True competitive advantage and edge in trading

The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.
-Arie de Geus

The problem is the world changes out from under you if you're not constantly adding to your skill set.
-Jeff Bezos

We have been in literally hundreds of due diligence meeting through the years with the same question asked, "What is your edge?".  At times, you get tired of the same question as if you can distill experience and skill into a few sound bites. However, the two quotes above may be critical for any discussion about edge. Arie de Geus is the former head of strategic planning for Royal Dutch Shell. He seems to get the critical edge for any trading firm. Can you learn faster than your competition? You do not have to always be changing, but you have to add to your stock of knowledge and employ what you learn to get better. If you do that, you have an edge. 

The comment from Jeff Bezos could be a variation on the same theme. You have to constantly be adding to your skill set or you will fall behind in a changing environment. The markets, sectors, products, investors, and brokers are all changing and if you do not stay on top of market developments, you will fall behind. 

Learning and adding to skills is the critical edge in a changing world.