But his mother， a poor peasant woman， put her arms abouthim and praised him and told him she knew he could sing， shecould already see an improvement， and she went barefoot inorder to save money to pay for his music lessons. That peasantmother’s praise and encouragement changed that boy’s life. Hisname was Enrico Caruso， and he became the greatest and mostfamous opera singer of his age.
In the early nineteenth century， a young man in Londonaspired to be a writer. But everything seemed to be against him.
He had never been able to attend school more than four years.
His father had been flung in jail because he couldn’t pay his debts，and this young man often knew the pangs of hunger. Finally， hegot a job pasting labels on bottles of blacking in a rat-infestedwarehouse， and he slept at night in a dismal attic room with twoother boys—guttersnipes from the slums of London. He had solittle confidence in his ability to write that he sneaked out andmailed his first manuscript in the dead of night so nobody wouldlaugh at him. Story after story was refused. Finally the great daycame when one was accepted. True， he wasn’t paid a shillingfor it， but one editor had praised him. One editor had givenhim recognition. He was so thrilled that he wandered aimlesslyaround the streets with tears rolling down his cheeks.
The praise， the recognition， that he received through gettingone story in print， changed his whole life， for if it hadn’t been forthat encouragement， he might have spent his entire life workingin rat-infested factories. You may have heard of that boy. Hisname was Charles Dickens.
Mr. Ringelspaugh determined to use some of the principleshe was learning in our course to solve this situation. He reported：“We decided to try praise instead of harping on their faults.
It wasn’t easy when all we could see were the negative thingsthey were doing; it was really tough to find things to praise. Wemanaged to find something， and within the first day or two someof the really upsetting things they were doing quit happening.
Then some of their other faults began to disappear. They begancapitalizing on the praise we were giving them. They even begangoing out of their way to do things right. Neither of us couldbelieve it. Of course， it didn’t last forever， but the norm reachedafter things leveled off was so much better. It was no longernecessary to react the way we used to. The children were doingfar more right things than wrong ones.” All of this was a result ofpraising the slightest improvement in the children rather thancondemning everything they did wrong.
This works on the job too. Keith Roper of Woodland Hills，California， applied this principle to a situation in his company.
Some material came to him in his print shop which was ofexceptionally high quality. The printer who had done this jobwas a new employee who had been having difficulty adjustingto the job. His supervisor was upset about what he considered anegative attitude and was seriously thinking of terminating hisservices.
When Mr. Roper was informed of this situation， he personallywent over to the print shop and had a talk with the youngman. He told him how pleased he was with the work he hadjust received and pointed out it was the best work he had seenproduced in that shop for some time. He pointed out exactly whyit was superior and how important the young man’s contributionwas to the company.
Do you think this affected that young printer’s attitude towardthe company? Within days there was a complete turnabout. He told several of his co-workers about the conversation and howsomeone in the company really appreciated good work. And fromthat day on， he was a loyal and dedicated worker.
Talk about changing people. If you and I will inspire thepeople with whom we come in contact to a realization of thehidden treasures they possess， we can do far more than changepeople. We can literally transform them.
Exaggeration? Then listen to these sage words from WilliamJames， one of the most distinguished psychologists andphilosophers America has ever produced：compared with what we ought to be， we are only half awake.
We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mentalresources. Stating the thing broadly， the human individual thuslives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sortswhich he habitually fails to use.
Yes， you who are reading these lines possess powers of varioussorts which you habitually fail to use; and one of these powersyou are probably not using to the fullest extent is your magicability to praise people and inspire them with a realization oftheir latent possibilities.
Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom underencouragement. To become a more effective leader of people，apply …
PRINCIPLE 6：
Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
Chapter 28
Give a Dog a Good Name
In short， if you want to improve a person in a certain spect，act as though that particular trait were already one of his or heroutstanding characteristics. Shakespeare said “Assume a virtue， ifyou have it not.” And it might be well to assume and state openlythat other people have the virtue you want them to develop. Givethem a fine reputation to live up to， and they will make prodigiousefforts rather than see you disillusioned.
Georgette Leblanc， in her book Souvenirs， My Life withMaeterlinck， describes the startling transformation of a humbleBelgian Cinderella.
“A servant girl from a neighboring hotel brought my meals，”
she wrote. “She was called ‘marie the Dish washer’ because shehad started her career as a scullery assistant. She was a kind ofmonster， cross-eyed， bandylegged， poor in flesh and spirit.
“One day， while she was holding my plate of macaroniin herred hand， I said to her point-blank， ‘Marie， you do not know whattreasures are within you.’