Autosport News Review

“The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson is a book that belongs in everyone’s personal development library. It lays the foundation for every other book you own on personal, professional, and financial development. The basis of the Slight Edge is knowing that applying simple, positive actions repeated over time will compound into success.

Once you understand the Slight Edge principals, you’ll start seeing how successful people apply it. The concert pianist who practices every day. The marathoner who’s every habit supports their sport. They understand the principals of the Slight Edge. There’s another industry that understands and applies the Slight Edge. It’s NASCAR. You know, stock car racing. Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon driving real fast around a big oval track.

Successful drivers, pit crew members, and crew chiefs understand that every day they make small choices that build on each other to create a winning season. It might be a tiny change in the jack man’s footing that takes a tenth of a second off each pit stop, which leads to two or three higher places each week, which adds up to the most points at the end of the year. (That’s how they decide the championship.) If you listen to the drivers talk, especially during a big race weekend, you hear them talk about these tiny, continuous adjustments.

Jimmy Johnson appears to have become an overnight success after joining the Hendrick racing team. But he spent 27 years in racing before his winning his third consecutive Sprint Cup title. The most notable thing about Johnson’s championship team is that he and crew chief Chad Knaus never, ever stop adjusting a car during a race, even when their position looks hopeless. Their attitude towards winning determines their actions, which ultimately create their results.

Jimmy Johnson and every championship team before him have ironclad philosophies that control their attitudes, their actions, and their results, which in the end determine their season. Every week they talk about getting a little better. Every week they try to be a little faster, a little more clever on the track. Rookies are just looking to get in some laps, knowing that just being out there and doing it will make them better.

Crew chiefs are always making course corrections. The car’s too tight, now it’s too loose but they keep adjusting and tuning it until it works. They take a wrecked car as a learning opportunity. Sometimes they don’t even get upset because “the car was fast!” and that’s all that mattered.

They talk obsessively about momentum. They reflect on what they’ve accomplished. They celebrate their victories, whether it’s the win or if it’s their 3rd best finish of the year.

All these actions are part of applying the Slight Edge. Look for people, businesses, and industries where they understand this principal. See how you can apply their successes to your life. Develop your own personal philosophy to help you create your own Slight Edge.