How to Win Friends and Influence People - A Personal Analysis Essay

How to Win Friends and Influence People - A Personal Analysis â€Å"The more you get out of this book, the more you’ll get out of life.† This is the claim that Dale Carnegie makes in reference to his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie proposes that there are four main ideas that one should use when dealing with people: 1) Know how to handle people, 2) Make people like you, 3) Win people to their way of thinking, and 4) Be a leader. These skills are essential not only in being a good manager, but also in dealing with people in day to day life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1) Fundamental Techniques in Handling People   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first thing one must know when handling people is â€Å"don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.† When you criticize someone, you put yourself at a level above them. Even if you get your point across, the only thing that will come of the situation is that the other person will have a feeling of remorse and you will have bruised their self-esteem. Often times I’ve been involved in group projects in school where I have been paired up with people who have a very different method of doing things. I tend to think that my way of doing things is the most efficient; however I don’t shoot down the ideas of others. Rather, I try to understand where they were coming from and find a way work together. This is exactly the point that Carnegie is trying to get across.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next tip is â€Å"give honest and sincere appreciation.† A recurring theme in this book, is that people want to feel like they are important. There is a driver forcing you to do everything in life. For example, as a chairperson of the Business Week publicity committee, I am working hard to promote the Business Week activities and increase attendance using creative tactics. When people show up to events because of a promotion I created, it makes me feel important and gives me a sense of fulfillment. Such is the case when dealing with others. If they know they are appreciated, they will feel important and will continue doing a good job in the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  And finally, â€Å"arouse in the other person an eager want.† Find what it is that gives a person their sense of importance. And utilize that knowledge to drive them to want to do their job to the best of their ability. When I in high school, I used to baby-sit children. Often the most difficult part of the evening was getting the kids to... ...l work harder, take pride in their task, and in turn they will do a better job. â€Å"Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.† As a waitress, customers would sometimes complain about the speed of the service. Although this was often times the fault of the cooks, it reflected poorly on me to the customers. I couldn’t find a tactful way to tell the cooks to hurry up, so I took a different approach. One day, there was a new waitress on duty and I noticed a cook made an order especially fast. I made the comment both to the cook and the new waitress at what a great job this cook does and how you can always count on him to get orders out fast. From then on he took pride in being the â€Å"fast cook,† even though that had not always been the case before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I learned a lot about myself from this book. I realized that I already incorporate a number of the principles that Carnegie preaches. I also picked up some valuable information that I know I will be able to use in the future. I feel that this book is a great learning tool and helps to cover things that students don’t necessarily learn in the classroom. In fact, I have already recommended it to a number of my friends.