If You Don't Do This, You Are Headed For Trouble

Ways to Make People Like You

[...] the average person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together. Remember that name and call it easily, and you have paid a subtle and very effective compliment. But forget it or misspell it – and you have placed yourself at a sharp disadvantage.

Most people don't remember names, for the simple reason that they don't take the time and energy necessary to concentrate and repeat and fix names indelibly in their minds. They make excuses for themselves; they are too busy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that one of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining good will was by remembering names and making people feel important – yet how many of us do it?

One of the first lessons a politician learns is this: "To recall a voter's name is statesmanship. To forget it is oblivion."  And the ability to remember names is almost as important in business and social contacts as it is in politics.

Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Reference:  How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie