You Can’t Feed Fish Strawberries and Cream (Truby Tip about the Platinum Rule in Action)

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Last Updated on March 3, 2025 by Bill Truby

Dale Carnegie once shared his secret to successful fishing: using crickets or worms, not strawberries and whipped cream. Discover the hidden wisdom of the platinum rule in relationships and leadership.

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Direct Video Transcript:

Dale Carnegie once spoke about going fishing. He said, “I like strawberries and whipped cream, but when I go fishing, I use crickets or worms to catch the fish.” He was talking about the platinum rule.

Now I’m sure you’ve heard of the golden rule, which is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and that’s nice to a point. It says, in essence, if you want to be treated with kindness and courtesy, you treat other people with kindness and courtesy, and that’s good. But there’s a deeper truth in the platinum rule.

The platinum rule says do unto others as they would have you do unto them, which means you serve up crickets or worms to the fish ’cause that’s what they like. You don’t serve up strawberries and whipped cream. It doesn’t work like that.

What that means in life is that you want to be other-centered, which is a theme of all of my teachings and all of my training, is to always consider the other person’s perspective. Where are they coming from?

For example, think about language. When you’re in France, you speak French. That’s the best language to speak because that’s what they speak. It’s other-centered. You don’t step off the plane and go, yeah, I’m here. Let’s all speak English. It’s the same with the five love languages.

We all have one that we appreciate, that we use, that we want more than others. The five are quality, time, touch, gifts, acts of service, and affirmation. Now, if you are a person that feels love when you are given gifts and someone else is giving touch as their act of love, they can touch you all day and you won’t feel loved, or you can go broke giving them gifts, and it will not suffice for the love that they want and need in the language that need it.

So it’s important in life to be others centered, to use the platinum rule to do unto others as they would have you do unto them. And I promise you, if you think like this, your relationships, your leadership, and your interactions will be much more fulfilling.

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