The Feeling of Importance

According to the ‘Big secret of dealing with people’, in Dale Carnegie’s book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, there is only one way to get anybody to do anything and that is to make that person want to do it.

It all ultimately comes down to people wanting to be important.

How hard these people try, and to what lengths they strive to reach their goal: Importance. This book gives countless examples of people in history.

How much research did Dale Carnegie go through to come to this conclusion?

Take this from Mr Carnegie’s book:

“Lincoln once began a letter by saying, ‘everybody likes a compliment.’ And William James said, ‘The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.’”

And I, without even finish reading this chapter wasn’t surprised.

Why?

Islam already gave it to us on a silver platter more that 1400 years ago, by telling us:

Allah (swt) Lord of the whole universe, He is Al-Shakour ‘The Most-Appreciative.’

“And never is your Lord forgetful…” (Qur’an, 19:64)

If Allah (God) is appreciative of our good deeds than who are we? Because God is independent of man, he does not need to be appreciative of our good deeds, but he is.

Not forgetting, and being appreciative, all but sums up where Humans lack. These two qualities if humans adopt with each other, will definitely instill a feeling of ‘Importance’in one another.

And again on the topic of importance, Dale Carnegie says, ‘this desire makes you want to wear the latest styles, drive the latest cars, and talk about your brilliant children.’

Allah (God) told us in the Quran regarding the phases of man in Surah Hadeed (57): Verse 20.

‘Know that the life of this world is nothing but play and pastime, and adornment, and boasting amongst yourselves, and the desire to surpass each other in wealth and children...’

This verse is so great, that human’s entire life, is portioned into 5 distinct phases:

— When you were a child, all that mattered was play

— As you grew into adolescence, just hanging around and wasting time in useless pursuits was everything in life

— As you became a teenager, and entered early manhood,
looking good and adorning yourself took center-stage

— Then came the stage when boasting of achievements in
career and business was commonplace

— As you grew older, your main concern was to rival others in

wealth; and gloat over the achievements of your children

Everything is there in Islam.
We just have to learn 'where' to look, and its a Beautiful journey.