Covey may be Dale Carnegie's heir in many ways, but his classic is more systematic, comprehensive and life-expanding than any of the modern self-help titles which came before it. But that should be a small price to pay for what is a brilliant life re-engineering guide, enlivened by Covey's personal and family experiences. For a book that is so much about changing paradigms, it is remarkably representative of the paradigm of business thinking. It also means that the reader interested only in personal development may not like the management terms, diagrams and business anecdotes that fill it. This crossover status effectively doubled its market. The second, more practical reason for the book's success is that it is a compelling read both as a self-help book and a leadership/management manual. Covey believed that outward success was not success at all if it was not the manifestation of inner mastery in his terminology, 'private victory' must precede 'public victory'.
Having previously studied the success literature of the last 200 years for a doctoral dissertation, Covey was able to draw a distinction between what he termed the 'personality ethic' - the quick-fix solutions and human relations techniques which had pervaded much of the writing this century - and the character ethic, which revolved around unchanging personal principles. Covey's message of 'restoring the character ethic' was so old-fashioned it seemed revolutionary.
Suddenly, aspiring to be a 'Master of the Universe' in a shoulder-padded world did not seem to satisfy, and people were ready for a different prescription for getting what they really wanted out of life. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People came out just as we entered the 1990s. What lifted it above the mass of books that claim the secret to a better existence?įirstly, it was timing. Stephen Covey's book is one of the phenomena of modern personal development writing. With reputed sales of over 15 million copies and translations into 32 languages, it also forms the intellectual basis of a large company, Franklin Covey.
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