It’s Not Just Who You Know

#2 New York Times Bestseller
#2 Wall Street Journal
#1 USA Today

In It’s Not Just Who You Know, Tommy Spaulding — the former CEO of Up with People — has written the new How to Win Friends & Influence People for the twenty-first century. Success — in business and in life — is all about relationships. In this powerful guide, Spaulding takes Dale Carnegie’s classic philosophy to the next level, showing how, by developing deeper relationships through giving to others and putting them first, we benefit as well.

Tommy Spaulding learned at a very young age that he was not destined to be an academic star. He may have gotten a 4.0, but only if he added his high school and college GPAs together. The reason he found academics so challenging, Tommy discovered, is that he is dyslexic. But his dyslexia didn’t hold him back — in fact, it helped him to develop his innate talents. Tommy is a natural leader; he realized early on that he had the ability to connect with people, whatever their ages or backgrounds. As a teenager, he received a copy of How to Win Friends & Influence People from his father, and it quickly became his guide to building relationship skills. He developed into a leader in his school and community. His horizons expanded dramatically when he traveled the world as a cast member for Up with People, one of the largest nonprofit international leadership organizations in the world. After graduating from college and business school, he became an executive and eventually CEO of Up with People.

At every step, Tommy learned that the secret to achieving your full potential in life is reaching out for the support and insight and influence of others. None of us achieve success alone. We need the help of other people. In this candid, revealing, and deeply personal book, Tommy expands upon the principles that Dale Carnegie outlined seventy-five years ago and shows us how to take them one step further. To invite others to be partners in our lives and successes, Tommy notes, you first have to be genuinely interested in other people. Among the insights Tommy discusses in the book:

• It’s not just who you know, or what they can do for you, but what you can do for them.
• Motives matter.
• Establishing a deeper connection is about authenticity, not manipulation; reciprocity, not selfishness.
• Every relationship is a two-way street; we never know when a chance encounter can change the direction of our lives.

In the bestselling tradition of Dale Carnegie’s classic, It’s Not Just Who You Knowshows how each one of us can use the power of “netgiving” — of helping others — to expand our worlds and achieve our goals, and make a difference in our jobs, our careers, and our communities.