Um clássico do gênero, foi publicado em 1937. Com dicas simples, mostra como melhorar sua comunicação com as pessoas tanto no âmbito profissional como nas relações de amizade e amor.

Esta obra está dividida em 4 partes - Técnicas fundamentais para tratar com as pessoas; Seis maneiras de fazer as pessoas gostarem de você; Como conquistar as pessoas a pensarem do seu modo; Seja um líder.

Dale Carnegie, falecido em 1955, tornou-se um dos maiores especialistas do mundo em técnicas de persuasão e dói pioneiro na realização de cursos para comerciantes, pequenos empresários e outros profissionais.

2. Csak ma megpróbálok alkalmazkodni az adott helyzethez, és nem vágyaimhoz igazítani mindent. Úgy veszem családomat, üzleti ügyeimet és szerencsémet, ahogy jön, és én alkalmazkodok hozzájuk.

3. Csak ma törődni fogok testemmel. Megdolgoztatom, vigyázok rá, táplálom, nem élek vele vissza, és nem hanyagolom el, hogy tökéletesen engedelmeskedjen parancsaimnak.

4.Csak ma megpróbálom csiszolni az elmémet. Tanulok valami hasznosat. Nem leszek szellemileg tunya. Olvasok valamit, ami erőfeszítést, gondolkodást és figyelmet kíván.

5. Csak ma edzeni fogom a lelkemet háromféle módon; jót teszek valakivel és titokban tartom. Megcsinálok két dolgot, amihez nincs igazán kedvem, ahogy William James mondja, csak az edzés kedvéért.

6. Csak ma kedves leszek. Olyan jól fogok kinézni, ahogyan csak tudok, csinosan öltözködöm, halkan szólok, udvariasan viselkedem, bőkezű leszek a dicséretekkel, senkit sem bírálok, nem találok hibát semmiben, és nem próbálok meg senkit sem megrendszabályozni vagy megjavítani.

7. Csak ma megpróbálok csak a mai napnak élni, nem akarom életem minden gondját egyszerre megoldani. Tizenkét órán keresztül képes vagyok megtenni olyan dolgokat, amelyeken egy életen át képtelen lennék.

8. Csak ma programot készítek. Leírom, mit akarok csinálni minden egyes órában. Lehet, hogy nem tartom be, de meglesz. Ez megszabadít két nyűgtől. A sietségtől és a bizonytalanságtól.

9. Csak ma szakítok magamnak egy fél órát, és pihenni fogok. Ebben a fél órában néha Istenre fogok gondolni, hogy egy kicsit távlatokban is gondolkodjak.

10. Csak ma nem fogok félni, főleg attól nem, hogy boldog legyek, hogy élvezni tudjam a szépet, hogy szeressek és higgyem, hogy akiket szeretek viszontszeretnek.

(Dale Carnegie - Sikerkalauz 2)

The room itself was facing the west, with a cheerful open foyer instead of the dingy musty room they used the last six months. As songs of Mariah Carey and Bob Dylan swept the room, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his entry.

Forever a sober person, he surprised everyone when he  breezed in, in denim knickers running down below the knees with matching Lotto footwear. His Benetton T- Shirt was a designer wear showing ‘I Did it!’ across his chest.

Gone was the namaste, being replaced by a cheerful ‘Hi’ and a firm Dale Carnegie handshake as he walked around the table.

"What's our Agenda folks?" asked the Prime Minister as he sipped his chilled orange juice.

"We are here to explore other areas of cooperation after the Indo- US deal," said Priyaranjan Das Munshi with black coffee in hand. Gone were the kadak chai and Bengali sweets like chum-chum and misti-doi from Das Munshi’s morning menu.

"Okay. Let's move it," said the PM kickstarting the meeting.

"The Indo-American Association wants to celebrate the nuclear deal. They have made posters  with  ‘Indi-USsi bro bro’---ten million of them to be distributed all over India and pasted on trains, buses, office buildings and also on the offices of the Left in Delhi, Calcutta and Trivandrum," said Das Munshi. "T-shirts for students will come in later."

"That's great! Isn't it?" said the PM while breaking a piece of chocolate doughnut and dipping it in black coffee and taking a bite. People habituated to seeing him dip aloo paratha into dahi were surprised to see this change.

"What else?"

"The Americans want to setup McDonald's and Burger King in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha canteens. Starbucks will also be part of this setup. It seems this was in ‘123’ Agreement Para IV sub text in small prints. They have sent their experts to design the location of the kitchens. After finishing in Delhi they will setup similar kitchens in Assembly and Legislative Councils in States."

"Was it a part of the deal?" the PM asked and answered it himself. "It must have been. I didn't read it with a honeycomb. Let them go ahead and do their thing."

"The American Baseball league wants us to organize a  World series Championship on the lines of IPL  20-20. Lalit Modi and Shah Rukh Khan are already in Boston talking with Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. If you clear this I will go next week and work out a calendar to squeeze this item in our schedule." That was Sharad Pawar with a bagel in hand.

"Super Duper stuff! Good to get Baseball in here than beating the same old cricket stuff all the time."

"We have no objection to it, Mr Prime Minister," interrupted SP’s Amar Singh and continued, "But we would like Abhishek Bachchan to go with Lalit Modi. Since Abhishek studied in Boston, he knows the city and the game inside out. Also, he is not a Paanchvi Class-fail and will do a better job."

"That won’t be a problem at all. Let’s switch the names’ said P.M. who was now eating Kellog’s power cereal.

"The US Department of Agriculture wants our farmers to use only GM Seeds. It seems this part was added by them just as our team was entering IAEA meeting hall. It is in annexure XXX which can’t be magnified. Even our CBI failed to enlarge this for us."

"Let’s not go into the nitty-gritty as our friends from the Left were doing. They never read the Report but were only interested in annexures and comments on the margin."

'Anything else," asked the PM while eating Apple Pie with black coffee.

"We have a couple of points to make," said Mulayam for the first time.

"Shoot," said the PM.

"I want actions initiated on what we have already agreed when we saved the Government from the ‘No Confidence’ motion. First. We want all cases against Amitabh Bachchan withdrawn and all the land purchases he made, restored to him.  Case against Jaya Bachchan allegedly giving wrong information before filing Rajya sabha election should be withdrawn. Next, we want you to talk to President Bush and arrange a lifetime award for Amitabhji in the next Oscar Award presentation. Our next list will be ready before the winter session of Parliament."

"Done! Yes to all demands. Get George on the line. He will be in Camp David now," said the Prime Minister as he dunked the last coffee gulp of breakfast

Dale Carnegie, Buchautor und Hobbylebensberater hat mit seinen Büchern in den 80er Jahren, passend zum New Age eine Welle ausgelöst, die aus uns Menschen verständnisvolle, einfühlsame Wesen gemacht hat, die sorgenfrei ihr harmonisches Dasein im Kreise vieler Freunde fristen. Wir wissen jetzt, dass wir unseren Freunden mehr zuhören müssen, denn in Wirklichkeit interessieren sie sich nicht für uns, sondern wollen nur von ihren Sorgen berichten und brauchen dafür einen Zuhörer.

Sollte ihr Taxifahrer mit 120 km/h durch eine geschlossene Ortschaft an einem Kindergarten vorbeirasen, so tadeln sie ihn nicht. Das würde ihn nur verunsichern und möglicher Weise würde er dann beim nächsten Mal, wenn er mit 140 km/h den örtlichen Kindergarten passiert nicht mehr rechtzeitig ausweichen können, weil ihn unsere Kritik innerlich verunsichert und schwach gemacht hat.

Sollte sie ihr Chef tadeln, so verzeihen sie ihm seine Schwäche. Nicht jeder ist so stark wie sie und hat Dale Carnegie gelesen. Sicherlich wird er am Abend, wenn er nach einem langen Arbeitstag nach Hause kommt, entspannt nochmal über das Gesagte nachdenken und die Kündigung, die er ausgesprochen hat, am nächsten Morgen unter größtem Bedauern zurücknehmen.

Bitte versuchen sie so wenig wie möglich Realismus in ihr Leben einfliessen zu lassen, denn die schreckliche Folge wird sein, dass sie sich große Sorgen machen und daran zerbrechen werden.

FAITH

"Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."

-- Alexis de Tocqueville

"Duty, honour, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn."
-- Douglas MacArthur

"He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more, He who loses faith, loses all."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible."
-- Thomas Aquinas

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
-- Dale Carnegie

"I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness."
-- Mother Teresa

Happy Fathers' Day! to all men out there. It does not matter if you are good dad, deadbeat father, or you don’t have kid(s) at all. The piece I am about to present applies to everyone. Since today is Fathers' Day, I wouldn’t like men-bashing here today. Today is well-deserved for all loving fathers. Since I am a father of a beautiful daughter, I know what it takes to be parent. The main message here is: we all need to show humility and not to take our loved-ones for granted. I couldn’t think of a better way to express this message other than referred to Dale Carnegie’s classic book, “How to win Friends and Influence People.” A book I discerned three years ago. Among many timeless hints and references in the book, an essay by Livingston Larned entitled “Father Forgets” is a must-read for every father or aspiring parents. So inspiring is the essay content that I actually recommended it to my friends. Here is how it goes:

*******

Father Forgets
W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lies asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

 

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply, “Hold your shoulders back!”

.

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive-and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

.

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped.

.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding-this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

.

It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy-a little boy!”

.

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

********

I hope you all enjoy the Fathers' Day. I can’t wait to go out with my daughter.

Did you ever wonder about the origin of Father's Day? Read This >>

"Semmibe se kerül, de sokat ad.
Gazdagabbá teszi azokat, akik kapják, és mégsem juttatja koldusbotra azokat, akik adják.
Egy pillanatig él csak, de az emléke örökké megmarad.
Senki sem olyan gazdag, hogy meglehetne nélküle, és senki sem olyan szegény, hogy ne lenne gazdagabb tőle.
Boldoggá teszi az otthont, táplálja a jóakaratot az üzleti életben, és a barátság biztos jele.
Nyugalom a megfáradtnak, napfény a csüggedőnek, világosság a szomorkodónak, és a természet legjobb orvossága a bajok ellen.
Mégsem lehet megvenni, elkérni, kölcsönadni vagy ellopni, mert nem áru, csak önként lehet adni.
....
Mert senkinek sincs annyira szüksége a mosolyra, mint annak, aki maga már nem tud mosolyogni!

Ha tehát meg akarod szerettetni magadat az emberekkel, ez a második szabály: Mosolyogj!"

(Dale Carnegie: Sikerkalauz)

Check out How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.   I have enjoyed the lessons taught in this timeless classic of professional conduct, devlopment, and inter personal skills.  A personal and sales skill development book.  Check out your local book retailer.  Amazon.com is always at the top of my list in book sales 

Entertainment purposes,

 "Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get." 

 ~Dale Carnegie

Imagine this:  You've been working hard for months, maybe years, getting yourself ready for a significant promotion.  You're doing all the right things:  Getting to work early, planning your time and staying focused, volunteering for tough assignments and then completing them brilliantly; mentoring and otherwise helping your peers and your team; the list goes on. 

The phone rings.  It is the call you've been waiting for:  The job offer for the promotion. 

What is your reaction?  Joy?  Panic?  Imagine it.  Go there deeply.  We'll talk about it next JAM.

I have another one: "All things being equal, people prefer to do business with their friends-all things not being equal, people still prefer to do business with their friends.'

That means that you should make more friends.

One of my favorite 'how to' books on the subject: Dale Carnegie's' immortal, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Carnegie offers loads of insight into the nature of human relations, but all that information is useless if you cannot step outside your normal routine and apply some of those practices.

One of the biggest roadblocks we all face when dealing with others is fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. That fear is easily bypassed if you can use your head and think logically - after all, you'll never hit a home run if you don't swing for the fences.

There is another excellent little book about networking-The Little black book of connections.

It breaks down the principals used in meeting people in a slightly easier-to-digest format than Carnegie's book.

Neither of these books will give you success; but they will help you if you are willing to adopt a few new habits.

I cannot honestly think of a time where I was successful at something without someone else's help. The majority of the time those people helping me were doing so because they wanted to. Why did they want to?

Read the books and find out.

"Es fácil culpar a los empresarios y directivos de la apatía que contagia a millones de trabajadores españoles; sin embargo, a veces son los propios empleados los que dedicen inconscientemente volverse invisibles porque no se sienten identificados con el entorno humano en el que desenvuelven su actividad"

"Los secretos para ganarse el aprecio de los compañeros de trabajo y por tanto aumentar nuestras visibilidad también ante nuestros jefes, según Dale Carnegie:

1. No criticar, condenar, ni quejarse en presencia de otros, ya que inmediatamente seríamos identificados como potenciales enemigos.

2. Llamar la atención de los errores de los demás sólo indirectamente

3. Elogiar los progresos de los compañeros de trabajo y los jefes para que se sientan importantes en nuestra presencia.

4. Dejar hablar a nuestros interlocutores e interesarnos por sus problemas.

5. En vez de censurar a la gente, comprenderla y averiguar por qué actúa así".

El artículo termina con una reflexión de Scott Peck:

"Nunca tenemos el destino tan en nuestras manos como al llegar a un callejón sin salida".

When I was in the 11th grade we had to do a report and I choose the topic, “Etiquette”. I remember that the queen of Etiquette, Emily Post, had spoken of the importance of remembering a person’s name. To this day, I always try and spell the person’s name in my head upon introduction or/and if I don’t remember somebody’s name when I am introducing a person I say, “He/She has the most interesting name, can you please spell it for so and so” It seems to work great, unless they have the name Sam or Bob, then I think they catch on to my lack of remember their name. If Emily Post, President Roosevelt and Dale Carnegie strongly suggest the importance of remembering names, then there has to be something to it.

When I was teaching elementary school, one of the most effective ways to teach a child is to learn and use their name daily in the classroom. While I was teaching 1st grade, I made sure to say each students name, 3 times a day, I have to add that I did tally for the first couple of times, but then it became habit (Yelling or Scolding the Student didn’t count). It was fun to have parents of the shy students come into the classroom because they always would tell me that their child loved being in my class, and I would simple tell the parents that they really just liked the attention and positive reinforcement of me saying their name repeatedly throughout the day. My kids LOVE it when I say there names and I secretly think they like to mimic me and overly use my name in vain.

So how important is it in remember names? Today I took the challenge to call every person I met by their first name because how important is a name?

I started off the day on a bad note. I was calling for my daughter Audrey to come downstairs and pick up her toys and on repeated occasion (which I seem to do over and over again) I kept yelling my 2 year old Emma’s name instead. Finally Audrey looks at me and says, “Mom, I am Audrey”. I instantly flashback, to my mother, who had 10 children, and would always get our names wrong, not only would she get the name wrong, but she would call us up to 7 names before she would look us in the eye and say, “You are the one”. The name calling would go something like this, “Katie, Beth, Christina, Jacob, Rebecca… whatever your name is, I am looking at you, get over here”. I have to confess that sometimes I call my son, Ben, my brother’s names… “Matthew, Jacob, Justin, Mike, Nick, BENJAMIN!” Audrey did eventually clean up her mess, but then she does give me that look… the “not again” look that I am sure I gave my mom.

I then get a call from my cousin, Julie, and she instantly says, “Hi Devin” (Devin is her husband) we laughed and she corrected herself. The rest of they day I greeted people by their first name, remembered to say, Thank you Liam, to our waiter and even got to know the window cleaner, Blair. I met Tyler at Mavericks who takes my money for soda and Chris who gave us dessert after our date night. I asked everyone I met, “What is Your Name” and with a HUGE smile they would tell me.

I sat back and wondered if, by saying their name, I had made an impact in their life (my husband did say I most likely had made them feel all warm and tingly inside, but he does have a sarcasm history) or if they thought I was a crazy lady going to stalk them in the future. I will never know the impact of knowing the names had on the people I met at this exact time, but you can bet that I am going to keep it up and try to aspire to the greats by remembering the names of people I encounter. It is a great habit to get into, putting others first. I have to remember that people like to feel important and a name brands them with who they are and what they want to become. Everyone wants to aspire to be wonderful and maybe by having a strange lady at the drive through know just a little about you can inspire confidence to be better. So going back to the song the kids sing in the congregation at Mother’s Day, “I know a name a glorious name, sweeter than any other”, I can truly say that I know a lot of names and each name is sweeter than the next.

When I was in the 11th grade we had to do a report and I choose the topic, “Etiquette”. I remember that the queen of Etiquette, Emily Post, had spoken of the importance of remembering a person’s name. To this day, I always try and spell the person’s name in my head upon introduction or/and if I don’t remember somebody’s name when I am introducing a person I say, “He/She has the most interesting name, can you please spell it for so and so” It seems to work great, unless they have the name Sam or Bob, then I think they catch on to my lack of remember their name. If Emily Post, President Roosevelt and Dale Carnegie strongly suggest the importance of remembering names, then there has to be something to it.

When I was teaching elementary school, one of the most effective ways to teach a child is to learn and use their name daily in the classroom. While I was teaching 1st grade, I made sure to say each students name, 3 times a day, I have to add that I did tally for the first couple of times, but then it became habit (Yelling or Scolding the Student didn’t count). It was fun to have parents of the shy students come into the classroom because they always would tell me that their child loved being in my class, and I would simple tell the parents that they really just liked the attention and positive reinforcement of me saying their name repeatedly throughout the day. My kids LOVE it when I say there names and I secretly think they like to mimic me and overly use my name in vain.

So how important is it in remember names? Today I took the challenge to call every person I met by their first name because how important is a name?

I started off the day on a bad note. I was calling for my daughter Audrey to come downstairs and pick up her toys and on repeated occasion (which I seem to do over and over again) I kept yelling my 2 year old Emma’s name instead. Finally Audrey looks at me and says, “Mom, I am Audrey”. I instantly flashback, to my mother, who had 10 children, and would always get our names wrong, not only would she get the name wrong, but she would call us up to 7 names before she would look us in the eye and say, “You are the one”. The name calling would go something like this, “Katie, Beth, Christina, Jacob, Rebecca… whatever your name is, I am looking at you, get over here”. I have to confess that sometimes I call my son, Ben, my brother’s names… “Matthew, Jacob, Justin, Mike, Nick, BENJAMIN!” Audrey did eventually clean up her mess, but then she does give me that look… the “not again” look that I am sure I gave my mom.

I then get a call from my cousin, Julie, and she instantly says, “Hi Devin” (Devin is her husband) we laughed and she corrected herself. The rest of they day I greeted people by their first name, remembered to say, Thank you Liam, to our waiter and even got to know the window cleaner, Blair. I met Tyler at Mavericks who takes my money for soda and Chris who gave us dessert after our date night. I asked everyone I met, “What is Your Name” and with a HUGE smile they would tell me.

I sat back and wondered if, by saying their name, I had made an impact in their life (my husband did say I most likely had made them feel all warm and tingly inside, but he does have a sarcasm history) or if they thought I was a crazy lady going to stalk them in the future. I will never know the impact of knowing the names had on the people I met at this exact time, but you can bet that I am going to keep it up and try to aspire to the greats by remembering the names of people I encounter. It is a great habit to get into, putting others first. I have to remember that people like to feel important and a name brands them with who they are and what they want to become. Everyone wants to aspire to be wonderful and maybe by having a strange lady at the drive through know just a little about you can inspire confidence to be better. So going back to the song the kids sing in the congregation at Mother’s Day, “I know a name a glorious name, sweeter than any other”, I can truly say that I know a lot of names and each name is sweeter than the next.

Here's the list minus the top two and my reactions:

• Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Yes, I've read it and loved it, but can't say it changed my life.
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig -- I tried to read it once because of its life-changing properties, but I had to abandon it.
• The Stranger by Albert Camus -- No, I never read it; I got enough French existentialism in my high school AP course, thank you very much.
• 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell -- I have read 1984 and liked it, but not life-changing; Animal Farm is on my to-read list.
• The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins -- I haven't read them and don't really plan to.
• The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- Read them, loved them, not life-changing.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card -- One of my all-time favorite books; not life-changing, though.
• Dune by Frank Herbert -- Another all-time favorite, but I couldn't say it was life-changing.
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu -- Haven't read it.
• The Gunslinger [Dark Tower] Series by Stephen King -- Read it, loved it, King is one of my favorite authors, but this series did not change my life.
• Getting Things Done by David Allen -- OK, I can see how this book might change your life if you put its ideas into practice, but it didn't change mine; I was already pretty organized anyway.
• Neuromancer by William Gibson -- Another great book that didn't change my life.
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll -- Childhood classic; didn't change my life.
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein -- Nice read, but I have to say that I'd be a little leery of anyone whose life was changed by this book.
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling -- I have adamantly refused to let this series change my life (or even to read them).
• the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe -- Poe is a terrific read, but alas, not life-changing.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho -- I never even heard of this one.
• Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach -- Ugh! yes, I read it in high school like everyone else.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde -- Another great classic but not life-changing for me.
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie -- I have no intentions of reading this.
• Tao Te Ching -- I would like to read this but probably never will.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky -- Huh?
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond -- Another huh?

Let me just observe that 14 of these entries are speculative fiction of some kind.

Whew, life-changing is a tall order. Even staring at my bookshelves and seeing all the books that I have loved over the years, I am hard-pressed to come up with a title that literally changed my life -- where my life would be radically different if I hadn't read that book.

I guess I will have to confine my list to those books that most strongly influenced me. And they would be:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee -- because this is the most perfect novel ever written
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- for teaching me about the absurdity of war and life
• The Stand by Stephen King -- for its mythology and the characters who have become old friends
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott -- the best book about writing I have ever read

Have any books changed your life? If you blog about this, please let me know in the comments.

Believe it or not, first impressions still matter, even over the phone. Case in point: I called a local contractor who was organized enough to have a receptionist. "Good Afternoon, Construction, Ginnie speaking, how can I help you today." I introduced myself, explained what I needed, which was a bit detailed and I thought she was listening, but when she asked me to repeat my name and offered to get back to me, my problem only escalated. 

On the second call, I got a warm reception. Same setup: Name first, I explained my problem and asked for help. She was more responsive and placed me on hold to be able to answer my question. She then close for an appointment all the while taking my information and referring to me by my name. Not bad!

Don't underestimate the power of a warm reception, one that is attentive and responsive. When you meet someone face-to-face, 93% of how you are judged is based on non-verbal data - your appearance and your body language. Only 7% is influenced by the words that you speak. When your initial encounter is over the phone, however, 70% of how you are perceived is based on your tone of voice and 30% on your words. Clearly, it's not what you say - it's the way that you say it and how much of it you remember.

Tip Summary: Use the caller's first name if possible, summarize wants and needs, and be responsive.

For other tips and strategies on how to make a good first impression, visit the sideroad.com.
 

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Once a woman has given you her heart, you can never get rid of the rest of her.
~business motivational quote by John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, 1696

We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.
~business by Michel de Montaigne

A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them.
~sayings about business by Leonard Louis Levinson

I have been reading Think and Grow Rich for the past few days. Just finished How to Win Friends and Influence People. Napoleon Hill is an amazing writer. I cannot believe how much my paradigm has been shifted. When I read the Dale Carnegie book How to Win Friends and Influence People it was very good it enlightened me a lot on how to deal with people, yet it was not revolutionary, not mindset crushing, not punch you in the face and yell BELIEVE.

Think and Grow Rich had that. The way it is written is so solemn. So beautiful and almost with a religious zeal. Napoleon Hill obviously believes incredibly and resolutely in these ideas. And these ideas, this philosophical data is some of the most revelatory things I have ever read.

I understand truly how to achieve all things in life. By becoming so obsessed with a thought, with a burning desire, that your subconscious builds the plans for you.

Yes. Through obsession comes possession. Your mind wants it so bad that it creates the blueprints of your own success. It sharpens your eyes to be open to new opportunities. It gives you (sometimes) the wisdom to act upon those opportunities.

This is truly amazing. A truly holy moment for me. That I can become incredibly wealthy even without being born in a rich family, without any connections at all, with no help other than my thought.

Through the ancient power of thought so shall I rise a giant.

How amazing is that? That merely thinking is all you needed. Merely wanting it bad enough, willing to pay the price, was all it took.

Through thought, and thought alone, comes all the desires, wants and fulfillments in life.

Here's to you Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich is aptly named and written.

I am still reading it but it has already become a religious experience.

So hey, whoever is publishing that book, when I become famous tack my quote on the cover of the next printing saying,

"It was a religious experience,"-Greg the Writer and Billionaire

So readers of mine as a growing member of the business community and advise-giver, I strongly suggest you go out and buy six copies of that book. One for yourself, five for five random people whose lives you want to change.

-Greg the Writer
PS. If anyone still has doubts whether multi-level marketing or MLMs are false schemes, the fact that Mary Kay is mentioned in Think and Grow Rich should be proof that it is a legitimate business model.

PSS. So keep sending those requests to join Visalus : )