Outliers

What do The Beatles, undoubtedly the most popular band of the 20th century, and Bill Gates, founder of the software company Microsoft, both have in common? Aside from being tremendously accomplished in their respective fields, both The Beatles and Gates were given an extraordinary amount of opportunities. In fact, their success is mostly a consequence of chance, according to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success. In 1968, Bill Gates was given unlimited access to a time sharing computer terminal through an extremely unlikely set of circumstances. This allowed him to become considerably well versed in the language of computers and it gave him a distinct advantage in his field. Similarly, The Beatles were given nearly unlimited stage time as the house band for a strip club in Hamburg, Germany, a kind of prospect virtually unheard of for most musicians. The pay wasn’t great, but the experience was priceless, because it allowed them to progress both as musicians and showmen. Without these lucky breaks, the influence of both Gates and The Beatles would be unknown to the world’s populace.



Bill Gates, The Beatles, and really all successful people of this caliber are what Gladwell calls “outliers”; that is, extraordinary people on the fringes of society. In Outliers, Gladwell churns compellingly through a number of stories about successful people with an unmatched cultural and behavioral expertise. The underlying theme of all these stories is the role mere circumstance plays in the success of extraordinary people. The author also uses sports to illuminate an important lesson: it takes not only hard work and determination to be successful, it also takes a strong network of support and a whole lot of favoring circumstances. Canadian hockey leagues, for instance, strongly favor players born at the beginning of the year, merely because the cutoff date for eligibly in age class leagues is January 1st. Gladwell argues that by subversively excluding the younger boys, a great amount of talent has gone untapped. Outliers puts a continuous emphasis on family background, upbringing, geographic origins, and cultural legacies in relation to the habits of prosperous people.



Gladwell explicitly states that Outliers is not a work of instructional literature. It is not meant to be taken as a book that reveals some untold secret in regards to the habits of successful people. For instance, it’s no secret that if you do something a lot, you will become somewhat of an expert. That’s just conventional wisdom; however, Gladwell actually calculates the amount of time it takes for one to become an expert in a certain area. The data shows that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice in virtually any cognitive field for one to become a master. Outliers is a work of argumentation, and ultimately, it is a critique of the flawed societal institutions that play an integral role in determining who becomes successful.

Gladwell plays detective throughout Outliers, gradually unraveling the various, intricate patterns of success, and thoroughly debunking the myth of the self-made man. The book presents readers with the notion of practical intelligence; that is, the ability to get what you want from the world. Practical intelligence is acquired, as opposed to our traditional notion of the intelligence quotient, which is though of as inherent. Gladwell makes the argument that IQ is simply not as important as other factors in relation to success. The author makes this concluding statement: “The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.” This is a statement of hope and unbridled optimism; it means there is no big secret to being a successful person. The calculation is quite simple, really. It takes hard work, determination, and, for lack of a better word, luck. The ultimate message of Outliers is that successful people are not inherently better than others; any hardworking, passionate, and relatively bright person can be successful, given the right set of circumstances.