Who Have You Validated Today?

When I was growing up, somehow I stumbled upon How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I’ve always thought that the title was a little off-putting. It almost makes the book sound like it’s geared toward used car salesman and that his techniques are slimy.

But that’s not the case at all. In fact, this excellent book is really about showing genuine human kindness to other people. One of the main points of the book is that the best way to make friends and win people’s trust is to become genuinely interested in them.

Don’t try to fake it, but instead look for one thing in another person that interests you and then start a conversation around that. Your job is to just listen and affirm that person. Everyone can do at least one thing really well. You just need to find that one thing in another person.

I was reminded of how important it is to affirm others after seeing a great youtube video about validation mentioned by Michael Hyatt on his blog. It’s a sixteen minute clip and just shows how much validating someone can make their day. It’s hard not to smile after watching it.