Anyone who thinks the audiocassette adaptation of Stephen Covey's bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a shortcut to reading the book has another thing coming. As a preview, the cassette is worth every one of its 90 minutes; as a substitute for the original, it will only leave you wishing for the rest. There's a reason 7 Habits has sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into 32 languages. Serious work has obviously gone into it, and serious change can likely come out of it--but only with constant discipline and steadfast commitment. As the densely packed tape makes immediately clear, this is no quick fix for what's ailing us in our personal and professional lives.

The tape opens to the silky-smooth, overtrained voice of the female narrator, who's responsible for tying together audio clips from actual Covey seminars. Leaving aside the occasional attempts at promoting Covey and his institute, her script does a first-rate job of making sense of Covey's own intense, analogy-rich style of explaining his habits. There's nothing simple about his approach to becoming an effective person. The first three habits alone--which have to do with personal responsibility, leadership, and self-management--could take years to master. Yet the last four are unattainable, the narrator insists, if you can't acquire the personal security--the "inner core," says Covey--that presumably comes from a mastery of the foundation.

Throughout our lessons, Covey's presence is both learned and thoroughly appealing. He drops references to the likes of Socrates, T.S. Eliot, and Robert Frost with the aplomb of an English professor. And his knack for mixing everyday stories with abstract concepts manages to clarify difficult issues while respecting our intelligence. You could argue that the cassette is nothing more than a clever marketing tool for selling another few million copies of the book. But, even at that, it's worth the investment in time and concentration: in the end, we're moved to learn more about integrating all seven habits in our struggle to become better and, yes, more effective people. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) --Ann Senechal

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

I got this book as a gift from my friend who knew i was into self help books.I was told that i may find what i read in this book in other books but not the other way...In fact this is the best Self help book i ever read. Its not a book ,u read and forget ,its something you read often and try to implement in your daily life to be successful.

This is a must have book for anyone that likes self-help or business books. I read it several years ago and felt it was the like the Bible of all self-help books. I lost my copy so I bought it again and enjoyed it just as much. It has a lot of practical advice for anyone willing to listen to make their life more enjoyable and less stressful. I highly recomend 7 Habits for anyone, even if you generally don't read this type of book. Give it a try!

The lessons in this book are indeed powerful and effective, as the title and subtitle of the book suggests. Its no wonder this author sells in such high volumes. A must need book for anyone who wants to change their lives.

This is a book you will want to read all the way through and then go back and work on each of the 7 habits individually. Dr. Covey is able to share the information in a practical way that can be applied to our personal life as well as family, business or any other relationships. The first 3 habits are personal and are part of the private victory, the next 3 habits deal with relationships and are part of the public victory. The last habit is self-renewal, the sharpening of the saw. There are so many nuggets of information in this book that you will find useful in your life. The concept of P/PC productivity, interdependency, emotional bank accounts, effective delegation and time management among others are covered in detail here. All the concepts and ideas presented in the book are based on sound principles and you will find that many of them find precedence in wisdom from the Bible. This book is a must-read in personal development and is one of my favorite books.

Excellent book - would love to work for a company where the employees and the senior management team still believe in these basic principles. If you work for such a company and can use someone with 17 years of expertise as a Federal Agent with 5 of the most recent years in management, please send me an e-mail: smallwoodgirls@yahoo.com