Morning Cereal

Start your day with inspirational quotes, followed by a fun journey through nostalgic facts from this day in history. Then, we dive into the first chapter of Dale Carnegie’s iconic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In Part 3, Chapter 4, Part 1, we’ll explore Carnegie’s timeless advice on building authentic connections, the art of influence, and creating positive interactions in every area of life.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quotes to spark your motivation
  • Fun historical facts from this day in history
  • A deep dive into Part 3, Chapter 4, Part 1 of How to Win Friends and Influence People
Whether you're a leader, communicator, or just someone looking to improve your relationships, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
Tune in now and let’s grow together!
Resources:
Carnegie, D. (1981). How to win friends and influence people (Rev. ed.). Simon & Schuster.
All photo’s utilized in this video are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by Wikimedia Commons license and are free to copy, distribute and transmit.  No photos have been altered.

What is Morning Cereal?

Good morning, and welcome to Morning Cereal!
Pull up a stool, grab your favorite cereal, and let’s kick-start your day with a spoonful of inspiration, nostalgia and personal growth. Join your host, Shaen Inglis, as he highlights the music, movies, and moments that made the 80s, 90s, and 2000s unforgettable—kind of like digging for toy at the bottom of the cereal box. Each episode, Shaen also reviews a chapter or so from top wellness books, offering practical insights to help you set a positive tone for your day. Start your mornings right—no cartoons required!

Follow and subscribe to the Morning Cereal podcast and visit our Life Happens, Live Balanced channel and our website at shaeninglis.com to check out and follow our other podcasts. You can also follow Shaen @ShaenInglis on Instagram, YouTube, etc. Feel free to share the Morning Cereal with someone who could use a little fun and motivation to start their day right.

Good morning.

And welcome to morning cereal

Okay, good morning

and welcome to Thursday.

It's been a chilly week for many of us,

which makes me feel better

that today is National Comfy Day.

Sounds good to me, sign me up.

A little couch time and my comfy sweats

catching up on some Yellowstone.

Calgon, take me away.

Do you remember that saying?

Well, stay warm out

there and hang in there.

Spring is only 28 days away.

Well, let's spring into today's quotes.

One fun nostalgic quote

and then a second quote.

Tease our book review

later in the episode.

As usual, I hope one of

these quotes will speak to you

and jumpstart your day

in a positive direction.

All right, we'll stay

with the spring theme

for the first quote today,

which is quote, "No winter lasts forever.

No spring skips its turn."

End quote.

This quote works on many levels, right?

Whether you're just

waiting for warmer weather

like we are today,

or if you're a different season of life

and waiting for a warmer chapter in life.

They both are coming.

Just keep moving forward.

And today's teaser quote

from the book review is quote,

"A drop of honey catches more flies

than a gallon of gall."

End quote.

And as usual, we'll unpack that here

in just a few minutes

during the book review segment.

But first, let's jump into our usual dose

of fun and historic facts

from this day in history.

Today's news facts and

birthdays are for February 20th.

Starting back in 1872,

the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

the Met in New York City,

it opened up to the public.

Then in 1877, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake,

it premiered and it went on to become

one of the world's best known ballets.

Then in 1902, Ansel Adams,

the most important landscape photographer

of the 20th century,

he was born in San Francisco.

Then in 1962, NASA's John Glenn,

he became the first

American to orbit Earth

and he did it three times.

Glenn's five-hour space

flight came almost a year

after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin,

he orbited the Earth on April 12th, 1961.

Then in 1967, singer Kurt

Cobain was born on this date.

Then skipping all the way up to 1998,

Tara Lipinski, she became

the youngest figure skating

American to win gold

at the Winter Olympics.

And then finally in 2007,

Baywatch actress Carmen Electra,

she divorced rocker Dave Navarro

due to irreconcilable differences

after less than three years of marriage.

Man, I thought they

were a forever couple.

That's a shocker to me.

Anyways, happy birthday.

If today is your birthday,

you share a birthday with

young singer Olivia Rodrigo.

She's 22.

Singer Rihanna, she's 37 today.

My wife and I actually saw Rihanna,

I don't know, 15 years ago or so.

She was walking into a Victoria's Secret

on the Mag Mile in Chicago.

I doubt she shops there anymore.

Continuing on,

comedian Trevor Noah, he's 41.

And then 90s supermodel

Cindy Crawford, she's 59 today.

And lastly, the round

mound rebound, Charles Barkley,

he's 62.

And the number one movie

on this date back in 1983

was the movie "Tootsie."

Now I've never seen this movie,

but it stars Dustin Hoffman,

who received a

nomination for an Academy Award

for his role as an actor

that dressed as a woman

to get a role on a soap opera.

And the number one song

on this date back in 1986

was "How Will I

Know?" by Whitney Houston.

This is a classic

wholesome Whitney Houston song,

which actually featured her mother

singing the background vocals.

And it became Whitney's

second number one hit,

following her first number one hit,

"Saving All My Love For

You" in the previous year.

Okay, well, let's move

on to some personal growth

in the book review

segment of "Morning Serial."

This is where we take a

few minutes to reflect on

lessons learned from the

current book we're reading.

And currently we're

reading through Dale Carnegie's

"How to Win Friends

and Influence People."

It's a timeless book that is consistently

on all the must read lists,

and it's packed with rock

solid advice and actions

for us all to use and build

healthy foundational concepts to live by.

Yesterday, we finished the

third chapter in part three,

entitled, quote, "If

You Are Wrong, Admit It."

And Carnegie started

the chapter suggesting

that we beat others to

the punch if we are wrong,

saying, quote, "If we know

we are going to be rebuked

anyhow, isn't it far better

to beat the other person to it

and just do it ourselves?

Isn't it much easier to

listen to the self-criticism

than to bear the

condemnation from alien lips?"

End quote.

And if we do this, chances

are that the other person

will have a forgiving attitude and

minimize our mistakes.

Carnegie's principle number

three in a chapter entitled,

If You're Wrong, Admit It.

Principle number three is,

If You Are Wrong, Admit

It Quickly and Infatically.

Today, we're still in part two of

How to Win Friends and Influence People.

And recall, part two is entitled,

"How to Win People to

Your Way of Thinking."

And today we begin

chapter four of part two,

which is entitled, "A Drop of Honey."

Carnegie again shoves us

straight into the deep end

with an opening quote from Woodrow Wilson

about our tempers.

Wilson said, quote, "If you come at me

with your fist doubled,

I think I can promise you

that mine will double as fast as yours.

But if you come to me and say,

let us sit down and

take counsel together.

And if we differ from each other,

understand why it is that we differ,

just what the points at issue are,

we will presently find that we are not so

far apart after all,

that the points on

which we differ are few

and the points on

which we agree are many,

and that if we only have

the patience and the candor

and the desire to get

together, we will get together."

End quote.

Carnegie illustrates this

through a story about Rockefeller

and how he handled a bloody strike

of his miners in Colorado.

The miners had wanted more pay

and the conflict had

risen to such a level

that the US government sent

military to keep the peace,

but peace wasn't kept and

some lives were actually lost.

So you can imagine the

level of emotion and anger

and violence towards Rockefeller

at the height of the confrontation.

And Carnegie suggests

that Rockefeller delivered

one of the most eloquent and radiant

speeches to his miners,

people that quote, "Wanted to hang him

by the neck from an apple tree."

End quote.

Rockefeller has spent a

few days previous meeting

with the workers in their

houses, hearing from them

and making friends.

And as Rockefeller

stood in front of the crowd

of angry workers that

day, he addressed them,

quote, "Not as strangers, but as friends.

And with a spirit of mutual friendship,

our common interests, it

is only by your courtesy

that I am here."

And after this speech by Rockefeller,

the workers went back

to work without a word

and without the wage increase.

Here is part of what

Rockefeller said that day,

quote, "This is a red

letter day in my life.

It is the first time I've

ever had the good fortune

to meet the

representatives of the employees

of this great company.

Its officers and

superintendents together.

And I can assure you

that I am proud to be here

and that I shall remember

this gathering as long as I live.

Had this meeting been held two weeks ago,

I should have stood here

a stranger to most of you,

recognizing few faces.

Having had the

opportunity last week of visiting

all the camps in the Southern coal field

and talking

individually with practically all

of the field

representatives, except those who are away,

having visited you in your homes,

met many of your wives and children,

we meet here not as

strangers, but as friends.

And it is in that

spirit of mutual friendship

that I am glad to have this opportunity

to discuss with you our common interests.

Since this is a meeting of

the officers of the company

and the representatives of the employees,

it is only by your

courtesy that I am here,

for I am not so fortunate as

to be either one or the other.

And yet I feel that I

am intimately associated

with you men, for in

the sense I represent

both the stockholders and the directors."

End quote.

Carnegie asks how different that

situation may have been

if Rockefeller stood up there that day,

throwing facts and figures around,

arguing his point with

tones and insinuations

that the other people were wrong.

Would there have been more anger?

Would there have been

more hatred, more revolt?

Well, we'll end today on a

quote from Abraham Lincoln.

And I bet you may already

be familiar with this one.

Lincoln said, quote, "It

is an old and true maxim

that a drop of honey catches more flies

than a gallon of gall.

So with men, if you would

win a man to your cause,

first convince him that

you are his sincere friend.

Therein is a drop of

honey that catches his heart,

which, say what you will,

is the great high road to his reason."

End quote.

The high road, all of Carnegie's paths

lead us to taking the high

road, being the bigger person.

It's hard at times,

but today we heard a tale

and tomorrow we'll hear

more tales of successful people

that learned and have

implemented this philosophy

to their great advantage.

So come back tomorrow for that.

All right, we've got that

Friday Eve energy, people.

So if you're facing a big

project, a personal goal,

or just another day on the grind,

know that you've got this.

Have the audacity to

just keep moving forward

in a positive way.

Thanks for joining today.

We'll see you tomorrow

and have a fantastic day.

Don't forget to follow and subscribe to

the Morning Serial

podcast on the One Life

Live It channel.

You can find more episodes and videos by

visiting our YouTube channel and the

website at seaningless

and at seaningless.com, where you can

also follow our other

podcast, the Mr. and Mrs.

Inglis podcast and the

Life Happens podcast.

In these other podcasts, we'll dive

deeper into everyday issues,

self-improvement and

well-being, business and finance, and we

welcome special guests too.

So join us.

It'll be a good time, I promise.

Thanks again for listening.

Have a fantastic day and

we'll see you tomorrow.