戴尔·卡耐基

胡玉芬

The name of Dale Carnegie is synony⁃ mous （同义的） with success and influence. Perhaps the most well⁃known author in the field of communication and public speak⁃ ing， Dale Carnegie was born into poverty on a small farm in Missouri， on November 24， 1888.

His father was a poor farmer. His mother worked with his father on the farm. Dale Carnegie came from humble begin⁃ nings. Yearly floods devastated the farm and kept the family poor. The family was in debt， and as a young boy， he had to get up at 4 am every day to milk the cows， help on the farm， and then go to school.

As a boy， Dale was known for one thing： reciting. In high school， he joined the debating team， but never won a debate. Frustrated， he was determined to go to col? lege and attended a state teacher？？s school. He couldn ？？t afford to board at the school，so he rode a horse each day to class. It was said that he practiced his reciting on the horse！

As a child， Carnegie lacked confi⁃ dence and was often full of worries. When thunderstorms came， he worried for fear he would be killed by lightning. When hard times came， he worried for fear he wouldn？？t have enough to eat. He was terrified that an older boy， Sam White， would cut off his big ears... Later， he finally found out that 99 percent of his worries did not happen.

It was this humble and unconfident little boy who became a lecturer， giving hundreds of thousands of people confi⁃ dence and optimism all over the world.

Reading Check

What can we know about Carnegie when he was a child？