 | Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell ISBN: 978-0-316-01792-3 $15.93 on Amazon.com |
Outliers: The Story of Success tells the story of success itself. It strives to break the notion of a romantic rise to prominence through smarts and determination alone by demonstrating the unsung opportunities that several successful people have enjoyed. Furthermore, Gladwell suggests that many more individuals would be successful and the world would be better off overall if we could find a way to provide these opportunities to more people.
A case study early in the book describes the advantage that Canadians who are born in the first quarter of the year enjoy in hockey, apparently because of how age classes are divided in childhood hockey leagues. Those born at the beginning of the year are the biggest, strongest, and most mature in their leagues, get selected for elite teams, and the cycle continues, even into the pros.
"If Canada had a second hockey league for those children born in the last half of the year it would today have twice as many adult hockey stars."
Gladwell also looks at the case histories of individual entities you've heard of, including Bill Gates, Bill Joy, and the Beatles. In every case, he does not claim that the individuals are not extraordinary; it would be impossible to accomplish what they have if you weren't extraordinary. Instead, he claims that the had to be extraordinary AND have exceptional opportunities to make he impact that they have.
The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth....To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success...with a society that provides opportunities for all.
Malcolm Gladwell will be a keynote speaker at this year's Connections conference. If you don't have a chance to pick up the book before October, you can probably get a copy there.
Check out the conference and register today. Space is limited.
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