thinking, or satisfying an irritated customer—hesitate about doing the natural thing, the impulsive thing.
This is usually wrong. Instead, turn to these pages and review the paragraphs you have underscored. Then
try these new ways and watch them achieve magic for you.
7. Offer your spouse, your child or some business associate a dime or a dollar every time he or she catches
you violating a certain principle. Make a lively game out of mastering these rules.
8. The president of an important Wall Street bank once described, in a talk before one of my classes, a highly
efficient system he used for self-improvement. This man
had little formal schooling; yet he had become one
of the most important financiers in America, and he confessed that he owed most of his success to the
constant application of his homemade system. This is what he does and I’ll put it in his own words as
accurately as I can remember.
“For years I have kept an engagement book showing all the appointments I had during the day. My family
never made any plans for me on Saturday night, for the family knew that I devoted a part of each Saturday
evening to the illuminating process of self-examination and review and appraisal. After dinner I went off by
myself, opened my engagement book, and thought over all the interviews, discussions
and meetings that
had taken place during the week. I asked myself: ‘What mistakes did I make that time?’ ‘What did I do that
was right, and in what way could I have improved my performance?’ ‘What lessons can I learn from that
experience?’
“I often found that this weekly review made me very unhappy. I was frequently astonished at my own
blunders. Of course, as the years passed, these blunders became less frequent. Sometimes I was inclined to
pat myself on the back a little after one of these sessions. This system of self-analysis, self-education,
continued year after year, did more for me than any other one thing I have ever attempted.
“It helped me improve my ability to make decisions and it aided me enormously
in all my contacts with
people. I cannot recommend it too highly.”
Why not use a similar system to check up on your application of the principles discussed in this book? If
you do, two things will result.
First, you will find yourself engaged in an educational process that is both intriguing and priceless. Second,
you will find that your ability to meet and deal with people will grow enormously.
9. You will find at the end of this book several blank pages on which you should record your triumphs in the
application of these principles. Be specific. Give names, dates, results. Keeping such a record will inspire
you to greater efforts; and how fascinating these entries will be when you chance upon them some evening
years from now!
In order to get the most out of this book:
a. Develop a deep, driving desire to master the principles of human relations.
b. Read each chapter twice before going on to the next one.
c. As you read, stop frequently to ask yourself how you can apply each suggestion.
d. Underscore each important idea.
e. Review this book each month.
f. Apply these principles at every opportunity. Use this volume as a working handbook to help you solve
your daily problems.
g. Make a lively game out of your learning by offering some friend a dime or a dollar every time he or she
catches you violating one of these principles.
h. Check up each week on the progress you are making. Ask yourself
what mistakes you have made, what
improvement, what lessons you have learned for the future.
i. Keep notes in the back of this book showing how and when you have applied these principles.
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