Dale Carnegie

Born to an extremely poor family who had their living as farmers, Dale Carnegie grew up with a deep desire to not only improve himself but also his lot in life and that of other struggling individuals with similar challenges as his such as poverty, lack of education and opportunity. He worked as a traveling salesman before teaching public speaking classes at a YMCA. The classes proved an immediate success. Focused on the everyday needs of businesspeople, Carnegie taught his students how to interview well, make persuasive presentations and forge positive relationships.

Within two years, the courses had achieved such popularity that Carnegie moved out of the YMCA and founded his own Dale Carnegie Institute to accommodate the growing numbers of students. Over the next two decades, Carnegie gradually refined his curriculum to better meet the needs of his professional students. As Carnegie set out to teach his students the skills he deemed essential to their success he realized that no textbook existed on the subject. In 1931 after years of intense research that included reading hundreds of biographies to learn how the world’s greatest leaders achieved their success, Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book became a mammoth bestseller and won him a national following.

Carnegie’s book, like his classes, struck a chord with a population hungry for self-improvement, selling nearly 5 million copies during his lifetime while being translated into every major language. the Dale Carnegie Institute exploded in popularity. During Carnegie’s lifetime, the Institute expanded into 750 American cities as well as 15 foreign countries. A pioneer in the fields of adult education and self-improvement, Carnegie’s books and courses inspired an entire genre of nonfiction writing that remains relevant, useful, and extraordinarily popular with professional men and women decades after its initial publishing. Since Carnegie’s death, the Dale Carnegie Institute has continued to expand and is currently a highly respected business training firm operating in 75 countries.

For more information go to Leadership Training: Team & Corporate Training Courses | Dale Carnegie.