Social Interactions & Cell Phone Information

This week I attempted to use the first six principles of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” on five separate individuals. Dale Carnegie list those principles as:

- Become genuinely interested in other people
- Smile
- Use their name
- Be a good listener
- Talk in terms of their interests
- Sincerely make the other person feel important


1.The first individual in which I attempted to apply these principles to was my teammates mother, Charlene Weigman. The overall conversation was very thorough and I learned that she studied the same profession as my mother.

2. The second individual in which I applied Carnegies principles to was an umpire at one of our games this past weekend in South Carolina. I found that this interaction was very difficult to initiate because he was unable to understand what I was saying due to speaking slightly different from what they are use to. Overall, I found out that his daughter use to be a Division I catcher at UConn and wanted to stay involved with the sport so he took an interest in officiating.

3. The next individual in which I held a conversation with was our team trainer. Although I already knew a lot about Katie I kept asking questions that led to new information. She had informed me of the surprise visit from her fiancé this past week, who had flew in from Florida to see her.

4. This next interaction in which I attempted to use the principles listed in Carnegies book did not go over to well. I say this because I was told to mind my own business and that us “yanks” should stay up North. I realized that not to many people in the South are fond of the Northern folk. Directly after hearing this comment I continued to pay for my bill and left the restaurant immediately with my father and teammates.

5. Finally, this last interaction was very easy for me to handle. I used the principles on my college coach here at UMBC. Throughout our conversation I learned that he bought his wife two puppies for Valentines Day, due to her losing her older Golden Retriever. Coach is also the one in which I asked about his cell phone service and usage.
Cell Phone- Nokia 6230 by AT&T….
Coach had informed me that he does not know how to use his cellular device for anything other then making phone calls and the occasional text message. I would put him in the late majority. I say this because just recently he was able to understand the concept of text messaging and understands the overall usage of his cell phone preventing his from being a laggard.