The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Full Summary and Review by Stephen Covey

This book, as the title says, is about the seven habits of highly effective people. It teaches us how to achieve victory from the private to the public spheres, thereby making a tremendous change in life and career, and attaining both success and happiness. Known as the “Bible” of the American business community and government management department, the book is included in the training course of the Fortune Global 500 corporations, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the ten most influential management books in history.  

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. It’s mainly about how to become a highly effective person, and attain both success and happiness. Many of us have shared an experience of having so many things to do every day, and feeling that time is not enough. Despite working all day long and feeling exhausted at the end of the day, we can’t seem to get all the work done. However, there are some people around us who barely work overtime, but still do a great job. They can even enjoy some leisure time. Why is that? Are they born with a higher IQ? The truth? This is because some of them have developed good habits of high effectiveness, which leads to a comfortable yet highly effective life. Perhaps you are wondering: what is high effectiveness? High effectiveness refers to the balance between production and production capacity, which is referred as the P/PC balance in this book. P stands for production, and PC stands for production capacity. Have you heard of the fable about the goose and the golden egg? A farmer has a goose that can lay golden eggs, and he soon becomes fabulously rich. However, the greedy farmer becomes unsatisfied with only one golden egg per day, so he kills the goose, hoping to take out all of the golden eggs from it. To his surprise, there are no golden eggs inside the goose. The goose is dead, so there’s no way he can get another golden egg. The farmer has ruined everything for himself. In the above fable, what is produced is the golden eggs, and production capacity, namely, the producing asset or capacity to produce, is the goose that lays golden eggs. If we “focus on golden eggs and neglect the goose,” we will lose both the goose and the eggs. Conversely, if we “only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs,” we can feed neither ourselves nor the goose. Therefore, only when you take good care of the goose can you get golden eggs. And only when you control your desire to ask too much from the goose can you keep it alive. Likewise, only when you strike a balance between work performance and well-being, can you attain real effectiveness and make greater achievements. This book tells us exactly the specific ways that can help you easily achieve high effectiveness. The author of this book, Stephen Covey, was a world-renowned management guru and a well-respected leadership authority. He has a high and long-standing reputation in leadership theories, family and interpersonal relationships, and personal management. Recognized as “a master of thoughts” of the American academic community, Covey was named “one of the twenty-five most influential people in American history” and “a mentor of human potential” by Time magazine. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, is also known as the “Bible” of the American business community and government management department. It’s ranked as one of the ten most influential management books in history by Forbes. It will teach you seven good habits. These habits will help you become successful and highly effective with little struggles, achieve personal and interpersonal effectiveness, and make a tremendous change in your life and career.