There's gotta be something better than this 75 year old book!
Is there a modern equivalent to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People? I mean, c’mon, it was published way back in 1936. They barely had cars, electricity or TV back then. Heck, the era that AMC’s Mad Men portrays hadn’t even happened yet. There was no Internet, no e-commerce, no social media in 1936.
The World has changed. Somebody else must have written something better than Carnegie’s classic in the last 75 years! So, I posed this question on LinkedIn in October 2011 and received some great feedback. By the way, the following list is not in any particular order of goodness.
- Book: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently
Author: John C. Maxwell
Recommended by: Kevin Hrim - Book: Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Author’s Website: http://www.tablegroup.com/
Recommended by: Kevin Hrim - Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age(Oct 4, 2011)
Author: Dale Carnegie
Recommended by: Todd South - Book: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
Author: Guy Kawasaki
Testimonial: “The best overall treatise on interpersonal relationships since Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People.” – Michael Gartenberg, Research Director, Gartner
Recommended by: Hillary Schieve - Book: Influence: Science and Practice
Author: Robert Cialdini
Author’s Website: http://www.influenceatwork.com/
Recommended by: Francesco Ferzini - Book: Winning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time
Author: John C. Maxwell
Recommended by: Bill Martin - Book: The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Author: Jack Canfield
Book’s Website: http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/
Recommended by: Clay Hall - Book: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Author: Simon Sinek
Authors’s Website: http://www.startwithwhy.com/
TED Conference: Video
Recommended, independently, by: Alice Heiman and John Bankhead
Alice’s comment: I recommend the How to Win Friends & Influence People book to all the young people I mentor and the college students I teach. I don’t know of anything new with the same message, but I do love the book Start With Why by Simon Sinek and have been sending that out to all my CEOs. - Book: Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Author: Keith Ferrazzi
Recommended by: Oliver Lee Mincey
Oliver’s comment: I enjoyed the book. Not quite Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends, but it does have some good nuggets. - Book: Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web
Author: Brian Solis
Recommended by: Felipe Huicochea - Book: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
Authors: Chris Brogan & Julien Smith
Recommended by: Felipe Huicochea - Book: You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar: The Sandler Sales Institute’s 7-Step System for Successful Selling
Author: David H. Sandler
Recommended by: Luke Davies
(Oct 4, 2011)
While everybody recommended an alternative, almost everybody agreed that Carnegie’s How to Win Friends was still the timeless gold standard.
Good list. I really enjoyed reading number 3. Sometimes with principles of relating to people, old is gold. 🙂
I completely agree, Seth, old is gold!