OUTLIERS-The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers, answers the question, “Why some people succeed and others don’t?”-The underlying fact of what is behind people doing extraordinary things. It is a clear and concise read laced with the experiences of people (successful and non-successful) from all over the world. 

The book is in two parts. Part One is titled, Opportunity, and contains five chapters, and Part two, Legacy, also contains five chapters.

Roseto, Pennsylvania is a small town, composed of Italian migrants. From the small village of Roseto Valfortore, Italy, where they had always inhabited until word came that there was a land of opportunity across the ocean. It was found that it was very scarce for the people of Roseto to die of heart illness. It was rare to die of suicide, alcoholism, drugs, or crime. Even peptic ulcer was no match for them. The Roseto’s were outliers because they brought their culture along with them. A culture that values community, humility, and egalitarianism. Wolf and Bruhn, the two sociologists who were investigating the Roseto Mystery, had to begin to convince medical authorities, that a person’s health status went beyond their personal lives and choices in isolation. It had a lot to do with their origin, the kinds of values their community upholds.

The first chapter, “The Matthew Effect”, dwells on the biblical truth in Matthew 25:29, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him, that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (KJV). Malcolm Gladwell explains this using the Canadian hockey game and some other meritocratic instances. He argues that there is something profoundly incorrect about how we measure or determine success. The people who stand before kings may seem like they did it all by themselves, but it is not. They can do that because thanks to some extraordinary underlying advantages they had, and the history of where they came from that allows them to work and learn how to make sense of the world in ways others cannot.

Roger Barnsley observed this among professional Canadian hockey players, most of them happened to be born between around January. It was hard to find one whose birth month was November or way further from the first month of the year. European soccer, which also selects like Canadian hockey has this same peculiarity. This phenomenon also shows forth in education. Parents of the children born at the end of the school session would want to hold back their children from starting immediately. Leaving them to start the next session. It then becomes hard for a five-year-old to keep up with a child born many months earlier, and this doesn’t just go away as most parents will think, it continues to have a cumulative effect on the child throughout life, determining whether they will be classed as smart or dumb. Then we become too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. 

The 10,000-hour rule; that 10,000 hours of practice is required to emerge at the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert, according to neurologist Daniel Levitin. Bill Joy was gauche. He dreamed of either becoming a biologist or a mathematician until he came across the large computer room at the University of Michigan and there and then started his journey to becoming what would be known today as the Edison of the internet. The computer center opened the year he got admitted to the University, and he got immersed in programming. He rewrote the code for Unix and Java cofounded Silicon Valley firm Microsystems (which played one of the most important roles in computing).

Psychologists have argued if there is anything like innate talent. They experimented with students from Berlin’s elite academy of music, categorizing them into three groups. The first group consisted of those students who were exceptionally good, the second, of the most exceptional students, and the third were the ones who would probably end up teaching music. Interviewing the students from each category it was found out that the children from the first group practiced 6 hours a week by age 9, eight hours by age 12, sixteen hours by age 14 up and up. By 20, they were purposefully and single-mindedly practicing with the intent to get better, for about 30 hours weekly. All these hours summed up to about 10,000 hours. The children from the second group had about 8,000 hours, and those from the third group had about 4,000 hours.

Mozart, Wolfgang, Bill Joy, those violinists from Berlin’s Elite Academy of Music, the Beetles, and even Bill Gates, all had their 10,000 hours of practice in place. Therefore, they were masters. Bill Gates had a better exposure to software development at a young than any kid his age, due to a series of events that made him dedicate over 10,000 hours of his young life.

In the third and fourth chapters of the book, The Trouble With Geniuses, Part 1 and 2, Malcolm explains how geniuses are not always heard or more successful than others later in life. He presents notable facts that prove that the relationship between success and I. Q only works to a point, above this, there is not a tangible success, even with a higher I.Q. He considered another skill that would matter, “practical intelligence”, this would be described by the psychologist, Robert Sternberg, as, “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it and knowing how to say it for maximum effect”. The truth is that both analytical intelligence and practical intelligence do not necessarily go hand in hand. One may be blessed of both or just one.

We know analytical intelligence is an innate ability from our genes. But where does practical intelligence come from? It comes from our parents; people who raised us. Somehow, poor parents do not get involved in the lives of their children (whether talented or not), as the well-to-do ones do. Wealthy parents give their children room to express themselves and develop their talents. The poor parents often disregard that. Their children do not converse with them on a higher level, and any self-efforts to develop their talents would seem like a yearning for attention. These kids could have the same amount of analytical intelligence but would never rank close on the practical scale with the wealthy ones.

The wealthy parents are savvy and would speak up in any issue relating to their kids’ wellbeing in school or elsewhere, unlike the poor parents, who are usually intimidated by authority. Their kids go on to act in this same way and cannot stand up to authorities to utilize their gifts. Intelligence that pays is practical, and there is a different training that brings about this. Therefore, most geniuses with analytical intelligence alone are not necessarily relevant in the world.

The Three Lessons of Joe Flom happened to be the fifth chapter. Joe Flom is the only remaining partner in the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom. The law firm is one of the biggest and the most powerful in the world. Joe Flom scores high on intelligence, attitude, and personality, but the fact that he was Jewish was his big advantage. Alexander Bickel, another Jewish too was one of Bickel's classmates who despite how brilliant they were, were no match for the other students who got jobs at big law firms (people who were not Jewish). But Flom took on other specialties in law that the big firms would not bother themselves with.

Many years passed and almost everyone became interested in hostile takeovers and litigations the big firms never did. But Joe Flom just like Bill Joy and Gates during the computer revolution had established himself in this field and became the go-to person for things like this. These Jewish lawyers took hold of the opportunities that came their way and their willingness to work on themselves gave them the big edge. Plus, these Jewish kids were born at opportune times. There is always a perfect time with the perfect skills to arrive at the perfect location.

The second part of the book is titled Legacy. How people’s ethnicity determines whether they will be successful or not. Harlan, Kentucky natives were notorious and vicious when it came to defending themselves. But the settlers there were Scottish-Irish whose cultures promoted standing up violently for what they believed in. Their herdsmen culture of honor, which they tried to preserve is their push for violence. In the Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes, Korean Pilots were found to be less susceptible to plane crashes.

In The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes, Korean Airlines was involved in so many crashes, before 1999. Planes were lost, people lost their lives, and a lot of countries lost confidence in the Airline. An audit was done which brought about a lot of changes. After then, Korean Air became one of the safest airlines in the world, far above the pilots’ expertise is their ability to communicate well with each other. In the Rice Paddies and Math Test, Asians have been known to be the best Mathematicians. The Chinese inherited years of growing sleepless nights and tired days when they worked on their Rice Paddies. It was hard and meaningful. Therefore, Asians are resilient and studious in each of their ventures.

Marita’s bargain tells about a young girl who runs her life based on her school, Knowledge is Power Program, KIPP. She knew the miracle of meaningful work and is dedicated to succeeding through this.

In the epilogue, A Jamaican Story, the author narrates his interesting history from his grandmother, Daisy Nation’s great-grandfather. Malcolm Gladwell’s mother’s success in life came because of the cumulative acts of Daisy Nation, and other people who propelled Daisy’s decision. But Daisy is from a progeny of strong women and was a product of privileges which if extended to others will live better lives.

Image credit: Amazon

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