How This Book Was Written-and Why?
Thirty-Five years ago, I was one of the unhappiest lads in New York. I was selling motortrucks for a living. I didn't know what made a motor-truck run. That wasn't all: I didn't
want to know. I despised my job. I despised living in a cheap furnished room on West
Fifty-sixth Street-a room infested with cockroaches. I still remember that I had a bunch
of neckties hanging on the walls; and when I reached out of a morning to get a fresh
necktie, the cockroaches scattered in all directions. I despised having to eat in cheap,
dirty restaurants that were also probably infested with cockroaches.
I came home to my lonely room each night with a sick headache-a headache bred and
fed by disappointment, worry, bitterness, and rebellion. I was rebelling because the
dreams I had nourished back in my college days had turned into nightmares. Was this
life? Was this the vital adventure to which I had looked forward so eagerly? Was this all
life would ever mean to me-working at a job I despised, living with cockroaches, eating
vile food-and with no hope for the future? ... I longed for leisure to read, and to write
the books I had dreamed of writing back in my college days.
I knew I had everything to gain and nothing to lose by giving up the job I despised. I
wasn't interested in making a lot of money, but I was interested in making a lot of
living. In short, I had come to the Rubicon-to that moment of decision which faces most
young people when they start out in life. So I made my decision-and that decision
completely altered my future. It has made the last thirty-five years happy and
rewarding beyond my most Utopian aspirations.
My decision was this: I would give up the work I loathed; and, since I had spent four
years studying in the State Teachers' College at Warrensburg, Missouri, preparing to
teach, I would make my living teaching adult classes in night schools. Then I would have
my days free to read books, prepare lectures, write novels and short stories. I wanted
"to live to write and write to live".
What subject should I teach to adults at night? As I looked back and evaluated my own
college training, I saw that the training and experience I had had in public speaking had
been of more practical value to me in business-and in life-than everything else I had
studied in college all put together. Why? Because it had wiped out my timidity and lack
of confidence and given me the courage and assurance to deal with people. It had also
made clear that leadership usually gravitates to the man who can get up and say what
he thinks
I applied for a position teaching public speaking in the night extension courses both at
Columbia University and New York University, but these universities decided they could
struggle along somehow without my help.
I was disappointed then-but I now thank God that they did turn me down, because I
started teaching in Y.M.C.A. night schools, where I had to show concrete results and
show them quickly. What a challenge that was! These adults didn't come to my classes
because they wanted college credits or social prestige. They came for one reason only:
they wanted to solve their problems. They wanted to be able to stand up on their own
feet and say a few words at a business meeting without fainting from fright. Salesmen
wanted to be able to call on a tough customer without having to walk around the block
three times to get up courage. They wanted to develop poise and self-confidence. They
wanted to get ahead in business. They wanted to have more money for their families.
And since they were paying their tuition on an installment basis-and they stopped paying
if they didn't get results-and since I was being paid, not a salary, but a percentage of
the profits, I had to be practical if I wanted to eat.
I felt at the time that I was teaching under a handicap, but I realise now that I was
getting priceless training. I had to motivate my students. I had to help them solve their
problems.
I had to make each session so inspiring that they wanted to continue coming.
It was exciting work. I loved it. I was astounded at how quickly these business men
developed self-confidence and how quickly many of them secured promotions and
increased pay. The classes were succeeding far beyond my most optimistic hopes.
Within three seasons, the Y.M.C.A.s, which had refused to pay me five dollars a night in
salary, were paying me thirty dollars a night on a percentage basis. At first, I taught
only public speaking, but, as the years went by, I saw that these adults also needed the
ability to win friends and influence people. Since I couldn't find an adequate textbook
on human relations, I wrote one myself. It was written-no, it wasn't written in the usual
way. It grew and evolved out of the experiences of the adults in these classes. I called it
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Since it was written solely as a textbook for my own adult classes, and since I had
written four other books that no one had ever heard of, I never dreamed that it would
have a large sale: I am probably one of the most astonished authors now living.
As the years went by, I realised that another one of the biggest problems of these adults
was worry. A large majority of my students were business men-executives, salesmen,
engineers, accountants: a cross section of all the trades and professions-and most of
them had problems! There were women in the classes-business women and housewives.
They, too, had problems! Clearly, what I needed was a textbook on how to conquer
worry-so again I tried to find one. I went to New York's great public library at Fifth
Avenue and Forty-second Street and discovered to my astonishment that this library had
only twenty-two books listed under the title WORRY. I also noticed, to my amusement,
that it had one hundred and eighty-nine books listed under WORMS. Almost nine times
as many books about worms as about worry! Astounding, isn't it? Since worry is one of
the biggest problems facing mankind, you would think, wouldn't you, that every high
school and college in the land would give a course on "How to Stop Worrying"?
Yet, if there is even one course on that subject in any college in the land, I have never
heard of it. No wonder David Seabury said in his book How to Worry Successfully: "We
come to maturity with as little preparation for the pressures of experience as a
bookworm asked to do a ballet."
The result? More than half of our hospital beds are occupied by people with nervous and
emotional troubles.
I looked over those twenty-two books on worry reposing on the shelves of the New York
Public Library. In addition, I purchased all the books on worry I could find; yet I couldn't
discover even one that I could use as a text in my course for adults. So I resolved to
write one myself.
I began preparing myself to write this book seven years ago. How? By reading what the
philosophers of all ages have said about worry. I also read hundreds of biographies, all
the way from Confucius to Churchill. I also interviewed scores of prominent people in
many walks of life, such as Jack Dempsey, General Omar Bradley, General Mark Clark,
Henry Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dorothy Dix. But that was only a beginning.
I also did something else that was far more important than the interviews and the
reading. I worked for five years in a laboratory for conquering worry-a laboratory
conducted in our own adult classes. As far as I know, it is the first and only laboratory of
its kind in the world. This is what we did. We gave students a set of rules on how to stop
worrying and asked them to apply these rules in their own lives and then talk to the
class on the results they had obtained. Others reported on techniques they had used in
the past.
As a result of this experience, I presume I have listened to more talks on "How I
Conquered Worry" than has any other individual who ever walked this earth. In addition,
I read hundreds of other talks on "How I Conquered Worry" talks that were sent to me by
mail-talks that had won prizes in our classes that are held in more than a hundred and
seventy cities throughout the United States and Canada. So this book didn't come out of
an ivory tower. Neither is it an academic preachment on how worry might be
conquered. Instead, I have tried to write a fast-moving, concise, documented report on
how worry has been conquered by thousands of adults. One thing is certain: this book is
practical. You can set your teeth in it.
I am happy to say that you won't find in this book stories about an imaginary "Mr. B--" or
a vague "Mary and John|' whom no one can identify. Except in a few rare cases, this
book names names and gives street addresses. It is authentic. It is documented. It is
vouched for-and certified.
"Science," said the French philosopher Valery, "is a collection of successful recipes."
That is what this book is, a collection of successful and time-tested recipes to rid our
lives of worry. However, let me warn you: you won't find anything new in it, but you will
find much that is not generally applied. And when it comes to that, you and I don't need
to be told anything new. We already know enough to lead perfect lives. We have all
read the golden rule and the Sermon on the Mount. Our trouble is not ignorance, but
inaction. The purpose of this book is to restate, illustrate, streamline, air-condition, and
glorify a lot of ancient and basic truths-and kick you in the shins and make you do
something about applying them.
You didn't pick up this book to read about how it was written. You are looking for
action. All right, let's go. Please read the first forty-four pages of this book-and if by
that time you don't feel that you have acquired a new power and a new inspiration to
stop worry and enjoy life-then toss this book into the dust-bin. It is no good for you.
DALE CARNEGIE
