The Magic of an Old Book: Some Profound Insights

Once in a while, when I have exhausted all current reading material, I get to my book cabinet and randomly pick up any old book that I first notice and read a few chapters. It helps me get out of my routine reading and I discover new insights from the same books that I may have read earlier. Always a fun and so very effective.

This week, I pulled out a fantastic book titled “Living The Seven Habits – Stories of Courage and Inspiration” by Stephen Covey. This book is a collection of stories from people who have lived the seven habits and how it helped them in achieving major breakthroughs in their lives. Covey concludes each story with his thoughts – here are some of those concluding remarks that really struck me, for they are simple yet very profound:

“The deepest hunger of the human body is air. The deepest hunger of the human heart is to feel understood, valued and respected. Sincere empathetic listening feeds and satisfies that hunger. Remember that with people, on tough issues, fast is slow and slow is fast”.

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to SERVE” – Quote by Albert Schweitzer

The word “respect” comes from the Latin root specto, which means to see another. The more we are self-absorbed, the less we see others as precious individuals with many layers of individuality, and with many facets to each layer. When we get out of ourselves, and truly listen to the another, a marvelous journey of discovery begins.

The fundamentals of each of the above quotes are nothing but fundamentals of being more human – fundamentals of servant leadership

Have a great start into the week!

Also read: Leadership Thoughts from Peter Drucker – ideas on leadership from 1992 classic from Peter Drucker. This post was shaped from such random reading of an old book.