Dale Carnegie — Blog — Dr. Tim White

I called a dear friend this week. I met this friend the first week of our college freshman year. He of late has had a difficult life. For some reason, I remembered a book I read years ago: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Why has this book been so popular? This book written by Dale Carnegie in 1936 has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still sells 250,000 copies annually. The Library of Congress in 2013 ranked this best seller as the 7th most influential book in American history.[1] Why has this self-help book been so popular?

Warren Wiersbe answered: We need Proverbs “Because just about everybody has ‘people problems’ and wants to know how to solve them.”[2] God’s manual on developing people skills was written long before Carnegie’s best seller. God wrote Proverbs to sharpen our people's skills for his glory.

I read a book that really challenged my thinking in the area of leadership by Hans Finzel entitled The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. He defines leadership and identifies leaders.

Finzel's definition of leadership: “Leadership is influence. Anyone who influences someone else to do something has led a person. A leader takes people where they would never go on their own.” That definition includes each of you!

Finzel's identification of a leader: “You are a leader if you are leading a company, a ministry, a department, one or two coworkers, a Girl Scout club, and army platoon, a committee, or your family” (Hans Finzel. The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. pages 19-21). That identification includes you!