Winning Friends and Influencing People with Stories by Donna Dale Carnegie & Andrew Postman

This end-of-year, special episode of Take Command features an interview with Dale Carnegie’s daughter, Donna Dale Carnegie, who is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Dale Carnegie and Associates. Together with Simon and Schuster author Andrew Postman, they added, edited, and updated the bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People, with more contemporary stories and language.

Andrew Postman, a professional author and a fan of  Dale’s teachings, worked alongside Donna Dale Carnegie, going page by page through the first edition of the book, reading, discussing, debating, and revising. Donna delved into the archives and found interviews and biographies that Dale Carnegie had written, but never published. She would run those stories by Andrew, and they sometimes argued about what to keep and what not to keep. It reached the point that Donna needed to bargain and say, “All right, you can have that one, if I can have this one.” 

Donna’s goal in refreshing the book was to update it as close to her father's voice and writing style as possible. Andrew and Donna carefully reviewed each story to understand how certain references would work for a modern audience and to discern which stories stood the test of time. 

One of the obvious areas of concern involved the lack of representation of women in positions of power or decision-making, women “who weren’t mothers, wives, secretaries or domestics as they were referred to in 1936.” The reality is that in the 1930s, there were “free women”—as they were called—in prominent leadership positions in business. There were also other older phrases that Postman and Carnegie had to decide whether to include. 

Postman acknowledged early in the process that Dale Carnegie was a master storyteller. We hear the word storytelling so much now in marketing, and PR, but he doesn't think anyone has yet done it better than Dale Carnegie.

Join us to learn about the power of storytelling, communication, and seeing things from the other person's point of view.

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