good as in theory!

Enjoy your reading, enjoy the first fortnight of 2017, pay attention to those around you, and as always, Just Be Nice.

- J

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