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tables, added on his fingers and could barely read.
There was one positive point. He loved to work on
radio and TV sets. He wanted to become a TV technician.
I encouraged this and pointed out that he needed
math to qualify for the training. I decided to help him
become proficient in this subject. We obtained four sets
of flash cards: multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.
As we went through the cards, we put the correct
answers in a discard stack. When David missed one,
I gave him the correct answer and then put the card in
the repeat stack until there were no cards left. I made a
big deal out of each card he got right, particularly if he
had missed it previously. Each night we would go
through the repeat stack until there were no cards left.
Each night we timed the exercise with a stop watch. I
promised him that when he could get all the cards correct
in eight minutes with no incorrect answers, we
would quit doing it every night. This seemed an impossible
goal to David. The first night it took 52 minutes,
the second night, 48, then 45, 44, 41 then under 40 minutes.
We celebrated each reduction. I d call in my wife,
and we would both hug him and we d all dance a jig. At
the end of the month he was doing all the cards perfectly
in less than eight minutes. When he made a small improvement
he would ask to do it again. He had made the
fantastic discovery that learning was easy and fun.
Naturally his grades in algebra took a jump. It is
amazing how much easier algebra is when you can multiply.
He astonished himself by bringing home a B in
math. That had never happened before. Other changes
came with almost unbelievable rapidity. His reading improved
rapidly, and he began to use his natural talents
in drawing. Later in the school year his science teacher
assigned him to develop an exhibit. He chose to develop
a highly complex series of models to demonstrate the
effect of levers. It required skill not only in drawing and
model making but in applied mathematics. The exhibit
took first prize in his school s science fair and was entered
in the city competition and won third prize for the
entire city of Cincinnati.
That did it. Here was a kid who had flunked two
grades, who had been told he was brain-damaged, who
had been called Frankenstein by his
classmates and
told his brains must have leaked out of the cut on his
head. Suddenly he discovered he could really learn and
accomplish things. The result? From the last quarter of
the eighth grade all the way through high school, he
never failed to make the honor roll; in high school he
was elected to the national honor society. Once he found
learning was easy, his whole life changed.
If you want to help others to improve, remember . . .
PRINCIPLE 8
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem
easy to correct.
9
MAKING PEOPLE GLAD TO
DO
WHAT YOU WANT
Back in 1915, America was aghast. For more than a year,
the nations of Europe had been slaughtering one another
on a scale never before dreamed of in all the
bloody annals of mankind. Could peace be brought
about? No one knew. But Woodrow Wilson was determined
to try. He would send a personal representative,
a peace emissary, to counsel with the warlords of Europe.
William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state, Bryan, the
peace advocate, longed to go. He saw a chance to perform
a great service and make his name immortal. But
Wilson appointed another man, his intimate friend and
advisor Colonel Edward M. House; and it was House s
thorny task to break the unwelcome news to Bryan without
giving him offense.
Bryan was distinctly disappointed when he heard I
was to go to Europe as the peace emissary, Colonel
House records in his diary. He said he had planned to
do this himself . . .
"I replied that the President thought it would be unwise
for anyone to do this officially, and that his going
would attract a great deal of attention and people
would wonder why he was there. . . ."
You see the intimation? House practically told Bryan
that he was too important for the job - and Bryan was
satisfied.
Colonel House, adroit, experienced in the ways of the
world, was following one of the important rules of
human relations: Always make the other person happy
about doing the thing you suggest.
Woodrow Wilson followed that policy even when inviting
William Gibbs McAdoo to become a member of
his cabinet. That was the highest honor he could confer
upon anyone, and yet Wilson extended the invitation in
such a way as to make McAdoo feel doubly important.
Here is the story in McAdoo's own words: He [Wilson]
said that he was making up his cabinet and that he would
be very glad if I would accept a place in it as Secretary
of the Treasury. He had a delightful way of putting
things; he created the impression that by accepting this
great honor I would be doing him a favor.
Unfortunately, Wilson didn t always employ such taut.
If he had, history might have been different. For example,
Wilson didn t make the Senate and the Republican
Party happy by entering the United States in the League
of Nations. Wilson refused to take such prominent Republican
leaders as Elihu Root or Charles Evans Hughes
or Henry Cabot Lodge to the peace conference with
him. Instead, he took along unknown men from his own
party. He snubbed the Republicans, refused to let them
feel that the League was their idea as well as his, refused
to let them have a finger in the pie; and, as a result of
this crude handling of human relations, wrecked his own
career, ruined his health, shortened his life, caused
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