Praise The Slightest Improvement

Many years ago a boy of ten was working in a factory in Naples. He longed to be a singer,but his first teacher discouraged him.“You can’t sing,”he said.“You haven’t any voice at all. It sounds like the wind in the shutters.”

But his mother, a poor peasant woman, put her arms about him and praised him and told him she knew he could sing, she could already see an improvement, and she went barefoot in order to save money to pay for his music lessons. That peasant mother’s praise and encouragement changed that boy’s life. His name was Enrico Caruso, and he became the greatest and most famous opera singer of his age.

—— How to win friends & influence people