The Slight Edge: The History of the Water Hyacinth and How It Applies to Running a Business

A child’s favorite word is story. In fact, the same could be true for everyone. We all love to hear a story or tell a story. In the book, The Slight Edge, author Jeff Olson often uses stories as analogies with deeper meanings.

The Slight Edge, as its name suggests, suggests that to be successful, you only need to have a slight edge in several different aspects of your life.

In this article, I’ll try to reflect the analogy created by Jeff Olson for starting a business for himself, or even running his existing business. We conduct business both online and offline. We have experienced failures and successes and as a result we can relate very well to the author.

In this particular story, the author talks about a water hyacinth and how it can grow exponentially in a relatively short period of time, but not by his own efforts.

It would be a brilliant way to demonstrate how the typical MLM business owner could explain the potential growth in an area.

The lesson I learned from the book, in relation to starting a business, was that you must be prepared to persevere and with this you simply will not experience the joy and rewards that success brings.

Every person who starts a business wants to be successful. But are you prepared to start the pump and put a lot of effort into the business until it starts to grow exponentially?

In the case of the water hyacinth, the plant uses the art of leverage to grow each day. Instead of planting its own seeds and waiting, it sends its own daughter tentacles that allow it to use leverage. More and more with less and less. It is the key to business success.

Look at McDonalds restaurants: By using one system to run a restaurant that covers all aspects of the business, they could take advantage of it and grow it quickly without ever losing consistency or quality. It is often said that a 17-year-old could run a McDonalds for you, the same one who doesn’t tidy up your bedroom.

If you are thinking of starting a business, whether online or offline, think about leverage before thinking “I am the only person who can do this.”

By thinking this way, you will give yourself room to grow and develop beyond your own capabilities and reap the rewards.