Business Book Review: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
The Slight Edge is described as the key to making all other how-to books and self-help information work. And I see why.
My Rating: ★★★★★
Length: 280 pages
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Released: November 2013
Applying the book to personal branding
In The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson valiantly advocates that success is created over time through consistent daily disciplines. That every day we have a choice to master the mundane. Doing the things that are easy to do - but, equally as easy not to do. An error in choice sends you closer to failure, and at first, goes unnoticed.
Each positive action directs you closer to success. It also goes unnoticed. Yet, is the compounded energy that cultivates a quantum leap.
While everyone wants overnight success, personal branding demands a long-game view.
The cardinal rule of branding is consistency. Consistency builds trust and trust builds loyalty. This isn’t just about showing up as the best version of yourself for others. It’s about showing up as the best version of yourself, for yourself. Doing the things, daily, that make you the person you hope to be.
Legacies aren’t created overnight. They are created in everyday moments.
Favourite Quotes
You don’t need to learn some insanely difficult skills, or have some genius-level brainstorm of an innovative idea. All you have to do is keep doing the things that got you this far.
Simple daily disciplines. Simple productive actions, repeated consistently over time.
That, in a nutshell, is the slight edge.
Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.
Simple productive actions, repeated consistently over time.
Simple errors in judgment, repeated consistently over time.
The choice is that simple
It’s just a matter of mastering the mundane—of repeating simple little disciplines that, done consistently over time, will add up to the very biggest accomplishments.
The things that create success, in the long run, don’t look like they’re having any impact at all in the short run.
It doesn’t “just suddenly happen.” An actual quantum leap is something that finally happens after a lengthy accumulation of slight-edge effort.
For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with daily routines. Either asking prying questions or simply making my best guesses while people-watching. I knew in it lay the secrets to failure or success. But, I didn’t have the words for it. I now do - The Slight Edge.
Olson puts words to what you innately know to be true but is easy to ignore. As he would say, this is an error in judgment. Which, when applied over time, is the difference between success and failure.
If you’re looking for cutting-edge ideas and quick fixes, this isn’t your book. To learn to turn the boring into something exceptional and lasting, then read The Slight Edge. I trust if you apply its philosophy, you’ll arrive in the future with an undeniable edge.
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson: Available on Amazon.
