I am often suspicious of reviews, now that I know at least one person who does it for a living, so I am going to assure you that no one paid me squat for writing this. A professor recommended this book to me years ago, when I was in college, but I blew it off--I wish I had not. While no one book is sufficient to ready someone for a career (ANY career,) this book is seminal, and everyone ought to read it. Each person will gain from it, but in his/her own way. I read only non-fiction, and I read CONSTANTLY, so I hardly ever give a book a 5 star review. In fact, I will go one further, and put this book along side of two other seminal works, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and "Think and Grow Rich." I rated both of these books 5 stars. Are they dated? Absolutely! Nevertheless, great literature, and these books are literature, is timeless because the message is a universal truth. So far, that is just 3 books with 5 star ratings from me, the queen of non-fiction reading, who is also a master's candidate, a cynic, and very uppity concerning literature. FYI-there are two other books in the running for my 5 star review, but I have to read them again, and typically wait a year to do so, because so often, how one feels about a book has to do with where that person "is" in life. The two books are, and this is a HUGE MAYBE..."The Gifts of Imperfection" and "The E-Myth Revisited."

Stephen had a tremendous impact not only on my life, but through me, on the lives of those I had the privilege to lead. It started indirectly, when, after a period of reflection and tough going I discovered the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The overall approach of private victory then public victory, describing our growth as proceeding from dependence through independence to interdependence struck me as incredibly simple yet powerful. I applied what I learned to my life immediately. Later, when assigned to command the USS Santa Fe, I applied his 7 Habits approach at the organizational level. I gave every officer and chief who reported a copy of his book. We would have seminars discussing the various habits and the application of those habits made Santa Fe a more effective submarine. It turned out that Stephen was doing some work for the navy and learned about what we were doing on Santa Fe. He expressed an interest in riding the ship and the navy set it up. We were scheduled to conduct a one-day transit from the port of Lahaina on the neighboring island of Maui back to Pearl Harbor. This would be a perfect time for him to ride. It was also when we had set up a family member cruise and were expecting about 80 family members to ride as well. I was apprehensive about having both events at the same time. I thought the presence of the family members would present a distorted picture of how Santa Fe operated. Further, I wasn't sure how I'd appropriately apportion my time between running Santa Fe, Stephen, and the family members. It worked out perfectly! Stephen was working on a book for families and held a special talk just for the family members. His message was that they played a critically important role in the success of the ship and placed high value on family. It was a win-win. Stephen spent the entire day onboard, talking with crew members, looking through the periscope and driving the ship. He was tremendously interested in the people, and how they worked together. Everyone he talked to felt better about themselves afterward, especially me. He remained interested in how Santa Fe did and was happy to hear of the subsequent successes the ship had, including the selection of 9 of the officers for submarine command. I was honored that he included USS Santa Fe in his book, The Eight Habit, and agreed to write the foreword to Turn the Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level

I would not usually read a book like this, but this was recently recommended to me. I was a little skeptical at first, but as I read more and more of this book, I started to learn some interesting new insights on self-improvement. At its core, author Stephen Covey seeks to promote the idea of the "character ethic." He criticizes the other idea of management and effectiveness called the "personality ethic." While the personality ethic focuses on techniques and appearances, the character ethic focuses on core principles such as integrity, courage, and compassion. While the personality ethic means appearing to be someone, the character ethic means to actually live that. This is where the seven habits come in. The first three habits focus on private victories. The ideas of proactivity, planning, and management are described in these three habits among other concepts. The next three habits focus on public victories, using the principles of the first three to become more effective with other people. These are concepts such as synergy, understanding, and the win/win strategy. The seventh and final habit is called "sharpen the saw" which is renewal and learning and encompasses improvement of self with the first six habits. The book is interesting for the variety of situations people and organizations might face in which the ideas and principles can be applied. From a better marriage and relationship with a spouse to more effective management in a business and among co-workers. It seems there are few times, outside of emergency situations, in which these seven habits cannot be applied. I found this to be an interesting and thought provoking book. I would recommend it to those who need or want to be more effective with other people and to pursue better relationships or to those just looking for some fascinating insights in the area.