The great American author Dale Carnegie, whose full name is Dale Harbison Carnagey, was born on November 24, 1888 in the state of Missouri and died in 1955 in New York. He changed the spelling of his last name to create the illusion of a kinship to the great millionaire Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill's mentor. 

Who is Dale Carnegie?

Carnegie came from a modest family of farmers. His parents could not afford a university room, so he made the return trip every day on horseback and often took the opportunity to improve his oration. He also participated in several interuniversity public speaking competitions and won most of them.  

After finishing his studies, the future lecturer worked as a sales representative. When he saved enough money, he quit his job to move to New York where he briefly studied drama before landing the lead role in a play. At the end of this experience, Dale Carnegie decided that acting was not a job for him. 

Following his service in the United States Army during the First World War, Carnegie landed the position of commercial director of lectures given by Lowel Thomas.

Not forgetting the enthusiasm of other students around his speaking skills, Dale Carnegie began giving evening classes at the YMCA. He met with immediate success and eventually created the Dale Carnegie Institute in 1912. 

In 1913, he published his very first book entitled "How to Speak in Public" which he used as a textbook for his courses. However, it was only in 1936 that Carnegie met his biggest success by publishing "How to Make Friends", really launching his career as an author. 

The Carnegie paradox

Often when this author is mentioned, he is directly associated with a spirit of manipulation and deceit. Yet Carnegie has always emphasized the founding foundation of all its principles: sincerity. 

This is how the Carnegie Paradox was born. How can we be sincere when we are simply interested in what another person can bring us? Precisely, the goal is not to hide his intentions, but to better direct them. Human nature is always attracted to what makes it feel good and what brings it comfort; We are talking about the infallible boomerang effect: by focusing on the needs of the other, it will be easier for us to get what we want.

In short, Carnegie's paradox is to be sincere in a voluntary way. What makes a good actor is his ability to convince us that he is not playing the character but that he is the character. Sincerity is learned, practiced and mastered.

Top 3 must-read books by Dale Carnegie

Today, Dale Carnegie has dozens of books to his credit. His works are still as successful as ever, inspiring and guiding many people around the world. We present you the top 3 best books of Dale Carnegie, the master of public speaking. 

How to Make Friends – 1936

How to make friends

Regardless of our age, we all need to build personal or professional relationships with the people around us in order to feel good about our lives. This Dale Carnegie bestseller, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. "How to Make Friends" contains 30 fundamental principles to know and apply in order to build lasting relationships.

These principles include:

  • Learn to attract the sympathy of others and rally them to your cause;
  • Learn to subtly influence those around you without offending them.

Thanks to its fluid and concise language, everyone will be able to find themselves in this book and find the solution to their problem. 

How to find the leader in you

How to find the leader in you

Through the 16 principles he lays out in this self-help book, Dale Carnegie gives us the tricks to know in order to exploit our full potential as leaders.

Ahead of his time, the author already emphasized the shortcomings of traditional management and promoted the importance of a visionary leader, being able to create the desire to succeed and keep it within his team. 

In order to be a good leader, you must first be yourself and not try to reproduce someone else's pattern. For this, our primary qualities as leaders must first be identified and then exploited. A good leader must lead by example and bring their vision to life. 

According to Dale Carnegie, a good leader knows:

  • Communicate and motivate others. The leader must create a sense of involvement in his team. It is by including them that it makes them want to offer the best of themselves;
  • Show interest in team members as full human beings and not just employees;
  • Actively listen and put yourself in the shoes of your interlocutor in order to better understand everyone's points of view;
  • Work as a team. The leader is first and foremost a member of the team and must act as such;
  • Respect everyone's limits;
  • Reward and highlight the qualities of colleagues in order to encourage them to always do better;
  • Admitting one's own mistakes and not condemning those of others. The leader must be constructive and not belittle his team in case of fault.

But before you can be the example of a whole team, you must first be good with yourself.

In order to be a good fair and positive leader, you must have, you must have your own goals and follow the guideline you have set for yourself. It is important to be in a good frame of mind, sincere and enthusiastic to influence others to do the same. Finally, it is also important to learn how to manage stress by doing one thing at a time and taking the time to live and decompress outside of work.

How to speak in public

How to speak in public

We have all caught ourselves, at least once in our lives, envious of someone else's charisma and ease of speech. The good news is that no one is born charismatic; It's a quality that can be learned! Dale Carnegie comes once again to save us and guide us to a liberated and more confident version of ourselves. 

"How to speak in public" is divided into 5 parts:

  • Part 1: the principles to know in order to overcome your fear of speaking in front of an audience.
  • Part 2: Understand the place of the speech, the audience and the speaker.
  • Part 3: have the right tips, according to the purpose of the speech (encourage action, inform, convince) and know how to position yourself even if the floor is given to us unexpectedly.
  • Part 4: The basics of good communication.
  • Part 5: How to deal with your audience.

In order to make our reading more playful and dynamic, Dale Carnegie enriches his story with interesting examples and quotes allowing us to better put it into practice. He goes straight to the point and does not hesitate to remind us of the important points at the end of his ideas. 

Dale Carnegie's works are well known and his principles widely applied in the professional world. His advice, however, can be used even for our personal lives and help us improve our human contact. 

Did you know Dale Carnegie before? What is the book that has helped you the most? Tell us everything in the comments!

And if you're looking for inspiration, don't miss our top 5 best autobiographies to read.

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