Edge
Turning Adversity into Advantage
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4.5 • 17 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Laura Huang, an award-winning Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own—by turning the very challenges and biases that hold us back into advantages.
How do you find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable? How do you get people to take you seriously when they’re predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off?
In Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, Huang draws on her groundbreaking research on entrepreneurial intuition, persuasion, and implicit decision-making, to impart her profound findings and share stories of previously-overlooked Olympians, assistants-turned-executives, and flailing companies that made momentous turnarounds. Her framework, EDGE, reveals how to:
Enrich: Recognize and communicate the unique value you bring—your “basic goods.”Delight: Create unexpected moments that surprise others and open doors.Guide: Shape and redirect how others perceive you, turning stereotypes into strengths.Effort: Channel your hard work where it matters most, so it works harder for you.
Huang shows that success is rarely just about ideas, credentials, and skills, or our effort. Instead, it’s about strategically shaping how others perceive your value—and using authenticity and creativity to make even your weaknesses work in your favor
Customer Reviews
Fantastic book
I have finished reading the book and listening to the book. I loved it so much so I got both versions. This is a book full of valuable insights and interesting findings. Throughout the book, you will see numerous stories from her personal experience and research findings from a large array of scientific studies. What I appreciate most is the theory that Laura proposed to explain how preconceived biases might disadvantage people, and what individuals can do to mitigate and overcome such biases. The theory is compelling because she helps people understand their own agency, and the possibilities of growing and becoming better at shaping the social environment to their advantage. The messages from the book are incredibly positive and encouraging. At the end of every chapter, she listed practical advices, what she calls “edge principles” for how to enrich, delight, guide, and make effort.
It was interesting that I was reading Edge and another book “Grit” at the same time. I was initially puzzled by the two seemingly contradictory theories from the two books but eventually I figured that they are in fact complimentary. The book Grit talks about how hard work and mindful practice lead to success. The book Edge talks about what you need to know about the “plus” in addition to the hard work required for success. Given the tremendous research out there emphasizing hard working, Edge offers fresh insights into what extra we need to know and understand in order to achieve success. A truely insigtful book. Highly recommend