So if you aspire to be a good conversationali st, be an attentive listener.
Interpretation
To be a good conversationalist, one must prioritize listening attentively.
This quote by Dale Carnegie emphasizes the importance of listening in effective communication. It suggests that being a good conversationalist is not just about talking well, but about understanding and engaging with what others are saying, thus building deeper connections and enhancing conversations.
In practice
In a workshop on communication skills, the facilitator quoted Carnegie to highlight the value of listening.
When I asked him -Mr.Henry Ford- if he ever worried, he replied: "No. I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe that every-thing will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about?
Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.
By talking to yourself about the things you have to be grateful for you can fill your mind with thoughts that soar and sing.
It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
I can look back at my own life and see where a few words of praise have sharply changed my entire future. Can't you say the same thing about your life?
Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.
I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.
Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.
Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity - which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.
I speak and speak, [...] but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. [...] It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.
Communication starts with the understanding that there is my point of view (my truth) and someone else's point of view (his truth). Rarely is there one absolute truth, so people who believe that they speak the truth are very silencing of others.
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