Some Things Stay the Same

An item in the August 8, 2006, The Times (London) notes that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.  Carnegie's book, way back in 1936, managed to tie together two literary sub-genres not then in existence: self-improvement for business and self-improvement for relationships.  In fact, besides longevity in print, perhaps Carnegie's most significant accomplishment was to frame "business" as being all about relationships, albeit in a mechanistic and, some would say, manipulative sense.

Putting aside any critique of Carnegie or his style of presentation (the Times piece does note the problems that attend comparing works written in one age with those of another), it is interesting just how much of the book foreshadows the contemporary field of emotional intelligence, what with its emphasis on understanding how others think, feel and work.  Maybe the lesson from Carnegie, as from Machiavelli, Fulghum and others, is that much of success in any sphere of life is relational in nature, no matter how much we might wish it otherwise.