I finally decided to read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I had purchased it some time ago and recently determined that now was the time to read this self-help classic. What a COLOSSAL disappointment! I am amazed that this mediocrity is so popular. I found it to be little more than 1980s managerial balloon juice.
From “paradigm shift,” to “think Win/Win,” to (ugh) “synergy,” there is no empty self-help cliché left unturned. I should have stopped reading the first time I saw the word “synergy.” (I get countless “business proposals” in my email every day and, if I bother to skim any of them at all, I delete them as soon as the word “synergy” makes an appearance.) No word represents the trite emptiness of this book better than “synergy” – except maybe the verb form of the word: “synergize,” or the adjective “synergistic,” or the adverb “synergistically.” But they are all here. (The author also repeatedly refers to “things that are learned” as “learnings.”)
The book doesn’t even try to live up to its title. There is no argument at all to support the idea that these are seven actual habits that real people have used anywhere in the world to achieve real success. In fact, these seven so-called habits appear to be nothing more than seven things that the author thinks are really good ideas, with weird examples of how they helped him deal with his kid being bad at baseball and also helped his kid learn the value of cleaning up the yard. The book’s title doesn’t match the book itself, but then no one would spend their money on a book called, “The Seven Things Some Random Guy Thinks are Really Nifty-Keen.”
Here’s some useful self-help/time management advice for you: do not waste your precious time with this book. There are dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of better self-help books out there. Synergize your win/win paradigm shifts with some of those.
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