My relationship with the book "How to win friends and influence people".

After two unsuccessful attempts to publish in this community and that have hidden my posts for not being related to their topics, this time I bring you the first part of my story with a magnificent book, a classic of human relations and sales. Read on to find out. 😀

---

Source

---

My name is Gary Samuel Bilbao, I'm from Maracay, Venezuela. I am a voracious reader, a lover of letters, a fan of written, spoken, drawn or sung words. I am aware of the power of a text and therefore whenever I can, I encourage others to read, read a lot and whenever I can, I also recommend a particular book that as soon as I read it, it made my imagination fly and little by little it transformed my life. I can properly say that there was a before and after in me, after reading that book.

But to understand the effect and scope of the influence of this book in my way of thinking, feeling and acting, I must tell you a little about me before it.

---

Since I was a child I was always very shy. I was quiet, introverted and introspective. In my student years, both in elementary and high school, I had few friends as I was very awkward in relating to others. I was always the reserved one, the one who didn't talk to anyone, who avoided expositions or speaking in public in any way. With women, no way! They were the ones who sought me out, who tried to talk to me and even seduced me. Hahaha. And it's not that I'm the Venezuelan Brad Pitt, no, but, well, maybe they saw me and something caught their attention and when they saw me there, so shy, insecure and vulnerable, they tried to take advantage of me, of this defenseless young man, so short of words.

---

At my birthday party. What normal kid sits quietly at his own party?

---

With my family I was the same way. Quiet, reserved; I avoided family gatherings, parties, funerals or anything involving human interaction. Let me clarify, it's not that I was a hopeless hermit. In fact, I had attended a Christian church since I was a child, so, much to my regret, I had to interact with other people. But of course, I was not very comfortable with that. In college too, as was to be expected, shyness and fear of relating effectively, but above all with freedom and security, dominated me and prevented me from feeling full and calm when talking to others.

One day, as I was leaving class, I passed by a bookstore. Looking at the titles displayed in the window, one immediately caught my attention: "How to win friends and influence people", by a certain Dale Carnegie.

That title, with the name of a Youtube tutorial, was the answer to that longing I had since I was a child: to make friends and stop being shy, and this book was telling me that by reading it I was going to know how to do it. I asked the price, because of its presentation, it was inexpensive. (It was not a deluxe edition or anything like that). I bought it with the same excitement with which one always buys a book, but in my case, it was more so. I wanted to believe that this book could help me stop being the shy, insecure, asocial man I had always been.

I took the public transportation home and as soon as I could, I started reading it right there on the bus. I was hooked at once. I could not tear myself away from its pages. My eyes went through each line composed of those words that made me imagine each paragraph that the author had written years ago. My hands helped me to move through the chapters it contained. My brain was registering each teaching that this, no longer so unknown, Dale Carnegie, presented to me through his stories. And the fact is that "How to Win Friends and Influence People ", is an extremely special book, which is why it has been so successful and has survived almost 100 years since its first edition. But what makes this book so special? Read on and I'll explain why.

---

What, in my opinion, makes "How to Win Friends and Influence People " a book worthy of being read by every human being on earth is the following:

📖 It is based on the author's own experience as a writer, salesman, teacher and speaker.
📖 It is replete, from beginning to end, with true stories. It is an ode to storytelling (not for nothing was the author also an excellent speaker and public speaking instructor).
📖 His style is frank and direct. He speaks in a very plain and straightforward way. As if he was having a conversation with you.
📖 His chapters are presented in a schematic way. That is, you know exactly what you will learn before you read it and what you learned after you read it, leaving no doubt about it and making it easy to learn.
📖 He uses great characters of his time and universal history to illustrate his teachings. That makes it much more interesting since one reasons that if that is practiced by these great businessmen, politicians or artists, how much more us "mere mortals"!
📖 He does not preach cheap flattery. He always stresses the importance of acting and practicing these principles and techniques from the heart. Not to use them to manipulate others. The ideal is to be sincere and honest when dealing with other people.
📖 It's not that long, not that short. But beyond that, its pleasant and affable style makes it very easy and enjoyable to digest.
📖 If you want to achieve something in the area of human relationships, you can go to that specific chapter that will teach you how to do it. This is thanks to the fact that the book is based on his first course, hence that pedagogical style that has made him so famous.

---

---

I want to add some facts about the book and its author that might interest you.

---

Source

---

✒️ About the author

Dale Carnegie (pen name Dale Breckenridge Carnegie, November 24, 1888 - November 1, 1955) was an American businessman and writer of books dealing with human relations and effective communication. He also served as a motivational speaker, teacher, biographer and psychologist. In addition, in his early life, he worked as a salesman and aspired to be an actor after studying at Warrensburg State Teachers College. He then traveled to New York and began teaching adult communication classes at the YMCA. From there he began his career in the training world.

I took this information about Dale Carnegie from this link and this link. You can visit them to learn more.

📖 About the Book

"How to Win Friends and Influence People " is one of the first self-help best-sellers ever published. It was first published in 1936 and has since sold 15 million copies worldwide and is still highly regarded today. The four-part book contains advice on how to create success in business and personal lives. In 1981, a new revised edition with updated language and anecdotes was released. This revised edition reduced the number of chapters from 6 to 4 and eliminated sections such as "Writing Effective Sales Letters" and "Improving Your Family Life." Honestly, these chapters are very good and it is a pity that they are not included in this second revised edition of the book. For more information about the book visit this site.

If you have not yet read this book, I invite you to read it. I know it could change your life or perhaps, at least teach you communication and even marketing techniques and strategies that could enhance your personal brand and your life in general.

In my next post I will tell you in what way this book influenced my life and how it helped me to become what I am today as a person and professional.