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The Unfair Advantage Summary
About The Unfair Advantage Book
The guide that overturns conventions to help you map your route to success.
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4.9/5 (3316 reviews)
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I also had a strong tendency to do things the hard way without anyone’s help. Again, in this way, I threw any unfair advantages I had (like my parents being willing and able to invest in me but me choosing to go it alone) down the drain. I’ve foregone a lot of unfair advantages in my life in pursuit of true meritocratic ideals. The trouble was, as this book showed, our society was never purely meritocratic to begin with. I was driven by naive delusion.
🚀 The book in 4 bullet points
- .Life isn’t fair – but it’s not an excuse to have a victim mindset – instead we must equip ourselves with knowledge of the potential obstacles and shortcuts
- An unfair advantage is a condition, asset or circumstance that puts you in a favourable business position (e.g. being tall in basketball, )
- There are five categories of unfair advantages – Money, Intelligence and insight, Location and luck, Education and expertise, Status
- The key to success is working hard and smart (on things you are lucky/have unfair advantages in) – it is not just about hard work or getting lucky
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📑 Key Takeaways
- There are two leading, opposing narratives on how success/wealth is attained:
- Luck – rich people got rich due to factors outside their control (luck, timing, natural talent and fate) – their success wasn’t earned (fatalism)
- Hard work – rich people deserve their riches because they earned it through hard work (meritocracy)
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• The reality is in the middle of these two:
- You can be unlucky and still successful (e.g. Oprah Winfrey was raised in a poor, traumatising, unstable household but still became wildly successful)
- But hard work can’t undo luck in all cases (e.g. if Warren Buffett was born black or a woman or in war-torn Iraq, no matter how much he worked, he wouldn’t have the same opportunities/success he did)
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The Impact of Positivity
We all have unfair advantage in life. It's just on us how we see things in a positive way. Let's use our unfair advantages as stepping stone towards our success.
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Your Set Of Unfair Advantage Is Unique To You
It's a fundamental leg up over the competition, and sometimes it's not one that is 'earned' or worked for.
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