Book Review: Outliers

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
An outlier is someone who falls outside the normal range in a bell-shaped curve. In this book, Gladwell discusses those who are above normal in terms of success. The basic premise of the book is that while we like to believe that successful people often rise from rags to riches in a self-made man individualistic way, the truth is far from it. He suggests that a combination of several factors actually leads to the success of any person.

Those factors include:
*Timing - perhaps the year or month of birth
*Opportunity or lack of it,this either gives you your big break or makes you look elsewhere and you end up with a big break because you are different
*Hard work including a minimum of 10,000 hours spent on the talent or occupation-whatever it is that makes you successful.
*Threshold level - meaning you have to be smart enough or talented enough to succeed. You don't have to be the smartest, just smart enough.
*Cultivated concern - parents or others who help you discover or provide the opportunities
*Culture - which affects how you react and behave in daily life.

Gladwell looks at a variety of successful people and delineates all the factors that have gone into their success. He talks about everything from Canadian hockey players to Bill Gates.

It does seem possible that he has drawn out only the facts in the stories of these peoples lives that support his premise. But I do think that there really is something to the combination of several factors making someone successful.

One factor that is left out would be the idea of pre-destination or foreordination. If you choose to believe that God has placed you on Earth at a specific time and place then the combination of factors in everyone's life is perhaps how they are supposed to be and perhaps our view of "success" is very relative.


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