The-Slight-Edge

Mastering the Slight Edge 125
Facing some truths about one’s own death can also bring one face to face
with some important truths about one’s life. Reading that article enlarged my
comfort zone, and gave me an edge of courage—just a tiny edge, but an edge I
hadn’t had before. A Slight Edge.
I finally mustered what courage I could, turned off the car, went inside and gave
what I am convinced to this day was the worst presentation in the history of sales.
They did not buy a thing. In that sense, it was a total failure—but when I got back in
my car, I was elated. I had blown the sales call, and had achieved a victory in my life.
A few days later, I happened to be thinking about that article as I sat in my car,
stopped in traffic. Just then, I saw why we were all stopped: a funeral procession
went by. It took less than a minute because it contained only a few cars.
As traffic slowly started moving again, I thought, That person lived his or her
entire life worrying about what other people thought ...
And it suddenly hit me. Who has long funeral processions? At whose
funerals do thousands cry? For whom do the millions mourn? For those who will
do what others are not willing to do. For the people for whom we erect statues.
Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Lincoln.
Gigantic funerals are held and great crowds, sometimes entire nations, mourn
for those people who spent their lives not worrying about what others thought.
KEY POINTS OF CHAPTER 8
Mastery is not some vaulted, lofty place that only the elite few ever land.
The pursuit of any aim, goal or dream—personal, professional, spiritual, in
any area—is a Slight Edge journey of continuous improvement, learning and
refinement. But mastery is not an exalted state that lies at the end of the path; it
is a state of mind that lies at the very beginning. Mastery is the act of setting your
foot on the path.