Review: The Unfair Advantage

The Unfair Advantage is the first book I have completed for this season of renewed motivation to pick up reading again (or whatever you call it). Written by successful startup entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba, it's based on one premise: we all already have what it takes to succeed because we all have our own unfair advantages. What are unfair advantages? These are situations or elements that give us an edge over our competition. Ali and Kubba break them down into what they term as the MILES framework: Money, Intelligence & Insight, Location & Luck, Education & Enterprise, and Status. The bulk of the book is spent going into each of these pillars, and ending with a quick guide to pioneering a startup.

To Ali and Kubba, meritocracy is a myth. Behind all success stories are people who knew their unfair advantages and leveraged them well. For Money, having enough of it may provide entrepreneurs with a safety net in the event of a failed business. Intelligence & Insight, well, pretty self explanatory here. Being at the right place at the right time counts as having the right Location, which might be thought of as having good Luck.

I don't believe in luck per say, but to its credit, the authors described it in a fairly reasonable way. They defined Luck as putting yourself out there and thus creating more opportunities for your work to reach others and hence increasing your chances of being discovered. So okay, I guess I get where they are coming from. And having the right Education & Enterprise can help elevate one's Status.

I like how Ali and Kubba went through each unfair advantage in much detail (my summary does no justice). I can see how helpful it would be to a struggling entrepreneur, as the content really gives readers a rational yet motivating view of the path to success in the business realm. Of course, these principles can be applied in other parts of life like school and work. But as a person of faith, I do believe that everything is a blessing given to us by God, and it is up to us to steward them well. I also agree with how the authors noted that disadvantages can be turned to (unfair) advantages, like how being dirt broke can force someone to be frugal and think out of the box for solutions.

I'll be honest, I'm not a changed woman after reading this book, but I will definitely recommend it to everyone nonetheless. Why? It jolts you to your senses if you are living in this hazy world where bumming and moping around is your norm. It's a tight wake-up-your-idea kinda slap, because really, you hold the freedom to decide what you want to make of your own future.