Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (1888-1955) - American educator, lecturer, writer, motivator, psychologist and biographer.
He stood at the origins of the creation of the theory of the psychology of communication, translating the scientific developments of psychologists of that time into a practical field. He developed his own system of conflict-free communication.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Dale Carnegie, which we will talk about in this article.
So, here is a short biography of Carnegie.
Dale Carnegie biography
Dale Carnegie was born on November 24, 1888 in Missouri, in the town of Maryville. He grew up and was raised in a poor family of farmer James William and his wife Amanda Elizabeth Harbison.
Childhood and youth
When Dale was 16 years old, he moved with his parents and older brother to the city of Warrensburg. Since the family lived in poverty, the future psychologist had to wear his brother's clothes.
During that period of his biography, the young man attended the local teacher training college, where no tuition fees were charged. An interesting fact is that before going to class, he milked the cows, getting up at 3 am.
After 4 years, Dale decided to quit his studies because he failed to pass the Latin exam. Other than that, he had no desire to become a teacher. However, right after college, he taught correspondence courses to large farmers for a time.
Carnegie later traded bacon, soap and lard for Armor & Company. Working as a sales agent required him to be flexible in communicating with customers. He needed to be able to convince and convince his interlocutors, which only contributed to the development of his oratory.
His observations and conclusions, which Dale came to during sales, he presented in his first treatise of useful advice. Having saved up $ 500, the guy decided to quit trading, because by that time he clearly understood that he wanted to connect his life with pedagogy.
Carnegie traveled to New York, where he began giving lectures to local residents. At that moment, the country was going through an economic crisis and people especially needed psychological support. Therefore, Dale did not have to complain about the absence of spectators.
The young psychologist told the public how to gain self-confidence, build relationships with loved ones, and also how to advance the career ladder or develop a business.
The Christian Association increased Carnegie's royalties. His name was gaining more and more popularity, as a result of which he began to receive more and more new proposals.
Literature and psychology
By 1926, Dale Carnegie had so much experience in communication that he had enough material to write the first significant book - "Oratory and Influencing Business Partners."
An interesting fact is that the peculiarities of the pedagogical system allowed a man to patent it and thereby receive passive income.
Carnegie later comes to the conclusion that it is not enough for a person to be able to speak beautifully. Rather, he wants to change the outlook of the people around him, as well as influence decision-making.
As a result, in 1936 Dale published the world famous book How to Win Friends and Influence People, which had the greatest success among all the works of a psychologist. This work, recalculated to date, has made him a billionaire.
The success of the book was such a huge success, in large part because Carnegie gave examples from everyday life in it, explained information in simple language and gave practical advice. On the pages of this work, he encouraged the reader to smile more often, avoid criticism and show interest in the interlocutor.
Dale Carnegie's next iconic book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, was published in 1948. In it, the author helped the reader to find a pleasant and fulfilling life, as well as to better understand not only himself but also those around him.
Carnegie recommended not to dwell on the past and not worry about the future. Instead, a person should have lived for today and looked optimistically at the world. He supported his ideas with "iron" facts.
For example, one of the ways to “start living” is to follow the Law of Large Numbers, according to which the probability of a disturbing event occurring is incredibly small.
In his next work, How to Build Self-Confidence and Influence People by Speaking in Public, Dale Carnegie shared the secrets of public speaking. An interesting fact is that this book has been reprinted more than 100 times in the United States alone!
According to Carnegie, self-confidence is not an innate factor, but solely the result of taking specific actions. In particular, this includes speaking to an audience, but according to a specific scheme.
Dale emphasized that in order to achieve success, the speaker needs to look neat, carefully prepare his speech, maintain eye contact with the interlocutor and have a large vocabulary.
Personal life
As one of the most famous experts in the field of relationships, in his personal life Carnegie could not boast of any achievements.
With his first wife, Lolita Boker, Dale lived for about 10 years, after which he secretly divorced. The divorce was kept secret from the public, so as not to reduce the sales of the next bestseller.
The psychologist later remarried to Dorothy Price Vanderpool, who attended his lectures. The family has two daughters - a common daughter Donna and a child Dorothy from her first marriage - Rosemary.
Death
In the last years of his life, the writer lived alone in the house, since the spouses had not had the same relationship for a long time as before. Dale Carnegie died on November 1, 1955 at the age of 66.
The psychologist's cause of death was Hodgin's disease - a malignant disease of the lymph nodes. He also suffered from kidney failure. Curiously, according to one version, the man shot himself because he could no longer resist the disease.
Photo by Dale Carnegie
