This book is widely popular and has spawned an entire industry around it. It is easy to read and offers ideas the reader can implement immediately. However, the information in this book is too much common sense to be really useful. It ranges from "be proactive" to "think win/win" to "seek first to understand". Not necessarily some truly new insight you might be looking for when you first pick up this book.

I do like the emphasis on "habits" as opposed to "procedures", because this teaches the reader that only by habitually implementing these ideas will they become effective. This is a point that's made quickly though (in this case in the title already) which leads to much repetition throughout the book.

Covey also credits his faith as a cornerstone of success and covertly slips it into the information throughout the book. Although this may be a turn on to some, for me it's an instant turn off, as I see dogmatic thinking, which in my opinion is limiting, rather than expanding one's view of the world.