Top Jeff Olson Quotes from “The Slight Edge”

In today’s post, I want to share some of my favorite Jeff Olson quotes, from his best-selling book The Slight Edge.

Every once in a while a book comes along that can completely transform your life. The Slight Edge is one of those books. In fact, it’s one of the top three most influential books I’ve ever personally read.

Although I’ve never met Jeff Olson in real life, I have tremendous respect for the guy. We are both in the network marketing industry. He is the founder of Nerium, a popular network marketing company. Prior to that, he was a top earner in several different network marketing companies.

This book is magnificent. It easily gets a 10 out of 10. It’s designed for anyone looking to improve their life, find happiness and achieve more success.

The thesis of the book is that success (or failure) is the result of our daily disciplines. What we do daily, over a period of time, determines where we end up in life. Good daily habits lead to good results (although not right away) and bad habits lead to bad results (although not right away).

If you haven’t read the book yet yourself, do yourself a favor and order a copy on Amazon.

Top Jeff Olson Quotes from The Slight Edge

What you will see below are my top 31 Jeff Olson quotes from The Slight Edge. They are listed by where I found them in the book. Each quote is in bold and italics. After each quote, I will share my own two cents on the topic.

# 1: As soon as we get away from failure and up past the line of survival, we quit doing the things that got us there.

Most people in life are comfortable. Even if they’re unhappy with their lot in life, they won’t change, because they aren’t willing to step out of their comfort zone.

# 2: There is a beach bum and a millionaire inside each one of us. What makes the difference in how things turn out? You do.

Everyone has the potential to do great things with their life. I like to call it the Sleeping Giant Within. We all have a Sleeping Giant inside of us. It’s up to us to activate that inner giant.

# 3: Successful people fail their way to the top.

Success is nothing more than failing, learning, failing, learning, failing, learning. Success is filled with lots of zigs and zags. It is never a straight line. Three steps forward, two steps back. Every time you get knocked down, get back up.

# 4: Simple daily disciplines – little productive action, repeated consistently over time – add up to the difference between failure and success.

We are what we repeatedly do. You change your life one day at a time.

# 5: The simple things that lead to success are all easy to do. But they’re also just as easy not to do.

Success boils down to our daily activities, habits and routines. Little things that, at the time, might not seem like a big deal. That’s why they are easy to do and easy not to do.

# 6: The things that create success in the long run don’t look like they’re having any impact at all in the short run.

Most of the time when you are doing something, you don’t see immediate results. It can take a while for the “Compound Effect” to kick in. Many people give up during this phase because they expect instant gratification.

# 7: Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it.

Do the things you need to do, even when you don’t feel like doing it. This is known as self-discipline, and it is vitally important if you want to succeed in life.

# 8: No genuine success in life is instant.  Life is not a clickable link.

Anything worth achieving requires hard work, patience, vision and time. It took you at least four years to earn your college degree. It takes years to build a solid relationship. It takes years of saving money each month to build up a fortune. Set a goal, be patient and stay the course.

# 9: You already have everything you need to achieve everything you want. You just can’t see it.

Success starts with a decision that comes from within. Most people struggle with worthiness issues and don’t believe they are capable or worthy of achieving huge success in life. Sometimes it takes another person to see these things inside of us and to speak them into fruition.

# 10: Any time you see what looks like a breakthrough, it is always the end result of a long series of little things, done consistently over time. 

Success is like carving a piece of wood. When you first get started it just looks like a piece of wood. But over a period of time it transforms from a piece of wood to a masterpiece.

# 11: Greater success also creates a greater responsibility to share that success with others.

When you become successful in life, you have the responsibility to pay it forward and help others. The role of the leader is to serve others.

# 12: A single thoughtful, committed person can change the world.

Make a commitment to what is important to you and never look back. You are capable of great things.

# 13: If you add just 1 percent of anything – skill, knowledge, effort – per day, in a year it will have more than tripled. But you have to start with the 1 percent.

Just get a little bit better every single day and the incremental growth will really add up.You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

# 14: Great success often starts from a tiny beginning – but there has to be a beginning. You have to start somewhere. You have to do something. 

Just get started where you are right now. The timing will never be just right. You can make adjustments as you go along.

# 15: The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the failure curve is blame. The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the success curve is responsibility.

There are no successful victims. You must take 100% responsibility of your life if you want to succeed.

# 16: You can gauge the limitations of a person’s life by the size of the problems that get him or her down.

We all have problems. Things never go exactly as planned. It’s how we handle what happens to us that matters most.

# 17: Mastery begins the moment you step onto the path.  Failure beings the moment you step off the path.

Just get on your path and never jump off it.

# 18: The wisest investment you can make is to invest in your own continuous learning and development.

You can never lose money when you invest in yourself.

# 19: If you want to learn how to do something well, go find someone who has already mastered that skill, and apprentice yourself.

Find a successful mentor who has accomplished what you want to accomplish and then be smart enough to humble yourself and follow their guidance.

# 20: The quickest and surest path to raising the quality of your life is to start hanging out with people who have been there and done that.

Surround yourself with people who uplift you and encourage you and bring out the best in you. Avoid the haters and naysayers at all cost.

# 21: Form and use a mastermind: two minds are better than one, and five are even better.

Create a mastermind team and share ideas with each other once or twice a month.

# 22: It can take a good amount of energy and initiative to get yourself started in a new activity – but it takes far, far less to keep yourself doing it once you’ve started.

Once you get started with your new habits, they are pretty easy to maintain.

# 23: Your habits come from your daily activities compounded over time.

What we do every single day determines where we ultimately end up.

# 24: If you commit to showing up consistently, every day, no matter what, then you have already won more than half the battle. The rest is up to skill, knowledge, drive and execution.

Do the things you know you should be doing, even when you don’t feel like it. Being consistent and persistent is more than half the battle.

# 25: No matter what you are trying to accomplish, you need to ask yourself, am I willing to put in 10,000 hours or more to get what I want?

This is known as the 10,000 hour rule. To become an expert at something you must be willing to invest 10,000 hours or more.

# 26: Whatever price you pay, there’s a bigger price to pay for not doing it than the price for doing it.

You only live once. Make it count. Who we become on our journey to success is more important than what we achieve. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

# 27: The single most compelling reason for writing down your dreams is so you can look at them and read them every day. 

A goal is a dream with a deadline and a specific action plan. It must be committed to paper and referred to daily.

# 28: The power of a plan is not that it will get you there. The power of a plan is that it will get you started.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. You need a plan to get started, but you can improve and modify your plan as you go along.

# 29: Don’t try to figure out the whole race. Just figure out where to put your foot for the starting line.

Success is a journey. You just take one step at a time. You don’t need to know exactly how you are going to get where you want to go, you just need to get started.

# 30: Everything you do, every decision you make, is either building your dream or building someone else’s dream. 

Everything you do, think and say is either moving you closer to your own goals or further away from them.

# 31: Your income will never long exceed your own level of personal development.

Your business and life will only grow as much as you do.

Final Thoughts

There you have it folks. These are my top 31 Jeff Olson quotes from his best-selling book “The Slight Edge.” I hope you enjoyed the quotes. Which one was your favorite? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,







Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com

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