For some time I debated with myself whether to post a review of this book. I wanted to be known as a purposeful blogger featuring reviews of books on economics, finance, technology, history and wondered how a self-help book would fit in. But then I thought: isn't it good to open the windows and smell the flowers in the garden for a change and share with friends and colleagues?
Stephen R Covey's Everyday Greatness: Inspiration for a Meaningful Life (2006) is a book that helps you smell the roses. It is a compilation of articles and quotes from several Reader's Digest issues over the decades with Introduction and Commentary by Covey (By the way, I completely loved Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, perhaps the first self-help book I was impressed with).
The articles are arranged under several headings featuring virtues such as charity, responsibility, courage, discipline, integrity, humility, gratitude, respect, empathy, magnanimity, perseverance, simplicity and, finally, renewal.
The articles have been carefully and thoughtfully chosen by David K Hatch and are worth reading again and again. Many of the stories are heartwarming such as those of Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Walt Disney, Cesar Ritz and George Handel.
To give a flavor of the book I will quote a short passage highlighting magnanimity:
Booker T Washington struggled against deep-seated white prejudice to establish his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. One day, as he passed the mansion of a wealthy woman to whom he was just another black, he heard her call out, "Come here, boy, I need some wood chopped."
Without a word, Washington peeled off his jacket, picked up the ax and went to work, not only cutting a pile of wood but carrying it into the house.
He had scarcely left when a servant said, "That was Professor Washington, Ma'am." Abashed, the woman went to the Institute to apologize. Replied the educator: "There's no need for apology, madam. I'm delighted to do favors for my friends." The woman became one of Tuskegee's warmest and most generous supporters. Washington refused to be disturbed by insult or persecution.
It is often that a simple life, lived on the level, gives the most contentment a man can ask for. As the person who played Jeeves on television, Stephen Fry, once said: "It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind."
Stephen R Covey's Everyday Greatness: Inspiration for a Meaningful Life (2006) is a book that helps you smell the roses. It is a compilation of articles and quotes from several Reader's Digest issues over the decades with Introduction and Commentary by Covey (By the way, I completely loved Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, perhaps the first self-help book I was impressed with).
The articles are arranged under several headings featuring virtues such as charity, responsibility, courage, discipline, integrity, humility, gratitude, respect, empathy, magnanimity, perseverance, simplicity and, finally, renewal.
The articles have been carefully and thoughtfully chosen by David K Hatch and are worth reading again and again. Many of the stories are heartwarming such as those of Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Walt Disney, Cesar Ritz and George Handel.
To give a flavor of the book I will quote a short passage highlighting magnanimity:
Booker T Washington struggled against deep-seated white prejudice to establish his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. One day, as he passed the mansion of a wealthy woman to whom he was just another black, he heard her call out, "Come here, boy, I need some wood chopped."
Without a word, Washington peeled off his jacket, picked up the ax and went to work, not only cutting a pile of wood but carrying it into the house.
He had scarcely left when a servant said, "That was Professor Washington, Ma'am." Abashed, the woman went to the Institute to apologize. Replied the educator: "There's no need for apology, madam. I'm delighted to do favors for my friends." The woman became one of Tuskegee's warmest and most generous supporters. Washington refused to be disturbed by insult or persecution.
It is often that a simple life, lived on the level, gives the most contentment a man can ask for. As the person who played Jeeves on television, Stephen Fry, once said: "It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind."
No comments:
Post a Comment