PRINCIPLE 8：
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Back in 1915， America was aghast. For more than a year， thenations of Europe had been slaughtering one another on a scalenever before dreamed of in all the bloody annals of mankind.
Could peace be brought about？ No one knew. But WoodrowWilson was determined to try. He would send a personalrepresentative， a peace emissary， to counsel with the warlords ofEurope.
William Jennings Bryan， secretary of state， Bryan， the peaceadvocate， longed to go. He saw a chance to perform a greatservice and make his name immortal. But Wilson appointedanother man， his intimate friend and advisor Colonel Edward M.
House； and it was House’s thorny task to break the unwelcomenews to Bryan without giving him offense.
“Bryan was distinctly disappointed when he heard I was to goto Europe as the peace emissary，” Colonel House records in hisdiary. “He said he had planned to do this himself ...
“I replied that the President thought it would be unwise foranyone to do this officially， and that his going would attract agreat deal of attention and people would wonder why he wasthere....”
You see the intimation？ House practically told Bryan that hewas too important for the job—and Bryan was satisfied.
I knew a man who had to refuse many invitations to speak，invitations extended by friends， invitations coming from peopleto whom he was obligated； and yet he did it so adroitly that the other person was at least contented with his refusal. How did hedo it？ Not by merely talking about the fact that he was too busyand too-this and too-that. No， after expressing his appreciationof the invitation and regretting his inability to accept it， hesuggested a substitute speaker. In other words， he didn’t givethe other person any time to feel unhappy about the refusal， Heimmediately changed the other person’s thoughts to some otherspeaker who could accept the invitation.
Childish？ Perhaps. But that is what they said to Napoleonwhen he created the Legion of Honor and distributed 15，000crosses to his soldiers and made eighteen of his generals“Marshals of France” and called his troops the “Grand Army.”
Napoleon was criticized for giving “toys” to war-hardenedveterans， and Napoleon replied， “Men are ruled by toys.”
This technique of giving titles and authority worked forNapoleon and it will work for you. For example， a friend of mine，Mrs. Ernest Gent of Scarsdale， New York， was troubled by boysrunning across and destroying her lawn. She tried criticism. Shetried coaxing. Neither worked. Then she tried giving the worstsinner in the gang a title and a feeling of authority. She made himher “detective” and put him in charge of keeping all trespassersoff her lawn. That solved her problem. Her “detective” built abonfire in the backyard， heated an iron red hot， and threatened tobrand any boy who stepped on the lawn.
People are more likely to do what you would like them to dowhen you use...
