I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Today’s stoic is something I learned from reading How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. When interacting with other people make them the highlight of the conversation. Telling stories about ourselves and dominating the conversation doesn’t make us look as good as we think. To others we come off as self-absorbed. I used to struggle with starting a conversation. Now I start by asking a question. I try to get the other person talking and keep them talking.

I believe there is some need for back and forth, it’s just a matter of not entirely dominating the conversation and trying to put more focus on others. Even knowing this and practicing it, I can still speak too much about my own experiences. I did it just this day when someone was bringing up a topic and I went off on some cool thing I did. After the conversation I immediately regretted it because I didn’t feel like I gave the other person their due and opportunity to speak.