The scope of the book demonstrates the difficulty Brian faced in trying to condense everything into highlights. This is a book that demands studying in its entirety.

When I first read the book and then listened to an abridged version on audio cassette I first learned about paradigms. All of the seven habits (and dare I venture at this stage to guess that all of the points which will be discussed in the 100 books) require paradigm shifts in the way you see yourself and in the way you view the world. In the book Covey gives an
example of a paradigm shift.

Covey was traveling in a subway one quiet Sunday morning when a man got in with his two sons. The boyss were running around annoying the other passengers. This continued for a while and finally Covey, now a bit irate, asked the father why he couldn't do something to control his sons. The father replied that they had just got back from the hospital where their mother had died. He didn't know how to handle it and guessed that his sons didn't either.

Like the Four Agreements, adopting the habits allows them to work synegistically magnifying the impact of the others. In some respectss it is similar to when you take nutritional supplements, taking one nutrient/herb/vitamin will often increase the effect and effectiveness of another taken at the same time.