The Slight Edge

• Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. “Progressive” means success is a process, not a destination.
• The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.
• There are two prevalent types of attitudes: entitled and value-driven. A value-driven attitude says, “What can I do to help you?” An entitled attitude says, “What have you done for me lately?”
• The formula for success is quite simple: double your rate of failure.
• Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.
• By the time you get the feedback, the real work’s already been done.
• The right choices you make today, compounded over time, will take you higher and higher up the success curve of this realtime movie called “your life”.
• The critical decisions in life are always the tiny ones.
• A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
• When looking down, it’s pretty hard not to start thinking about the past. Why gazing upward, it’s pretty hard not to start thinking about the future.
• You can’t change the past or the future. Would you rather be influenced by something you can’t change, or something you can?
• All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
• Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.
• Give yourself something to work toward- constantly.
• Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny.
• What you focus on grows.
• No stream rises higher than its source. Whatever man might build could never express or reflect more than he was.
• Knowledge without practice is useless. Practice without knowledge is dangerous.
• Know that in getting from point A to point B you’ll be off track most of the time. And you know that it’s the adjustments- those little, seemingly insignificant corrections in direction- that have the most power in your life.
• Your income tends to equal the average of the incomes of your five best friends.
• You’re known by the company you keep. Show me where you fish and I’ll show you what you catch.
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
• You will become as small as your controlling desire, or as great as your dominate aspiration.
• Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.

Source: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson