You can tell that I am completely snowed under by work judging by how quickly I’m getting through books these days. Well, I thought two book reviews in a week wasn’t enough so I’mmacommin’rightbackatcha’ with another.
Today’s book is Outliers: The Story of Success by British-born, Canadian journalist and The New Yorker columnist Malcolm Gladwell. This is Gladwell’s third book following on from his previous highly-acclaimed books The Tipping Point and Blink, released in 2000 and 2005 respectively. I first became aware of this book via an interview (part 1; part 2) Gladwell had with CNN presenter Fareed Zakaria and decided this book was a book I must read.
Outliers is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at successful and talented individuals and just how they got to where they are. On the surface, it may appear that they were born ‘with God-given talent’ or that they were born with ‘exceptional’ IQ. But, Gladwell contends that whilst these factors no doubt play a highly significant role in the shaping of these individuals’ destiny, a bigger factor is the often unseen factors that come into play and contribute to their success. The lucky breaks they receive, the fortunate events or time they are born into, not to mention the endless hours of hard work and religious devotion to their skill, talent or passion.
These factors may be the significant advantages of coming from a upper- or middle-class family where studies have proven children growing up in these families significantly receive more support, assistance, talent recognition and empowerment through their childhood than children of poor or working-class families. Another significant factor is happening to be born at the ‘right place and the right time’ and Gladwell clearly illustrates several examples where the individuals in question, one notable individual being Bill Gates himself, openly state that luck and significant fortunate occurrences played a key role in getting to where they are today.
Gladwell also examines and returns to throughout the book the ’10,000 hour’ rule whereby any individual can become significantly talented and skilled in a subject given the circumstances where they are given 10,000 hours to perform and perfect this task in their early lives. Here Gladwell uses the example of The Beatles, among others, whereby The Beatles by a series of fortunate, random encounters were asked to perform in Hamburg at a club 8 hours a night, seven days a week. Most bands would baulk at this work condition but The Beatles were so enthusiastic and passionate about their music that they relished the opportunity given to them, perfected their craft whilst spending those long hours in Hamburg and went on to become the most successful musical group in history.
Gladwell also points to the largely illogical cut-outs dates for junior sports teams and how frequently stars develop having been born within a few months of the junior cut-off dates, having the advantage of being older and usually more physically developed at a young age, and how these individuals go through the system and are picked for the regional and elite squads until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby 75% of professional sports stars were born within six months of their junior leagues cut-out dates.
The book also looks at how intelligence can only get you so far, and to get beyond that point you need early intelligence monitoring and subsequent streamlining, a support structure, vast network and nous to get ahead, citing two notable examples of two highly-intelligent men who have/had led incredibly different lives, almost entirely due to their upbringing and childhood.
Interestingly, the book looks at and examines the key roles in which culture shapes and molds individuals’ work ethic, thought processes, language acquisition and entire way of seeing and interacting with the world. Understandably, culture can be play a key – yet often overlooked – factor on how individuals and the societies they live in deal with issues, problems, conflicts and opportunities. In these chapters, Gladwell provides several notable examples – most significantly the key role culture played in the conduct of Korean Air pilots pre-2000.
In Outliers, Gladwell also takes a personal look at his mother’s family history in Jamaica and the chance opportunities, lucky breaks, fortunes of time and random occurrences which enabled her to move to London to further her studies and become a success.
Outliers is an entertaining, highly interesting and thought-provoking book. You may not be thoroughly convinced of Gladwell’s theories by the end of it but will no doubt be impressed by how well he presents his case. I give it five out of five stars.
