The Breakdown of: '' How to win Friends and Influence People'' by Dale Carnegie

Did you know that having fewer friends, as you grow older is more dangerous than being obese, or smoking fifteen 
cigarettes a day? 
Did you know that having a best friend at work, can make you 7 times more engaged and productive?

But regardless of the recent statistics on friendship, wouldn't it be nice to be surrounded by colleagues and customers that you can call your friends, rather than being surrounded by a group of people, you suspect are talking behind your
back?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a network of friends you could rely on, when your career doesn't go according to plan?
Wouldn't it be nice to have people that help you?

Luckily, all the tools you need to build solid friendships, strengthen your network and make people eager to help you, throughout your career, can be found in an 80 year old book.

The principles of this book are as applicable today as they were back when the book was published in 1936, and you
can be sure they will be used by your kids and your grandkids when they try to influence and win people.

Now there are many different principles that Carnegie talks about in this book but they all center around two fundamental behaviours. These are behaviours that we use everyday but we do not realise their importance. In fact, we take it for granted.

And those two fundamental behaivours are:-

1. Being Genuinely Interested in Others: 
The first fundamental behaivour to win friends is to know what the other person is interested in, and to talk about that subject matter. 
Author Dale Carnegie say's 
'' You can mek more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.'' 

To spark a genuine interest in others, make it your mission to find out, how someone spends their time and what subjects interest them. Then make their subject of interest your temporary passion. Be fascinated, about what fascinates them.

If you want to make friends and influence people, start by taking a genuine interest in the other person.

2. Give frequent praise: 
Did you ever have a teacher or boss that praised you? What was your opinion of them after that? Did you like them better or not? 

Believe it or not, people crave for appreciation almost as much as they crave food. Everyone wants to hear that they have done a great job or are a great person and an asset to us. We are all starving for appreciation. 

You should always be hearthy in your appreciation and lavish in your praise because it costs nothing but you gain so much from it. Be eager to praise others for their effort. When you notice a co-worker or employee putting in extra effort, walk over to them and praise their commitment to the team.

The best way to practise praising others is to make it a daily habit. If you are honest with your appreciation, it will get you results, whereas criticism and ridicule will push people further away.

So if you want to win friends and influence people, be genuinely interested in others and give others frequent praise. Give people the joy of talking about their interests and satisfy their craving with praise and appreciation and soon you will find yourself surrounded by friends, who are eager to help you succeed. It could not be harder.

Dale Carnegie talks about other important behaviours and if you want to learn more about that, I would encourage you to read the book and then let me know how it helped you win friends, and influence people.

This has been another Breakdown. I hope I'll see you in the next one.