The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What Hacker News says

1. rayxi271828Oct 2024
   As a teenager, I was fortunate that my Dad bought me a copy of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.

   Quote: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. Proactive people recognize that they are “response-able.” They don’t blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they can choose their behavior.

   While it may be common sense/doh-so-obvious today, this was such a mind-blowing reframe for the teenage me back then, and it shaped me immeasurably as a person for the better, for the 30+ years that follow.

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2. lolinderOct 2024
   The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

   No other book has made as significant a difference in both my personal and professional life. Concepts like the emotional bank account and seeking first to understand (then to be understood) have been the key things that have helped me find a partner, develop a relationship with her, and develop a great career where I'm given a lot of autonomy and trust to solve problems in my own way.

   I find myself teaching concepts from the book to coworkers while mentoring them through work-related interpersonal problems and without fail they come back ecstatic about what a difference it made in their work relationships.

   I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough.

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3. jasiek-netMay 2024
   Same here - Zero to one - really inspiring book!

   And Lean startup - far too ambitious for me at the moment, but I learned a lot from it.

   4 hour work week - I would say it’s more like a fiction book, but still fun to read.

   7 habits of highly effective people - it’s saved my life in high school, I knew some parts of it by heart.

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4. koonsoloFeb 2024
   For me, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is still the best management book out there for 2 reasons:

   1. It clearly explains the difference between a leader and a manager, and how those are 2 different roles

   2. "Stewardship management" is so powerful that another book has been written about the application of that concept: "Turn the ship around"

   I always evaluate everything about management to the previous 2 concepts.

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5. olegiousAug 2023
   In my mid 20s, I was about $100K in debt, failed in the career that I thought I'd have after undergrad, compounded my problem by running to a grad school program because I thought it would give me a new chance at money post program and make my family proud. In my late 20s I was about $200K in debt, in a bad marriage, still unsure of what I wanted to do in my career. Fast forward to today (early 40s). I make more money than I ever imagined I could, I have a wonderful (2nd) marriage, I'm out of debt, life is good.

   Learnings that led me here (in no particular order):

   * don't think about what others think of you, think about what you want and what makes you happy. i know that I can't force myself to work hard on something i'm not interested in, so this was very important for me to figure out

   * read "7 habits of highly effective people" - there's timeless advice there

   * read "non-violent communication" - changed the way that i communicate and made my second marriage much healthier than the first, learning how to communicate in different contexts will help in your career as well

   * learn to forgive, especially yourself

   * accept responsibility- you're responsible for your life, no one else

   * your 20s are for taking risk and figuring out what you're interested in, don't be afraid of risk, learning how to take risks and becoming comfortable with risk will help you in the long run

   * luck is certainly a big factor for success, but you can set yourself up to create luck or take advantage of luck by cultivating your network, reducing debt, increasing your skills

   * this was advice given to me by someone I respect- "don't chase a network or career, be interesting and add value, the rest will take care of itself." If you're interesting (had interesting experiences, have interesting thoughts and are able to communicate those things) people will be drawn to you, if you add value people will want to work with you and you'll capture some of that value back.

   * Edit, one more: you can train your mind like you train your body. If identify something that's holding you back, you can change. Concrete example- in my 20s I was one of those people at parties that sits in the corner and doesn't talk to anyone because they dont know many people there. I decided that was holding me back, but I couldn't all of a sudden become "social" (just like when you first start training your body, you're not going to squat 200lbs), so I devised little exercises for myself to make me more comfortable talking to people I don't know- complementing people on their shoes while in line at a coffee shop ("those are cool shoes!"). Then when that becomes natural, asking follow up questions- "where did you get them?" and building from there.

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6. ranabuzdarMar 2023
   Here are some of the most popular ones:

   The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Zero to One by Peter Thiel The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Good to Great by Jim Collins The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson These books cover various aspects of entrepreneurship, from idea generation and innovation to leadership and management. Each one offers a unique perspective and valuable insights that can help entrepreneurs navigate the challenges and opportunities of starting and growing a business.

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