📖 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Topic: Psychology | Medium: Hardcopy | Rating: 3.5/5

Summary

Despite the title sounding kind of manipulative, I believe this book helps you behave as a better person. This book serves as a great handbook on how to communicate and interact on a human-to-human level, to get out of our own heads and to understand the psychology of others.

Three takeaways

1. Align the perception of yourself with others 🤳

In becoming the best version of ourselves, we should consider how we are perceived by others. This ensures you are more thoughtful with your words and actions. If you have good intentions, why not reduce the room for misinterpretation?

“But how you respond/act on your perception on the world reveals character.”

2. Practice empathy 👟

A message repeated throughout the book is to understand the viewpoint of others. Others may be wrong and may even hurt you, but if you were them you would have done exactly the same thing. So be patient, understanding and forgiving because they are just another person in this world who wants to feel validated. And you could be unknowingly in the wrong. 😝

“Other people may be totally wrong… there is a reason why the other man thinks and acts as he does.”

3. Be of positive influence, but don’t give orders ⭐️

I think we tend to underestimate the impact of our actions on others. We have the power to transform them. But no one wants to be told what to do. People will change on their own accord. So, with your influence simply offer suggestions with sincerity; trust in them to follow their own path, and lead by example.

“If you and I will inspire the people with whom we come in contact to a realization of the hidden treasures they possess, we can do far more than change people. We can literally transform them.”