Thoughts to Build On

Therefore, praise not only puts into effect the
wise teaching of William James, but it fulfills Dr. Adler's
prescription to please someone.
So among the miracle-cures of your wonder-
drug, praise, you have it on the highest authority that it
will cure anxiety, fear, depression in just 14 days!
Now let's prove the other claims we made for
your wonder-drug, praise, at the beginning of this chapter.
( 1) In a scientifically supervised test, school
children were praised for their intelligence and ability,
and, at the beginning of the test, they were assured that
the test would be easy for them. They responded to praise
by doing much better than average and getting very high
grades.
Then the same school children were given an-
other test, equally easy, but were criticized and harassed
before the test and told it was too difficult for them and
that they would do poorly. The result was that they did
very poorly and got very low grades.
The only difference: PRAISE... and more
evidence that praise is a wonder-drug which produces
miracle results.
(2) Business associates, when given your won-
der drug, praise, will gladly cooperate with you, help lift
you to success and wealth. Why? Because when you give
them what they want: praise-they will give you what you
want: cooperation. When you praise a business associate,
you give him self-confidence and a sense of security. Crit-
icize him and you make him feel insecure. He mentally
labels you as the "hatchet man" who may cost him a promo-
tion-or even his job! That's why praise is so important in