How to Win Friends and Influence People

In AP Lang, we were required to pick nonfiction books from a given list for a project that I still don’t understand. I was actually absent the day that the project was given so I only vaguely understand what this project is about. We were supposed to pick and get our books by the following Wednesday, which I unfortunately ignored until last minute. The night before the deadline, I searched frantically through the public library catalog for a nonfiction book on the list. I finally found a book that looked interesting and, more importantly, was available. I quickly wrote down the title of the book onto the sheet that we were supposed to turn in with our parent’s signature.

When I got to class, I was a little worried because I didn’t know if the teacher was going to check to see if I had the book or not. I dreaded having to be further disliked by my teacher. I’m pretty sure that I don’t really have a high reputation in her eyes. Not having my book would mean that I would have not done the assignment and I would have to borrow a book from her. Luckily she didn’t check to see if I had the book with me that day. After school ended, I went directly to the library and grabbed the book.

The book is probably one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read because it teaches valuable lessons for handling people. How to Win Friends & Influence People provides important information on how to be a leader and be successful. The main lessons were that one must be interested in others, one must always smile, and one must compliment and not criticize. The author, Dale Carnegie, teaches the lessons through anecdotes. He makes references to Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and other successful people. There really weren’t any boring parts to the book.

I decided to try out some of the tips that were in the book. In the school library, I printed some documents and went up to the front desk to pick them up. However, before I walked up to the front desk, I searched up the librarian’s name because through the book, I learned that people tend to value their names. When I said, “thank you, Ms. ------“, instead of just simply handing over my printed pages, the librarian smiled back and genuinely seemed to appreciate my thanks.

But, it’s a real struggle to constantly be interested in other people. Like, it is so much easier to talk about my own achievements and thoughts than to be interested in someone else’s thoughts and problems. I guess that’s why people who genuinely are interested in other people are so well liked.

I really hope that I can at least remember a couple of the lessons from the book… then I could at least be partially successful in my life…

If you want, you can email me about anything at wtgl.lee@gmail.com