In The Unfair Advantage, Aaron Burke explored what important keys we can learn from the life of Joseph and use the lessons to overcome any obstacle that we may face. He explained how all of our trials, struggles, challenges, and setbacks are actually an unfair advantage that God can use to prepare us. What was meant to harm us God can turn it around for our good see Gen. 50:20. There can be purpose for our pain. He shared in the book how he had an unfair advantage growing up. He had trouble making friends and school wasn’t easy. He was expelled from a Christian school. He failed a few courses and had to retake them. His dad also had a drug problem during his childhood. He has been called to preach and every time he would try, he would lose his voice and he had to get a speech therapist to help him and she told him that he was a lost cause. All of his struggles taught him to have greater dependence on God and to have a greater humility. He had an unfair advantage and was able to see the good that came out of it.


The book covered the entire story of Joseph. He was rejected by his brothers and threw him into a deep pit. They wanted to murder him. He was eventually sold into slavery. They were extremely jealous of how much attention and love their father gave him. His dream of success angered his brothers and cause strived and conflict. One of my favorite chapters covered rejection and he has pointers on how to deal with it. He was rejected because of who he was as an individual. He also shared how Oprah, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, and many others all faced rejected and they all overcame it. He opened up about his own experiences with rejection and how he didn’t get picked for sports teams and how devastated he felt. Even Jesus warned about how brothers will betray their brothers to death and children will rebel against each other and how we will be hated because of Jesus (Matt 10:21-22). Jesus was also rejected and he hung on a cross for our sins. He teaches readers ways in which to deal with rejection and how to not allow bitterness to take root. He instructed readers to guard your hearts.


I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is ready to go deeper into the study of Joseph. He overcame his unfair advantage and God used all of his pain for his advantage. I immensely liked reading this book and was very interested in learning how to handle rejection and I loved the questions he presented to ask ourselves if we are holding onto bitterness. There are also discussion questions at the end of each chapter. I also liked how he encouraged readers to invest in their relationships especially their marriages and giving others our time. This book is a wonderful read and it will help you in dealing with life isn’t fair.



I received this book free from Thomas Nelson for my honest review.”

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

The story of Joseph but from a different perspective. The unfair advantage is for all of us that need strength through a battle. It bases it's studies and chapters on Joseph's life from childhood to his leadership role. The book aims to encourage omseld to embrace the beauty of difficulties that cab lead to an advantage. Inspiring and encouraging.

This is an excellent book. It takes a story that we've all heard for most of our Christian lives (the story of Joseph) and breaks it down even further into something we can all relate to - seasons we're familiar with, even if we've never been thrown into a hole or sold into slavery. In addition to breaking down the story, there's a really good balance of Joseph's story and other stories, both biblical and non-biblical, to help facilitate the flow of reading while adding a depth of meaning and exposure to the concepts.

There were a few places where the writing kind of outpaced the thinking a bit, such that the connections were not as strong. The chapter on being forgotten read like kind of a mess to me, as it shifted the definition or emphasis of forgottenness here and there. Every time I thought I latched on, it jumped somewhere else.

There are also some places where the author has put well-known phrases/encouragements/cliches back-to-back-to-back-to-back so that you read an entire paragraph or two of one-liners, which gets tedious and also buries the good news in them. The first one packs a punch, but by the third one, it's tiresome and you start to lose the author's voice because these are all things you've heard before not from him.

Overall, though, I liked this book a lot and will be recommending it to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nelson Books for this ARC.

The Unfair Advantage is a book about the many ways that Joseph was treated unfairly....from the pit to the prison to the palace. The book does an excellent job of describing the circumstances of Joseph's story and an even better job of describing his perseverance. In all 7 scenarios from Joseph's life it would have been completely acceptable for him to give up, quit, or question God...but he didn't. The author did a great job of making this point.

Although I do not agree with some of the author's religious beliefs, the Joseph part of the book was completely aligned with the scriptures.