Winning human heart!
Chapter 13: Sweet honey in communication
When we are in a state of anger
and we can take all our anger out on the person who caused it,
we will surely gloat a lot!
But what about the opponent?
They will not be able to accept my harsh tone and spiteful attitude.
Sympathy,
love,
and compassion are the best ways to get people’s approval.
Woodrow Wilson said:
“If you throw two fists at me,
I immediately throw two punches back at you.
But if you come to me and say,
‘Let’s sit down and talk.
If our opinions are different,
how and why,
these are the points to discuss’,
then you will find that we are not as far apart as we thought.
The points of disagreement are few,
and the points of agreement are many.
With just a little patience and sincerity,
we will easily come to harmony.”
Perhaps no one feels the truth in Woodrow’s statement more deeply
than John D. Rockefeller(21). In 1915,
Rockefeller was the most hated man in Colorado.
Miners at the Colorado Iron and Fuel Company,
led by Rockefeller,
launched a strike demanding a pay rise.
It was one of the bloodiest strikes in American industrial history,
sending shockwaves across the nation.
For two years, property
and factories were destroyed,
the strike participants were suppressed by the army,
many people fell,
and there was a lot of bloodshed.
While the atmosphere of hatred was so high,
Rockefeller was able to successfully reconcile with the strikers.
How did he do that?
After weeks of campaigning
to open the way to reconciliation,
Rockefeller gave a very sincere speech
to representatives of the strikers.
This talk deserves to be a masterpiece
because the results are so amazing.
It calmed the waves of hatred
and aggression that threatened to calm,
and paved the way for many to side with him.
Rockefeller presented so humbly
and sincerely that the strikers went back to work
without saying a word about the raise,
the reason they fought so fiercely.
Rockefeller talked to people
who had just asked to hang him,
but more kindly,
more intimately than ever.
His talk appeared many sentences such as:
I am proud to be here,
after visiting your homes,
after meeting your wives and children.
We meet each other not as strangers
but as friends in a spirit of friendliness,
for our common interests.
It is because of your kindness that I am here.
Listen to Rockefeller begin:
“This is the happiest day of my life.
For the first time,
I was fortunate to meet all the delegates of the people
who are working in this large company,
employees, managers and leaders.
I am so moved to be here,
I will remember this meeting for the rest of my life.
If this meeting happened two weeks ago
and I’m standing here as a stranger to most of you,
I can only recognize a few faces.
But last week,
I was fortunate to visit all the camps in the southern coal region,
visit family and talk privately with everyone,
meet many relatives,
your wives and children,
so now we meet in friendship.
And it is because of that cordiality that I am happy
to discuss with you the common interests of both sides.
I am here, in the meeting of company members
and workers’ representatives,
because of your kindness.
I don’t have the good fortune to belong to any of these groups,
but I would like to be closely associated with you,
because in a sense I both represent the leadership
and the interests of all of you”.
Isn’t this a great demonstration
of the art of turning enemies into friends?
Had Rockefeller taken a different approach,
arguing harshly with the miners,
pointing out their wrongdoing,
the hatred and conflict would have increased further.
If a person’s heart aches with resentment or aversion to you,
then even if you use all the best arguments in the world,
you will not be able to make that person listen.
The nagging fathers,
the shouting bosses, and the nagging husbands
and wives need to understand this.
And these are the words Lincoln said over a hundred years ago:
“There is an old proverb that says
‘A drop of sweet honey catches more flies
than a pail of bitter water.
If you want someone to do as you please,
you must first prove that you are his sincere friend.
The honey in love will win hearts
and be the wide road to human reason.”
When 2,500 employees of White Motor Company went on strike demanding a raise,
Robert F. Black, then the company’s president,
did not lose his cool.
He did not condemn or threaten,
but instead praised them
for their “peaceful struggle” in the Cleveland press.
Seeing that the strikers had nothing to do,
he bought them two dozen baseball bats
and gloves to let them play on the open ground,
he also spent a area for those who like to play bowling.
This friendly attitude of Mr. Black spread to the strikers.
They found the tools and started cleaning around the factory.
Imagine the strikers cleaning the factory grounds
while still fighting for a raise.
What an unprecedented event in the stormy history
of labor disputes in America.
The strike ended after a week of peaceful agreement,
causing no major resentment
or discomfort on either side.
You’ve probably never been called in
to deal with a strike or speak to a council.
But if you want a lower rent,
can a friendly approach help you?
O. L. Straub, an engineer,
wanted a rent reduction,
although he also knew that the landlord was a tough guy.
Straub told the class:
“I wrote him, telling him
that I would be checking out as soon as my contract expires.
The truth is I’d stay if the rent was reduced.
But the situation looked desperate.
Other tenants have all tried but failed.
I thought,
I’m learning about how to treat people,
why not try with him.
He and his personal secretary came to see me
as soon as they received the letter.
I greeted him from the door with a cordial greeting
and a goodwill attitude.
I began by praising his room,
complimenting him on how well he kept the house.
That is completely true.
And I expressed my regre
t because I wanted to stay for another year,
but I couldn’t afford it.
Apparently he had never been so received by a tenant.
He didn’t know how to answer.
Then he started telling me about his difficulties.
The tenants complained.
One man wrote him fourteen letters.
Some people criticized him very harshly.
Another called for the contract to be canceled
if he could not prevent the tenants upstairs
from snoring like thunder in their sleep.
“It’s nice to have a satisfied tenant like you.”
And then, without waiting for my request,
he offered to reduce the rent a little.
I wanted to reduce it further so I mentioned
how much I could pay and he happily accepted.
When he came out, he turned and asked:
“Do you need me to redecorate the room?”.
“If I had acted like everyone else,
I would have failed like them.
It was this friendly approach
that helped me achieve results that exceeded my expectations.”
Another practitioner,
Gerald H. Winn of New Hampshire,
also got a good deal using this approach.
The house he just built was flooded with rainwater,
causing cracks in the foundation,
broken fireplaces, etc.
Repair costs must be more than two thousand dollars.
The fault is that the owner
of the land does not install a rainwater drainage system.
So Winn went to visit the landowner,
without anger,
reproach or complaint.
Winn began to inquire
about the landowner’s recent vacation in the West Indies.
Finally, when the time was right,
he talked about his “small” incident.
The owner of the land immediately promised
to contribute some of the cost.
But a few days later,
when he went down to the Winn estate to inspect,
he received compensation for all damages
and installed a drainage system.
If Winn hadn’t started with a friendly attitude,
the landowner would have taken full responsibility
even though it was his fault.
Years ago, as a boy walking barefoot
through the woods
to a rural school in northwestern Missouri,
I read a parable about the sun and the wind.
The two sides argue over which side is stronger.
Wind said:
“I will prove I am stronger.
Do you see that old man over there?
I bet I’ll make the old man take off his coat faster than you.”
The sun hides behind a cloud
so that the wind proves its authority.
The wind was blowing hard,
almost like a hurricane.
But the stronger the wind blew,
the tighter the old man held on to his coat.
Finally, the wind calmed down and gave in.
At that time,
the sun left the clouds,
gently casting iridescent rays on the ground.
Suddenly the old man’s forehead was covered with sweat,
and he frowned and took off his coat.
The sun had taught the wind a lesson,
that gentle suggestion is always more effective than forceful coercion.
Aesop, a Greek slave who lived during the reign of Croesus,
wrote the immortal fables six hundred BC.
But to this day,
what he experienced and explained
about human nature remains the truth.
The sun can make you take off your coat faster than the wind.
A gentle, friendly attitude and sincere compliments
can make people change their mind more easily
than it can cause tension or discomfort.
Again, remember Lincoln’s quote:
“A drop of honey catches more flies than a bucket of bitter water.”
“Kindness and gentle manners are manifestations of a noble soul” – R. Tagore
“Maturity begins when you care more about others
than you care about yourself.” – John Mac Noughton
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Principle 13 : Always start with a friendly attitude