Dale Harbison Carnegie (/ˈkɑːrnɪɡi/; spelled Carnagey until c. 1922; 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 into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books.

One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's behavior toward them.

Biography

Born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri, Carnegie was a poor farmer's son, the second son of James William Carnagey (b. Indiana, February 15, 1852 – May 18, 1941) and wife Amanda Elizabeth Harbison (b. Missouri, February 21, 1858 – December 4, 1939). His family moved to Belton, Missouri, when he was a small child. In his teens though still having to get up at 4 a.m. every day to milk his parents' cows, he managed to obtain an education at the State Teacher's College in Warrensburg. His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers. He moved on to selling bacon, soap, and lard for Armour & Company. He was successful to the point of making his sales territory of South Omaha, Nebraska, the national leader for the firm.

After saving $500 (about $12900 today), Dale 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. There he got the idea to teach public speaking, and he persuaded the YMCA 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 début, 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 (about $12000 today) every week.

Carnegie changed the spelling of his last name from "Carnagey" to Carnegie, at a time when Andrew Carnegie (unrelated) was a widely revered and recognized name. As Dale Carnagey he worked as assistant to Lowell Thomas in his famous travelogue "With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia". He managed and delivered the travelogue in Canada.

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 1936, 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 had critiqued over 150,000 speeches in his participation in the adult education movement of the time.

During World War I he served in the U.S. Army. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1931. On November 5, 1944, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he married Dorothy Price Vanderpool (1913–1998), who also had been divorced. Vanderpool had two daughters; Rosemary, from her first marriage, and Donna Dale from their marriage together.

Carnegie died at his home in Forest Hills, New York. He was buried in the Belton, Cass County, Missouri, cemetery. The official biography from Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. states that he died of Hodgkin's disease, complicated with uremia, on November 1, 1955.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Published in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People is still a popular book in business and business communication skills. Dale Carnegie's four part book contains advice on how to create success in business and personal lives. How to Win Friends and Influence People is a tool used in Dale Carnegie Training and includes the following parts:

1. Part One: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
2. Part Two: Six Ways to Make People Like You
3. Part Three: How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking
4. Part Four: Be a Leader – How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

Dale Carnegie Training

The Dale Carnegie Course in Effective Speaking and Human Relations is a learn-by-doing based program for individuals based on Dale Carnegie's teachings. It was founded in 1912 and is represented in more than 90 countries. More than 8 million people have completed Dale Carnegie Training.

Since its founding Dale Carnegie Training has expanded into sales training, leadership training, presentations training, and most recently customized corporate solutions.

The flagship program is the Dale Carnegie Course which is offered at all locations around the globe.

The course comprises a proprietary process that uses team dynamics and intra-group activities to strengthen interpersonal relations, manage stress and handle fast-changing workplace conditions. Other subjects included are communication, creative problem-solving and focused leadership. Nowadays, the free business courses are used by corporations worldwide in such matters as; customer service, conflict resolution, sales effectiveness, change management, and other.

The course is based on a five-phase continuous improvement cycle:

1. Build greater self-confidence
2. Strengthen people skills
3. Enhance communication skills
4. Develop leadership skills
5. Improve attitude and reduce stress

Books

• 1915: Art of Public Speaking, with Joseph Berg Esenwein.
• 1920: Public Speaking: the Standard Course of the United Y. M. C. A. Schools.
• 1926: Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men. Later editions and updates changed the name of the book several times: Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business(1937 revised), How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking(1956) and Public Speaking for Success (2005).
• 1932: Lincoln, the Unknown.
• 1934: Little Known Facts About Well Known People.
• 1936: How to Win Friends and Influence People.
• 1937: Five Minute Biographies.
• 1944: Dale Carnegie's Biographical round-up.
• 1948: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.
• 1959: Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook: a Treasury of the Wisdom of the Ages. A selection of Dale Carnegie's writings edited by Dorothy Carnegie.
• 1962: The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. The fourth revision of Public speaking and influencing men in business, by Dorothy Carnegie, based upon Dale Carnegie's own notes and ideas but a very different book than original.

Booklets

(most given out in Dale Carnegie Courses)

• 1938: How to Get Ahead in the World Today
• 1936: The Little Golden Book (later renamed The Golden Book, lists basics from HTWFIP and HTSWSL)
• 1946: How to Put Magic in the Magic Formula
• 1947: A Quick and Easy Way to Learn to Speak in Public. (later combined as Speak More Effectively, 1979)
• 1952: How to Make Our Listeners Like Us. (later combined as Speak More Effectively, 1979)
• 1959: How to Save Time and Get Better Results in Conferences (later renamed Meetings: Quicker & Better Results)
• 1960: How to Remember Names (later renamed as Remember Names)
• 1965: The Little Recognized Secret of Success (later renamed Live Enthusiastically)
• 1979: Apply Your Problem Solving Know How