How to Win Friends & Influence People

The Book in One Sentence

(This time, the author made it easy for us...)

"If out of reading this book you get just one thing - an increased tendency to think always in terms of other people's point of view, and see things from their angle - if you get that one thing out of this book, it may easily prove to be one of the building blocks of your career."

3 Actionable Takeaways

Every (very short) chapter of the book shares a new "principle" for dealing with people, with tons of interesting stories from history to back it up. Below are our top three picks.

1) Become genuinely interested in other people.

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

2) Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.

"When dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, motivated by pride and vanity.

Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself.

Instead of comdemning people, let's try to undestand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do."

3) Talk in terms of other people's interests.

"There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything.

Did you ever stop to think of that?

‍Yes, just one way.

And that is by making the other person want to do it."