I've gone through some 5-star reviews, and I cannot for the life of me fathom why this book is liked by so many people. I honestly think that Covey was so busy conjuring so many anecdotes that he failed to realize that some of them contradict the ideas that he presents. This somewhat ties in with problem number five.ħ. SOME THINGS HE TEACHES ARE COMMON SENSE, making them redundant. All his suggestions are generic, which makes Covey's job, as the author, to recover the significance of these problems and make readers realize the importance of them. NOTHING HE SAYS HASN'T ALREADY BEEN SAID. The billion anecdotes (and their accompanying cartoons) are nothing more than poor attempts at humor and excessive to the point where they take away significance from the message itself.ĥ. THERE ARE TOO MANY ANECDOTES AND THE CARTOONS ARE LAME. Because Covey has had such a gleeful, problem-less life, he looks at these problems with the most irritatingly shallow, optimistic 'it's-all-unicorns-and-rainbows' approach and doesn't realize that the solutions, if any, to most real situations and problems aren't as straight-forward as he thinks.Ĥ. This is the number one issue with this book. Give me someone who's had no real problems but thinks he's eligible to preach about them and I'm going to tell him, 'Go fuck yourself.'Ģ. Give me someone who's endured problems or at least can empathize with them, and you'll immediate earn my respect. Has he had a child abusive life? Has he had verbally and physically abusive parents? Has he attempted suicide? No, no, and no. Covey constantly reminds us of the fantastic life he's had. The 7 Problems of Sean Covey's Highly Ineffective Book:ġ. This book would be terrible regardless of whether I was forced to read it or not. Now, one can definitely argue that these unfortunate circumstances have distorted my viewpoint, but that isn't the case at all. Due to issues that I will not speak of, a probation officer made me read this book (and also made me write an essay on it-you can bet that it was a strongly opinionated essay).

The 7 habits of highly successful teens