Les Giblin has conducted more than 1,000 "Skill With People" seminars for hundreds of companies and associations, including Mobil, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Caterpillar, Blyth Eastman Dillon, Retail Jewelers of America, PGA, National Association of Insurance Agents, plus hundreds of sales and marketing clubs and hundreds of top stores.

Les Giblin was 1965 National Salesman of the Year.

His book "Skill With People" has sold over 2,000,000 copies, while his other book, "How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing With People," has sold over 700,000 copies. He has authored three bestselling handbooks. Les Giblin's audiovisual programs are widely used. One association enrolled 5,000 people in his "Skill With People" seminar--another company put 7,000 people through his "Better Selling" program.

Les Giblin's track record and his hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic seminar participants and readers attest to his effectiveness as a top teacher of skill with people.

The first step in increasing your skill in dealing with people (successful human relations) is to properly understand people and their nature.

When you have a proper understanding of human nature and people - when you know why people do the things that they do - when you know why and how people will react under certain conditions - then and only then can you become a skillful manager of people.

Understanding people and human nature simply involves recognizing people for what they are - not what you think they are nor what you want them to be.

What are they?

PEOPLE ARE PRIMARILY INTERESTED IN THEMSELVES, NOT IN YOU!

Putting this same thought another way - the other person is ten thousand times more interested in himself than he is in you.

And vice versa! You are more interested in yourself than you are in any other person in the world.

Remember that man's actions are governed by self thought, self interest - this trait is so strong in man that the dominant thought in charity is the satisfaction or pleasure that the giver gets from giving, not the good the gift will do. That comes second!

You don't have to apologize or become embarrassed in recognizing that man's nature is self-interest - it has been that way from the beginning of time and will be that way till the end of time for man was put on earth with that nature. Too, we are all alike in this respect.

This knowledge, that people are primarily interested in themselves, gives you the basis on which to work in your dealings with others. In subsequent chapters you will see how many successful techniques spring from this understanding.

So actually it is a key of life for you to realize that people are primarily interested in themselves and not in you.