Dale Carnegie on Fishing

If you haven't read Dale Carnegie's book, "How To Win Friends and Influence People," I recommend making a beeline for our book list and ordering it now. I'm so serious about this that I would recommend not spending another dollar marketing or another minute at a networking event until you've read this book (and maybe even re-read it). It could stand as the only book you ever need to read to be a successful marketer - and it's not even about marketing.

Come to think of it, if you can afford it, I would consider pausing all interactions with customers until you've done this.

Yesterday I was reviewing this book for the umpteenth time and, lo and behold, came across a quote from Dale about fishing.

Dale says:

"I often went fishing up in Maine during the summer. Personally, I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or a grasshopper in front of the fish and said: 'Wouldn't you like to have that?'"

Also interesting: Lloyd George, Great Britain's Prime Minister during WWI, responded, when asked how he managed to stay in power after other wartime leaders had been forgotten, "If my staying on top might be attributed to any one thing it would be having learned that it was necessary to bait the hook to suit the fish."

So, it seems this idea of ours was not new - but true, indeed.

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