Dale Carnegie and Steve Jobs

Dale Carnegie


Dale Carnegie was born in Maryville Missouri on November 24, 1888. Through out Dale's life he lectured people and wrote many books on: interpersonal skills, public speaking, self-improvement, and salesmanship. Through 1915 to 1962 he wrote many books, but the one he is most famous for is How to Win Friends and Influence People. The title of this book is self explanatory. Dale's main idea in the book is that you must change yourself, before you can change peoples perception of you. Dale Carnegie did not learn from anyone. He naturally had excellent interpersonal skills in my opinion, but as he explains in his book you do not have to be a naturally good speaker you just have to do the small things, that give off good vibes to the person you are listening or speaking to. For example two little things that he mention in his book  How to Win Friends and Influence People are 1. Smile and 2. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.  Dale Carnegie inspired and changed many peoples lives for the better. He definitely made a positive mark on the world. Founded in 1912, and still running there is a Dale Carnegie Training, that more than 8 million people have completed, and is in more than 80 countries.   

While refereeing to Dale Carnegie's 1936 book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" Warren Buffet said in an interview, "I do not have my diploma from college I do not have my diploma from graduate school, but I have my Dale Carnegie diploma. Because it changed my life" Warren Buffet is one of my idols and someone that is a extremely hard worker and very successful, so for him to say that makes me want to read some of Dale Carnegie books, when I get the chance.

"Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have."

Steve Jobs

As you probably know the late Steve Jobs was known for his extremely successful business Apple. Steve Jobs was not only a genius, but he had a extremely good presenting and interpersonal skills. He had a way to keep the audience always in awe in during his presentations. One big theme all of Apple has, and Steve Jobs does a great job of, is making everything simply. Steve Jobs makes everything from is presentation to his stores to his products. For example on his slide shows he will have one picture and maybe a couple bullet points. This puts more of the focus on him and how he presents himself instead of the information. Steve Jobs also knows his products inside and out, even though his presentations are more general, so the audience can understand them. I have no doubt in my mind that he knows just as much about all of his products, as anyone else in the company. 

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.''

 

Steve Jobs and Dale Carnegie Common Themes 

Dale Carnegie failed to mention anything about presenting your self in a certain way, in other words dressing nicely. I think dressing nice should be secondary, to how you present your self and what you are saying. For example, in all of Steve Job's presentation he will always wear jeans with a black turtle neck. This makes the audience focused on the presentation and the information he is saying instead of focusing on the presenter. One other thing that they both preach is that you must show emotion when you speak. If you are really passionate about your topic you will show emotion. This has a huge impact on the listeners. Dale Carnegie and Steve Jobs general principles of presenting and managing people will never change. 

One other common theme both Steve and Dale preach is do not be afraid to fail! Failure will only help you succeed in your future endeavor's. Learn from your mistakes.

Dale Carnegie

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

Steve Jobs
Below is a video I find very inspiring. It is a video of Steve Jobs talking about failure. 

"Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. "

Both Steve Jobs and Dale Carnegie both agree that you must love what you are doing in order to be successful.

Dale Carnegie

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."

 Steve Jobs Stanford University Speech (2005)

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Differences 

One main difference that I found was that Steve Jobs was actually talking about a product he made, while Dale Carnegie just had simple guidelines for public speaking. One thing to keep in mind when you are presenting is that, you can take all the public speaking classes in the world, but if you do not know your product or project inside out then, it will affect your presentation. Unlike a lot of CEO's Steve Jobs made everything from the stores to the actual IPOD, so everything about his company inside and out. To conclude read Dale Carnegie's book  How to Win Friends and Influence People  but more importantly know what you are talking about.