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Human Relations Principle #11 to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.”

~Galileo

 

Human Relations Principle #11: Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell a person he or she is wrong.

(“A sure way to making enemies—and how to avoid it.”)

(This is the eleventh in a series of articles where I will encapsulate each of Dale Carnegie’s timeless, life-changing principles for dealing with people. (Adapted from How to Win Friends and Influence People.))*

“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” ~Socrates

Use a little diplomacy. Don’t argue with your customer or your spouse or your adversary. Don’t tell them they are wrong, don’t get them stirred up.

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” ~Jesus

You will never get into trouble by admitting that you may be wrong. That will stop all argument and inspire your opponent to be just as fair and open and broad-minded as you are. It will make him want to admit that he, too, may be wrong.

“Men must be taught as if you taught them not;

And things unknown proposed as things forgot.”

~Alexander Pope

How Ben Franklin conquered his habit of arguing

(excerpts from Ben Franklin’s Autobiography)

Ben Franklin tells how he conquered the iniquitous habit of argument and transformed himself into one of the most able, suave and diplomatic men in American history.

One day, when Ben Franklin was a blundering youth, an old Quaker friend took him aside and lashed at him with a few stinging truths, something like this:

Ben, you are impossible. Your opinions have a slap in them for everyone who differs with you. They have become so offensive that nobody cares for them. Your friends find they enjoy themselves better when you are not around. You know so much that no man can tell you anything. Indeed, no man is going to try., for the effort would lead only to discomfort and hard work. So you are not likely ever to know any more than you do now, which is very little.

Ben was big enough and wise enough to realize that it was true, to sense that he was headed for failure and social disaster. So he made a right-about-face. He began immediately to change his insolent, opinionated ways.

“I made it a rule,” said Franklin, “to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiment of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbade myself the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as ‘certainly,’ ‘undoubtedly,’ etc., and I adopted, instead of them, “I conceive,’ I apprehend,’ or ‘I imagine’ a thing to be so and so, or ‘it so appears to me at present.’

“When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc.

“I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engage’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propose’d my opinions procur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.

“And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had earned so much weight with my fellow citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my points.”

Today, let’s take Ben Franklin’s lead and show respect for others’ opinions and not tell a person he or she is wrong.

Much success and fulfillment with mastering human relations,

Ray

 

* The best guide on effective human relations that I have ever encountered is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, published in 1936. Prior to writing the book, Carnegie spent 20 years researching the habits of successful people. The book has sold over 30 million copies and is still listed on Amazon’s top 100 best selling books.

Other articles within this series you may enjoy:

3 Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

6 Ways to Make People Like You

12 Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

 

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