Stephen R. Covey, '7 Habits' Author, Dies At 79

A bright light has gone out today.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey passed away at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center at 2:15 a.m. after suffering residual effects from a bicycling accident on the steep foothill roads of Provo, Utah in April. He has 9 children and 52 grandchildren and passed away surrounded by his wife, Sandra, and each of his children.
He was the author of the wildly popular “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” that was published in 1989 and has sold more than 25 million copies in 38 languages. He was included among Time magazine’s 25 Most Influential Americans in 1996. I feel comfortable abbreviating the full book name to ’7 Habits’ in the title because everybody and their dog has now written a book playing off of Dr. Covey’s original book.
Yes, he was the first, and he was original.
“We extend our heartfelt gratitude for all of the love and prayers that have been showered upon Stephen and our family from all around the globe over the past several months,” the family wrote.
Covey  was the founder of the Covey Leadership Center, which merged with Franklin Quest in 1997 to form FranklinCovey Co., a company focused on leadership, strategy and individual effectiveness.
Covey received a doctorate from Brigham Young University, an MBA from Harvard, after graduating from the University of Utah.
In 2010, Covey joined the Utah State University Huntsman School of Business as a professor and was named the first incumbent of the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership.
I founded the original Inside Sales Department at Franklin Quest in 1993 through 1997 and I worked just down the hall from Dr. Covey prior to that in the River Bottoms of Provo, Utah. When he was inducted into the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum Hall of Fame on November 14, 2009, they filmed me and many others including his son Stephen M. R. Covey as we payed tribute to Dr. Covey. I claim him as a shadow-mentor, meaning, he barely knew me, but he influenced me greatly. He influenced several generations. He shaped and formed many of the universal principles of ethics, morals, and truths into language and practices people live and do business by all over the world.
Dr. Covey and his famous book brought a new language to business:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive

• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

• Habit 3: Put First Things First

• Habit 4: Think Win-Win

• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

• Habit 6: Synergize

• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Many of his principles have become cliche, but even though they are commonly used in language, they still aren’t commonly used in practice.