Free Book Summary, The Slight Edge – Secrets to a Successful Life – Written by Jeff Olson
GamingThis book has to be one of the best books written on performance. Jeff Olson is a highly successful entrepreneur and what sets this book apart is that it talks about philosophy. Have you ever driven to the office and, once you got there, almost forgot you were driving? Basically, the habit of driving is so ingrained that it requires no thought. This is the whole concept of mild edge behavior.
Why is this important to me? Think about these 9 incredible statistics:
1. The average American consumes 158 pounds of sugar a year. Processed sugar creates mood swings and deep falls.
2.33% of adults are obese
3.33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives
4. 42% of college graduates never read another book after college.
5. There were 1.5 million NEW bankruptcy filings in the last 12 months.
6. Big pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars each year from Ritalin, Prozac, Xanax, and other mind-altering drugs.
7. 43% of American families spend more than they earn each year.
8. The average household has $ 8,000 in credit card debt.
9. The average person spends 26 hours a week watching television and surfing the Internet.
These are all examples of mild edge misbehavior. The great Jim Rohn said, “What is easy to do is also easy not to do.” This statement has real power and is the key to true success and happiness, regardless of how you define it.
The slight edge is always working. The human condition dictates that you are expanding or contracting. There is no stable state.
When a baby is born, it is one day closer to death. This is not something cruel, it is just our reality. It is this paradox that makes life so precious.
If you had the option to choose between $ 1 million today or if your money was doubling every day for 31 days, starting with a penny, what would you do? Two out of ten people would choose the penny. The other 8 would take the million dollars. After 31 days of doubling, you would have $ 10 million. This is the concept of compound interest: the eighth wonder of the world. By the way, 8 people would also simply hand over their financial future to a stockbroker or financial planner without taking responsibility for the results. I guess that’s why everyone’s retirement is questioned. – WISDOM is expensive!
The slight edge works the same way. If you eat a Big Mac and big fries today, you are not sick today, but eat three meals a day for 30 days and you will almost kill yourself. Watch the movie Super Size me for more details.
Simply put, the slight advantage is the daily habits you do that can magnify your results with very simple changes. Think about this for a minute. If you cut 145 calories a day, that is, a can of soda, do you know that in three years you will weigh 45 pounds less? This is a very simple thing to do and a very simple thing NOT to do. For number freaks, here’s the math: 145 calories x 1095 days / 3500 equals 45 pounds. The opposite is true if you add 145 calories per day. The result is 45 pounds of added pleasure!
Taking an inventory can be one of the most important and awesome things you will ever do. You will see things that you had no idea you were doing or how much they really add up to.
I challenge you to take an inventory of how you spend your time. For a week, catalog what you do from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. If you drive to work, do you listen to the morning radio or a learning CD? How long is the daily commute to work? When you get home, do you have a beer and turn on the TV for the next 4 hours until you go to bed?
Now catalog where you spend your money. For a week, write down every penny you spend and you will be amazed where it goes. The goal of doing this sheds light on what is really going on in your life.
Remember the example of the slight advantage of adding or subtracting just 145 calories per day? The result after three years is a difference of 90 pounds. Everything you do has a slight edge effect and it is simply up to you whether that effect is positive or negative.
The Slight Edge is a great book and I could keep writing about the effects this book has had on me. About 18 months ago, I increased my reading requirements each week using the philosophy of slight advantage. Using this philosophy has made a huge difference in my effectiveness at work, as well as in the creation of this website.
My take on this is really simple. Your average book is about 200 pages long, and authors typically have 20 years of solid experience in their field, if they are good at it. If you read just 12 books per year, you will gain 240 man-years of knowledge. If you really think about this, you can achieve anything. This is the essence of soft edge behavior.
I hope this short summary has been helpful to you. The key to any new idea is to incorporate it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in just 21 days.
One thing you can take away from this book is understanding the Slight Edge. This is more of a philosophy, but understand that each daily routine you do has a compounding effect over time in a positive or negative way. The slight edge is always working. Think of this as you would gravity. You may believe it doesn’t exist, but jump off a four-story building and you will know that gravity exists. This is the same with slight edge behavior.