Outliers: The
Story of Success
By Malcolm Gladwell
This book is an exploration of the wider story of
success that lies behind extraordinarily successful people. Outliers are
the people at the far edge of what most people achieve. They are the
Bill Gates and The Beatles of the world.
It is easy to focus on an individual personal achievements and create a
story in which they achieve these things single-handedly, against all
the odds. It is an inspiring story and it gives us hope.
However, the 'personality cult' stories also brush over all the impersonal contributing factors like: When
you are born, your cultural heritage, and a whole series of lucky
breaks. These are common features behind the scenes of the Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell writes about.
One of the central themes is the 10,000 hour rule. It is very difficult
to find outliers at the top of their field who have not accumulated
10,000 hours practise and training in their favoured discipline. It is
the same for musical composers, computer programmers or sports stars.
Watch Malcolm Gladwell talking about 'Outliers' with Jimmy Kimmel:
Outliers is a fascinating book that challenges the commonly held
assumptions about success. It an easy and entertaining read that
provides an abundance of interesting points, that make excellent
conversation starters.
