[2] After his brief baseball career, Bettger returned to his native Philadelphia, where he started collecting accounts for a furniture store on a bike.

A light went on in his mind when he realized that Franklin's Socratic method of asking "key" questions might work with selling policies.

[citation needed] After succeeding in life insurance sales and becoming Top Salesman for 20 years with Fidelity Mutual, he met Dale Carnegie.

[4] How I Raised Myself... was translated into over a dozen languages, including British English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Bettger also gave a series of lectures to Jaycees organizations and to local chambers of commerce nationwide with Dale Carnegie.

[7] In the Mad Men season 6 episode "A Tale of Two Cities" (2013, S06E10), enthusiastic account man Bob Benson is shown listening to a recording of Bettger's first book and later taking actions that earn him increased responsibilities.