Rating: 
Summary: What have I learned from this book.
Review: Every time I read this book, I feel that I get lots of ideas and strengths from this book to face lots of challenges in my life. In the book, Steven Covey describes how communication is the foundation of success in family and business.
When we put our pattern to people, we will have problems with communication. For example, parents probably won't listen to children because they feel they are right, all they doing is great to children. It's not respectful to anyone, even though they are young. It's not only happen in parenthood. It could happen anywhere. Later it causes lots of problem because people don't have good communication as foundation. The author shows us where is the problem, and how to solve it. After we know what's wrong and know how to deal it. We can accomplish this skill to each role we play in our life and successfully.
This is a great book showed me how to deal with people and myself. I only need to change my attitude or skills from this book, I'll have see things work out and everyone is happy about the results.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless truths
Review: I finished reading the book about 6 months ago and it is still helping me in my life. It is not a quick fix book, but you can see the changes in your life as you apply the principles taught therein. It really gives some insights on how to focus on what is really important in your life, as well as reduce the chaos and stress in your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Good advice buried in jargon and verbosity-disappointing.
Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was first published in 1990. I first read it around 1991 and recently reread it as part of a series of corporate training sessions I'm currently enrolled in. I had some pretty strong impressions about the book when I first read it and this recent reread gave me the opportunity to refresh my mind as to the books specifics (I remember the main points in general), look at the work with a few years more experience and maturity behind me, thus providing me an opportunity to rethink my impressions and opinions.On the whole, my assessment of the book hasn't changed much. I was disappointed with the book back then and remain so today. This disappointment has little to do with the validity of the premise of the book or the relevance of the "7 Habits" it outlines. Covey has some good points to make and the book has some useful insights into what one could reasonably call a "balanced life". My problem is that all too often-well, really, almost continually-the book imposes major impediments to getting at, fully understanding and implementing its major premises. The problems include (1) unbelievable verbosity (Covey seems to think there's no reason to use one word when 7 will do), (2) linguistic pomposity (purportedly this is a book for "your family and business lives" but I ask you, how often do terms like paradigm, intra-this or intra-that, globally, leveraged, matrix and so on, and on, and on get used in your family?), (3) excessive jargonistic gymnastics (see {2} previously) and (4) the hard sell for Covey Enterprise accouterments (order our "helpful" calendar, notebook, pamphlets, and so on, and so on and so on....). In the end, all of the major points could have been made much more clearly and concisely in half the space with much better overall understanding and usability than is available here. The bottom line is this is a book written to be used as a "warm and fuzzy" business-training tool. There's nothing wrong with that as long as it's aimed at the right audience. Unfortunately this is a book aimed at-and written for-executives and all too often imposed on the rank and file. In the end, I doubt either group ever gets what is should out of the excellent ideas and premises that underline the whole effort. In the final analysis, both ten years ago and just recently, I couldn't help but wonder if the book really was written so much as to help the reader or simply a clever device to enrich the author. I'd like to think it's not the latter-there's too much substance here and, in an obscure way, Covey comes across as a good sort-but the simple fact you think about those sort of things virtually automatically renders the book a failure of a sort, which is as sad as it is unfortunate.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful lesson
Review: The 7 habits of highly effective people book is a very powerful 7 different lessons which are: 1) be proactive, 2) begin with the end in mind, 3) put first thing first, 4) think win/win, 5) seek to understand, then to be understand, 6) synergize, and 7) sharpen the saw. It talks about personal leadership through some principles with the possibility to effect people.
Before starting to read, I thought this book was going to talk about the personality of the effective people. Over time, I felt it is just for business. I wasn't interested about business so I decided to take a business class to get more knowledge. However, it was hard for me because of business words. I couldn't understand many things when I read it the first time. So I had to read it twice and looked for the definition of words. I hated to read it twice. When I saw the book for the first time, I felt it was for success in my life. But even when I finished the book I felt it was still just for business.
On the other hand, I care about the principles for developing your personality. Especially I like his examples. Some of them are very interesting but some of them feel kind of weird because most people don't do it that way, like him. So, the other people couldn't succeed like him. The examples showed how people can succeed when they use his ideas. It made me change my goal.
Rating: 
Summary: New Habits
Review: Before you can adopt these seven habits, you'll need to accomplish what the author calls a 'paradigm shift' - a change in perception of how the world works. This book takes you through the change, which will affect how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking, developing your 'proactive muscles' (acting with initiative rather than reacting), and much more. This isn't a quick-tips-start-tomorrow kind of book. The concepts are sometimes intricate, and you'll want to study this book, not skim it.
Rating:
Summary: It is about business and family
Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about 7 ways to be successful in your business. The book is divided in 7 chapters and in each one the author Steven Covey, describes one way of his seven habits, which are ways to interact and deal with people. So, he emphasizes communication, leadership, feelings, management
and reactions throughout the chapters that make us understand more about them and how they are useful today. In addition, we can see that the most interesting aspect in the book is how the author connects the business world to the examples that he gives us. They usually show us a personal situation that he has lived with his family. In the last chapter, he tells us about a circumstance when he and his wife had different opinions and he had to compromise with her instead of fighting with her. He shows the same attitude for example in habits 1, 4, 5 and 6, when he talks about communication, perception, understanding and dealing with people. Therefore, he combines his family and business because he tries to administer and be successful in both the same way. In my opinion, usually we have different personalities in the different roles in our lives. The way that we talk to and treat our relatives is different from the way that we talk to and treat our boss. However, for Steven Covey, family and business are completely connected and we can see that in the comparisons that he makes in the book. I think it happens because his family is the closest thing that he has and also has the same importance that a negotiation has. He invests in his family and he deals with them how he does in the business world. And, when you pay attention in the details of the examples and think about business, we can establish many comparisons capable to expand our knowledge especially, if we compare them to situations in our own lives. So, in summary all the people who are interested in starting a business or learning about it should read this book because it'll be really helpful.
Rating:
Summary: my bible
Review: Before I read this book, I only knew the title. This book was a bestseller in 1990, in Japan, my home country, so I knew about it before. I hated this kind of book before I read. Because strictly speaking this kind of book was so boring for me and I wasn't interested in it. I thought this book was also "how to" book or manual like so many kind of books had been ever published before. So I wasn't looking forward to reading it in business class. In my class, this book was a textbook, so I was unwillingly reading this book. However, as soon as I read one page, I had a shock as if a big stone had hit me. I was attracted by it. I thought this book was packed full of treasure. It was really sensational and fresh for me. I think Stephen R. Covey is one of the best writers in the entire world. He is great and wonderful. Since I opened the book, I really liked him at the same time I grew to respect him. I love this book. If you want true happiness and success, I recommend you read this book. I promise you are going to change your way of life. You may want to reads over and over until you can understand every detail. The book will appear it completely clear, not clouded like after a sudden hard rain.
Why I love this book is he didn't tell any techniques through the whole book. He consistently told principles, so it wasn't techniques and superficial things. He also taught me paradigm change. Paradigm is the way you think or your point of view or think. We have to change the paradigm. This theory changed so interesting and fascinating things for me. At first, we need to change internal things, and then we need to remove a reactive thing. Finally, we can change "outside-in" to "inside-out". The seven habit's theory is very general. So this is principal. We have to apply to using the seven habits. This is the Key for success. This book will lead you to succeed the life's goal if you read this book. His book will be the bible in my life. This book gave me direction for the way of life.
Rating:
Summary: It's a very useful book.
Review: If you are look for a book that can help you to be a better and productive person you really should consider reading this book. Stephen R. Covey did a wonderful job sharing his knowledge and experience about leadership. The book is easy to understand and very objective. There are clear instructions about how to work with other people, examples that teach how to apply the principles and explications of the habits. Some of the subjects that he teaches in the book are influence, respect, sacrifice and priorities. This book is not specifically only about important habits for leadership in business, but also it is about the leadership principles that can be used in any situation when someone is called to lead. No one becomes a leader for reading a book but Stephen Covey's book is a good place to begin. Be proactive and try to apply those habits in any area of your life and through the results you will understand why this book is known as "The bible of the leaders."
Rating:
Summary: to make me remind my life
Review: Stephen R. Covey tries to tell us about seven habits to be good person and succeed person through "The 7 habits of highly effective people". This book has many good strategies. Here is a summary of them.
*Be proactive.
Human beings like us can decision whatever we want, and we act as our decision. We have to hold ourselves responsible for it. Don't blame it on condition. If something happens because of my behavior, it's a decision's problem, not conditions. *Begin with the end of mind:
When you start something, you have to consider about the end. In other words, if we have something to do, we have to think about how can we successfully finish it. For make something successfully, we have to plan everything from the end first because the beginning's behavior has an effect on the end. *Put first thing first:
We should organize time and make plans effectively. Everything has order. So, if we do something orderly, we can do everything effectively, and we can save our time. *Think win/win:
The win/win person makes some decision for everyone. In other words, as we choose that way, both of us can take benefit. It satisfied both of us. Win/win people don't think like competition. They want to do something cooperate. * Seek first to understand, then to be understood:
Seek first to understand. Don't try to be understood first. It makes effective communication. And we can find solution easily. Don't listen to reply, listen to understand others. *Synergize:
The whole is better than its part. Everything is different. Differences can help people support each other and make something more perfect. * The Sharpening the saw:
If we sawing the tree without sharpening, it might be waste time and power. If we have time to sharpening the saw, it's a good chance to recharge and check my situation. The sharpening saw is same as renewing us. We need to have some time renewing our physical, mentally, socially. As we do that we can do better our next goals and we can enjoy our life.
Theses seven habits contain more than 7 strategies, because we can apply each of habit in our daily life and business. In other words, we can use those strategies in every situation. During reading this book, I can remind myself. Even if those are daily event, if we behave like this book, it would bring me very successful life. When I read every chapter, I can agree and I can feel the same way.
I also have an unsatisfied feeling about this book. I'm an international student. I read this book in Korean and in English. Even if I read this book two times, it is still difficult to understand the author's metaphor. This book has many valuable things. If I could understand more than I got from this book, it could be great. I felt sorry about that.
But still, I recommend this book to others. It would be good chance to remind our life.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent test
Review: This is the first day of the semester and the first class of the day. You enter to the classroom and the teacher passes a test. You think, oh maybe it's just a test asking for personal information. Then, you realize that it is a diagnostic test. You'll think, ok, I know the answers because last semester we learned this. The test is divided in seven sections and you discover that some of them you don't even remember. By the time you are answering the questions you'll find topics that you know you have already learned last semester but you thought that it was easy to remember or not very important so you didn't pay enough attention and now you want to know the answers. Seven Habits is like taking a diagnostic test like this.If you read it, you'll figure out what in life you don't have to take easy or unimportant and how to let it be a habit.
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