This is an excerpt from How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. While it’s geared towards those in sales or those working during the holidays, its value can be applied by anyone at any time.
‘The Value of a Smile at Christmas’
It costs nothing but creates much. It enriches those who receive it without impoverishing those who give it.
It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor that are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in the business, and is the counter-sign of friends.
It is rest to weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen. For it is something that is no earthly good to anybody until it is given away.
And if in the last minutes of the Christmas rush some of our salespeople should be too weary to smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours?
For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give.
With that, I’ll leave you all with a ‘Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I’ll enjoy mine!
The Break Room 