The Slight Edge is still among my favorite self-help books, years after first reading it. I feel like it has some similarities with The One Thing by Gary Keller and that’s what prompted me to revisit it.
Throughout The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson talks about the power of compounding interest, and how simple habits that are seemingly easy to do, as well as easy not to do, compound over time to work for us or against us. The catch is that these habits mostly do not have any immediate effects and are thus easy to neglect.
One of the author’s many examples to illustrate the compounding effect was that of a wealthy man who gave his two sons a choice: either have a penny that doubles every day for the next 30 days or get 1 million dollars deposited instantly. One of the sons chose the former option which surprisingly compounded to ~5.3 million dollars on the 30th day.
Of course, that is a scarce opportunity that most won’t experience, but it illustrates how consistency can be an effective tool in creating wealth and building fulfilling relationships, better health, and general personal development.
I particularly liked Chapter 6, “The 7 Slight Edge Principles”, where Jeff Olson outlines 7 actionable principles that have helped me focus more on working toward my career, health, relationship, and financial goals.
It is generally a very engaging read. The only downside was that some sections got too wordy when conveying simple concepts. This could be beneficial to help cement the Slight Edge philosophy but for others, I think a “condensed” or audio version would make it easy to move past these sections fast.
Overall, it is a great book and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who would like to work on their habits and discipline.