June 30th, 2012 Dale Carnegie

Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (originally Carnagey until 1922 and possibly somewhat later) (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, a massive bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln, titled Lincoln the Unknown, as well as several other books.

 

Dale Carnegie was an early proponent of what is now called responsibility assumption, although this only appears minutely in his written work. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other Dale people's behavior by changing one's reaction to them.

 

Biography of Dale Carnegie

Born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri, Carnegie was a poor farmer's boy, the second son of James William Carnagey (b. Indiana, February 1852  living 1910) and wife Amanda Elizabeth Harbison (b. Missouri, February 1858  living 1910). In his teens, though still having to get up at 4 a.m. every day to milk his parents' cows, he managed to get educated at the State Teacher's College in Warrensburg. His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers; then he moved on to selling bacon, soap and lard for Armour & Company. He was successful to the point of making his sales territory, southern Omaha, the national leader for the firm.

 

After saving $500, Carnegie quit sales in 1911 in order to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a Chautauqua lecturer. He ended up instead attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but found little success as an actor, though it is written that he played the role of Dr. Hartley in a road show of Polly of the Circus. When the production ended, he returned to New York, unemployed, nearly broke, and living at the YMCA on 125th Street. It was there that he got the idea to teach public speaking, and he persuaded the "Y" manager to allow him to instruct a class in return for 80% of the net proceeds. In his first session, he had run out of material; improvising, he suggested that students speak about "something that made them angry", and discovered that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From this 1912 debut, the Dale Carnegie Course evolved. Carnegie had tapped into the average American's desire to have more self-confidence, and by 1914, he was earning $500 – the equivalent of nearly $10,000 now – every week.

 

Perhaps one of Carnegie's most successful marketing moves was to change the spelling of his last name from Carnegey to Carnegie, at a time when unrelated Andrew Carnegie was a widely revered and recognized name. By 1916, Dale was able to rent Carnegie Hall itself for a lecture to a packed house. Carnegie's first collection of his writings was Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men (1926), later entitled Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1932). His crowning achievement, however, was when Simon & Schuster published How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was a bestseller from its debut in 1937, in its 17th printing within a few months. By the time of Carnegie's death, the book had sold five million copies in 31 languages, and there had been 450,000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute It has been stated in the book that he has criticized over 150,000 speeches in his participation of the adult education movement of the time.

 

His first marriage ended in divorce in 1931. On November 5, 1944, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he married Dorothy Price Vanderpool, who also had been divorced. Vanderpool had two daughters; Rosemary, from her first marriage, and Donna Dale from their marriage together.

 

Though it has been stated that Dale Carnegie died of uremia, it is widely rumored that he died at age 66 by committing suicide. The rumor began because another author, Irving Tressler, wrote "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" as an unauthorized parody of the classic Dale Carnegie book. Mr. Tressler later committed suicide and was confused with Dale Carnegie himself. The official biography from Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. states that he died of Hodgkin's disease on November 1, 1955. He died at Forest Hills, New York, and was buried in the Belton, Cass County, Missouri cemetery.

 

Dale Carnegie's company became incorporated as Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. in 1954. Dale Carnegie passed away soon after in 1955, leaving his legacy and set of core principles to be disseminated for decades to come.

 

The 1950s also marked a period of international expansion in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. It was also during the 1950s that the foundations of Dale Carnegie Training as it exists today began to take form. A group of professional managers were hired and specialized departments for instruction, distribution, purchasing, finance, and advertising were created. Responding to contemporary needs, the first Dale Carnegie Training leadership courses were created in 1967. These would eventually grow into our current core program, Leadership Training for Managers. In 1975, the Dale Carnegie Training's courses and seminars were awarded accreditation by Continuing Education Council, today known as the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training. Dale Carnegie Strategic Presentations Workshop (now known as High Impact Presentations) was developed in 1985. This grew out of a need in the market for intense presentations training designed for professionals. Dale Carnegie Training began offering corporate solutions worldwide in 1992. This expansion of our business allowed courses and seminars to be tailored to meet the specific needs of businesses with the experience of our corporate solutions team. All Dale Carnegie Training local sponsoring organizations in the U.S. were approved through the GSA Federal Supply Schedule #GS-10F-0329K to offer their products and services to federal government agencies in 2001. Dale Carnegie Training celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2002. With a roster of over 7 million graduates, Dale Carnegie Training is dedicated to serving the business community worldwide. Currently, there are over 2,700 professional instructors that offer Dale Carnegie Training in more than 75 countries in 25 languages.

 

Books of Dale Carnegie

Public Speaking and Influencing Men In Business. Association Press.
How to Win Friends and Influence People. A self-help book about interpersonal relations. Simon and Schuster.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. A self-help book about stress management. Simon & Schuster.
Lincoln the Unknown by Dale Carnegie. A biography of Abraham Lincoln. Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. Principles and practical implementation of expressing oneself before groups of people. Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
The Leader In You. How to Win Friends, Influence People, and Succeed in a Changing World
The Dale Carnegie Scrapbook, edited by Dorothy Carnegie. A collection of quotations that Dale Carnegie found inspirational interspersed with excerpts from his own writings. Simon and Schuster.
How To Develop Self-Confidence and Influence Others Through Public Speaking.
Managing Through People. The application of Dale Carnegie's principles of human relations to management. Simon and Schuster.
Enrich Your Life, The Dale Carnegie Way by Arthur R. Pell. A book describing how a variety of people have applied the principles that Dale Carnegie and his successors have taught. Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
Dale Carnegie: The Man Who Influenced Millions,

 

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Carnegie

http://www.dalecarnegie.com/about_us/history.jsp