Glen
17th December 2001, 09:52.19 AM
Dale Carnegie's Thoughts for Success
By Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie seminars for speaking and selling are reaching new record levels across the country. His
down-to-earth philosophy, along with his keen insights into human nature, explain the steady growth of Dale
Carnegie training programs. Below is a brief sampling of Dale Carnegie's well-chosen thoughts.
On Courage
Would you like to have more courage? Here are five short rules, which, if you follow them, I guarantee will
increase your store of fortitude.
1. Act as if you were courageous. This makes you a bit braver, as if one side of yourself had been challenged
and wished to show it was not wholly afraid.
2. Pause to reflect that others have had to face great discouragements and great obstacles and have
overcome them. What others have done, surely you can do.
3. Remember that your life forces move in a sort of rhythm and that if you feel depressed and without the
power to face life you may be at the bottom of the trough; if you will keep up your courage, you will probably
swing out of it by the very forces which at the moment are sucking you down.
4. Remember you feel more defeated and downcast at night than during the daylight hours. Courage comes
with the sun.
5. Courage is the measure of a big soul. Try to measure up.
On Perspective
About 90 percent of the things in our lives are right and about 10 percent are wrong. If we want to be happy,
all we have to do is concentrate on the 90 percent that are right and ignore the 10 percent that are wrong. If
we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcers, all we have to do is to concentrate on the 10
percent that are wrong and ignore the 90 percent that are glorious.
On Selling Ideas
Don't you have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you on
a silver platter? If so, isn't it bad judgment to try to ram your opinions down the throats of other people?
Wouldn't it be wiser to make suggestions -- and let the other man think out the conclusion for himself?
On Worry
If you are worried, do these three things: First, ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"
Second, prepare to accept it if you have to. Then, calmly proceed to improve on the worst.
On Values
I honestly believe that this is one of the greatest secrets to true peace of mind -- a decent sense of values. We
could annihilate 50 percent of all our worries at once if we would develop a sort of private gold standard -- a
gold standard of what things are worth to us in terms of our lives.
On Pep Talks
Is giving yourself a pep talk every day silly, superficial, childish? No! On the contrary, it is the very essence of
sound psychology. "Our life is what our thoughts make it." Those words are just as true today as they were 18
centuries ago when Marcus Aurelius first wrote them in his book of Meditations.
On Enthusiasm
How can you make yourself become enthusiastic? By telling yourself what you like about what you are doing
and pass on quickly from the part you don't like to the part you do like. Then act enthusiastic; tell someone
about it; let them know why it interests you.
By Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie seminars for speaking and selling are reaching new record levels across the country. His
down-to-earth philosophy, along with his keen insights into human nature, explain the steady growth of Dale
Carnegie training programs. Below is a brief sampling of Dale Carnegie's well-chosen thoughts.
On Courage
Would you like to have more courage? Here are five short rules, which, if you follow them, I guarantee will
increase your store of fortitude.
1. Act as if you were courageous. This makes you a bit braver, as if one side of yourself had been challenged
and wished to show it was not wholly afraid.
2. Pause to reflect that others have had to face great discouragements and great obstacles and have
overcome them. What others have done, surely you can do.
3. Remember that your life forces move in a sort of rhythm and that if you feel depressed and without the
power to face life you may be at the bottom of the trough; if you will keep up your courage, you will probably
swing out of it by the very forces which at the moment are sucking you down.
4. Remember you feel more defeated and downcast at night than during the daylight hours. Courage comes
with the sun.
5. Courage is the measure of a big soul. Try to measure up.
On Perspective
About 90 percent of the things in our lives are right and about 10 percent are wrong. If we want to be happy,
all we have to do is concentrate on the 90 percent that are right and ignore the 10 percent that are wrong. If
we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcers, all we have to do is to concentrate on the 10
percent that are wrong and ignore the 90 percent that are glorious.
On Selling Ideas
Don't you have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you on
a silver platter? If so, isn't it bad judgment to try to ram your opinions down the throats of other people?
Wouldn't it be wiser to make suggestions -- and let the other man think out the conclusion for himself?
On Worry
If you are worried, do these three things: First, ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"
Second, prepare to accept it if you have to. Then, calmly proceed to improve on the worst.
On Values
I honestly believe that this is one of the greatest secrets to true peace of mind -- a decent sense of values. We
could annihilate 50 percent of all our worries at once if we would develop a sort of private gold standard -- a
gold standard of what things are worth to us in terms of our lives.
On Pep Talks
Is giving yourself a pep talk every day silly, superficial, childish? No! On the contrary, it is the very essence of
sound psychology. "Our life is what our thoughts make it." Those words are just as true today as they were 18
centuries ago when Marcus Aurelius first wrote them in his book of Meditations.
On Enthusiasm
How can you make yourself become enthusiastic? By telling yourself what you like about what you are doing
and pass on quickly from the part you don't like to the part you do like. Then act enthusiastic; tell someone
about it; let them know why it interests you.