Brian Tracy - The 10 Qualities of Influential People: How to Inspire Yourself and Others to Greatnes

HOW TO INSPIRE YOURSELF AND OTHERS TO GREATNESS

BRIAN TRACY

Published 2022 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

Copyright 2022 by Brian Tracy

An earlier version of the this book was sold under the title The Science of Influence. This current version has been retitled, reorganized and expanded for an improved customer experience.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

First Edition: 2022

Cover design by Tom McKeveny

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2628-3

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Influence is one of the most powerful skills you can develop. Without it, all other aspects of human relations are ineffective at best and failures at worst.

If you attempt to communicate your business idea to an investor but lack the skill of influence, your idea will fall flat, and you will not generate the venture capital that you need.

If you want your children to adopt your deepest moral values but lack the skill of influence, your efforts will pale in comparison to the ploys of social media and peer pressure.

If you want to convince your spouse that they need to take their health seriously but lack the skill of influence, they may ultimately get the bad news at the doctors office when it is too late.

Maybe youre trying to break an addiction to caffeine or web surfing. If you lack the skill of influence, youll be unable to convince yourself that delaying your gratification and establishing an empowering new habit is even worth it.

Influence is like the combination on a strong titanium lock. Imagine that the ability to communicate is the spinning of that lock, which gives you access to the mind. Bad communication, through endless talking, inattentive listening, or overbearing manners, is like spinning the numbers on the lock randomly. Developing the basic skills of influence is like knowing the exact combination to that lock, which gives you access to the minds and hearts of othersor yourself.

Thats what youll learn in this book: the specific numbers to the highly guarded combination that will enable you to produce incredible resultshappier personal relationships, more sales, more profitable partnerships, and more power to commit yourself to your most important goals.

Ideas about influence started back in ancient times, continued through the Renaissance, and progressed through the twentieth century with landmark publications like Dale Carnegies How to Win Friends and Influence People. Insights into this subject continue to advance. This book follows in that tradition, updating time-honored truths with new discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, and business theory.

This book will open the lock of influence for you. You will learn the top ten qualities of influential people. Youll learn the key principles of influence. Youll also learn how to cultivate these qualities in yourself and how to use them in different areas of lifein sales, with your coworkers, with your family. You will rapidly move from theory to fact.

When youre finished with this book, youll know and will have absorbedthe ten top qualities of influential people. Youll know how to apply them everywhere in your life. These skills will move you towards the goals that you wish for in your deepest heart and will bring you the satisfaction you want.

The Many Faces of Influence

One of the best definitions of influence that Ive heard recently is moving. Moving, in this sense, means taking a person from one way of thinking to another.

If you look back 6,000 years, you will see that human beings have one primary motivation: improvement. All attempts to sell and all attempts to buy are intended to improve ones condition in some way.

We call this the ABC theory of motivation. A stands for antecedents, which is where you are before you are influenced; B are the behaviors that you take as a result of influence; C are the consequences. The formula is that 15 percent of your actions are determined by antecedentsprevious eventsand 85 percent of your motivation to move, to change, comes from the anticipated consequences.

1. A stands for Antecedents
2. B stands for Behaviors
3. C stands for Consequences

What, then, is the starting point for gaining access to this unused treasure? The first step is to realize that it is there. You have more potential than you can use in a hundred lifetimes. Millions of people all over the world have gone from rags to riches, become millionaires and billionaires, in a single lifetime. What they have done, you can do as well. I will show you what other people, starting with nothing, did that transformed their lives. It turned the switch and opened the door. Even an average person who follows certain steps in a systematic and orderly way will become influential.

My late friend Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World, once said to me, Brian, there are no secrets of success. There are simple rules and principles that have been discovered and rediscovered throughout all of human history. All you have to do is learn and practice them, and youll get the same results as the most successful companies.

Surprise, surprisethis process works. To influence people, you need to take a certain series of steps. If you do this in the right way, people will be open to your influence. In fact, they will want to be influenced by you; they will seek your guidance and direction. Youll get results beyond any youve ever thought possible.

The words influence and persuasion are often treated as if theyre synonymous, but I think they are different. You can influence people without trying to persuade them of anythingjust by being a particular kind of person. One example is the role model: someone whom other people observe and imitate. People who believe that you are a person of character, clarity, and conviction will be much more influenced by you than if they believe otherwise.

Parents are responsible for 40 to 50 percent of a childs habits. Children are greatly influenced, not just by their parents efforts at persuasion, but also by their behavior. Your children will behave toward people in their world the way you behave toward people in your worldespecially your spouse. Someone once said, The kindest thing that a man can do for his children is to love their mother.