Eighty Years of Self-Help Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Dale Carnegie struck a cord with his 1936 book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", with over 30 million copies sold. In it he set out a way of achieving results by mastering interpersonal skills through empathy and listening. He had been teaching about salesmanship and self-improvement for over 20 years before a publisher effectively put his lessons into print for him. Among his fans was the cult leader Charles Manson.

With his 1937 book "Think and Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill expanded on these ideas to include mastery of the inner self. His law of attraction could be boiled down to: think positive and you can achieve what you want. In his own life this did not prevent him being involved in several fraudulent schemes. His 1937 book was one of his successes. A core part of his message was the power of belief, visualisation and of goal orientation.

Five decades later came Stephen R Covey's 1989 book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". On top of Hill's ideas, he placed emphasis on personal growth, developing a moral character and examining effectiveness in achieving results. His structured habits have been labelled as a secular form of his Latter Day Saints Church values.

Another integrator of earlier ideas was Tony Robbins. He focussed on personal empowerment and practical strategies using techniques like neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Much of this work was through seminars and coaching. Two of his books in this area are "Unlimited Power" (1986) and "Awaken the Giant Within" (1991).

Carol S Dwerk and Brené Brown made scientific contributions. Dwerk came up with the growth mindset theory and supported this with research in the fields of education, psychology and neuroscience. Essentially, people with a growth mindset (in contrast to a fixed mindset) believe their abilities can be developed through effort, learning and persistence. She sets out her ideas in "The New Psychology of Success" (2006).

Brené Brown's contribution to traditional success psychology comes from her academic study on topics like courage, vulnerability and shame. Her 2010 TEDx talk "The Power of Vulnerability" brought her work into the mainstream. Her contribution was emotional courage, adding to Dweck's mental flexibility. Her books include "Daring Greatly" (2012) and "The Gifts of Imperfection" (2010).

Some pragmatists of the 2010s felt that self-help books offered meaningless positivity. James Clear, Mark Manson and Ryan Holiday offer different approaches to injecting realism into the personal and professional life, with Holiday dusting off the Ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism for resilience and self-discipline. Simon Sinek's main contribution is his concept of "finding your WHY", teaching self-discovery and in turn encouraging people to lead with purpose. This is self-motivation in a sense, and looping back to Carnegie with his emphasis on making human connections.

There are many others who have contributed to this genre; however, this sample gives an impression of some of the developments in the field.