This is a collection of stories about everyday
greatness;
stories that have already been told but retold inside a different
setting. This
time they are being told in a way as if a thread is going through all these
stories weaving a nice and strong piece of ‘fabric’; not something you can make
cloths of but ‘lives of
greatness’.Stephen R Covey brings us the stories arranged like beads in
a necklace; but each one with a specific perspective adding a unique beauty to
the whole necklace. They are stories of lives lived to the fullest, often
through adversity and challenge. They are woven in to a design that taken as a
whole gives a strong message about how to create everyday greatness. The titles
of the chapter will give an idea about the design. It is more like a road map.
Searching for meaning; Take Charge; Starting within; Creating the dream;
Teaming with others; Overcoming adversity; Blending the pieces. Each chapter is
subdivided exactly in to three and each sub chapter comes with one or more
stories to illustrate the theme; all taken from the Digest.
His whole design rests in three pillars, which he calls as
everyday choices; the choice to act (
representing the energy we bring to life),
choice of purpose (representing our destination) and choice for principles
(representing how we will reach that destination). He points out that the main
characters of the stories included, have all these great attributes and have
attain greatness as a result.
In Covey’s dream about the book, he visualizes “parents and
teachers gleaming from it thoughts or stories to inspire youth, professional
speakers and business leaders using it as a content resource, work team
discussing and applying principles to various work efforts. But most of all,
the individuals using it to discover inspiring, mind expanding insights and
solutions to specific personal challengers.” I do hope that his dream will come
true.