The average person can be led readily if you have his or her respect and if you show that you respect that person for some kind of ability. If you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics. And it might be well to assume and state openly that other people have the virtue you want them to develop. Give them a fine reputation to live up to, and they will make prodigious efforts rather than see you disillusioned. Give a dog a bad name and you may as well hang him. But give him a good name – and see what happens.

*Compilation taken from “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie