Through Dale Carnegie's seven-million-copy bestseller, recently revised, millions of people have been helped to overcome the worry habit. Dale Carnegie offers a set of practical formulas you can put to work today -- formulas that will last a lifetime! Discover how to:

* Eliminate fifty percent of business worries immediately

* Reduce financial worries

* Turn criticism to your advantage

* Avoid fatigue -- and keep looking young

* Add one hour a day to your waking life

* Find yourself and be yourself -- remember, there is no one on earth like you!

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living deals with fundamental emotions and ideas. It is fascinating to listen to and easy to apply. Let it change and improve you. There's no need to live with worry and anxiety that keep you from enjoying a full, active and happy life!

This book was published nearly half a century ago, and was based on observations from the first half of the twentieth century. Does that make it a hopeless anachronism? Just the opposite...it shows us how far we've fallen in one very important respect: Our willingness to take responsibility for outr actions. Consider this: Every single bit of advice in this book is based on the premise that you, the reader, are responsible for your own destiny, and must personally take action in your own life...not wait for the government or a pill or someone else to take care of it for you. Not once is anyone in this book characterized as a "victim" (although many come under great misfortune). If this book were to be written today, the fault for it's subject's problems would lie entirely with external forces, as would all of the remedies.

I find it interesting that the overall term used to describe the problem this book attempts to solve ("worry"), is one that we never hear these days. In today's world, we say that someone is "stressed" to describe the same symptoms. Why? Because "worry" is something one does to one's self, and "stress" comes from the outside. We no longer want to acknowledge responsibility for anything.

I'll be the first to admit that we know much more today about the cause of mental and physical problems than we did when this book was written. But any open-minderd reader of this volume will have to admit that, in many respects, we've gone backward. This was self-help for what Tom Brokaw calls "the greatest generation", and I recommend it highly.


If the principles are so obvious...   June 18, 2001
 86 out of 101 found this review helpful

...why doesn't everyone following them? Because that's the biggest knock I've heard regarding this book. Some people are reading each chapter and coming away saying "well that's obvious." Folks, there isn't anything groundbreaking about this book. There isn't some type of genius method of instantly transforming your life around. It was written decades ago but the solid principles still apply today. For example, if you want to add years to your life, take a nap for an hour each day. Carnegie is then going to tell you exactly who did this and how it helped them transform their life. Read this book once, then twice, then a third time and start living these principles. They are simple but effective and they will, as the title implies, help you start living your life.


Dull   August 28, 2002
 46 out of 71 found this review helpful

I know that seems like a low rating for a classic author like Carnegie, so I feel compelled to let readers of this review know that it doesn't mean so much that I think the book is bad and not worth reading so much as it means I don't think the book is worth buying, which to me is an important distinction.

The best things about it were that it was a quick read, and that Carnegie did have a bullet summaries at the end of each chapter, and a one page list of highlights for each section. All you really need to do is read those, and you've got the book. I may actually write some of those things down.

That, essentially was my problem with it -- he didn't have a great deal to say, and yet he took over 300 pages to say it. I didn't even bother to read the last section (Thirty-One True Stories), as I could tell by scanning it that it'd just be more rehashing of the first seven parts.

Essentially, this book could have been a pamphlet. It was very simplistic, and I'm sure that everyone has read all his suggestions and tips - some of which are useful and work, like keeping busy, and trying to change your thinking - from other sources. Alot of the advice is just common sense. And the examples were silly and too detailed; it got to where I was skipping over them and only reading the parts that were highlighted by the person who loaned me the book.

Carnegie uses the word "worry" in such a broad way that it doesn't have a real meaning; in some cases what he calls "worry" to me seems more like a phobia - something a person would likely need professional assistance to address. Last, in general I found that that the book didn't flow - each chapter felt disconnected from the next.

In general, this book is flawed, but it has some useful information that some people will be able to apply. I wouldn't pay money for this book (at least not much) but if worry is something that is getting you down, you could benefit from skimming the book for an hour or so. As I said initially, just read the bold type at the end of each chapter, and the summary at the end of each part.


Here you can find the most basic steps for happiness   July 25, 1996
 40 out of 47 found this review helpful

This book contains not only the steps for a worry-free living : when applying its techniques and principles inyour day-to-day, you start to notice that you are a new person, with much more capacity, and the results of your acting became surprisingly better. It's probable that if you learn and apply correctly what Dale Carnegie wrote many years ago, you will solve very old problems, those very complex problems that you had already given up(ex. relationships with people in family and work, general organization of your life, bad memory, backwardness, etc.). You will be able to do what you believed was an unchangable weakness of yourself, and this will increase your self-confidence.You may ask how can a book be so miraculous. The answer is : this book is based in the toughts of the most wise men of all times, including Jesus Crist, Willian James, Benjamin Franklin, Thoma Edison, and many others, together with the real experiences that Dale Carnegie made in his "lab of how to stop worrying". Thus, in spite of not solving all the problems of our lives, this book certainly contains precepts that every person should know, and is an obligatory reading for those who are not completely happy with their lives.


The Book is Like Compound-W for Worry Warts   November 11, 2008
 38 out of 39 found this review helpful

Dale Carnegie wrote some great books back in the 30's and 40's, and this book is one of them. Readers who liked Carnegie's bestselling How to Win Friends & Influence People won't be disappointed in this book.

The writing style is classic Carnegie. To put it simply, the guy just writes like he talks. This makes for a very friendly and easy to understand book, rather like a good friend giving you a piece of advice.

And a lot of advice he gives. The book is divided up into ten sections, each one tackling some aspect of worrying. I could give you a rundown of the topics, but you don't really need me to repeat the table on contents to decide if you want to read the book. Rather, let me just say that book covers just about every major "worry issue" that might be causing a troubled mind, such as your work, your finances, other people's criticisms- and them some.

While there are no earth-shattering, never-before-seen tips in the book, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend it to anyone who is looking to ease their mind a bit. That's because it does a GREAT job of conveying simple wisdom that really make you think good and hard about why you're worrying and if those things are really worth worrying about at all.

In short, its a bestseller because it makes a lot of sense and its advice can do a lot to re-frame your thinking about things. And if you can re-frame your thinking, well, you've about found the best "Compound-W" for worry warts. Readers who enjoyed this book might also enjoy Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World.