a traitor, a snake and a moron. I have a suspicion," adds Mr. Taylor, "that she didn't care
for that talk." We can't keep from admiring a man who takes criticism like that. We
admire his serenity, his unshaken poise, and his sense of humour.
When Charles Schwab was addressing the student body at Princeton, he confessed
that one of the most important lessons he had ever learned was taught to him by an old
German who worked in Schwab's steel mill. The old German got involved in a hot
wartime argument with the other steelworkers, and they tossed him into the river. "When
he came into my office," Mr. Schwab said, "covered with mud and water, I asked him
what he had said to the men who had thrown him into the river, and he replied: 'I just
laughed.' "
Mr. Schwab declared that he had adopted that old German's words as his motto: "Just
laugh."
That motto is especially good when you are the victim of unjust criticism. You can
answer the man who answers you back, but what can you say to the man who "just
laughs"?
Lincoln might have broken under the strain of the Civil War if he hadn't learned the folly
of trying to answer all his savage critics. He finally said: "If I were to try to read, much
less to answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any
other business. I do the very best I know how- the very best I can; and I mean to keep
on doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me
won't matter. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would
make no difference."
When you and I are unjustly criticised, let's remember Rule 2:
Do the very best yon can: and then put up your old umbrella and keep the rain of
criticism from running down the back of your neck.
Chapter 22 - Fool Things I Have Done
I have a folder in my private filing cabinet marked "FTD"- short for "Fool Things I Have
Done". I put in that folder written records of the fools things I have been guilty of. I
sometimes dictate these memos to my secretary, but sometimes they are so personal,
so stupid, that I am ashamed to dictate them, so I write them out in longhand.
I can still recall some of the criticisms of Dale Carnegie that I put in my "FTD" folders
fifteen years ago. If I had been utterly honest with myself, I would now have a filing
cabinet bursting out at the seams with these "FTD" memos. I can truthfully repeat what
King Saul said more than twenty centuries ago: "I have played the fool and have erred
exceedingly."
When I get out my "FTD" folders and re-read the criticisms I have written of myself, they
help me deal with the toughest problem I shall ever face: the management of Dale
Carnegie.
I used to blame my troubles on other people; but as I have grown older-and wiser, I
hope-I have realised that I myself, in the last analysis, am to blame for almost all my
misfortunes. Lots of people have discovered that, as they grow older. "No one but