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

Jeff Olson is an experienced businessman and the author of the best-selling self-help book The Slight Edge. He hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was raised by a single mother, nicknamed “Matter-of-fact Rose” for her consistency. She worked a low-wage job as a church’s administrative assistant and kept a regular, diligent schedule to raise her children, eventually saving enough money over her lifetime to quietly become a millionaire. His father, a World War II veteran, passed away at the age of 41 when Olson was only 11 years old. Olson has two siblings, and they were raised with a modest lifestyle. Because of his mother’s continuous frugality, Olson never knew his mother achieved financial freedom until he brought his finances up to her many years later.

Before achieving his current success, Olson meandered along different paths, like doing manual labor on a golf course in Florida, where he was known as Gorgeous George (2). Olson refers to this version of himself as a “beach bum” because his daily habits weren’t moving him forward. Though he worked hard every day, he made no progress toward the life he wanted to live. It was during this time, on a road trip back from Florida to New Mexico, that he had his wake-up moment. He realized that the people playing on the golf course weren’t inherently better than him, nor did they work harder. This led him on a journey to master the slight edge, those little daily habits that would allow him to be the best version of himself.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of New Mexico. Later, he went on to business school, where he performed at the top of his class with straight A’s. During graduate school, he became the Albuquerque airport manager, one of the youngest in the industry at the time. He credits this success to his positive habit of getting coffee daily with his mentor, the previous manager of the airport, who helped him along his career path with advice and recommendations.

Olson went on to pursue a job at Texas Instruments, where he started in sales, a field in which he claims he had little talent or interest. Despite this, his continual hard work and positive energy enabled him to rise to the level of systems manager in five years. He then formed his own solar energy company, Sun Aire of America. Though it was initially successful, this venture failed, a result he traced back to the slight edge working against him. Using the methods that had helped him achieve his previous successes, Olson worked hard to improve himself in his career and family life. He founded The People’s Network, a self-improvement channel that has hosted many famous self-help experts. He is also the CEO of the multi-million-dollar company Neora, where his daughter, Amber Olson Rourke, also works. Olson works primarily in Dallas, Texas and resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.