I have always been a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. His previous works Blink and the Tipping Point provide some of the the most insightful and revolutionary ideas surrounding the business world during the past decade. Outliers challenges fundamental notions of success and the book is premised on the supposition that success is the product of circumstances and opportunity. The assertion is that these factors may have more to do with success than our traditional notions of hard work, intelligence, ambition and passion. Try as I might with an open mind I could never quite buy into the book’s most basic conclusions.
Gladwell credits “lucky breaks” “good fortune” “timing” “birthplace” and “cultural advantages” to the success of Bill Gates, the law firm of Skadden and Arps and Canadian hockey players. There is no doubt that many factors influence a person’s success and we would be naive to believe that anyone ever accomplished success on their own. But for every success story that Gladwell pairs up with these peripheral facts, there are thousands of others with the same factors who did not succeed. Did these things create opportunities? Certainly!
But here is the point that I believe Gladwell misses throughout the work. Successful people find and make opportunities and it is their passion and their untiring willingness to devote themselves wholly to their mission that sets them apart. What may appear as opportunities that were unfairly bestowed upon them I think would be better characterized as opportunities that they sought out. When Gladwell speaks of the internet giants who were “given” free computer time access and just happen to be fortunate, we fail to realize that these people would have doggedly pursued an outlet for their endeavors until they secured it in one way or another. That is what made them successful, not what looks like unfair advantage and opportunity.
I can’t think of any better example than Gladwell’s own family which he talks about in the last chapter. When he said that his great grandmother went out and was fortunate enough to be given the opportunities. I think the most important words are that she “went out!” That is the hallmark of success and opportunities come to those who with passion and undaunted vigilance seek them out.
There is plenty here to digest and to get you thinking, from the educational research done by Karl Alexander which explains the impact that summer vacations have on education to the Hofstedt Dimensions which add insight into plane crashes, Gladwell does what he always does so well and that is make you think. I would say the book is well worth the read, even if you disagree with the importance that Gladwell places on ancillary “outsider” influences on success.
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the #1 International Bestsellers, The Tipping Point and Blink. He is a staff writter for the The New Yorker and was formerly a business and science reporter at the Washington Post.
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