If you’re building a business, you should be well aware of the importance of self-education, seeking out and reading a wide variety of business and self-help books. Along with the steady flow of new material, this is a reminder to include the classics!

You can always learn something new, regardless of how old the material seems.

I’m always reading at least one classic along with new material.

“How To Win Friends And Influence People” by Dale Carnegie is one of these.

The content is rich and just as valuable today as when it was first published in 1936.

It includes sections such as:

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People,

Six Ways to Make People Like You,

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking,

Nine Ways to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment,

Letters That Produce Miraculous Results, and

Seven Rules For Making Your Home Life Happier.

To give you an example, here is a brief segment from the section “A Sure Way of Making Enemies — and How to Avoid It”:

“You can tell a man he is wrong by a look or an intonation or a gesture just as eloquently as you can in words — and if you tell him he is wrong, do you make him want to agree with you? Never! For you have struck a direct blow at his intelligence, his judgment, his pride, his self-respect. That will make him want to strike back. But it will never make him want to change his mind. You may then hurl at him all the logic of Plato or an Immanuel Kant, but you will not alter his opinion, for you have hurt his feelings.”

Part II closes with “Six Ways to Make People Like You”

Rule 1: Become genuinely interested in other people

Rule 2: Smile

Rule 3: Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Rule 4: Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Rule 5: Talk in terms of the other man’s interest.

Rule 6: Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.

The writing is not always “politically correct” and may seem a little quaint by current standards, but just take that into consideration.

Dale Carnegie was born to poor farmers in Missouri in 1888. He managed to get an education, then tried sales with moderate success. Later he tried acting after attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts but found little success in that line of work.

He developed a course called simply The Dale Carnegie Course, which many consider to be his greatest achievement. More than 50 years after his death it’s still popular. And his book How to Win Friends and Influence People is his most famous, having sold more than 15 million copies around the globe.

If you have yet to read this classic, get yourself a copy and read it. And if it’s been a long time since you read it, pull it out and read it again. You’ll like what you see!

Want to find out more business building tips? Visit Kim Thornton’s blog Surge To Success.