Stephen R. Covey - The 3rd Alternative. Solving Lifes Most Difficult Problems

Thank you for purchasing this Simon & Schuster eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Free Press.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

PRAISE FOR THE 3rd ALTERNATIVE

You can get Stephen Coveys message in five pagesor less. But I dearly hope you will carefully read and apply every page. Stephen has given us a precious gift, but, like most profound ideas, it is the daily, conscious practice that can or will transform your life.

Tom Peters, author of The Brand You 50
and Re-imagine: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age

In this book, Covey reaches out way beyond his familiar domain, to the universe, and has come up with a social vaccine capable of addressing if not resolving the existential agonies and angst that we all face as individuals, as well as the organizations and societies that we work and live in. In this Olympiad vault, Covey has written his most ambitious and hopeful book, in my own viewa masterpiece to benefit all of us doing our best to live in peace and justice in this messy world.

Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Management,
University of Southern California, and author of the memoir Still Surprised

A most compelling approach for addressing the most challenging issues of the day. It is an inarguable formula for success in the corporate world and beyond.

Douglas R. Conant, retired CEO, Campbell Soup Company,
and New York Times bestselling author

Dr. Covey has done it again. The 3rd Alternative is not only powerful reading, it answers some of lifes most challenging questions. A must-read for all future leaders.

Jon M. Huntsman, Sr.,
executive chairman and founder of Huntsman Corporation

ALSO BY STEPHEN R. COVEY

The 8th Habit
The Leader in Me
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Predictable Results of Unpredictable Times
Great Work, Great Career
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
Living the 7 Habits
The Nature of Leadership
First Things First
Principle-Centered Leadership

ALSO FROM FRANKLINCOVEY CO.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Personal Workbook
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Journal
Life Matters
businessThink
What Matters Most
The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management
The Power Principle
Breakthrough Factor

Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2011 by FranklinCovey Co.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Free Press hardcover edition October 2011

FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event.
For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers
Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com .

Designed by Carla Jayne Jones

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress control no.: 2011033731

ISBN 978-1-4516-2626-1
ISBN 978-1-4516-2628-5 (ebook)

In the case of all things which have several parts, the whole is something beside the parts.

Aristotle

Synergy is the only word in our language that means behavior of whole
systems unpredicted by the separately observed behaviors of any of the
systems separate parts or any subassembly of the systems parts.

Buckminster Fuller

Synergy: a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility
of distinct business participants or elements.

Websters Dictionary

The emergent is unlike its components insofar as these are incommensurable,
and it cannot be reduced to their sum or their difference.

G. H. Lewes

Synergy is when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Fourth-grade student, A. B. Combs Elementary School, Raleigh, North Carolina

To my wife and eternal friend, Sandra
full of life, light, and courageous hope

The 3rd Alternative

L ife is full of problems. Problems that seem impossible to solve. Personal problems. Family problems. Problems at work, in our neighborhoods, and in the world at large.

Perhaps youre in a marriage that started off great, but now you can barely stand each other. You may have estranged relationships with your parents, siblings, or children. It could be that you feel overwhelmed and out of balance at work, always trying to do more with less. Or maybe, like so many others, you are tired of our litigious society, in which people are so quick to sue you dont dare make a move. We worry about crime and its drag on our society. We see politicians going at it and getting nowhere. We watch the news at night and lose hope that the perpetual conflicts between people and nations will ever be resolved.

So we lose hope, give up, or settle for a compromise that doesnt feel so good in the end.

Thats why Ive longed to write this book.

Its about a principle so fundamental that I believe it can transform your life and the whole world. It is the highest and most important insight I have garnered from studying those people who lead truly effective lives.

Basically, its the key to solving lifes most difficult problems.

All people suffer adversities, mostly in silence. Most soldier on bravely in the face of their problems, working and hoping for a better future. For many, terror is just under the surface. Some of these terrors are physical, some psychological, but all are very real.

If you understand and live by the principle in this book, you may not only conquer your problems, but you may go on to build a future for yourself thats better than you ever imagined possible. I did not discover this principleits eternal. But for those who apply it to the challenges they face, its no understatement to say that it may be the greatest discovery of their lives.

My book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People leads up to it. Of all the principles in that book, I called it the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting. In The 7 Habits, I was able to deal with this principle in only a general way; but in this book, I invite you to explore it with me much more broadly and deeply. If you pay the price to truly understand it, youll never think the same way again. Youll find yourself approaching your most difficult challenges in life in an entirely new, exponentially more effective way.