The Slight Edge

Posted by David B. Wright

May 20, 2008

I read an interesting article about The Slight Edge Philosophy - it’s not a new concept, but one that can have a huge impact on your career, your salary, your productivity, and in fact your overall quality of life as a whole.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

“WINNING IS ALWAYS A MATTER OF SLIGHT EDGE. Who can forget that moving moment of triumph in the ‘94 Olympics when American speed-skater Dan Jansen at last overcame years of discouragement, disappointment, and frustration to finally win the gold medal in the 1000 meters, setting a world record of one minute, 12.43 seconds?

Do you know by how much of a margin Jansen won? Do you know what the difference was between the winning world record gold medal and the virtual oblivion of second place?

Twenty-nine hundredths of a second! That’s a very Slight Edge!

No matter where you look, no matter in what area of accomplishment, life, work, or play-the difference between winning and losing, between going down in the record books as first and best…or not at all-the gap that separates success and failure is always measured as … THE SLIGHT EDGE.

And the best news of all is that it’s not just the winning goal that’s THE SLIGHT EDGE. The Slight Edge is the process itself that all winners use to achieve their goals. ”

In your job search, how much faster would you get hired if you took the few minutes each day it would take to send your resume to one extra (targeted) company? Or making that one extra phone call to someone who may know someone at a company you’d love to work for?

In your daily work, how much more effective would you be if you did one extra thing each day? What if, instead of taking that trip to Starbucks, you got coffee from the breakroom and used the “extra” time to work towards something that would help your career? (Tip: work on one of those things in Steven Covey’s Quadrant of “Important and not urgent” during this time) from his classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

How about your finances - instead of that $4.00 daily trip to Starbucks, if you got your coffee from the breakroom for free, you’d save $1,000 per year (based on a 50-week work year, 5 days per week at $4.00 per day), not counting whatever return you’d get by investing that money instead of drinking it. That’s like getting a $1500/year raise (since you’d be spending post-tax dollars) just by changing one simple habit!

Or knowledge - how much more would you know if you just spent an extra 15 minutes a day (or only 1/96th of a day) reading something that would help you get that extra edge over your competition?

For more, there is a book called The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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