| Dale
Carnegie
(November 24, 1888 - November 1, 1955) was a pioneer in
self-improvement, salesmanship, and corporate training programs,
and became famous for courses he developed that emphasized public
speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm
in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and
Influence People, first published in 1936, which has sold over
15 million copies through many editions and remains popular
today. He also wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln titled Lincoln
the Unknown and several other books.
Carnegie was an
early proponent of what is now called responsibility
assumption. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is
possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's
reaction to them.
Born in 1888 in
Maryville, Missouri, Carnegie was a poor farmer's boy, apparently
not seeing a train until he was twelve years old. In his
teens, though still having to get up at 4 a.m. every day to milk
his parents' cows, he managed to get educated at the State
Teacher's College in Warrensburg. His first job after
college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers, then he
moved on to selling bacon, soap, and lard for Armour &
Company. He was successful to the point of making his sales
territory, southern Omaha, the national leader for the firm.
It is still
rumored that Dale Carnegie committed suicide, but the official
word from Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc is that he died of
Hodgkin's disease. |
