Author, motivational speaker and influential person Stephen R. Covey, who penned the well-known “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” died Monday at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Covey was 80, while the Washington Post reported his age as 79. The Desert News reported that Covey died at 2:15 a.m. due to “residual effect” of a biking accident in April.

The Tribune report adds that Covey was a Salt Lake City, Utah native. He was raised on an egg farm and attended the University of Utah before getting post graduate degrees from Harvard and Brigham Young University. He went on to work as a business management professor at BYU, and there he found the material for his best known work.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was first published in 1989. The seven habits, designed to help shift a reader to a positive perspective are “Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, Synergize and Sharpen the Saw.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey has sold more than 20 million copies and has been translated into more than 30 languages. He also formed the Covey Leadership Center, which merged with Franklin Quest in 1997 to form FranklinCovey Co. In  2011, Time magazine listed the book as one of “The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books.”

The Desert News reported that Stephen Covey, was surrounded by Sandra, his wife, and his nine children at the time of his death. He has 52 grandchildren.

’7 Habits’ Author Stephen Covey Dies is a post from: The Inquisitr