How I started to win friends and influence people. A book that changed my life

_{Delivering a workshop on personal growth, at a public university in my city of residence}

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A few days ago I published about the book "How to win friends and influence people", written by Dale Carnegie. I highlighted my opinion about that text and how was my first encounter and part of my relationship with him. This time, I want to share with you something more intimate and personal. I want to tell you how this book literally changed my life and in which aspects.

In what way did this book change my life?

I was one person before reading this book and another after reading it (about 7 times now). I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this book enabled me to achieve what I have achieved so far in any area of my life.

This book taught me how to deal with people. To value their feelings. To have empathy. To take their opinions into account.

It taught me the importance and value of a person's name and how valuable it is for each person to be addressed by name, in writing and much more, in person.

It also taught me to recognize my mistakes, to admit them before accusing others. She made me see and understand that I can gain more if I recognize that I was wrong. By reading this book I was able to learn to listen, but to listen actively and with genuine interest, and I understood that this gesture is so powerful that it makes me pass for a great conversationalist. While I have always been a good listener, I didn't know that this was a positive thing and focused too much on not talking.

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And in that sense of talking, I was able to acquire the ability to make other people feel important by getting them to talk to me about themselves. That also allowed me to actively listen so I didn't have to talk as much.

Dale Carnegie, through this masterpiece, showed me the invaluable power of praise. How a word of admiration, recognition or congratulations can achieve so much in others to the point of changing their lives (literally).

Although the book did not teach me how to speak in public or anything about public speaking, it did allow me to develop my communication skills as I lost my shyness. This awakened in me an interest in communicating more effectively with people and got me interested in the art of public speaking, leading me over the years to take courses, participate in radio programs, give lectures, workshops and seminars; to the point that today I have my own training program in communication, covering the area of public speaking, writing and human relations. Through it I share with others my experience and testimony based, mostly, on what this book taught me.

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_{Logo of my "Communicate Better" Training Program}.

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_{Recording audios in a recording studio in Floridablanca, Colombia}

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Best of all, this book can be tested and verified. You can be encouraged to do your own version of things and thus verify that it works. This is why I stand by my opinion that this book is timeless. A hundred years or more will pass and its lessons can be applied without any inconvenience.

If you have not read it, needless to say, I invite you to read it. If you are shy or suffer from social phobia and wish to overcome your fears, reading it is more than urgent. If you just want to improve your communication skills and relate better with other people, this is the book for you. There will be other gems written before or after "How to win friends and influence people ", but believe me, none of them will be able to match the wisdom that emanates from its pages. Maybe this is very subjective what I am writing, but do not expect anything less from me when talking about the book that made me what I am today in the area of communication.

It was a great pleasure for me to write about this book. I hope it was also a pleasure for you to read me. Now it's my turn to read you in the comments.

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