Jonar Nader had received demands from the Dale Carnegie estate to pulp his book ‘How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People’. On the Today Show, he explains to Tracy Grimshaw that he will fight. Further below is a transcript of the video. [UPDATE: Click here to watch the interview of when Jonar returned from the USA.]
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Here is the transcript:
Tracy: Well, fledgling author, Jonar Nader, is feeling the heat of international law on his shoulders after upsetting publishing giant Simon & Schuster. His book, How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People has got up the nose of the family of motivational guru, Dale Carnegie, who penned the bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People. Lawyers for the Carnegie stipulate Nader is playing off the title of Carnegie’s book and they want it pulp before it goes on sale in the United States.
Well, Jonar Nader joins us now. Jonar, good morning.
Jonar Nader: Hello, Taylor – Tracy.
Tracy: What’s your book about?
Jonar Nader: It’s about doing what you believe is right, doing what has to be done. It’s about leadership, management, and personal achievement. And so unfortunately, in this day and age, we move too quickly to play games and I say, if you follow your heart, do what you have to do even if you have to lose friends and infuriate people. So actually, the book, it has nothing to do with Carnegie’s book. It’s about the modern world.
Tracy: So, it’s an – it’s an inspirational self-help book then? Is it?
Jonar Nader: It – well, that’s one step of it. The next step is actually, it gives you guidance about how to survive the modern age, the digital age, the network 12 which is a whole new world we need to learn about. It’s about teamwork and all the things that people keep hearing about except it gives you my perspective on it which I believe is totally opposite to what we’ve been taught.
Tracy: Okay. Digital and modern age aside, inspiration self-help book, inspirational self-help book written by Dale Carnegie, very similar sort of concept, aren’t they?
Jonar Nader: Well, there are a million and one books on that kind of subject. I believe mine is different and it’s doing a good job out there.
Tracy: But one’s called How to Win Friends and Influence People and the other is called How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People. You’ve clearly played on Carnegie’s title, haven’t you?
Jonar Nader: Not on purpose. I was actually in a meeting once and someone accused of – he said, ‘Jonar, you don’t know how to win friends and influence people, do you?’ And I exclaimed, ‘No.’ But it shows things like I know how to lose friends and infuriate people and that was the inspiration. It was having to put up with that nonsense in the boardroom and I thought, it’s about time we actually spoke up from this wishy washy nonsense. There’s no time for it.
Tracy: Did you know about the title of Carnegie’s book?
Jonar Nader: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. But what gives them the right to an opposites. You know, if you write a book called How to Lose Weight and I’ll write a book called How to Put on Weight, all of a sudden, doing the opposite of – I’m speaking the opposite. How can they stop me? On the other hand though, they have money and they’re trying but I’m fighting it.
Tracy: Did you not expect them to bite you?
Jonar Nader: No, because I know that the book has absolutely nothing to do with it. It doesn’t mention it at all. It has no similarity in structure nor content. It is a modern book for the modern age. It has a good clever title because the title actually reflects the book itself. The book is about losing friends and infuriating people if that’s what you have to do.
Tracy: You self-published, have you got the money to fight a big publisher in the United States?
Jonar Nader: No, no, I don’t but I’ve got the energy and I’ve got the motivation and I will do everything I can until my last cents. Of course, sometimes law is about money and not about justice but I’ll give it my best shot.
Tracy: Alright. We’ll wait and see how it turns out.
Jonar Nader: Yes.
Tracy: Thanks for your time.
Jonar Nader: Thank you.
Male: Jonar Nader and news weather is next here on the Today program.
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