The Slight Edge
Jeff Olson · 2005
The Slight Edge (2005) is a book by Jeff Olson on personal growth & mindset. Entrepreneur Jeff Olson's case that success is never a single big break but the compounding of small, simple disciplines, actions that are easy to do and, fatally, just as easy not to do, repeated relentlessly over time.
The rare self-help book whose entire argument is that there is no secret, only tiny, unglamorous actions repeated long enough that time itself turns them into an unstoppable advantage.
Two of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of The Slight Edge pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.
- The core Slight Edge insight is that the disciplines that build a great life are all things that are 'easy to do', and precisely because they're so easy, they're equally 'easy not to do.' The same simple action either lifts you or, left undone, quietly sinks you.
- Time is the multiplier that makes small actions decisive. Olson's penny illustration, a single penny doubled every day for 31 days becomes over $10 million, most of it appearing at the very end, shows how compounding stays invisible for a long time, then becomes overwhelming.
The other 5 — and the full 10-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 8 chapters
The whole summary runs about 10 minutes, read or listened to.
- The Secret Hiding in Plain Sight
- The Penny and the Power of Time
- Two Curves, Two Destinies
- Why We Ignore the Simple Things
- Your Philosophy Is the Root
- Plant, Cultivate, Harvest
- The Seven Slight Edge Principles
- Choosing Your Simple Daily Disciplines
Finish The Slight Edge tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 10 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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