????我第一次遇見史蒂芬?柯維是在2001年，他想見面和我談談他的想法。與他握手的感覺很溫暖，仿佛被一副你已戴得熨帖無比的棒球手套包裹，之后我們長談了兩小時。史蒂芬先提問題，他問了許多問題。這位大師、當代最有影響力的思想家之一坐在那里，而他卻希望向一個比他年輕25歲的人學習。

????會談中，我趁機問了個自己好奇的問題：“你是如何構思出《高效能人士的七個習慣》（The 7 Habits）這本書的？”

????他答道：“不是我想出來的。”

????我問：“那你的意思是？這本書可是你寫的。”

????“沒錯，書是我寫的，但這些規律遠在我寫之前就有人知道，”他繼續說道。“它們更像是自然法則。我所做的工作就是把它們收集起來，總結給讀者看。”

????從那時起，我開始理解為什么這本著作產生了如此巨大的影響力。柯維花了超過30年的時間開展研究、實踐、教學、提煉觀點，最終濃縮成了這本書。他并不想借用這些法則追名逐利，而是希望傳授這些法則，讓它們為人所理解。在他看來，提出“七個習慣”并不是為了自身的成功，而是一項服務他人的行為。

????所以，當咨詢公司FranklinCovey的董事長鮑勃?惠特曼打電話問我能否為《高效能人士的七個習慣》的25周年版本作序時，我首先再次通讀了全書。這本書1989年首次發行后不久，我曾有幸拜讀此書，而如今重溫其中的內容對我而言不啻于一種恩賜。我還想再一次確定：是什么讓它成為了經久不衰的經典？我認為有四個因素造就了本書罕見的高度：

????1、柯維為他統一的概念體系構建了一個“用戶界面”，通過柯維強大的寫作能力，這些概念能夠輕易被讀者理解。

????2、柯維專注于永恒的法則，而不是單純的技巧或轉瞬即逝的潮流。

????3、柯維寫的主要是塑造品格，而不是“贏得成功”——因此能夠讓讀者不僅成為更高效的個體，還能成為更好的領導者。

????4、柯維本身就是一名第五級領導人，謙遜地看待自己的不足，同時決心將自身所學廣泛地傳播。

????史蒂芬?柯維是一個大師級的組織者。我認為，他對個人效能領域的意義類似于圖形用戶界面對個人電腦的意義。在蘋果（Apple）和微軟（Microsoft）之前，幾乎沒有人能在日常生活中使用電腦。那時的電腦沒有易于操作的用戶界面——沒有鼠標、沒有友好的圖標、沒有屏幕上的窗口，更不用說觸摸屏了。但是通過Macintosh和之后的Windows，大多數人們終于可以利用屏幕后面微芯片的力量。與此類似，從本杰明?富蘭克林到彼得?德魯克，個人效能領域積累了數百年來的真知灼見。但它們從未被整合成一個統一的、易于理解的體系。柯維在個人效能領域創造了一個類似Windows的標準操作系統，讓它變得易于使用。事實證明，他是一位非常優秀的作家，善于講短故事、巧妙地利用概念上的文字雙關。我不會忘記第1章中那個地鐵里的男人管不住尖叫的孩子的故事（和它背后的道理），也忘不了燈塔、錯誤的叢林，還有金蛋的類比。他的一些概念上的包裝起到了極好的效果，不僅描述了他的概念，同時還這些概念的應用具有很好的指導作用。“雙贏思維。”“知彼解己。”“以終為始。”“要事第一。”他通過人們的奮斗故事——撫養孩子、建立婚姻、與朋友做生意——來講授習慣、告訴人們如何培養這些習慣，讓這些理念更容易被人理解。

????I first met Stephen Covey in 2001, when he asked for a meeting to talk about ideas. After a warm greeting -- his enveloping handshake feeling like the comfortable leather of a softball glove that you've worn a thousand times -- we settled into a conversation that lasted two hours. Stephen began by asking questions, lots of questions. Here sat a master teacher, one of the most influential thinkers of the day, and he wanted to learn from someone twenty-five years his junior.

????As the conversation opened an opportunity for me to exercise my own curiosity, I began, "How did you come up with the ideas in The 7 Habits?"

????"I didn't," he responded.

????"What do you mean?" I asked. "You wrote the book."

????"Yes, I wrote the book, but the principles were known long before me." He continued, "They are more like natural laws. All I did was put them together, to synthesize them for people."

????That's when I began to understand why this work has had such an impact. Covey had spent more than three decades studying, practicing, teaching, and refining what he ultimately distilled into these pages. He did not seek credit for the principles; he sought to teach the principles, to make them accessible. He saw creating the 7 Habits not primarily as a means to his own success, but as an act of service.

????When Bob Whitman, chief executive of FranklinCovey, called to ask if I would consider writing a foreword for the 25th anniversary edition of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I responded first by rereading the entire book; I'd read it shortly after its initial publication in 1989, and it was a gift to reengage with its message. I also wanted to recalibrate: what makes it an enduring classic? I see four factors that contributed to its rarefied stature:

????1. Covey created a "user interface" organized into a coherent conceptual framework, made highly accessible by Covey's strong writing;

????2. Covey focused on timeless principles, not on mere techniques or momentary fads;

????3. Covey wrote primarily about building character, not about "achieving success" -- and thereby helped people become not just more effective individuals, but better leaders;

????4. Covey himself was a Level 5 teacher, humble about his own shortcomings, yet determined to share widely what he'd learned.

????Stephen Covey was a master synthesizer. I think of what he did for personal effectiveness as analogous to what the graphical user interface did for personal computers. Prior to Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), few people could harness computers to their daily lives; there was no easily accessible user interface -- there were no mouse pointers, friendly icons, or overlapping windows on a screen, let alone a touch screen. But with the Macintosh and then Windows, the mass of people could finally tap the power of the microchip behind the screen. Similarly, there had been hundreds of years of accumulated wisdom about personal effectiveness, from Benjamin Franklin to Peter Drucker, but it was never assembled into one coherent, user-friendly framework. Covey created a standard operating system -- the "Windows" -- for personal effectiveness, and he made it easy to use. He proved to be a very fine writer, a master of short stories and conceptual wordplay. I will never forget the story in Chapter 1 about the man on the subway who could not control his screaming kids (and the point it makes), nor will I ever forget the lighthouse or the wrong jungle or the analogy of the golden eggs. Some of his conceptual wrapping paper worked exceptionally well, being both descriptive of a concept, and at the same time prescriptive in its application. "Win/Win or No Deal." "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood." "Begin with the End in Mind." "Put First Things First." He made the ideas even more accessible by using personal life-struggles and stories -- raising children, building a marriage, dealing with friends -- to teach the habits and build muscle fiber for living them.