The Slight Edge
Have you ever heard someone say, “What difference does it make?”
What difference does it make if I read or don’t read? If I work out or don’t work out? If I drink a soda instead of water?
What difference does it really make?
NONE! It makes no difference what so ever.
At least not in the beginning.
Let me explain to you what I mean. If I were to offer you one of two choices either a penny doubled each day for a month or $1,000,000.00 cash right now which of the two would be more enticing?If you picked the $1,000,000.00 you’re not alone; that’s what I picked over 2 and a half years ago when this philosophy was introduced to me. If you picked the penny, you have either already heard the story, really good at math, or just exceptionally bright 
. Either way that would be the wiser choice. Now I know all my million dollar people are scratching their heads right about now wondering,
“What the heck is this dude talking about here, A penny over a million dollars?”
YES! YES AND HELL YES!
Let me break it down for you.
Einstein said that;
“The most powerful force in the Universe is compound interest”
Here is why, this is a chart of what a penny doubled would amount to.
If you notice that after 31 days of that penny doubling you now have ten million seven hundred thirty seven thousand, four hundred eighteen dollars and twenty four cents! That’s a whole alot of mullah. Well that’s what its about, Compound interest, Leverage, Doubling, Geometric growth. It all adds up-and that’s what defines the SLIGHT EDGE.
If you were anything like me when I heard this, I was like yeah right, penny doubled, 10 million bucks, so what, what does that have to do with me. No one is going to double my penny(Yea I was pretty negative back then)
Then I realized the Slight Edge is in everything you do. Its the underdog’s fighting chance for the win.
Examples:
The average margin of victory for the last 25 years in all major golf tournaments combined was 3 strokes.
In the Indy 500 it was 1.54 seconds.
The competition that helped Micheal Phelps break the world record for the most gold medals won in any Olympic Games was the 100 meter butterfly in which he won by .01 seconds!
That’s the slight edge!
Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes. How can I apply this to my life and what does this have to do with me?
I am not saying that you can double your skills & talents every day for a month, but what I am saying is that by making the right choices you can improve to the likes in which you’ve never seen.
The Slight Edge is about making the right choices. Everyday we are faced with simple decisions that seem to make no difference in the act of doing them; like the coke vs water.
Let me ask you a question? If you went to McDonalds tomorrow and the person in front of you orders a cheeseburger and after one bite they collapse and have a heart attack……… Would you still order the number 2? Probably not, but you see it’s not the one cheeseburger that causes the heart attack it’s the 100s of cheeseburgers eaten over time that causes it.
My mentor always shares with me that success is simple. Just do a few key things repeated everyday over the course of time and success will be yours. Easy right?
Key phrase: What is easy to do is also easy not to do!
Now back to the doubling, what if you didn’t double everyday, what if you were to improve just .003 each day- that’s only 3/10 of one percent, a very Slight Edge-and you kept that up for the next five years, here’s what would happen to you:
The first year, you would improve 100 percent (you would already be twice the person you are today). The second, you would improve 200 percent. The third year, 400 percent. And the fourth, 800 percent. And by the end of year five-by simply improving 3/10 of one percent each day-you will have magnified your value, your skills and the results you accomplished 1,600 percent. That’s 22 times more than you are today.
Let me give you one more story that exemplifies the difference between two people; one who chooses the simple disciplines and the other who makes simple errors in judgment.
Since were talking about a penny, I figured that a story involving one of the most Famous Presidents of all time Abraham Lincoln would be appropriate. The story actually doesn’t involve Lincoln himself; but rather his famous assassin John Wilkes Booth.
While many people know a few things about the infamous assassin, what many may not know was that he was an actor. A good actor at that, but not as good as his brother Edwin Booth. Edwin Booth was a very famous actor during his days. He would even perform Shakespearean plays over in Europe, which always drew extremely critical crowds. Both John and Edwin would perform together, although John preferred to play the antagonist, while Edwin played the star(hint, hint).
When the Civil War arose back home, a slight shift happened amongst the brothers. Edwin supported the Union while John ,as we know, was against it. Edwin thought nothing of his brothers political choices and continued to perform; his popularity increasing. That is until April 14, 1865 a day that America will never forget; when John Wilkes Booth became one of the most infamous men in American history and shot President Lincoln.
Edwin was ashamed. He took blame for the choices that his brother made. He stopped performing and was not heard from for years until an ironic day changed his fate.
It was a regular afternoon nothing out of the norm; Edwin was waiting for a train when all of a sudden a young man fell down on the tracks. The train start moving and no one noticed this young man except Edwin. Quickly; without thinking he grabbed the young man by his collar and pulled him to safety. The young man (startled) thanked him and ran off. Edwin thought nothing more of it and carried on.
A few days later he received a letter from the general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant thanking him for saving the son of America’s greatest president.That young man that Booth pulled from the train tracks was Robert Todd Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln. Booth saved Lincoln’s life!
Great story right? Even better is the moral. The difference between life and death, between saving a life and taking a life………. The slight edge.
So I’ll end with this. The slight edge is a philosophy. Nothing more, Nothing less. Just a philosophy. Some people regard attitude to be the ultimate determination of where you will end up in life. While I agree that attitude is very important I don’t think it’s everything.Nothing is more important than your PHILOSOPHY!
A good Philosophy leads to a great Attitude which in turn creates great Actions though the actions you get great Results and though those results you lead a Great Quality of Life!
A great philosophy determines whether you will win the tournament of you life or lose by .01 seconds
A great philosophy determines if you will lead a healthy life or continue eating the Big Mac.
A great philosophy determines if you will be the one to take a life that serves millions or save a life that continues a legacy.
A great Philosophy determines if you will be the 100 times better of a person than you are today or if………
This is the Slight Edge and this is the choice that you and I have to make(everyday!)
For more information on this please feel free to e-mail me and I will send you a free copy of the book that changed my life!
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