Basic Rules of Success

If you want to be successful, you have to start learning how to like people. Success depends on the support given by people you may or may not know. What stand between you and your dream is the support of people. I will use this example since I have worked in a real estate industry, if not for the sales person of the company, it will not be able to sell all its units. And if not for the people, not a single sales person can sell a unit either.

These are the ten powerful “like people” rules of President Lyndon Johnson before he became the U.S. president

1.  Learn to remember names, inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing
2. Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe kind of individual.
3. Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you.
4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all.
5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you.
6.  Study to get the ‘scratchy’ element out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.
7. Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest basis, every misunderstanding you may had or now have. Drain off your grievances.
8. Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.
9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
10.  Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you.

A person usually thinks that it should be people approaching him and not the other way around but that is when there’s nothing left in him but pride. A leader shouldn’t think that he is superior over other people. Leaders always take the initiative in building friendship. I have read that “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”  – Dale Carnegie

Ways to win friends by taking the initiative:

• Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity. – at parties, meetings, at work, everywhere and the most common nowadays is thru the social networking sites.
• Make sure that the other person gets your name and remembers you.
• Don’t forget the person’s name and make sure you spell it correctly.
• Make sure you get the person’s contact number or email to stay in touch.
• Drop a personal note, make a phone call or leave a message in the Facebook page of the new friends you feel you want to know better.
• Say pleasant things to strangers. It warms you up and gets you ready for the task ahead.

Take note!

• Avoid judging because nobody is perfect. People are individually unique and you have to respect individual differences.
•  Don’t be a reformer. You have a right to your own opinion, but sometimes it’s better to keep it to yourself.

I have recently attended a seminar and I have to agree with the speaker that the most important key in persuasion is communication. Well, the person who does the most talking and the person who is the most successful are rarely the same person. Why? Because when we talk, we win friends, learn about them and learn from them. You also have to practice courtesy at all times because it makes other people feel better and can make you feel better too. Read about Failure Means Success.