"Carnegie" recommendation - Carnegie's writings

Carnegie's writings

Carnegie wrote many articles throughout his life, which were published in newspapers and magazines, and launched his own radio broadcast, talking about the little-known sides of many famous figures. More importantly, he wrote "The Breakthrough of Language", "The Glory of Human Nature", "The Weakness of Human Nature", "A Beautiful Life", "Great Figures", "The Advantages of Human Nature", "Happy Life" during his life. " and seven other books. These works are the crystallization of Carnegie's adult education practice and the concentrated expression of Carnegie's philosophical thoughts. They have been selling well. They complement Carnegie's adult education, changing the traditional way of adult education, affecting the lives of millions of people, and making Carnegie famous all over the world. From a poor man's son, he became a celebrity and a rich man in this century.

Carnegie's works were not simply written for publication, but were gradually enriched and developed into books from lecture notes and teaching materials that condensed Carnegie's adult education achievements. After the books were completed, they not only became best-sellers, but also enriched the world in the form of teaching materials. and developed the content of Carnegie Adult Education.

Carnegie's first book was about speech, "The Breakthrough in Language." This is no accident. Because as mentioned above, Carnegie used speech as a shortcut to get ahead and studied it with great concentration when he was a student. Later, when he began to teach evening classes for the New York Christian Conference in 1912, the first thing he taught was "Public Speaking" classes. Because of Carnegie's wealth of knowledge accumulated from giving speech classes and because he judged 150,000 students' public speeches, he established a practical speaking model. In order to facilitate more people to learn, in 1926 he wrote a textbook on public speaking titled "Public Speaking: Practical Courses for Business People" based on his own insights and the learning experience of his students. Later, after several years of experimentation and revision, this textbook was officially published in 1931 under the name "Breakthrough in Language".

The purpose of this book is to help people overcome fear, build confidence, and speak more effectively, rather than just explaining the history and principles of public speaking. The presentation model that Carnegie explains in this book combines public speaking, salesmanship, psychology, and business and negotiation skills. He does not enumerate the rules of deadlock, does not teach people how to make sounds, gestures and other pretentious techniques, and he opposes memorizing speeches because he thinks these are traps to deceive people. It teaches people to overcome fear, build self-confidence, use their potential intelligence naturally, make appropriate speeches on various occasions, win praise, and achieve success. Therefore, over the years, this book has not only been one of the main textbooks in "Carnegie's Public Speaking and Human Relations Course", but has also been translated into dozens of languages and has become one of Carnegie's main best-selling books.

"The Brilliance of Human Nature", published in 1932, was Carnegie's second successful work after "The Breakthrough in Language". This is a biography describing the glorious achievements of President Lincoln in his life. The most legendary person on the road to success in the world is Lincoln. When Carnegie taught "Public Speaking," a shortcut to success, to adult education classes, he was attracted by the famous name of Lincoln who was on the road to success. As the descendant of an illegitimate daughter, Lincoln came from a poor family and suffered discrimination, but he had a kind and righteous heart and a goal that he pursued persistently. He had an affectionate love, but between morality and happiness, he chose morality and lost the happiness of his family forever. He personally ended the American Civil War, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and saved 3.5 million black slaves, but he himself died at the gunpoint of a serf owner. "The Brilliance of Humanity" is like a movie, showing Lincoln's hard work to become the president of the United States and his life dedicated to the cause of American and human progress. The words are full of warmth and humor. It is the most vivid and vivid biography of Lincoln. One of the most touching and enlightening.

However, the most famous book that made Carnegie world-famous was "Human Weakness" published in 1936. .This book, like "Breakthrough in Language", also evolved from the textbooks used in Carnegie's lectures. When talking about the writing and publishing process of this book, Carnegie said that when he gave classes to the business community and professionals in New York, he gradually learned that students not only needed to be trained in "effective speaking", but also needed to be trained in other aspects. A training to acquire the art of getting along with people in everyday business and social interactions. Because during his many years of teaching classes to engineering technicians, he discovered that the person who earns the most is not the person who knows the most about engineering, but the person who has specialized knowledge, is able to express his ideas, and is good at doing things, leading and inspiring others. people. This convinced him that only 15% of a person's success is due to his professional skills, while 85% depends on interpersonal relationships and his ability to do things. He firmly believes that in addition to longing for health, what people need most is to read books that improve interpersonal relationships and teach people the art of life. But there was no such book at the time, so he decided to write it himself.

To write this book, Carnegie read all the information he could find on the subject. He also hired a specially trained researcher and spent a year browsing in various libraries for psychological works that he had not read in the past, browsing thousands of magazine articles, and searching for He has read countless biographies of famous people, and personally invited dozens of successful people to talk about how they behaved in life. He is determined to find out the great skills of life and life in various eras, and to discover every trick they have used on how to win friends and persuade others. practical method. So Carnegie compiled the information he obtained into a short talk and told it in human relations training classes. Then the students practiced, verified, enriched and developed it, making his pamphlet thicker and thicker, and finally in 1936 publishing. However, the book was titled "Human Weakness and a Wonderful Life" at the time, and was later revised and republished as "Human Weakness" and "A Wonderful Life". "Human Weaknesses" consists of two main chapters: "Basic skills in life" and "How to make others like you". "A Wonderful Life" consists of three main chapters: "Twelve Ways to Win Friendships and Think," "Methods to Change People Without Hurturing Their Feelings*, and "Principles for Making Family Life Happier."

Carnegie did not expect that this book would be so popular and popular. Many parents bought it as gifts for their children, bosses bought it as gifts for their employees, and politicians also bought it in large quantities as gifts for his voters. Within a year, it was Half a million copies were printed. Moreover, his book has been published in dozens of countries around the world and has been a bestseller for half a century. According to statistics in 1981, the English version alone had printed 15 million copies.

On the basis of collecting, researching and sorting out information about countless great people and celebrities in the world, Carnegie wrote a book called "Little Stories of Big People", which was not only taught in adult education classes, but also played on local radio stations. It was very popular. welcome. So he revised it again and officially published it in 1943, named "Great People". According to different industries, this book records the arduous journey and achievements of dozens of great people, celebrities, and strange people on the road to success in life and career. Vivid examples of great achievements and little-known anecdotes make it interesting to read.

"The Best of Human Nature" was published in 1948. Like "Human Weakness" and "Language Breakthrough", it is one of the three main textbooks for Carnegie's adult education classes. This is a book about how humans conquer "worry." When the adult education classes first started, Carnegie discovered that students often talked about their own fears and worries. Carnegie had already addressed how to overcome fear in public speaking classes and in his book The Language Breakthrough; but he had not yet written a book on how to conquer worry.

Carnegie believed that worry is one of the biggest problems facing mankind. Because in hospitals, more than half of the beds are occupied by people with mental and emotional problems. Carnegie also found that in adult education classes, whether they were senior executives, salespeople, engineers and accountants, or housewives, they all had a variety of problems and worries that required him to teach a class on overcoming worries. But when he searched through the New York Public Library, he found only twenty-two books on worrying, and none of them could be used as a textbook for his adult education class, so he decided to write such a book himself. He read the biographies of famous people who had faced serious problems to find out how these people solved the problems. He also asked dozens of people for advice on how to overcome worries, and compiled a set of principles for stopping worrying, so that students can Applying it in daily life and then discussing the results of their application in class, his principles are constantly enriched and improved, including "How to Resist Worry", "Methods to Analyze Worry", "Change the Habit of Worry", "Always Stay Enriched" The "Vitality of Humanity" consists of four main parts. The content of "The Advantages of Humanity" is extremely related to "Happy Life". The former points out the principles for people to conquer worries, while the latter teaches people how to obtain happiness. Although we have not found out the year of publication of this book, we can confirm that it is the product of Professor Carnegie and his writing "The Advantages of Human Nature". This book believes that eliminating wrong thoughts and behaviors and injecting happiness is better than cutting off the body. Tumors and abscesses are also important. The first three parts of this book explain that if you want to be happy, you must "cultivate a happy mentality"/"not be unhappy because of criticism from others" and "control your work and money"; In the fourth part, dozens of celebrities speak out and talk about their own experiences and stories about how to achieve happiness. Therefore, this is a book that guides people to embark on a happy life.

About "Carnegie: Road to Success Series"

This set of "Carnegie: The Road to Success Series" is compiled based on the latest revised edition published by the United Press in 1984 and with reference to relevant overseas Chinese translations in recent years. It includes "The Breakthrough of Language", "The Brilliance of Human Nature", "The Weakness of Human Nature", "The Good Life", "Great People", "The Advantages of Human Nature", "Happiness" written by Dale Carnegie himself. "Life" and other seven books, the contents are as mentioned above, including "For Girls", "Tips of Wisdom" and "Positive Life" compiled by Mrs. Carnegie, Carnegie's sister and Carnegie's disciples. Among them, "Breakthrough in Language" and "Written for Girls" are each in one volume; the remaining eight volumes are combined into one volume. They are: "The Strengths of Human Nature and Weaknesses of Human Nature", "A Beautiful Life and a Happy Life", "The Brilliance of Human Nature and Great Figures" and "Tips of Positive Life Wisdom". We divided the ten books into six volumes (series) for publication in this way, not for content considerations, but purely for the needs of reading and publishing. In addition, we have also referred to and absorbed the practice of some overseas Chinese translations, added a short summary at the beginning of each chapter, and appended "Bring the Letter to Garcia" and "How to Promote Yourself" to the corresponding book. ""Natural Laws of Improving Memory" and other three articles.

It should be noted here that although "For Girls", "Tips of Wisdom" and "Positive Life" were not written by Dale Carnegie, they were written by Carnegie's wife, sister and disciples based on Carnegie's philosophical thoughts, education Compiled with the methods and models of Carnegie's works, it has become an integral part of Carnegie's philosophical thought and educational system, which is very important.

"For Girls" is a life textbook specially written for women by Yao Lesi Carnegie, Carnegie's wife and career heir, based on her years of experience working at the Carnegie Women's Seminar. The book includes "Being a Good Helper for Your Husband", "Giving Him an Extra Push", "How to Make Your Husband Happy", "How to Give Your Husband a Sweet Home", "How to Make Everyone Love Him", "How to Save Husband’s Health and Wealth Palace” and other ten parts. The author uses countless vivid examples of great people and celebrities to expound the principles that wives should strive to follow in marriage, family and career; he points out that a good wife must have multiple identities: she should be her husband's friend, colleague, Believer, propagandist, and his goodwill ambassador; she should apply the principles stipulated in this book dexterously and wisely to remove many obstacles, encourage and stimulate her husband's potential intelligence, show talents in society, and become her Someone you can rely on and be more carefree.

"Tips of Wisdom" was compiled by Carnegie's sister, Dorothy Carnegie. It is classified into famous quotes and warnings collected by Carnegie that condense human wisdom, and includes all the advice on life management in ancient and modern times. Although each sentence has its own meaning, they are complementary to each other, forming a complete philosophy of life, becoming an integral part of the Carnegie curriculum and a bag of wisdom.

"A Positive Life", written by Arthur Pell. Arthur Pell is a well-known American author, speaker and human resources management consultant, and an enthusiastic promoter of Carnegie's career. In his book "Positive Life", he elaborated on the theories, principles and practices used by Carnegie to enrich life, gave examples of the characteristics of Carnegie's courses and works, and how to apply the principles of life and life to conquer fear and cultivate self-confidence. , raise enthusiasm, improve interpersonal relationships, stimulate people's potential, and lead people to a positive life.

It should also be noted that Carnegie’s educational thoughts and his works were produced and developed in the United States at the beginning and middle of this century, and have obvious characteristics of the times. At that time, it was the period of the global economic Great Depression. In the United States and in the capitalist world, people's desire to succeed and get rich was quite strong. With the development of capitalism, contemporary science and the development of contemporary social economy, this pursuit has become more and more important. The need to get rich and have a successful career becomes more intense. Carnegie's adult education and writings, with their fast-paced, very practical and quickly successful characteristics, adapt to and reflect this personal and social requirements, and have obvious characteristics of capitalist competition. The philosophical ideas it promotes are naturally idealistic and overemphasize the role of personal struggle and improving interpersonal skills in getting rich successfully. They often ignore material factors and cover up the class nature of capitalist competition. The nature, and sometimes even mystical religious overtones, attribute some people's success to God's revelation and prayer.

However, we also believe that Carnegie’s education and works are, after all, the fruits of the progress of human civilization. Some of its principles and methods are more universal to mankind, and there will be quite a lot of content suitable for readers in our country. Today, we are implementing the policy of reform and opening up, and we must learn scientific and advanced things from all countries in the world. Especially with the development of the four modernizations, people-to-people contacts are becoming more and more frequent, and people-to-people contact is becoming more and more frequent. Harmony, coordination and collaboration among people, as well as exploring and promoting the development of public relations, are increasingly necessary; Carnegie's works broaden our horizons and understand the various efforts made by Western countries in adult education, especially to overcome the closed-minded Carnegie's works will provide valuable inspiration and reference for the weaknesses of Chinese people's human nature. Therefore, we solemnly recommend this set of "Carnegie's Road to Success Series" to readers.

Fang Ming October 1987