Customer Reviews
Mixed Feelings - By: Darren G. Burton, 31 Jul 2008 
This is a good book, no doubt about it. It was written a long time ago, but much of the advice contained within its pages is timeless & pertinent no matter what era we live in.
There is some advicein this book, though, that is a little dated. I feel just some of the tips for dealing with people would not work out the same wayin today's world with current attitudes.
How To Win Friends And Influence People is definitely worth reading, but I think the reader really needs to analyze all the advice & adjust & tweak things a little to be usefulin today's society.
Overall an excellent book.
How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good
Real Life Dramas - Volume One: 1
Darren G. Burton
One of the best books I read - By: V. Patil, 20 Jun 2008 
I heard of this book few years ago & did mistake by not purchasing then.
This book is easy to understand & follow. Not preaching or teaching; just simple examples to get point across.
How reading a single book can change your life! - By: Jon Gillespie-Brown, 04 Jun 2008 It's true, when I was 16 years old I (like many others I have now found out since then) read my first book about business. I was drawn to itin a small, old fashioned book shop that's no longerin business. At the time I didn't really know any entrepreneurs or people that ran their own business & I had no mentor to point mein the right direction. The book simply "spoke" to me & I grabbed it & bought it.
Weird stuff. Especially as at the time I was a quiet, shy sort of a guy butin my heart I had a burning ambition - I just didn't realise it yet!
The books name was "How to Win Friends & Influence People" - You must have heard of it I am sure but I hadn't at the time & I would say that `personal development' was not the juggernaut it is today.
It changed my life (for the better) - it gave me confidencein general & more importantly it lit a small flame to start my own business that grew & grew until I did just that two years later at 18 years old.
So what you may say, plenty of people have done that! Well it was quite a shift for me, my father only ever worked for 2 companies his whole life & I was expected to go into a life long job myselfin biotechnology or something similar - certainly not to waste my `brains' on cleaning offices & cars!!
The book made me change me outlook on life completely - it made me `think' that I could do anything I put my mind to doing & it also gave the courage to get over my shyness at key momentsin my life.
It was the start of life long reading habit (before that I couldn't be bothered with reading & we had very few booksin my house as a kid) - even to this day 20+ years later I still go & get a few books on a topic if I want to learn something new.
Also, I have adopted the strength to face all my fears `head-on' since then - when i felt anxious about public speaking I got a few books & tapes & learnt until I was pretty good at it, the same for selling, marketing, finance, hr, technology, programming, manufacturing, teaching, training & on & on.
I became curious about other people & looked for the `good'in them & I feared nothing & no-one. I strived for my goals & I achieved them all.
I am trying to illustrate the power of the written word along with a great (if a little dated) book. Also, I want to reiterate the power of personal development as a whole. Today many run down the idea of personal development & it's many offspring.
Personal development is just like this book - you should read & learn & then apply the principles that you believein to your life.
You must take action on the one's you believein & you must apply your own moral standards & integrity to anything you learn from others.
For my part I have read this book many times & bought a few copies as well as the tapes, now CDs, it's time for a refresher for me & i urge you to listen to them if you haven't already.
So obvious :-) - By: B. Jorgensen, 01 May 2008 After having read this book my only thought was "of course" ... Why didn't I think of this before.
The book is actually common sense - but we might all need a reminder.
Dated, but still of value if you go with the flow - By: Mr. Nicholas J Robertson, 03 Apr 2008 There are two ways you can look at Dale Carnegie's seminal personal development work, writtenin 1936 but based on Carnegie's lecture notes from 1912 onwards, last revised by himin the 1950s - he diedin 1955 - & thereafter by his wife & daughter:
1. It is an out-of-date book, quoting examples of once influential people all long since dead, like Abe Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, John Rockefeller, Charles Schwab & others of whom even the best read will probably never have heard, & which espouses a series of unsubtle, insincere & manipulative techniques to get people to do what you want. Who, after all, wishes to "win" friends when you might, by simply being a nice person, "make" them?
2. It is an easy to read, simple & sincere book. Written by a farmer's boy from Missouri, who became a successful salesman, the first personal development guru & thence a self-made multi-millionaire, it is still a useful guide to being effective if you are prepared to "go with the flow" of somewhat dated examples & somewhat homespun wisdom.
This book is dated but to me that makesin interesting as a period piece as much as a commentary on the human condition - which surely has not changed that muchin a mere 50 years. Dale Carnegie collected the profound & the practical, & his philosophy is actually to be as passivein influencing as you can be. He extols the virtue, for example, of influencing others only be complimenting them on what they have done well (without ever criticising them for what they may have done badly). If you have to be influenced - or even manipulated - by anyone, then you would mind less if was done the Carnegie way, which is relentlesly polite.
Perhaps there are better personal development book for this type. "The seven habits" by Steven Covey is certainly less dated, & is perhaps based on a more developed meta-philosophy, but (and for all Mr Covey suggests) it owes more than a little to Dale Carnegie, & they both share a common sagein Benjamin Franklin.
Sometimes these days you do have to criticise people, however, to correct them straight away & with clarity. In his day, for example, you may have been able to "let someone go" while saying only nice things about them - you certainly can't do thatin the UK today. In those cases, Carnegie is of less help perhaps than some more modern writers & thinkers.
Dale Carnegie is still worth reading. If you don't know who the people he quotes or mentions are, check them out on Wikipedia. This may not be the last word on being a better (or mre effective) person, but there is littlein it that is not helpful. 236 pages worth reading.
