Archives The Carnegie book has already been very useful to me this semester. I actually have groups and semester-long group projects in 3 of my 4 classes this semester and it has really helped me learn how to handle them. The book is not simply about making friends but just working well with people in general. In groups, everyone is going to have different ideas and different ways of doing things. Carnegie’s tips in Part 3 of the book would be very useful in a situation where a group member wanted to go in one direction with an assignment and […]

Archives Softening the blow of criticism by starting with praise. This seems like a such a simple thing but its very rarely implemented. For example, when I was growing up, my brother played AAU Baseball. My dad was at every single game my brother played. The problem was always the ride home afterwards. The drive was never filled with praise for the things my brother did well. It was filled with my dad going over everything my brother did wrong and what he needs to do in order to get it right next time. This, of course, did not exactly […]

Archives This is probably the portion of the book that I was most interested in reading. I am a very opinionated person and I feel strongly about my opinions but I have always struggled with getting people to see things my way. Based on Carnegie’s views, I’m going about it pretty well. I already avoid arguments. I actually avoid confrontation of any kind if possible! I don’t tell people they are wrong and I will generally admit it whenever I am wrong. I’m very critical of myself actually. All of these things, I am doing right. Now for what I […]

Archives Let me preface this by saying I may be slightly biased to some of Carnegie’s advice in this section. Let me explain… I am being perfectly honest when I say that I am not a fan of people as a whole. I think in general we are greedy, narcissistic bunch that don’t care much about anyone outside of ourselves and/or our immediate families. The majority of my life firmly believing that the world would be a better place if people acted more like dogs. I’m not saying we should all go around barking and sniffing each other’s rears. I mean […]

Archives I will start by being completely honest and saying that I was not looking forward to having to read this book. However, that being said, I was hooked by page 1! I was not expecting a book titled “How to Win Friends and Influenced People” to start off by describing a shoot-out! When Carnegie  talked about how all of those hardened criminals never took responsibility for their actions and always felt justified in what they did, I had to stop and think about how I’ve acted in the past. I like to think that I am generally a good […]