Talk in terms of the other person's interests

In [@carnegie2010How to win friends & influence people], the author suggests that to make people like us, one of the simplest approaches is to talk about something that interests the other person. He cites an example of a kid who once met a business man who kept talking to him about boats. He didn't have any interest in boats, but the kid did, and he remembers the business man as a polite and interesting person.

What Carnegie suggests is that we should dedicate time to listening before we start talking about what we want. We can dedicate some time talking about the passion of the other person before we bring into attention what we are after (money, selling something, a favor, etc.) The book says that Roosevelt used to research on people's interests before he met them.

The arguments on this chapter are similar to those on Become genuinely interested in other people, but they go into the realm of making the other person talk. So, on the one hand you have the passive attitude of being interested in others (such as a writer) and on the other you have the exploitation of that interest towards your own advantage.

Literature note on: The Leader in You - Dale Carnegie

Tags: #literature-note #reading-2021 #management-books #sales-books