Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled by the cheesy title!
Review: Are you thinking like I was thinking before buying this book? Are you somewhat repelled by the cheesy title as I was? Are you not willing to waste your time reading a book that only rephrases the same material inspirational books have been repeating for ages now? Because I was before I bought to this book, and even after purchasing it. However, once I started it I realized how mistaken I was!The first problem I had with the title was the mentioning of habits! I assumed that the author would be talking about habits you read in books written by Carnegie or whoever such as reviewing your behavior every week, thinking twice before talking, and other similar habits. And only after hearing so much about the book and how it greatly affected the lives of many that I decided to buy it. But I was still worried that it will only offer psychological quick fixes. However upon starting the book I realized how wrong I was. The author begins by redefining the word "Habit" as he sees it. He explains that a habit is not a mechanism of behavior, but instead a paradigm to live by and apply on all your life's situations. Then Mr. Covey explains that to learn or acquire a habit the person must possess three qualities in relation to that habit. The person must possess the will, the ability, and the know-how. After that the author introduces the notion of the emotional bank account. He explains that every human has an emotional bank account with every other human. And one can not withdraw from that account if the person did not deposit in it in the first place. Deposits can be in the forms of polite gestures and kind comments up to special favors and personal support. Then he starts talking about the 7 habits he's about to introduce and how to learn them to get the most out of them. He suggests a method, which I found to be very effective, that requires you to commit yourself to teaching whatever you learn to a friend or a relative. Knowing that you're going to pass this information to another person and most probably will have to answer questions and inquiries will entice you to learn harder and avoid skipping any issues. He also explains that the habits must be learned and implemented in sequence, and that it won't be as effective if you start with the second or third habit if you haven't practiced the first habit. By the time I finished this long introduction I realized that I'm reading a very interesting book, and that Mr. Covey must have points of great value to teach. And I was right. I won't list the 7 habits here as a previous reviewer did because I believe that most of these habits are already known to us at some level. Mentioning them here in short will not add anything and will not help you understand how related and interdependent they are to each other. Mr. Covey did that job amazingly! This is the conclusion I came out with after finishing this book! The book truly helped me improve my performance over the matter of 2 weeks! My performance at work was deteriorating and I was on the verge of breaking up with my girlfriend whom I've been with for more than 2 years. Yet after reading this book I began excelling again at work and my relationship have never been better! Of course, this book will provide you no magical solutions! But it will sure teach you how to construct your own magical wand! I wholeheartedly recommend reading this book!
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Summary: Read 7 habits to change your life
Review: During a business trip in US in 1990, before Amazon.com was existing, I was spending, as usual, half a day in a bookstore to discover novelties in US management. I bought immediately 7 habits and read it straight through. It really changed my life by becoming my lighthouse as Stephen R. Covey is saying. Since that date I offered it many time to my co-workers and I have always been rewarded by a better effectiveness from them. The lighthouse can be seen by all the boats sailing on the inefficiency ocean. But my last pleasure was when I offered 7 habits to my 22 years old son for Christmas 2000, not knowing what would be his response to this American culture of success. Last Christmas 2001 I got the answer, when he offered 7 habits to his cousin. Thanks to Stephen R. Covey the effectiveness chain is expanding all over the world. If you want to be part of this chain read this book and your life will be changing.
Rating:
Summary: Read It!
Review: If you can only read three books for the rest of your life...these are the three I recommend: 1.) Breaking the Pattern
2.) How to Win Friend and Influence People
3.) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People If you read all three of these books, you'll be set for life! "Breaking the Pattern" shows you how to reach all the goals you've ever wanted to. "How to Win Friends" makes sure that you wont be alone when you do reach those goals, and Stephen Covey teaches you how to do both most effectively! With these three books, you can't lose! You won't lose! I've been recommending them to all my dearest friends!
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Summary: Covey Got My Attention From The Get-Go
Review: I received this book when a company for which I worked hired the Covey team to teach the three-day Seven Habits seminar as a component of employee professional development -- and I have returned to the book several times since that class, to keep the experience fresh. Portions of the class consisted of Stephen Covey videotape lectures. The very first one told me this guy meant business, and that he and I had similar views of the world. Covey said something to the effect of the following: Be proactive, take charge of your own life. What about a guy who tells you, "I can't make any decisions this month. I'm an Aquarious, and my horoscope says I'm not supposed to make any decisions this month." Are you going to extend any credibility to a FLAKE like that?! Stephen Covey properly calls a flake a flake. He definitely has his head on correctly.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone Must Read This Book
Review: Buy it, read it, give copies to your children, your employees, your boss and anyone else you care about.
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Summary: Strategies for Effectiveness
Review: Knowledge is the quickest and safest path to success in any area of life. Stephen Covey has encapsulated the strategies used by all those who are highly effective. Success can be learned and this book is an excellent way to learn how to do that.I also highly recommend Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing to learn strategies from another highly spirited man who has learned how to achieve maximum effectiveness and keep balance in all aspects of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Weakness of the 7 habits
Review: Mr Covey has inarguably displayed excellent skills of expression as a motivational writer. However, he could have enhanced and scoped his work by extending and linking his concepts with other detailed effects of social, economic and environmental factors which are obviously external to the Seven Habits and also most likely to affect the "paradigm shifting" experiences of the individuals negatively or positively depending on the prevailing scenarios. On the issue of acting and behaving proactively, Mr Covey argues that you have to influence your external circle and not the other way round. However, the writer does not acknowledge the existence of institutional frameworks within which we function, operate and relate to others and these systems may not be flexible enough to allow personal initiative and/or creativity. For example long-term government policies in a dictatoship. In addition, proactive thinking is virtually driven by positive/optimistic traits of an individual and these are themselves dependent on factors external to the individual. The success to acknowledge the paradigm shifts in our lives is itself contingent on other people's traits, attitudes and their goals and visions. So that proactivity should be viewed as a dependent variant of the entire paradigm model. "Seek first to understand and then to be undetstood"; In this habit, Mr Covey contends that we hardly ever listen emphathically, but are eager to offer solutions to other people based on our own autobiographies. As a result we "suffer the consequences". On this issue Mr. Covey seems to divorce emphathic listening of an individual from their ability to provide a solution based on thier experiences. In other words a choice to apply a particular solution whether based of acquired knowledge or personal experience would depend on the level of "emphathic" listening. But then, this does not guarantee accurate resolution. My view is that whether we listen with empathy or not, the solution we recommend will always reflect ourselves one way or the other. The paradigm of SYNERGY argues that you can produce huge amounts of results by working as a team. But Mr. Covey did not sufficiently reveal a clear set of inevitable assumptions and conditions under which this concept can apply. He instead, charts a diagram of Level of cooperation and trust as determining the strength of this synergy. However, his measurements of cooprration and trust are not practical and consistent with science.
Rating: 
Summary: If it don't hurt, it ain't workin'
Review: It has puzzled me for some time why people could possibly regard this book, as banal and unimaginative as it is, could achieve best-seller status. But then, I wondered the same thing about some other books - like Johnson and Blanchard's "Who moved my cheese" and McGraw's "Life Strategies". And then it clicked - some people LIKE to beat up on themselves. Somewhere along the line (from a certain kind of parent, perhaps, or a certain kind of teacher?) they learned that IIDHIAW - "If it don't hurt, it ain't working". Or as Jane Fonda put it: "No pain, no gain".
And some people have captured that message and turned it into a book. Well, this is one of those IIDHIAW books. And readers who believe that pain is the only effective teacher will love every morsal of this trite nonsense. Readers who enjoy average to high self esteem, on the other hand, will most likely hate it!
Rating:
Summary: Critics Are Clueless.
Review: This book is a very good, very SOLID foundation for people who feel like they're lacking direction or motivation in their life. Plain and simple. It can help you try to prioritize things, and become an easier person to get along with, find a sense of accomplishment, etc. --IF you're willing to admit that you're human, and you have flaws that you need to work on....that is. Almost ALL the critical reviews on this site are done by people who are obviously painfully negative people. If you don't like a book...hey, that's one thing. To pretend like you're an all knowing intellect who thinks they know what's good for everyone is a totally different ballgame....and ironically, a ballgame that makes you the kind of individual that Mr. Covey is describing...but that's just my opinion. A very good book......'nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute classic
Review: Stephen Covey today counts as one of the absolute top-management gurus. If you read this book, you'll understand why. The book is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the fundamentals that everything else builds upon: paradigms and principles. An important theme running through all of Covey's work is that of ethical behaviour and delivering one's contribution to society as a necessary ingredient of succesful living. In part two the author shows you a number of principles that help you to deal with yourself, such as taking responsibility for your own actions and prioritizing your goals. Part three talks about working with other people, addressing such issues as win/win thinking and active listening. The fourth and last part talks about sustaining the things that you have learned and continuing to grow. This book is not a push-over. It has a high level of abstraction. Also, part of this book sounds more like philosophy or even religion, which will not sit well with everyone. However, the author is perfectly correct in first discussing basic values and priorities ("doing the right things") before discussing techniques for raising efficiency ("doing things right"). Also, it is important that you realise that this is not a self-help book for people who have real specific issues on their hands (self-discipline, traumas, lacking social skill etc.) They will probably need to deal with those specific issues first, before they will be able to take the maximum out of this book. For those who feel that their life is reasonably sorted out, but would like to go (much) further, this is a must-read book. Highly recommended.
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