Week 7

Well here I am in week 7 of my Business 183 class. I am still very much enjoying my class and enjoying the reading and learning I get to do.  This week we talked about the seven habits from Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.  I would like to focus on one of them, habit 4, think win/win.

Especially in today’s world, we tend to think if someone wins, someone else must lose.  We are taught to think of ourselves, crush the competition, and disregard the other side. Mr. Covey stresses that this doesn’t have to be the case.  In business especially, we need to work on this win/win principle.  He stresses that we must focus on results.  An example of a win/win situation is bringing a product to market.

 In the process we could look for losers if we wanted to.  Maybe we were try to undercut a supplier and squeeze them promising more business later, maybe we make a cheap product and sell it high to hurt the consumer.  Instead, if we think of the win/win situation, we can work with our suppliers so we can get product at a good price and they can have a good and lucrative deal with us.  In turn, we make a good, quality product for our consumer and price it fair where we make a good profit, but we add value to our customers.  I know this is a simplistic view, but it shows how winning on all sides is better for everyone.

On another note, my waking up at 4:30am is still going great.  I’m eating well and able to focus on the things I need to.  I would continue to challenge anyone reading this to try it out.  Until next week.