A few years ago, The American Magazine made a surprising breakthrough. The increase in the sales of the magazine caused astonishment in the press world. So what was the secret? The answer was hidden in Sir John M. Siddall's ideas. When I met him, Siddall was in charge of the magazine's Interesting People Section. I have written several articles for him as well. One day he told me: “People are very selfish. They only care about themselves. They want to know how they can get promoted, how to earn more money, how to maintain their health. If I were the editor of this magazine, I would tell them how to protect their teeth, how often to take a bath, how to cool off in the summer, how to gain status, how to treat their employees, how to own a home. Other people's stories are always interesting. For example, I would have a real-estate salesman who made a lot of money tell me how he did it.” Siddall soon became the editor of the magazine. In those days, the sales of the magazine were very bad. Siddall did what he said one by one. What kind of reaction do you think he received? The sales figures reached half a million after two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand. The people found what they were looking for. After a while, sales reached one million. Then it was two million. It continued to increase. The magazine grew larger because Siddall appealed to people's selfish expectations.
Dale Carnegie – “The Art of Speaking and Doing Business”
