The Secret to a Successful Life: A Jeff Olson Book Snippet

Jeff Olson makes the following statement in his book, The Slight Edge: “Take two seemingly similar people and give them both the exact same opportunity. One takes it and has remarkable success, the other doesn’t. One wins, the other does not.”

He says that during his years in business, he had worked with several thousand people from every imaginable walk of life. They all had the exact same opportunity. Some became wealthy, others earned a good living, but the majority had gone nowwhere.  Why? It’s not a matter of luck. Nor is it timing, nor fate. It’s not a matter of intelligence, skill or talent, either.

So what is the secret ingredient? Jeff sums it up as follows: your philosophy creates your attitudes, actions, and results, which in turn creates your life.  

Lets have a closer look at what he means:

1. Philosophy: It is the search for knowledge. It simply means to change your thinking.
   1. Ralph Emerson put it this way: ”Do the thing, and you shall have the power.”
   2. Nike simplified it: “Just do it.”
   3. The formula for success is simple: double your rate of failure.
   4. Successful people fail their way to the top.
2. Your philosophy creates your attitudes:
   1. What can I do to help you? Or
   2. What have you done for me lately?
   3. An entitled attitude says: Pay me more, and then maybe I will work harder.
   4. A value driven attitude says: I’ll work harder, and then I expect you’ll pay me more.
3. Your philosophy creates your actions:
   1. By and large, people are looking for it in the wrong places.
   2. People are looking for a breakthrough. Instead of small steps, people expect to reach things over night.
   3. No, understand patience, to understand that little steps compounded, do make the difference. Keep adding to your growth. Every success takes time.

Ultimately your philosophy, attitude and actions will create your result which will create your life.