Outliers: The secret of success

I learned a lot in graduate school, but the most memorable lesson for me would be Dr. Ed Morato, Jr.’s class on entrepreneurship, when he told us matter-of-factly, “Everybody loves a winner.”

He challenged us to become a success, because, well, success begets success.

Come to think of it, who isn’t enamored of the idea of fame, power and fortune — our typical benchmarks for success?

We are fascinated by stories of those who have gone against the odds. We read inspiring books that chronicle feats of human glory. We look up to people who achieve great things, and yes, we want to be associated with those we consider successful, hoping that some of with magic will rub off on us.

But really, what makes a person rise above the rest, and perform beyond the norm? More often than not, all success stories run the same course.

“Rags-to-riches,” “self-made man,” and the oft-exalted qualities of drive, talent, intelligence, and ambition have become recurring if not standard themes. 

But as Malcolm Gladwell points out in his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success, the formula for success goes beyond personal characteristics. Way beyond in fact, according to Maxwell: “It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It’s not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”

Consider this book, then, as the thesis that shatters the myth of success. Forget individual merit. “No one — not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone,” stresses Maxwell.

Instead, he argues, success is the result of a confluence of factors. It is as uncontrollable as the timing of one’s birth, and as arbitrary as luck and the advantages presented by a person’s circumstances. But it is also adapting and making the most of one’s cultural legacy, nurturing practical intelligence and giving children a sense of empowerment. Most important, it is working harder than one’s peers, and this has been brought down to an exact number — “10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything.”

To support his claims, Maxwell pokes into the background, life-altering experiences, and amazing opportunities presented to various “outliers,” what Gladwell calls men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary: Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems, Bill Gates of Microsoft, nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, even the Beatles.

He plots the humble ascent of the sons of Jewish garment workers in New York, initially discriminated against by the WASP-ish law firms of Wall Street, but who later went on to become the most powerful lawyers in Manhattan. He attempts to explain what sets apart the finest airline pilots from pilots who crash planes. He even raises the unfair advantage of birth dates when it comes to drafting professional ice hockey players in Canada.

The book is further peppered with amusing anecdotes and tales that make Outliers an interesting read. It also drives home the idea that the circumstances for success enjoyed by these outliers can be created for all. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking message of success and hope: that no matter what others may say, winners are made, not born.