#541 the hook

If he were still alive, today would be Dale Carnegie's birthday.  Even if you are not one of the millions who have participated in his training, it's likely that you know his name and could even associate it with his best selling book: How to Win Friends and Influence People.  

Dale Carnegie Training is still offered today as a way to increase self-confidence and strengthen communication skills.  Those sound like quite contemporary topics, but what is astonishing to me is that he began his training in 1912!  Carnegie was born in 1888 and was way ahead of his time in offering self-help before there were hundreds doing so.

Much of Carnegie's work is centered around being focused on the perspective of the other person, rather than yourself.  One of his quotes to illustrate this:

"I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms.  So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted.  I thought about what they wanted.  I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream.  Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish."

Take Carnegie's advice to heart today and win some friends of your own.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

Source:  Wikipedia