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“Does that person honestly feel better because he has talked with me?”
Everyone, yes, everyone—your neighbor, you, your wife, your boss—has a natural desire to feel he is “somebody.” The desire to be important is man’s strongest, most compelling nonbiological hunger.
our religions, our laws, our entire culture are based on the belief of the importance of the individual.
She was fiftyish, unattractive, and certainly uninspired in her work. It was obvious that her longing to be important was completely unfulfilled. She was one of the millions of people who live for months at a time without ever being given a reason to believe that someone notices them or cares about them.
Practice appreciation. Make it a rule to let others know you appreciate what they do for you. Never, never let anyone feel he is taken for granted.
the seed of money is service. That’s why “put service first” is an attitude that creates wealth. Put service first, and money takes care of itself.
“Pardon me, sir. It’s been a dusty day. Let me clean the inside of your windshield.”
“How can I give more than is expected of me?”
Life up everything about you: your smile, your handshake, your talk, even your walk. Act alive. Broadcast good news. No one ever accomplished anything positive telling bad news.
nine cases out of ten, the “likability” factor is the first thing mentioned. And in an overwhelmingly large number of cases, the “likability” factor is given far more weight than the technical factor.
Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.
Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
“I may not be very important to him, but he’s important to me. That’s why I’ve got to get to know him.”
Drop a personal note or make a phone call to the new friends you feel you want to know better. This is an important point. Most successful people follow through on new friends with a letter or a phone call.
“My success,” he continued, “is based on one thing. I like, really like the guy I’m selling. Let me say again, I really like him.
Thinking right toward people removes frustrations and stress. When you boil it all down, the big cause of stress is negative feelings toward other people.
how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
Mr. Fairless, who rose from very modest circumstances to become chief executive of the United States Steel Corporation, said this (quoted in Life magazine, October 15, 1956): “It depends on how you look at things. For example, I never had a teacher I hated. Naturally I was disciplined just like every other pupil, but I always figured it was my fault that the discipline was necessary. I have also liked every boss I ever had. I always tried to please him and do more than he expected if I possibly could, never less.
he won’t act. As by-products he loses confidence in himself, destroys his self-reliance, lives in mediocrity.
Mr. Activationist does. Mr. Passivationist is going to do but doesn’t.
A lot of passivationists got that way because they insisted on waiting until everything was 100 percent favorable before they took action. Perfection is highly desirable. But nothing man-made or man-designed is, or can be, absolutely perfect. So to wait for the perfect set of conditions is to wait forever.
Meet problems and obstacles as they arise. The test of a successful person is not the ability to eliminate all problems before he takes action, but rather the ability to find solutions to difficulties when he encounters them.
Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone.
Most of the good ideas come from just getting to work.” Action must precede action. That’s a law of nature. Nothing starts itself, not even the dozens of mechanical gadgets we use daily.
the only way to start is to start. Don’t deliberate. Don’t postpone getting started.
The longer you lie there and think how unpleasant it will be to get up, the more difficult it becomes.
People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit.
Now is the magic word of success. Tomorrow, next week, later, sometime, someday often as not are synonyms for the failure word, never.
Initiative is a special kind of action. It’s doing something worthwhile without being told to do it. The person with initiative has a standing invitation to join the high income brackets in every business and profession.
Mr. Success reacted differently when he got knocked down. He bounced up, learned a lesson, forgot the beating, and moved upward.
salvage something from every setback.
if you don’t produce, you don’t get where you want to go.
Mr. Williams said he thought his blindness “will actually be an asset in my career. I can never judge by appearances. Therefore, I can always give a person a second chance. My blindness keeps me from cutting myself off from a person because of the way he looks. I want to be the kind of person to whom anyone can come and feel secure, to express himself.”
Defeat is only a state of mind, and nothing more.
Many people become so accustomed to themselves that they fail to see ways for improvement.
We can try and try, and try and try and try again, and still fail, unless we combine persistence with experimentation.
persistence blended with experimentation does guarantee success.
Tell yourself, “There IS a way.”
Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time.
We can and should plan at least ten years ahead. You must form an image now of the person you want to be ten years from now if you are to become that image.
People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future.
Desire, when harnessed, is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity.
Set goals to get things done.
You will accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.
one paragraph after another. The book ‘wrote itself.’
the person resolves not to smoke for another hour. When the hour is up, the smoker simply renews his resolution not to smoke for another hour. Later, as desire diminishes, the period is extended to two hours, later to a day. Eventually, the goal is won. The person who wants freedom from the habit all at once fails because the psychological pain is more than he can stand. An hour is easy; forever is difficult.
To get others to do what you want them to do, you must see things through their eyes.
employees are doing something wrong or are making a mistake, I am doubly careful not to hurt their feelings and make them feel small or embarrassed. I just use four simple steps: “First, I talk to them privately. “Second, I praise them for what they are doing well. “Third, I point out the one thing at the moment that they could do better and I help them find the way. “Fourth, I praise them again on their good points. “And this four-step formula works.
Avoid sarcasm. Avoid being cynical. Avoid taking people down a peg or two. Avoid putting others in their place.
What kind of world would this world be, If everyone in it were just like me?
