Today we celebrate the Birthday of one the masters of personal development. Stephen R. Covey.  Covey authored several great books but none of them came close to the life changing book: “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. Many people have “rock bottom” experiences.  I was in that position once.  I was thrown from a “cushy” 6 figure income into having my own business and having to work at something I wasn’t really trained well to do.  The cushy job was “marketing” surgical cameras.  The hard job was selling them for a profit.

One day in “Office Depot” I was picking up a ream of paper for my printer. I had just suffered a bad month.  So I browsed through the book/audio book row.  I was looking for some business books or tapes, (preferably tapes so I could learn while I drove) and I left with the Simon & Shuster tape “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  When I was in Marketing, the Salesmen were averaging $250,000.00 a year.  I think I qualified for welfare.  As was the case when I tried to satisfy my ex-wife and ventured into Sales (with the use of my degree in business administration) I always got in at the end of the curve. I must mention that I majored in business because a Music degree was useless and I figured having a business background would help me once I made it in music.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people is a common sense way of saying: “There are no shortcuts in life”. Or better yet: “Short cuts never work in the long run”.  It was a game changer for me.  I listened to the tape constantly.

I met Dr. Covey once. It went like this. I was standing in a long line.  I finally got to the front and said: “Thank you for changing my life” after we finished shaking hands.  Dr. Covey stood up and grabbed my hand again before I could leave and said: “No. Thank you son”.  It’s a memory I’ll take to the grave.

If you don’t have it. Buy the book and read every page.  Better yet; buy the CD and listen to it as many times as you can.

Happy Birthday Stephen.