Change from the inside out

Covey looks back over two centuries of writing about success. The older writing stressed the character ethic: integrity, patience, courage and other lasting principles. Recent advice leaned on the personality ethic, quick techniques for image and influence. Covey argues that technique without character eventually fails.

He also stresses paradigms, the mental maps through which we see the world. Real change works from the inside out: change how you see things, and your behaviour and results follow.

The habits move a person from dependence to independence and then to interdependence. The first three bring a private victory of self-mastery, the next three a public victory in working with others, and the seventh renews them all.