CEOs still love Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

Yesterday, as McKay and I were talking about ransomware and IPO plans, we discovered that we are both graduates of Dale Carnegie University. I took an eight-week course as part of Junior Achievement when I was 13, and I still have my marked copy of How to win friends and influence peopleAfter jokingly repeating our names to one another—the namesake’s “sweetest and most important sound,” Carnegie wrote—we marveled at how a 1936 self-help book by a former lard salesman had remained a bestseller for nearly nine decades.

Notable graduates include Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, Tony Robbins, Lyndon Johnson, cosmetics entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash and car manufacturer Lee Iacocca. Warren Buffett and murderous cult leader Charlie Manson were both apparently drawn to Chapter 7: “Let the other person feel that the idea came from him.”

Joe Hart, CEO of Dale Carnegie, has his own theories about why this training still exists—and in fact, it has been expanded to 86 countries and a growing list of corporate clients. “When I talk to CEOs, it’s about people management and AI,” he told me. “How do I connect with people and build trust? How do I use AI in a way that makes people see the opportunity and not the fear?”

Personally, I have always liked the vague vulnerability that the brand exudes. It is humbling to admit that you would like to make a few more friends or learn How to stop worrying and start living. In an age when people keep their mental health issues to themselves, it was an admission that you didn’t have all the answers; that you’d like to get better at connecting with people. And the desire to be more successful in business is a pursuit that transcends left and right. As Junior Achievement CEO Asheesh Advani told me earlier this week, “Everyone supports entrepreneurship.”

Is Dale Carnegie also a bit corny, old-fashioned, and occasionally wrong? Sure. When I first read a line about birds being happy because they don’t try to impress other birds, the image of a peacock came to mind. And we’ve learned that minimizing time with narcissists is probably a better life skill than trying to entertain them.

Still, as McKay says, there are no downsides to “walking down the hall and remembering a person’s name.”

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Diane Brady
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THis edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.

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