I always wondered about that book, Win Friends and Influence People. Also, my employer used to bring in a motivational speaker once a year. I will admit these people were good speakers. It's kind a requirement for their job, and I admit I felt a twinge of inspiration. I used to like watching other people and talk to them after the presentations. There were always a few who had that, "God, that was inspiring," reaction, and I believed they were, but come Monday, nothing much would change. The same frustrations and problems existed and peoples reactions to those frustrations seemed to be about the same as always. I think the biggest benefit is to the speaker. He's the one who at least took the money home. The rest of us functioned mostly as the environment the speaker required for his performance.