Born to a family of Scottish-Irish immigrants, Dale Carnegie was raised in poverty on the plains of Nebraska. He left school at age 15 and took up various jobs, including working as a telegrapher and oilfield roughneck, before entering the real estate business in 1908.
Carnegie’s key insight was that people want to be told how they can change their lives for the better: “All these years I had been talking about the things we must do–now I talked about what we wanted.” It worked: his book “How To Win Friends And Influence People” has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
In this blog post, we look at some famous quotes from Dale Carnegie and implement them in different aspects of our lives.
1. “You can make more friends in two months by being interested in them than in two years by making them interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie
We all want to be liked and enjoyed, but few of us try to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. Dale Carnegie urges us to take this step and ask: “What would I like people to talk about and appreciate?”
2. “The world does not pay you for what you know; it pays you for what you do.” – Dale Carnegie
This is a classic quote that I would like to interpret as follows: “Knowledge can give you power, but success requires action.” If we ardently believe in the saying of the four-minute mile, it does not matter how much knowledge we have acquired or how intelligent we are if we do not enjoy taking action.
3. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
When I first read this quote, I was pretty scared because the level of responsibility for things that I do or want to do is rising enormously. However, it is worth mentioning that Carnegie himself did not need this quote to motivate him in life: “I have always been driven by a certain inner compulsion which nothing has ever been able to divert,” he wrote.
4. “It isn’t what you’ve got, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. (…) The thing always happens that we really believe in, and the belief in a thing can create the fact.” – Dale Carnegie
One of the most important features of this famous quote by Carnegie is how he points to the importance of self-confidence. In addition, if your way of thinking is right and you believe in the goal you want to achieve, this will show in your performance and make you happier and make people around you happy.
5. “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” – Dale Carnegie
If you find yourself in a situation where you have to motivate others, Carnegie’s quote is very helpful. If we take the time to understand what drives others, they will be happy about it, but chances are they will also be motivated.
6. “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie
By looking at others and what they do, we will learn about their culture and discover that it is an incredible opportunity for personal development. We all have the opportunity to change ourselves for the better, and this quote shows that we can use our time much more efficiently than before.