The Winning Edge

I heard two pretty awesome concepts today while listening to some audio books. The first concept was about what it takes to beat the competition in business. I thought this analogy was really brilliant;

“If a horse runs in a horse race and comes in first, by a nose, it wins ten times the prize money of the horse that comes in second…by a nose. Now does this mean that the horse that comes in first by a nose is ten times better than the horse that comes in second? Does it mean that it’s even twice as good? Does it mean that it’s fifty percent better or even ten percent better? The truth of the matter is that it’s only a “nose” better, but the difference in prize money is enormous.

The person who gets the sale for their company gets one hundred percent of the business and one hundred percent of the commission. The person who does not gets zero. This does not mean that the person who does not get the sale is only half as good as the person who gets the sale. It just means that they were slightly different while selling. The key to success is to develop that winning edge.”

The second one was about developing our intelligence. In this book, the author was expressing a belief that there are multiple facets of one’s intelligence. I like the breakdown and thought it even supported the first audio book’s point about developing the winning edge. The more of these areas of intelligence that we can develop, the better suited we can be to gain the winning edge in that area.

1- Lingual Intelligence – The ability to grasp vocabulary, grammar, and languages
2- Numerical Intelligence – The ability to understand numbers, mathematics and logic
3- Spatial Intelligence – The ability envision 3-dimensionally within the mind’s eye
4- Musical / Rhythmic Intelligence – The ability to read, write and play music and rhythm
5- Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence – The ability to coordinate one’s physical activity at will
6- Interpersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand, communicate and relate to others
7- Intrapersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand and master one’s self
8- Naturalistic Intelligence – The ability to understand one’s environment and nature
9- Visionary Intelligence – The ability to foresee, predict, and anticipate trends and cycles