How To Win Friends and Influence People: by Dale Carnegie -- Summary, Review & Analysis

*Note: Our summary is an accompaniment to How to Win Friends and Influence People, not the book itself. While it will greatly enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the book, it is not intended to stand in its place.* The fact is, too many people focus on what they're going to say in response to someone, rather than focusing on what that person is actually saying. Dale Carnegie pointed that out in his 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and his advice for how to overcome those bad listening habits is just as useful now as it was nearly 80 years ago. The updated version of the book has relevant examples for today, but the heart of the message remains the same. Let this chapter-by-chapter guide help you along the path to better communication, starting with the most basic step: understanding the wants of others. Dale Carnegie was a prominent lecturer who taught courses in self-improvement, corporate sales, and more. That empire still exists today in the form of Dale Carnegie Training, using How to Win Friends and Influence People as a core component. This summary breaks down the major ideas presented in each of four sections with easy-to-digest take-aways. Some ideas emphasized in How to Win Friends and Influence People may be hard to grasp for some people, such as the need to look at things from the other person's perspective and why criticism is pointless at best and damaging at worst. This summary wraps everything into a tidy "Putting it Together" section that gives you the tools you need in today's society to win friends and influence people.