Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favourite author simply because he can put across interesting idea in a very easy to read and comprehend manner. His works have actually influenced the way we look at things and the famous concept of tipping point is made famous in his earlier book. The book Outliers was actually published in 2008 and I have only recently completed reading this wonderful book. This book strikes a chord in me as it explains success in a way which is logical and not from the usual mainstream media of attributing success to hard work, brilliance, bla bla bla. I am not saying that hard work, brilliance, etc. is not important in one's success but we know from real life experience that there are a lot of people who are hardworking, brilliant, etc. and yet have find success to be elusive. While some have attributed that to luck, feng shui, etc., it is Malcolm's brilliant explanation which put things into clearer perspective. This book also taught me a great deal of how to make full use of circumstances in order to excel in one's chosen area.

Some excerpts from the book are summarised here to give some general idea about the book but I would strongly advise that one read the entire book which is fun and easy to read:

1) .......the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are. (Something which I try to practise now, i.e. if I want to be happy, I will surround myself with happy people and if I need inspiration, I will surround myself with positive and successful people. People to avoid at all cost: moaners and negative people)

2) It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It's the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It's the best students who get the best teaching and most attention.

3) Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness. (This is one of Malcolm's quirky theory - ten thousand hours are about the time required in order for someone to become good in a particular area. So, have you contributed ten thousand hours to your area of expertise?)

4) Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good. (This is an important message especially to talented people. Don't waste your talent by thinking that you are talented and don't need practice)

5) "that intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated" (This is becoming more obvious now as aspects such as EQ are being studied more and more and which seems to give better correlations to success. For me, as a human being, we can only be successful if we are good as a human being, i.e. ability to work in a group, communicate with fellow human being, possess inner calm, etc. This probably explains why so many brilliant technical people are not as successful as people expect of them simply because they may be brilliant working on equations, machines, etc. but have failed as a human being)

6) .....practical intelligence includes things like "knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect." (This is very important - the art of communication! Have you came across someone in your life who is brilliant but every words that came out of his mouth is either sarcasm or downright insulting? I certainly do and most of the time, these are brilliant people, brilliant on technical subjects but with obvious flaw in practical intelligence!)

7)........ in the end almost none of the genius children from the lowest social and economic class ended up making a name for themselves (This may sound sad but am afraid, I also believe in this harsh reality. Children from the lowest social and economic class are at an disadvantage because most often, they lack the confidence, social skills, etc. which is important in order to make a name for oneself).

8) .......no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone (Technical people - please take this point seriously. Working with people is very very important. One cannot have the attitude of couldn't be bothered about the other lesser being)

9) Successful people don't do it alone. Where they come from matters. They're products of particular places and environments.

10) Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

11) ......... if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.

12) Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing  attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them. (Malcolm argued that cultural legacies have much larger influence on us than we think)

13) Our ability to succeed at what we do is powerfully bound up with where we're from,.......... (Don't get the wrong message! It doesn't mean that we cannot be successful if we happen to be borned in less privileged surroundings. What is important is that we realise what we lack and then work harder to overcome those disadvantages. Realisation is key. Of course, we will have to work harder or make sacrifices in order to break through but the success will be sweeter)

14) But Korea, like many Asian countries, is receiver oriented. It is up to the listener to make sense of what is being said. (This book makes me realise the obvious. Asians, because of cultural legacies are usually very indirect when it comes to communicating comments / criticisms. As such, direct criticisms are usually frowned upon and can be even termed as downright rude. In the book, it was demonstrated that one of the reasons for high incidences of plane crashes in Korea previously is due to this cultural weakness where the second pilot is afraid to point out the errors of his captain (not directly anyway) even though at the end, it costs him his live and many others)

15) Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from - and when we ignore that fact, planes crash (For me, the main message is we must accept our own weakness and then work towards managing it)

16) Working really hard is what successful people do,............

17) Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard..........

18) Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don't. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all. (This essentially summarises the content of the book - are outliers really outliers and cannot be explained?)

In summary, this book is such a wonderful read and while I don't think some of Malcolm's theory is tested or proven, it will at least open up your mind and look at some of the things in the world from a different perspective. For that alone, this book is worth the time. Good luck and Happy Halloween.