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

The day of disgust is the day when a person realizes they are repulsed by the life they are living and gain clarity about the nature of their circumstances. Olson describes his day of disgust early on in the book: “That moment of impact we sometimes hit in our lives when we come smack face to face with our circumstances and, without having a clue to the what or how of it, make a decision to change” (12). For Olson, this moment came when he realized that he was not making progress in life—that working on golf courses in Florida was not ever going to take him where he wanted to go.

Rather than assuming the common definition of wealth, Olson explicitly defines what he means when he refers to millionaires:

When I say ‘millionaire,’ I’m not talking purely about money or financial success. I’m using the term here as a label for success, but it’s only a label, a metaphor, just as ‘beach bum’ is only a metaphor. When I say millionaire I mean someone with a million-dollar smile, with a million friends, with a million dollars’ worth—heck, a billion, a trillion dollars’ worth—of joy, love, contentment, fulfillment, great relationships, curiosity and fascination, passion and enthusiasm, excitement and accomplishment […] a fortune’s worth of life in their life. I want that life for you (19).

This definition broadens the concept to include a whole host of other important domains in life, like relationships, career satisfaction, health, and so forth. It also establishes goodwill between Olson and the reader because it shows that Olson is not making false promises and guaranteeing financial wealth. Through this definition, he clearly states that he wants readers to succeed in all aspects of life.

A quantum leap is an enormous, revolutionary change that completely alters a person’s life. It’s the idea of an overnight success or epiphany. An example of a quantum leap would be an unknown person achieving extraordinary fame or wealth due to a single action. Olson wrote the book to dismantle the notion of the quantum leap and challenge its veracity. The quantum leap is deeply embedded in American culture and feeds into The Myth of Success in America, where stories of instant successes, like lottery winners, are popular in media and pop culture.

Success is a highly personal idea, and Olson acknowledges how differently it can and should be interpreted, establishing the theme of Success Isn’t Uniform. However, he repeatedly states that “[s]uccess is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal” (31). In other words, success is built on habits that accumulate over time toward a meaningful goal that enriches a person’s life. By this definition grounds the concept of success with a baseline built on the slight edge, while still acknowledging that “success” is highly variable.