Dale Carnegie believed that by using charm, confidence and a good smile, anyone can climb the ladder of success. Read this article on 'How to Succeed' covered by 'The Economist'.
Dale Carnegie believed that by using charm, confidence and a good smile, anyone can climb the ladder of success. Read this article on 'How to Succeed' covered by 'The Economist'.
The Most Attractive Hyderabad Call Girls Kothapet 𖠋 6297143586 𖠋 Will You Mis...
Dale Carnegie believed that by using charm, confidence and a good smile, anyone can climb the ladder of success. Read this article on 'How to Succeed' covered by 'The Economist'.
1. More from The Economist
Subscription
Log in or register
World politics Business & finance Economics Science & technology Culture Blogs Debate Multimedia Print edition
Dale Carnegie
Comment (1)
Print
How to succeed
E-mail
Reprints & permissions
Folksy tips from the father of self-help in America
Nov 2nd 2013 | From the print edition
Like
100
Tweet
17
Advertisement
Recent Activity
Sign Up
C reate an account or Log In to see what your friends
Self-Help Messiah: Dale Carnegie and Success in Modern America. By Steven Watts.
Other Press; 582 pages; $29.95 and £21.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
RUNNING US Steel at the turn of the 20th century, Charles Schwab was perhaps the first
person in America to earn a salary of $1m a year. What made him so successful? Was he a
genius? No. Did he know more about steel than other people? Certainly not. So how did he
get ahead? Schwab knew how “to make people like him,” observed Dale Carnegie. With
charm, confidence and a good smile, anyone can climb the ladder of success.
This was the promise of Carnegie’s landmark book, “How to
Win Friends and Influence People”. Published in 1936, amid
the struggle of the Great Depression, it was an instant hit,
selling out 17 editions in its first year. “Be hearty in approbation
and lavish in praise,” Carnegie advised. Riches and
happiness will follow.
Johnson: Do different languages confer different pers
19,473 people recommend this.
The American right-of-way
2,058 people recommend this.
Get a life
28,569 people recommend this.
The lottery of life
33,152 people recommend this.
In this section
Facebook social plugin
Why a strategy is not a plan
Rocky royalty
How to succeed
Follow The Economist
Blue flower
Man of the moment
Carnegie’s crusade of personal reinvention “helped redefine
Reprints
the American dream and plotted a new pathway by which to
get there,” writes Steven Watts, a historian at the University of
Missouri, in an insightful and comprehensive new biography.
Related topics
Carnegie got rich selling a brand of homespun wisdom (“Make
United States
the other person feel important”), but his message of selfAndrew Carnegie
presentation helped people navigate the rules of a changing
workplace. In a modern consumer economy Victorian virtues
of thrift, self-denial and a strong moral character had little value. Meanwhile a new figure had
arrived on the scene: the white-collar executive, who spent his days juggling meetings and
managing bureaucracy. If success came from knowing how to deal with people, Carnegie
—in folksy, brisk and inspiring language (“watch the magic work”)—offered a template for
action.
Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
New film: "The Counsellor":
Indefensible
Prospero - 29 mins ago
Quick Study: Sexual violence in
Britain: When is it rape?
Prospero - 1 hour 20 mins ago
Unconventional monetary policy:
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
2. action.
Monetary policy has not been ultra-loose
Free exchange - 2 hours 49 mins ago
Born into a poor family in rural Missouri in 1888, Carnegie learned many of these lessons
the hard way. His parents were pious, hard-working and broke. When he arrived at university
he was rough-edged and insecure, and got teased about his sugar-bowl ears. But after
hearing a couple of speechifiers tell their mesmerising rags-to-riches tales, he threw himself
into public speaking, eager to make his name.
Focus: Pension funds
Graphic detail - 2 hours 57 mins ago
This week's Economist: A selection of
stories from the current edition
A stint peddling meat in South Dakota gave him insight into the evolving role of a salesman
in an age of consumer abundance. Sales involved not only meeting the practical needs of
consumers, but also promising a better life. Carnegie found that a more artful form of
salesmanship—which included establishing personal relationships with people—worked
best.
Newsbook - 3 hours 4 mins ago
The Economist explains: What’s the
point of the Commonwealth?
The Economist explains - Nov 14th, 23:50
A hayseed with a Midwestern twang, Carnegie arrived in New York in his 20s with the usual
mix of big dreams and shallow pockets. He craved the life of an actor, but settled for
teaching evening public-speaking classes at a small YMCA in Manhattan. His tips for getting
ahead popularised new psychological theories about human motivation and the
unconscious. When dealing with people, Carnegie would say, “We are not dealing with
creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.” His classes became so
popular that he soon codified his lessons into a successful national business.
Health care in America: An insideroutsider problem
Democracy in America - Nov 14th, 22:32
More from our blogs »
Most popular
Some critics saw his approach to empathy as cynical, as if all kindness was lubrication for
personal advancement. Others criticised his flimsy grasp of politics and economics (he was
Recommended
often “startlingly naive”, writes Mr Watts). Yet Carnegie operated with a Midwesterner’s
sincerity, believing people could improve, mistakes could be fixed and even names could be
changed. His own had been Carnagey before he tweaked it to sound like Andrew Carnegie,
a powerful industrialist.
With the end of the second world war America entered a new era of prosperity. But material
advantages did not yield personal fulfilment. Once again, Carnegie harnessed the Zeitgeist
with another blockbuster book: “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” (1948). In snappy
prose, he insisted that the way ahead was to seize the moment, letting go of “dead
yesterdays” and “unborn tomorrows”. Readers were pushed to pursue meaningful work and
to try to please others. “When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.”
Carnegie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and died in 1955, aged 66. But his views about
success live on. More than 8m students have graduated from his business-communications
class, including Lee Iacocca and Warren Buffett in the 1950s. “How to Make Friends and
Influence People” has sold over 30m copies worldwide; it still sells in the six figures annually.
But Carnegie’s biggest legacy is as the “father of the self-help movement”, writes Mr Watts.
Finding personal satisfaction is no easy thing, Carnegie acknowledged. But it is always best
to begin with a smile.
From the print edition: Books and arts
Recommend
24
Like
100
Tweet
Submit
to reddit
View all comments (1)
The week ahead:
November 8th 2013
To host or not to host
2
The Communist Party plenum: Behind closed
doors
3 The Central African Republic: Ever darker
4 Church and town: Throwing atheists under the
bus
5 Learning from past civil wars: Hard and bloody
lessons for Syria
Commented
1
Arab conspiracy
theories
A Western plot to dish
the Arabs
2
3
4
17
1
5
Cycling v cars: The American right-of-way
Circumcision and the law: A clash of
entitlements
The Economist explains: Why is Northern
Ireland part of the United Kingdom?
America and Iran: Bazaar rhetoric
Add your comment
Advertisement
More from The Economist
The evolution of beauty:
Face the facts
Prostitution in Germany:
A giant Teutonic brothel
Millions shop for a spouse...and
Singapore Airlines: Say
goodbye to the world's
longest…
Multilingualism: Johnson: Do different
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
3. much more: Bare branches
languages confer different personalities?
Typhoon Haiyan: Worse than hell
Property in China: Haunted housing
Russia's economy: The crumbling
Kremlin?
The Economist explains: What's the
point of plastic banknotes?
Products & events
Stay informed today and every day
Get e-mail newsletters
Subscribe to The Economist's free e-mail
newsletters and alerts.
Related items
TOPIC: United States »
TOPIC: Andrew Carnegie »
Health care in America: An insider-outsider
problem
NATO’s future: Back to basics
ICE buys NYSE-Euronext: The end of the street
Follow The Economist on Twitter
Subscribe to The Economist's latest article
postings on Twitter
Philanthropy: The joy of giving—especially if
you're rich
An A-Z of business quotations: Hard work
Letters: On the Carnegie Corporation,tiny nations,
crime rates, Japan, nuclear power, Weinergate
Follow The Economist on Facebook
See a selection of The Economist's articles,
events, topical videos and debates on Facebook.
Advertisement
›
Want more? Subscribe to The Economist and get the week's most
relevant news and analysis.
› Top 10 MBAColleges
›
› 10 Stocks to Buy
›
› Best Annuity Funds
›
› Mortgage
›
› High-yield CD Rates
›
› Equity Income Mutual Funds
Advertisement
Classified ads
Economist
(Reference:
GLA2039)
Jobs.economist.com
Director UNIC EF
Office of Research
D2
Director, C enter
for International …
Jobs.economist.com
Jobs.economist.com
Sections
United States
Britain
Europe
China
Asia
Americas
EUROPEAN BID
SUPPORT
MANAGER
Jobs.economist.com
Blogs
Americas view
Analects
Babbage
Banyan
Baobab
Blighty
Senior
international
experts for de…
Jobs.economist.com
Research and insights
Topics
Economics A-Z
Special reports
Style guide
The World in 2013
Which MBA?
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com