Remember Names.. Part II

I would like to share the stories of two men who made history using the ‘name’ method.

The first starts off with a father’s tragic death.  He left behind  a widow and three sons, in a small town of Stony Point

His oldest boy, Jim, was ten, and to support his family he went to work in a brickyard. He had to wheel sand and pour it into the molds and turn the brick on edge to be dried by the sun. Seems like a lot of  hard labor for a ten-year old.

This boy Jim never had a chance to get much education. But with his natural geniality, he had a flair for making people like him, so he went into politics, and as the years went by, he developed an uncanny ability for remembering people’s names.

He never saw the inside of a high school; but before he was forty-six years of age, four colleges had
honored him with degrees and he had become chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Postmaster General of the United States.

Dale Carnegie once interviewed Jim Farley;

I asked him the secret of his success. He said, “Hard work,” and I said, “Don’t be funny.”

He then asked me what I thought was the reason for his success. I replied, “I understand you can call ten thousand people by their first names.”

“No. You are wrong, ” he said. “I can call fifty thousand people by their first names.”

Make no mistake about it. That ability helped Mr. Farley put Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House when he managed Roosevelt’s campaign in 1932.

Jim built up a system for remembering names through his years of traveling as a sales rep for a gypsum concern and during the years that he held office as town clerk in Stony Point.

In the beginning, it was a very simple one. Whenever he met a new acquaintance, he found out his or her complete name and some facts about his or her family, business and political opinions. He fixed all these facts well in mind as part of the picture, and the next time he met that person, even if it was a year later, he was able to shake hands, inquire after the family, and ask about the hollyhocks in the backyard. No wonder he developed a following!

The more I apply this method the more determination and hard work it takes. Might I add, all worth it. Every aspect of this is beneficial, for them and for myself.

Before Roosevelt’s campaign for President began, Jim Farley wrote hundreds of letters a day to people all over the western and northwestern states. Then he hopped onto a train and in nineteen days covered twenty states and twelve thousand miles, traveling by buggy, train, automobile and boat. He would drop into town, meet his people at lunch or breakfast, tea or dinner, and give them a “heart-to-heart talk.” Then he’d dash off again on another leg of his journey.

Making it personal makes all the difference.

Jim Farley discovered early in life that the average person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together. Remember that name and call it easily, and you have paid a subtle and very effective compliment. But forget it or misspell it—and you have placed yourself at a sure disadvantage.

What was the reason for Andrew Carnegie’s success?

He was called the Steel King; yet he himself knew little about the manufacture of steel. He had hundreds of people working for him who knew far more about steel than he did. But he knew how to handle people, and that is what made him rich. Early in life, he showed a flair for organization, a genius for leadership. By the time he was ten, he too had discovered the astounding importance people place on their own name. And he used that discovery to win cooperation. To illustrate: When he was a boy back in Scotland, he got hold of a rabbit, a mother rabbit. Presto! He soon had a whole nest of little rabbits—and nothing to feed them. But he had a brilliant idea. He told the boys and girls in the neighborhood that if they would go out and pull enough clover and dandelions to feed the rabbits, he would name the bunnies in their honor.

The plan worked like magic, and Carnegie never forgot it. He used the same method in his business approach. When he wanted to sell steel rails to the Pennsylvania Railroad. J. Edgar Thomson was president of the Railroad then so Carnegie built a huge steel mine in Pittsburgh and named it after him, “Edgar Thomson Steel Works.” So when Thomson needed to buy steel rails where do you think he went?

It made him millions! He applied this method far more than once and his success was in big part of how he handled people and their interests.

Go out and use it in your world. I dare you!! Utilize the name method and look for the response you get. For today, try one persons name, tomorrow, two and then make a habit of it. It will lead you to more success!