Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

I recently read Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell and find that it compliments Mindset by Carol Dweck. Both titles look at our perceptions of success and how it is achieved. Each author systematically makes the case that success is not a chance occurrence and not based simply on intelligence.

Using data, Gladwell peels back the layers of what makes one successful and how it is influenced by opportunity and timing. He calls these successful people outliers as their success is outside the norm.

His opening example is with Canadian youth ice hockey players. Due to the date of their births, many of the best players actually share a month of birth. Gladwell claims that with the age cutoff to enter a team established on January 1st, all boys born in January, February, or March have the most opportunity to practice with coaches. More practice equates to better players. Better players become the best players and advance their skills and opportunities as they grow.

Similarly, opportunities for exploring computer technologies happened to a young Bill Gates. At a young age he was able to engage in hands-on exploration of main-frame computer software even developing programs. Over several years, he honed his skills at a time when few understood software programming; it was a new phenomenon. We all know what became of Bill Gates!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm