The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed

by Ash Ali

every disadvantage can have a corresponding advantage, and vice versa. Your circumstances and unfair advantages, whether apparently positive or negative, can be double-edged swords.

Life is too random and arbitrary to balance out and give everyone an equal share. We don’t all have the same opportunities. We don’t all get what’s coming to us. That’s why we have to make sure we are compassionate to others and ourselves if life doesn’t always turn out quite as well as we’d hoped.

“mild success can be explainable by skills and labor. Wild success is attributable to [statistical] variance.”

An Unfair Advantage is a condition, asset, or circumstance that puts you in a favorable business position.

Your Unfair Advantages can’t easily be copied or bought. Your set of Unfair Advantages is unique to you.

Always partner up with somebody with unfair advantages that balance out yours.

rich people often intentionally obscure how easy it is for them to make even more money.

I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more

active. Show up more often.

Education doesn’t stop when you get out of school. In fact, it doesn’t start when you get into school. Life is learning, from the moment you arrive.

Expertise often means being very good at something quite specific (no one is an “expert in general”) and so that means following your own interests.

You don’t need to be an expert at everything: that’s impossible, so you’ve got to choose carefully. Go for something that’s both in demand and interesting to you. And, for areas outside your expertise, lean on others, seek help, and double down on the things you have a natural aptitude toward and are happy to spend time learning inside out.

“The pioneers take the arrows, the settlers take the land.”

The mistake most of us make is that we envision that our solution is going to be loved. We fall in love with our own idea. This is very dangerous. Beware of falling in love with your idea before you have any feedback from prospective customers/users.

Finally, don’t forget about the importance of gratitude. Whenever you feel thoughts spiraling, or the emotion of being hard-done-by or being wronged in the pit of your stomach, or you feel inadequate or like an impostor, just remember to breathe, and think about all the things in your life that you’re grateful for. You’ll be surprised at how many you’ll find. You already have what it takes to succeed.