How This Book Was Written—And Why By Dale Carnegie 本書的形成，為什么是由戴爾·卡耐基寫成的

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

During the first thirty-five years of the twentieth century, the publishing houses of America printed more than a fifth of a million different books. Most of them were deadly dull, and many were financial failures.“Many,” did I say? The president of one of the largest publishing houses in the world confessed to me that his company, after seventy-five years of publishing experience, still lost money on seven out of every eight books it published.

Why, then, did I have the temerity to write another book? And, after I had written it, why should you bother to read it?

Fair questions, both; and I'll try to answer them.

I have, since 1912, been conducting educational courses for business and professional men and women in New York. At first, I conducted courses in public speaking only—courses designed to train adults, by actual experience, to think on their feet and express their ideas with more clarity, more effectiveness and more poise, both in business interviews and before groups.

But gradually, as the seasons passed, I realized that as sorely as these adults needed training in effective speaking, they needed still more training in the fine art of getting along with people in everyday business and social contacts.

I also gradually realized that I was sorely in need of such training myself. As I look back across the years, I am appalled at my own frequent lack of finesse and understanding. How I wish a book such as this had been placed in my hands twenty years ago! What a priceless boon it would have been.

Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are in business. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect or engineer. Research done a few years ago under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching uncovered a most important and significant fact—a fact later confirmed by additional studies made at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. These investigations revealed that even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15 percent of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering—to personality and the ability to lead people.

For many years, I conducted courses each season at the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, and also courses for the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. A total of probably more than fifteen hundred engineers have passed through my classes. They came to me because they had finally realized, after years of observation and experience, that the highest-paid personnel in engineering are frequently not those who know the most about engineering. One can for example, hire mere technical ability in engineering, accountancy, architecture or any other profession at nominal salaries. But the person who has technical knowledge plus the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people—that person is headed for higher earning power.

In the heyday of his activity, John D. Rockefeller said that“the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability,” said John D., “than for any other under the sun.”

Wouldn't you suppose that every college in the land would conduct courses to develop the highest-priced ability under the sun? But if there is just one practical, common-sense course of that kind given for adults in even one college in the land, it has escaped my attention up to the present writing.

The University of Chicago and the United Y.M.C.A.Schools conducted a survey to determine what adults want to study.

That survey cost $25,000 and took two years. The last part of the survey was made in Meriden, Connecticut. It had been chosen as a typical American town. Every adult in Meriden was interviewed and requested to answer 156 questions—questions such as“What is your business or profession? Your education? How do you spend your spare time? What is your income? Your hobbies? Your ambitions? Your problems? What subjects are you most interested in studying?” And so on. That survey revealed that health is the prime interest of adults—and that their second interest is people; how to understand and get along with people; how to make people like you; and how to win others to your way of thinking.

So the committee conducting this survey resolved to conduct such a course for adults in Meriden. They searched diligently for a practical textbook on the subject and found—not one. Finally they approached one of the world's outstanding authorities on adult education and asked him if he knew of any book that met the needs of this group.“No,” he replied, “I know what those adults want. But the book they need has never been written.”

I knew from experience that this statement was true, for I myself had been searching for years to discover a practical, working handbook on human relations.

Since no such book existed, I have tried to write one for use in my own courses. And here it is. I hope you like it.

In preparation for this book, I read everything that I could find on the subject—everything from newspaper columns, magazine articles, records of the family courts, the writings of the old philosophers and the new psychologists. In addition, I hired a trained researcher to spend one and a half years in various libraries reading everything I had missed, plowing through erudite tomes on psychology, poring over hundreds of magazine articles, searching through countless biographies, trying to ascertain how the great leaders of all ages had dealt with people. We read their biographies, we read the life stories of all great leaders from Julius Caesar to Thomas Edison. I recall that we read over one hundred biographies of Theodore Roosevelt alone. We were determined to spare no time, no expense, to discover every practical idea that anyone had ever used throughout the ages for winning friends and influencing people.

I personally interviewed scores of successful people, some of them world-famous—inventors like Marconi and Edison; political leaders like Franklin D.Roosevelt and James Farley; business leaders like Owen D.Young; movie stars like Clark Gable and Mary Pickford; and explorers like Martin Johnson—and tried to discover the techniques they used in human relations.

From all this material, I prepared a short talk. I called it“How to Win Friends and Influence People.”I say“short.”It was short in the beginning, but it soon expanded to a lecture that consumed one hour and thirty minutes. For years, I gave this talk each season to the adults in the Carnegie Institute courses in New York.

I gave the talk and urged the listeners to go out and test it in their business and social contacts, and then come back to class and speak about their experiences and the results they had achieved. What an interesting assignment! These men and women, hungry for self-improvement, were fascinated by the idea of working in a new kind of laboratory—the first and only laboratory of human relationships for adults that had ever existed.

This book wasn't written in the usual sense of the word. It grew as a child grows. It grew and developed out of that laboratory, out of the experiences of thousands of adults.

Years ago, we started with a set of rules printed on a card no larger than a postcard. The next season we printed a larger card, then a leaflet, then a series of booklets, each one expanding in size and scope. After fifteen years of experiment and research came this book.

The rules we have set down here are not mere theories or guesswork. They work like magic. Incredible as it sounds, I have seen the application of these principles literally revolutionize the lives of many people.

To illustrate: A man with 314 employees joined one of these courses. For years, he had driven and criticized and condemned his employees without stint or discretion. Kindness, words of appreciation and encouragement were alien to his lips. After studying the principles discussed in this book, this employer sharply altered his philosophy of life. His organization is now inspired with a new loyalty, a new enthusiasm, a new spirit of teamwork. Three hundred and fourteen enemies have been turned into 314 friends. As he proudly said in a speech before the class, “When I used to walk through my establishment, no one greeted me. My employees actually looked the other way when they saw me approaching. But now they are all my friends and even the janitor calls me by my first name.”

This employer gained more profit, more leisure and—what is infinitely more important—he found far more happiness in his business and in his home.

Countless numbers of salespeople have sharply increased their sales by the use of these principles. Many have opened up new accounts—accounts that they had formerly solicited in vain. Executives have been given increased authority, increased pay. One executive reported a large increase in salary because he applied these truths. Another, an executive in the Philadelphia Gas Works Company, was slated for demotion when he was sixty-five because of his belligerence, because of his inability to lead people skillfully. This training not only saved him from the demotion but brought him a promotion with increased pay.

On innumerable occasions, spouses attending the banquet given at the end of the course have told me that their homes have been much happier since their husbands or wives started this training.

People are frequently astonished at the new results they achieve. It all seems like magic. In some cases, in their enthusiasm, they have telephoned me at my home on Sundays because they couldn't wait forty-eight hours to report their achievements at the regular session of the course.

One man was so stirred by a talk on these principles that he sat far into the night discussing them with other members of the class. At three o'clock in the morning, the others went home. But he was so shaken by a realization of his own mistakes, so inspired by the vista of a new and richer world opening before him, that he was unable to sleep. He didn't sleep that night or the next day or the next night.

Who was he? A na?ve, untrained individual ready to gush over any new theory that came along? No. Far from it. He was a sophisticated, blasé dealer in art, very much the man about town, who spoke three languages fluently and was a graduate of two European universities.

While writing this chapter, I received a letter from a German of the old school, an aristocrat whose forebears had served for generations as professional army officers under the Hohenzollerns. His letter, written from a transatlantic steamer, telling about the application of these principles, rose almost to a religious fervor.

Another man, an old New Yorker, a Harvard graduate, a wealthy man, the owner of a large carpet factory, declared he had learned more in fourteen weeks through this system of training about the fine art of influencing people than he had learned about the same subject during his four years in college. Absurd? Laughable? Fantastic? Of course, you are privileged to dismiss this statement with whatever adjective you wish. I am merely reporting, without comment, a declaration made by a conservative and eminently successful Harvard graduate in a public address to approximately six hundred people at the Yale Club in New York on the evening of Thursday, February 23,1933.

“Compared to what we ought to be,” said the famous Professor William James of Harvard,“compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.”

Those powers which you“habitually fail to use”! The sole purpose of this book is to help you discover, develop and profit by those dormant and unused assets.

“Education,” said Dr. John G. Hibben, former president of Princeton University, “is the ability to meet life's situations.”

If by the time you have finished reading the first three chapters of this book—if you aren't then a little better equipped to meet life's situations, then I shall consider this book to be a total failure so far as you are concerned. For“the great aim of education,” said Herbert Spencer, “is not knowledge but action.”

And this is an action book.

DALE CARNEGIE（1936）

人性的弱點

在20世紀前35年當中，美國的出版商曾出版過20多萬種圖書，但這些書大多數(shù)都乏味至極，許多都是賠本買賣。“許多。”是我說的嗎？世界上最大之一的一家書店的老板就對我說，雖然他的公司擁有75年的出版經(jīng)驗，但還是每出版8本書就有7本虧本。

既然如此，那我為什么還敢冒險來再寫一本書呢？而且在我寫完之后，你又何必去讀它呢？

這兩個問題都很有道理，就讓我來一一回答！

從1912年開始，我就在紐約為那些商業(yè)和專業(yè)男士及女士開教育講座。最初我只開了演講的課程，用實際經(jīng)驗來訓練成年人，使他們在商業(yè)洽談及公共場合中沉著自若，更清楚、更有效、更鎮(zhèn)定地發(fā)表他們的意見。

經(jīng)過一段時間，我逐漸發(fā)現(xiàn)這些人雖然需要高效演講的訓練，但是他們更需要在日常事務和社會交往中與人相處的技巧訓練。

我也逐漸發(fā)現(xiàn)我自己也非常需要這種訓練。當我回憶起那時的情形時，就會對自己貧乏的知識感到惶恐不安。我真希望在20年前手中就有這么一本書！這將是一件珍寶！

你所面臨的最大困難可能是如何與人打交道，尤其當你是一位商人時更是如此。當然，如果你是一位家庭主婦、建筑師或工程師，同樣也是如此。幾年前由卡內(nèi)基基金會贊助的一項調(diào)查研究，顯示了一個最為重要的事實——后來被卡內(nèi)基技術研究院所做的其他研究證實的事實。這些調(diào)查表明，即使在工程技術工作方面，一個人所獲得的高額薪水中，大概只有15%是因為他的技術知識，而大約85%則是因為他的為人處世技巧，也就是他的個人品質(zhì)和領導才能。

許多年來，我每個季度都要在費城的工程師俱樂部開設講座，同時還在美國電機工程學會紐約分會開設講座。大約有1500多人聽過我的講座。他們之所以到我這里來，是因為他們經(jīng)過多年的觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)，工程師得到的報酬最高的，通常不是那些工程學知識最多的人。例如，我們可以以正常的薪水雇用工程、會計、建筑或其他專業(yè)方面的技術人才。但是既有技術知識，又善于表達自己內(nèi)心思想，同時又具備領導才能和激發(fā)他人熱情的人，他們就會獲得更高的收入。

洛克菲勒在事業(yè)達到巔峰的時候，曾這樣說： “與人打交道的能力也是一種可以購買的商品，這正如同糖和咖啡一樣。我愿意付出比世界上其他任何東西都要高的代價來購買這種能力。”

難道你不認為每個大學都應該開設這種實用課程，來開發(fā)我們這個世界上最寶貴的能力嗎？但是直到我寫這本書為止，我還沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)哪個大學開設了這種既實用又需求迫切的課程。

芝加哥大學和青年會聯(lián)合學校曾經(jīng)做過一項調(diào)查，以考察成年人關心哪些事情。

這項調(diào)查耗資25000美元，花了兩年時間。調(diào)查的最后部分是在康涅狄格州的米利頓進行的。這是一個典型的美國城鎮(zhèn)。鎮(zhèn)上的每個成年人都被調(diào)查過，他們被要求回答156個問題，例如“你的職業(yè)和專業(yè)是什么？”“你接受過什么教育？”“你如何打發(fā)閑暇時間？”“你的收入是多少？”“你有什么愛好？”“你的志向是什么？”“你有什么問題？”“你最喜歡什么學科？”……調(diào)查表明，成年人最關心的問題是健康——接下來的問題就是人，包括如何了解人、如何與人相處、如何讓別人喜歡你、如何使別人贊同你的意見。

于是，這個調(diào)查委員會決定在米利頓為成年人開設這樣一門課程。他們努力尋找這方面的實用教材，但一本都沒有找到。最后他們找到一位世界著名的成人教育權威，問他是否知道有什么書符合成年人的這些需求。“沒有，”他說，“我知道這些成年人需要什么，但是他們所需要的書至今都沒人寫。”

據(jù)我所知，他的話是對的，因為我自己也花了許多年的時間來尋找這種人際關系方面的實效書。既然這種書至今還沒有，于是我就嘗試著寫了一本，用于我自己的課程。這就是你眼前的這本書。希望你們喜歡它。

為了寫好這本書，我讀了能找到的所有材料，包括報紙專欄、雜志文章、家庭法庭記錄，以及舊哲學家和新心理學家的著作。而且我還雇了一位訓練有素的研究員，花了一年半的工夫，在圖書館閱讀我所遺漏的東西，研究各種心理學專著，翻閱了成百上千篇雜志文章，還抄錄了許許多多的傳記，以了解各個時代的偉大人物是如何與他人打交道的。我們讀過從凱撒到愛迪生的各個時代的偉人傳記。我還記得，僅西奧多·羅斯福的傳記我們就看了100多本。我們決定不惜花費時間和金錢，一定要找到各個時代都曾用過的有關贏得朋友和影響他人的高效實用的方法。

我自己還拜訪過幾十位成功人士，其中一些人還是世界著名人物——例如發(fā)明家馬可尼和愛迪生；政治領袖富蘭克林·羅斯福和詹姆斯·弗雷；商業(yè)領袖歐文·揚；電影明星克拉克·蓋博和瑪麗亞·畢克馥；探險家馬丁·約翰遜——盡力了解他們的為人處世之道。

我在這些材料的基礎上準備了一篇簡短的演講稿，題目就叫《如何贏得朋友以及影響他人》。我說它短，因為它最初確實很短，但不久就擴充成一篇一個半小時的演講稿。多年來我每個季度都在紐約的卡內(nèi)基研究所為成年人做這篇演講。

我為聽眾演講，鼓勵他們走出去，在工作、社會交往中試驗，然后回到班上講述他們的經(jīng)驗和取得的成果。這是一項多么有趣的工作啊！這些渴望成功的男男女女完全被這種新型的實驗室迷住了——這也是有史以來為成年人創(chuàng)設的最早的、也是唯一的人際關系實驗室。

這本書并不是像普通的書那樣寫成的，它像個孩子一樣逐漸成長。它在實踐中成長發(fā)育，并吸收了成百上千人的經(jīng)驗及智慧。

許多年以前，我剛開始只是把這些規(guī)則寫在和明信片差不多大小的卡片上；在下一個季度，又將它們印在較大的卡片上；然后是印在一本小冊子中；再往后就成了一小套書。它的篇幅和內(nèi)容每次都有所擴充。經(jīng)過15年的實驗和研究之后，終于成了現(xiàn)在這本書。

這本書所說的不僅僅是理論或猜測，它們就像魔法一樣有效。這聽起來似乎難以置信，但我確確實實看見這些規(guī)則改變了許多人的生活。

例如，有一個人參加了這些課程，他手下有314名員工。長期以來，他總是不停地批評和責難他的員工，對他們從來沒有贊揚和鼓勵。當他學了這本書所討論的各項規(guī)則以后，這位雇主的人生觀得到了很大的改變。現(xiàn)在，他的公司充滿了新的精誠合作的精神，314個敵人變成了314個朋友。他在一次班級演講中得意地說道： “以前我在我的公司中走動的時候，沒有人跟我打招呼。我的員工看到我走近時，會立即轉(zhuǎn)過臉去。但現(xiàn)在他們都成了我的朋友，甚至連看門員都直接叫我的名字。”

這位老板現(xiàn)在獲得了更多的利潤，也有了更多的閑暇時間——而且更加重要的是，他在工作和家庭中得到了更多的幸福。

還有數(shù)不清的推銷員因為采用了這些規(guī)則，從而迅速增加了他們的銷售額。例如許多人找到了新的客戶，而這些客戶他們以前是根本找不到的。那些公司高級職員也因此得到了晉升，獲得了更多的薪水。例如有一位高級職員就說，因為采用了這些規(guī)則，他的薪水大大增加。還有費城煤氣公司的一位高級職員，因為喜歡爭強好勝，又加上領導無方，65歲時被公司決定降職。接受這項訓練之后，他不僅沒有被降職，而且還晉升了職務，增加了薪水。

還有許多次，那些參加畢業(yè)聚會的妻子或丈夫?qū)ξ艺f，自從她們的丈夫（或他們的妻子）開始這種訓練之后，他們的家庭變得更加快樂了。

人們常常對自己所獲得的新成就感到驚異。這一切就像魔術一樣！有時他們甚至會在星期天激動萬分地打電話到我家來，迫不及待地報告他們所取得的成就。

有一名學員就這些規(guī)則和班上的學員激動地一直談到深夜。凌晨3點鐘，其他人都回家了，他這才發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己的失誤。但經(jīng)過這次談話，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己面前有一條美好的前程，這使得他好幾天都無法入睡。

這個人是誰呢？難道是一個沒有經(jīng)過什么訓練、遇到任何新的東西就會興奮難耐的人嗎？不，當然不是！他是一個擁有高學歷的、歷盡滄桑的藝術商，社會交際很廣，可以流利地說三種外語，還獲得了兩所歐洲大學的學位。

在寫這章的時候，我收到了以前班上一名德國學員的來信。這是一位德國貴族，他的祖先曾在德國貴族霍亨佐勒恩的帳下世代擔任終身軍官。他這封信是在一艘橫渡大西洋的輪船上寫的，講了他運用這些規(guī)則的情況，懷著一種近乎宗教的熱情。

還有一位學員，他是一位老紐約人，哈佛大學畢業(yè)，而且非常富有，有一個地毯公司。他說他在14個星期中通過這種方法學到的關于影響他人的藝術，比大學四年中所學到的還要多。很荒唐嗎？可笑嗎？難以置信嗎？你當然可以不相信這種說法，但我只是如實地告訴你一位守舊的、成就卓著的哈佛畢業(yè)生1933年2月23日（星期四）晚上在紐約的雅爾俱樂部面對大約600人的公開演講中所說的內(nèi)容。

“和我們所應該取得的成就相比，”哈佛大學著名教授威廉·詹姆斯曾這樣說道，“我們不過是半醒著。現(xiàn)在我們只利用了我們身心資源的一小部分。從廣義上來說，人類生活在自身潛能遠遠沒有開發(fā)的狹小天地中。人類具有各種潛能，但卻不曾開發(fā)和利用。”

開發(fā)你所擁有的“但卻不曾利用的”的潛能！本書唯一的目的就是幫助你發(fā)現(xiàn)、發(fā)展、利用自身潛在的卻又未曾利用的資源。

普林斯頓大學前任校長希本博士也說道： “教育才是應對生活中各種問題的有效手段。”

如果你讀了這本書的前三章之后，還感到難以應對生活中的各種情況，那么我認為，這本書至少對你來說是完全失敗的，因為斯賓塞曾說： “教育的偉大目的，不是知識，而是行動。”

這是一本教人如何行動的書。

戴爾·卡耐基（1936）