She adds, “Offices functioned like one perpetual rush session, like laboratories of aggressive showmanship.”Ĭarnegie instead insists that kindness and consideration of alternate perspectives are not signs of weakness in the workplace but are excellent ways to further one’s own goals and build relationships. “Carnegie had found that men were socialized to think that being brutish and loud was the only way to demonstrate readiness for power.” As writer Jessica Weisberg explains in The New Yorker, Perhaps one of the chief appeals of Carnegie’s book when it first arrived was that it advocated for a different form of power and influence, one predicated on kindness rather than force. What is particularly remarkable is that, despite its age and dated anecdotes, readers keep coming back to Carnegie’s book.Ī quick Google search for the title brings up numerous musings from the last few years-from articles in The New York Times to user posts on Reddit-about how Carnegie’s advice might still be relevant.īut is Carnegie’s advice really that useful? From the Depression to the Digital Age: Is Dale Carnegie Relevant? New Forms of Power It includes advice such as, “Your smile is a messenger of your goodwill” and “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” It also includes chapters on avoiding conflict, providing criticism, and winning people over to your way of thinking.
To put that in perspective, that’s more than The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Gruffalo, or The Joy of Sex, but less than Love You Forever or Pride & Prejudice.Ĭarnegie wrote the book during the Great Depression, and one of its main aims was to help people secure and keep corporate jobs. First published in 1937, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People is one of the best-selling business books of all time: since publication, it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
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