Carnegie, Dale

Known chiefly as the pioneer of the self-help movement in the United States, Dale Carnegie became known around the world as a lecturer, newspaper columnist, radio figure, and the author of the bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People. First published in 1936, the book continues to sell well into the 21st century. Carnegie never claimed to be an original; he admitted to borrowing quotations from others that spanned both geography and time, including Abraham Lincoln, businessman Charles Schwab, educator John Dewey, columnist Dorothy Dix, Greek philosopher Socrates, and Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.

Carnegie's personal story provides considerable proof that his tactics could be used to achieve success. He was born Dale Carnagey on November 24, 1888, in Maryville, Missouri. His parents, James William and Amanda Elizabeth Carnagey, were impoverished farmers. Carnegie attended but never graduated from Warrensburg State Teachers College. In 1908, he took on a job as a traveling salesman for International Correspondence Schools and for Armour and Company. Carnegie had honed the skills needed for these endeavors during his years as a high school debater and by attending public speeches that allowed him to glean knowledge on oratory from skilled speakers such as politicians and lecturers.

After a brief stint in which he tried acting in New York, he convinced the New York YMCA in 1912 to allow him to teach a class on public speaking for adults for 20 percent of his profits. He was soon earning $500 a week. That same year, he established the Dale Carnegie Training Institute. The Dale Carnegie course was designed to teach sales personnel and business managers to increase productivity by keeping customers and employees happy. Carnegie courses included tips on firing employees without generating hostility and on using attitude rather than cash to create positive work environments.

Subsequently, Dale Carnagey became Dale Carnegie. While he has been accused of lying by claiming kinship with the family of financier and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, Dale Carnegie never publicly claimed such a relationship. Nevertheless, in the minds of many people, the association was assumed.

[Page 122]Carnegie argued that the classic example of using charm to influence people by defusing a potentially explosive situation occurred in a speech given by John D. Rockefeller after the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, in which 18 people, including women and children, were killed during a coal mining strike. Without backing down an inch or conceding to the strikers' demands, Carnegie maintained that Rockefeller made the strikers believe that the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had their best interests at heart.

Carnegie acknowledged that some people would always lie and attempt to deceive others, regardless of attempts to maintain honest relationships. In order to eschew controversy with such people, Carnegie encouraged his followers to avoid those masters of deception when at all possible.