Of course Dale Carnegie wrote the bestseller “How To Win Friends and Influence People.” That book is still popular and has some great tips and suggestions.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote a pamphlet that sounds like just the opposite. Kind of a “How to Win Foes and Offend People.” It was called: “Rules for Making Oneself a Disagreeable Companion.” This never gained the popularity of Poor Richard’s Almanac, but it did contain some clever language. Here’s a sample:

“1. If possible engross (occupy wholly) the whole discourse . . . .Talk of much of yourself, your knowledge, your education, your successes . . . .”

“2. When you are out of breath, watch his words, and you will probably find something to contradict and raise a dispute on. If that fails, criticize his grammer.”

“3. If another shall be saying an indisputably good thing—say it has already been said by Bacon, Locke, or another eminent writer–and thus you deprive him of the reputation he might have gained from it.”

I think you’d be better off reading Carnegie’s book!