Sofa Spotlight - Cumulative Advantage, Mark W Schaefer

The basic premise of this book is that everyone has something that they can build on, some kind of advantage, and if you get the timing right, you can keep building on that advantage to reach your goal.

The principle is to do with what is called the Matthew Effect, taken from Matthew 25:29 which reads: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” And instantly I’m kind of ticked off because it might be a nice little soundbite that in some way reflects how the world works – the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. But when you look at the context of what Jesus is saying you see that it isn’t a commentary on how society’s work. Where this little soundbite sits is in a wider narrative, where Jesus is talking about the end of time and what it will be like to stand before God as the judge. It’s not about making money or achieving goals. It’s about making sure that we’ve made the most of the truth that we know about God, and that we won’t have any reason to be ashamed when we stand before Him.

Anyway after I’d got over my confusion of how that verse from Matthew was being used I thought that maybe there was something to this book. Maybe in a spiritual sense we should be looking at what we have and using it to have cumulative advantage in spiritual growth. And growing to be more like Christ is a goal, right?

For goal achievement I think this a great book. It is very clear and each section has a handy diagram, which as a visual learner I enjoyed very much. And what I liked about the conclusion of the book was the way Schaefer wasn’t worried that his goals might not be the same as everyone else, but he is doing what has value for him. That for me was a good takeaway and I appreciated his honesty. And in fact, the final part of the book felt very honest. What came across was that he felt no pressure to try and reach the top and have it all, but freedom to choose to do ordinary things well and add value to other people. I suppose for me that is more of a spiritual thing than a material thing.