The Slight Edge

One of the best bosses I ever worked for said this book changed his life.

In the opening parable of the book, written by Jeff Olsen, he tells the story about a water hyacinth, which grows at a prodigious rate. Skipping to the end, the point of the parable is that even with a prodigious growth rate, it won’t be apparent to most people until much later.

More tangibly, it helped set in motion a chain of events that would see that boss promoted up three levels of leadership in 18 months.

The lightbulb moment?

One simple concept from the book.

Many things are easy to do. But they are also easy not to do.

For a long time, I took the easy not-to-do route, and it hurt me. It stopped a growth process I worked hard to put into place. I had to start over later and I can avow it’s not as much fun.

My lightbulb moment came when I realized I kept looking at the high leverage opportunities in my life as things I “should do“, rather than the things I “must do“.

Success and failure generally happen slowly. Over a series of choices.

Poor choices inflate the price of failure, while good choices can enhance the rewards of success.

Make richer choices and then do the damn thing.