Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen Covey's bestseller discusses how to integrate seven basic principles of effective living into your basic character to improve your performance from the inside out. The principles are: Be proactive; begin with the end in Mind; put first things first; think win-win; seek first to understand; synergize; sharpen the saw. Covey uses a computing metaphor to emphasise that "you are the programmer" of your own thoughts. By setting a mission statement, goals and roles for yourself, and seeking greater interdependence, you will, he argues, become a more effective person.

Key Quotations

• Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.
  
• Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
  
• ...you simply can't think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people, efficiency with things.

Stephen R. Covey
Born October 24, 1932 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His latest book is The 8th habit, published in 2004. Covey lives with his wife Sandra, and their family in Provo, Utah, home to Brigham Young University where Dr. Covey taught prior to the publication of his best selling book. He is a father of nine and a grandfather of forty-seven; he received the Fatherhood Award from the National Fatherhood Initiative in 2003.

Links

• StephenCovey.com
  
• Wikipedia
  

David Hurley
100-Word-Book-Reviews.com