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How to Win Friends & Influence People

"How to win friends & influence people"

Have you ever read the book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’? Believe it or not (and for some, believing this is easier than for others ; ) I was a total dickhead until I was 19. I was selfish, arrogant, mean, and proud of it. And then one intoxicated college evening when I was being especially asshole-ish, my good friend Alexis ripped me a new one in a 10-minute soliloquy of drunken truth that laid bare every crappy part of my character and conduct. 

The Turning Point

It marked the most important turning point in my life. It awoke a nascent part of me that was terribly ashamed of being the person that she described. I decided to be better. But I didn’t know where to start, so I went to the bookstore (yes, there were bookstores back then in places called malls).

In the self-help section, I stumbled across a book I had never heard of: “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. The title was anachronistic and even seemed a little manipulative, but I decided to check it out anyway.

It ended up being the most important book I had read up until that point in my life. It launched me on my path of self-development and service to others. The path I walk today. As such it rightfully deserves its place as #1 in my series, The Books That Shaped Me.

I like to say that if the Dalai Lama and a door to door salesman got together to write a book, How to Win Friends and Influence would be the result. It’s a marvel of intuitive human nature,  kindness, and fellowship…which just so happens also makes you successful in life.

Dale quotes a Quaker proverb that I have kept close to me for 17 years and now I share it with you:

I expect to pass through this world but once. 
Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature,
let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it, 
for I shall not pass this way again.

What books have shaped you? #booksthatshapedme

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