Pardon me if I doubt that Carnegie said that research has proven etc. In fact I doubt that research has proven that (etc): ISTM that using specific figures like 85% and 15% pretends to a level of precision and knowledge far above the real level of knowledge on the subject. Possibly far above the amount of real meaning in the assertion.As Dale Carnegie say's, research has proven that any job is really 85% people skills and 15% technical knowledge.
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The phrase "people skills" in particular is a modern invention, and a retrospective one, by which I mean that you wouldn't recognise and measure "people skills" in someone, rather you'd see that they had succeeded so you'd say that they must have people skills.
So yeah sure, you will be able to do most jobs better if you put some effort into relationships with people you deal with. Failing that, you can always succeed financially while trashing the actual job, by showing the right "people skills" towards the people who can make that happen.
Many of us (myself included) would like to think that earnings are some useful sort of measurement of success, but actually earnings are only a measure of how much someone is prepared to pay you. If that's all one means by success, there's not much meaning to it. Doing a good job, and getting well paid, are not closely correlated. Not at all.
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