How to Win Friends and Influence People,
first published in 1936.
You know, when you read this thing, you can see why it is number one.
Dale Carnegie writes in this pep dup style.
You don't think of the word moxie much anymore, but when you read this, this is typical.
He writes, in preparation for writing this book.
He read everything he could find on the subject.
And then he lists all the stuff that he
and his trained researcher read to figure out how the great leaders of all ages had dealt with people.
He says, I recall that we read over 100 biographies of Theodore Roosevelt alone.
We were determined to spare no time, no expense,
to discover every practical idea that anyone had ever used throughout the ages
for winning friends and influencing people.
Anyway, on page 61 of the edition that I have, Dale Carnegie tells one of the many,
many stories he uses to illustrate the very main idea that underlies the whole book.
He says, I often went fishing up in Maine during the summer.
Personally, I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms.
So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted.
I thought about what they wanted.
I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream.