Much of the content from life is due to having pleasant people
around you. Hence I would form habits and cultivate manners that
would please them.
For instance, I would make my personal appearance as attractive as
possible. I would look clean, well-dressed, and altogether as
engaging as the material I had to work with would allow.
I would be punctual. To keep people waiting is simply insolent
egotism.
I would, if my voice were unpleasant, have it cultivated until it
became agreeable in tone. I would speak low. I would not mumble, but
learn the art of clear, distinct speech. It is very trying to
associate with persons who talk so that it is a constant effort to
understand their words.
I would learn the art of conversation, of small talk. I would equip
myself to be able to entertain the grouchiest, most blasé people.
For there is hardly a business in the world in which it is not a
great advantage to be able to converse entertainingly.
The secret of being a good conversationalist is probably a genuine,
unselfish interest in others. That and practice. It consists more in
making the other person talk than in talking yourself.
I would learn how to write so that it would not burden people to
read it. In this matter, one hint: The English language is composed
of separate letters, hence, when you have written one letter, if you
will move your pen along before you write the next we shall be able,
probably, to discover what you intend, no matter how imperfectly you
compose your separate letters.
I would not argue. I never knew one person in my life that was
convinced by argument. Discuss, yes; but not argue. The difference
is this: in discussion you are searching for the truth, and in
argument you want to prove that you are right. In discussion,
therefore, you are anxious to know your neighbour's views, and you
listen to him. In argument, you don't care anything about his
opinions, you want him to hear yours; hence, while he's talking you
are simply thinking over what you are going to say as soon as you
get a chance.
Altogether, I would try to make my personality pleasing, so that
people would in turn endeavour to be pleasing to me.