Carnegie’s core claim is simple: people are changed less by argument than by feeling genuinely valued. He turns that into crisp habits that provide mutual benefit: notice, listen, remember names, smile, talk in terms of their interests, praise specifically; criticise sparingly; etc.

This classic in Self-Help non-fiction includes anecdotes from sales floors and kitchen tables which still resonate with the reader 90+ years following its first edition in 1936. Read it for a compact social toolkit you can use in meetings, negotiations, parenting, and those knotty, awkward conversations.

When you see that relationships are leverage; you understand that small, sincere gestures compound into trust, influence, and opportunity across a lifetime.