Being the best means creating the slight edge

Posted: July 28, 2014 | Categories: Self-Improvement, Team Building

In the world of sports and business we sometimes hear the term, “Crush the competition”.  We want to be dominant in our lead.  The reality is, in most situations, the best is better by only a slight edge.

A few years ago I was reading the annual PGA player rankings in Golf Digest for the year.  The listing included the top 100 golfers in terms of earnings.  Also included were their stats regarding average strokes per tournament.  I was surprised to discover that the person in first place averaged only .76 less strokes per round than the person in 56th place.  That number is small, but the difference in earnings was over $1 million dollars.  The person in 1st place had the slight edge.

Some of you may recall the story of Olympic Gold star Mary Lou Retton.  She won a gold medal in gymnastics in 1984, and became the sweetheart of America with her smiling face on the Wheaties box.  Mary Lou won by a very small margin, and actually was behind going in to the final round.  She won by a slight edge.

Let’s apply this to major league baseball:  If you are a good defensive player and can maintain a lifetime batting average of 300 or better, you probably are destined for the Hall of Fame.  If you only average 250, your Hall of Fame chances are much less likely.  The difference between a 300 hitter and a 250 hitter is only one additional hit every 20 times at bat!

Years ago I was watching the NBA finals.  The Miami Heat won in the last minute as a result of two missed free throws and a heroic play by Lebron James.  They won the championship and the fans quickly forgot the small margin they won by.

There is a lesson for all of us in this “slight edge” concept:  If we want to be the best, we must be working on a skill or habit that will give us the slight edge.  The amount may be slight, but the benefit can be big.

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