Laura Huang, an award-winning Harvard Business Schoolprofessor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive qualitythat gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some peopleseem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create ourown from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them towork in our favor.

How do you find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable? Howdo you get people to take you seriously when they’re predisposed not to, andperhaps have already written you off?

Laura Huang has come up against that problem many times–and so has anyonewho’s ever felt out of place or underestimated. Many of us sit back quietly,hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself. Or we try to forceourselves into the mold of who we think is “successful,” stifling thecreativity and charm that makes us unique and memorable.

InEdge, Huang offers a different approach. She argues that successis rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, and skills, or oureffort. Instead, achieving success hinges on how well we shape others’perceptions–of our strengths, certainly, but also our flaws. It’s aboutcreating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomingsand turning them into assets that make others take notice.

Huang draws from her groundbreaking research on entrepreneurial intuition,persuasion, and implicit decision-making, to impart her profound findings andshare stories of previously-overlooked Olympians, assistants-turned-executives,and flailing companies that made momentous turnarounds. Through herdeeply-researched framework, Huang shows how we can turn weaknesses intostrengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneurscored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreignaccent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters’ doubts abouthis physical disabilities.

Edgeshows that success is about knowing who you are and using thatknowledge unapologetically and strategically. This book will teach you how tofind your unique edge and keep it sharp.

About the Author

Laura Huang is an associate professor at Harvard BusinessSchool; previously, she was an assistant professor at the Wharton School,University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been featured in theFinancialTimes, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, andNature.

Her research has won awards including a 2016 Kauffman Foundation Fellowship;Huang was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of40 by Poets & Quants. Her speaking and consulting clients include Google,Uber, BlackRock, Keystone, Bionic, and the Level Playing Field Institute. Thisis her first book.