The Unfair Advantage
Cover of The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba
Rating: 8️⃣
The Unfair Advantage is an insightful book that brings a new perspective to light about life. Everyone has their own advantages, whether they know it or not; the book is built to help understand yourself and your opportunities better. This is the kind of book I would gift to an entrepreneurial person trying to start their own thing or side-hustle.
“How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed”
It's understandable because both Ash and Hasan have entrepreneurial backgrounds and are wildly successful in their own rights.
I initially found this book via Ali Abdaal’s book notes episode on YouTube like a few of my other books on How to Book 📚
About Ash Ali
Ash is what some people would call a Serial Entrepreneur. Ash has had a winding road to where he is now. One of his earliest feats was becoming the first Marketing Director of Just Eat UK in 2017.
But before all of that, Ash went against his parents' wishes of him attending higher education. Following that, he went blind into London, with little life experiences under his belt, but enough technological knowledge to kickstart his career.
Fast forward over a decade, Ash has worked with and invested in hundreds of startups and gets involved both as a startup founder and angel investor. Ash currently gives keynotes on the regular, giving talks on platforms such as TEDx, UCL, Growth Disrupt and many more.
About Hasan Kubba
Hasan on the other hand, was already en route to becoming a doctor in university. But unfortunately dropped out in his very first year of medical studies. Long story short, Hasan graduated with a degree in Economics with no direction in life and ended up taking an online course on starting a business.
Hasan specialises in the lean startup methodology, keeping running costs as low as possible during the initial stages of founding a startup.
Interestingly, Ash and Hasan met at a networking dinner when they were trying to overcome the fear of meeting people. They hit it off and became the best of partners and the rest is history.
Summary
The Unfair Advantage clearly speaks to the entrepreneurs and tech-heads out there. The book was released with the tagline:
“Boost your Chances of Tech Startup success starts here”
Which makes a lot of sense thinking back on the book.
Ash and Hasan open their book with their personal stories, explaining how both of them came from less-than-fortunate backgrounds to where they are now, building and growth-hacking startups. They made a point to pick out their upbringing in their environments and also mention their complete journey to becoming entrepreneurs.
The first few chapters set the stage for the rest of the book; introducing themselves and the principles behind Unfair Advantages. They recognised how their own lives were influenced by these Unfair Advantages and brought these concepts to life; slowly through a TEDx Talk and then fleshing it out into a book eventually.
The MILES Framework is introduced by Ash and Hasan, talking about the 9 different overarching parts of life that have Unfair Advantages.
They use their own examples to explain each of them and even provide blueprints for you to find your own Unfair Advantages. Ash and Hasan spend the rest of the book providing real situations in life and how to apply your Unfair Advantage.
Top Takeaways
You will have an Unfair Advantage, whether you think you have some or not.
Trust your instincts in finding your unfair advantage. Using the MILES framework, you can identify where you stand and how to make the most of what you’re given.
Life is definitely unfair!
Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Life is definitely unfair, but that’s the point of the book. Make use of the unfair advantages that you’re given and turn them into your favour.
Your Unfair Advantages in life come from all sources of life experiences.
Favourite Quotes:
“I’m a young, white, educated male... I got really, really lucky. And life isn’t fair.”
Evan Spiegel has acknowledged that his genetics has naturally given him an unfair advantage in our Eurocentric, male-dominant world and he does credit this advantage to part of his successes.
You might not have stricken the genetic lottery of being a stereotypical while male, born in the right place and time. But there are other things that can play a part in your life, like your education, your statutory levels and even where you are.
“Always keep in mind how others succeed and what status they may have had before they started. Don’t feel disempowered by others’ success, as there’s always more to it than meets the eye.”
This quote hits quite hard. This has helped me improve my habit of comparing myself to others, there’s more beneath the surface for literally everyone.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born in the right time, with the right connections through their family to do what they do. Steve Jobs was able to start his entrepreneurial journey really early in life because of his family. Bill Gates had access to a computer extremely early in his life, where most other humans had never even seen one yet.
These unfair advantages has given me some peace of mind to know everyone’s successes are well-deserved and we have to work our own advantages to the best of our abilities.
“It’s not about focusing on the negatives, it’s about knowing the realities and leveraging the unfair advantages that we do have to help us live our best lives.”
This is a pretty self-explanatory quote. You have to focus on the wins that your life gives you rather than the push backs that you’re going through.
Motivate and train yourself to see the positives in life, while not neglecting the negative. This gives you a realistic assessment of your life to make the best decisions moving forward!