The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness

In this section, Olson gets more into the specifics of how and why the slight edge works. He also develops the Transformation Is Habitual and The Myth of Success in America themes by explaining the science of progress and calling out the false ideas that seep into many conversations about success.

Although Olson elevates the concept of the slight edge with powerful language, he doesn’t mystify it. Instead, he breaks it down into a few composite parts, including habits, steady growth, and a positive philosophy. He uses the example of the shoe shiner in the airport to illustrate someone with a lot of potential who wasn’t maximizing their time. This idea reemerges in Chapter 13, when Olson talks about how he worked in an airport and used his downtime to get coffee with the airport manager, who eventually mentored him and helped him on his career path. He takes care to show that they’re both equally bright and motivated people, but the habits they have during their downtime have an enormous impact on their divergent paths. This reinforces the notion that success doesn’t indicate who works harder, or who is more deserving. Success is an ongoing process, and Transformation Is Habitual. Olson also utilizes examples from nature to prove his point, such as his description of the Grand Canyon. Erosion is a process that occurs on a scale that far exceeds human lifespans, so it is easy to fixate on the result (the beautiful Grand Canyon) and forget about the long, steady effort (millions of years of rainfall) that accomplished it.

By examining the strategies and mindset needed to leverage the straight edge, Olson also creates a space to discuss the limiting beliefs and factors that keep people from doing the kind of work that will lead to long-term success. He believes the idea of overnight success, or “the quantum leap” (81), is one of the most toxic parts of The Myth of Success in America. The quantum leap suggests that if a person just has one lucky break or one big pivotal moment, their whole lives will change. While he acknowledges that these pivotal moments occur, they are typically the product of a lot of little efforts, not a spontaneous stroke of good fortune. If they are not, these make-or-break successes (or failures) actually aren’t all that long-lived. He supports his ideas with anecdotes from his own life, like how he lost everything, which felt like a big breaking point when it was actually the result of a lack of good habits. When he developed those positive habits, he was able to rebuild his success even better than before. By keeping success mythical, or only for the lucky, it enables people to opt out of living their best lives and avoid doing the work that’s both easy to do and easy to skip.

This foundational belief in America is perpetuated by the ideas of celebrities and overnight successes, like those who win the lottery. There are thousands of “rags to riches” stories in media and pop culture. Characters find themselves in the right place at the right time, and—after a few trials and tribulations—they live happily ever after. In real life, talent shows are marketed on the idea of offering regular people a lucky break. Again, Olson works to dispel these myths by offering case studies of people who had everything and lost it. He traces why that happens to so many people, like lottery winners who should’ve been set for life, and concludes that it is because those people failed to establish the habits that would ensure lifelong success. It is not that the lottery winner did not deserve their windfall, or that the media character did not work hard—it is simply that success is a matter of sustained small efforts. These points are recursive in that they all return the fables he shared in the first few chapters of the book, and each example he provides offers new dimensions to these stories and tightens his argument for the need to embrace and use the slight edge.

Olson does not limit his advice to financial success. He addresses the way The Myth of Success in America enables oppression by perpetuating the idea that those who don’t succeed simply have not tried hard enough, or are otherwise unlucky. He also points out that the slight edge—repeated effort, even in the face of apparent failure or stasis—can lead to societal progress. In addition to William Wilberforce, Olson later cites the efforts of figures like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, pointing out that society fixates on their “breakthroughs” and neglects the fact that said breakthroughs came after years of prolonged effort. Olson’s philosophy of “The Ten Core Commitments” (59) echoes common talking points in activist circles, along with the idea of sustainable activism—the idea of making efforts to prevent burnout and enable long-term participation. An article by the Migrant Clinician’s Network details healthy habits a person can develop to become a successful activist, such as choosing an area of focus and making small, daily efforts toward it: “Decide on a single, realistic action you will take daily, weekly or monthly and just do it” (Migrant Clinician’s Network. “Eleven Tips for Sustainable Activism Without Getting Overwhelmed.” 20 Oct. 2021).