Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian author of several bestselling non fiction books. He is also a writer for The Newyorker.

In his third book Outliers, he examines the contributing factors behind successful people. This book differentiates itself from all the other ones of the same genre by focussing on the environmental and cultural aspects behind success. It makes us realize that just the individual traits of successful people do not fully explain their journey.

The book has several examples to support his idea, that success of outliers in any field can be ascribed to a specific set of opportunities and advantages, along with personal drive and ambition.

Here, I would like to present to you the 5 concepts from this book “Outliers” that I found most fascinating

The Mathew effect

It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.

The author notes that the majority of Elite Canadian Ice Hockey players were born in the first three months of the calendar year. The reason behind this is simply that the eligibility cut-off date for age-class hockey was Jan 1 st

So every year, some boy born on Jan 2 nd will be playing against a team mate born on Dec 31 st. The age difference of 1 year will give the older boy undue physical advantage over the younger one.

At ages 9 and 10, coaches select these “superior” players and give them better training, more practice, access to world class facilities etc. By ages of 13 ,14 all this extra training and practice actually makes them better players. And they get selected to the junior teams and then to the big leagues.

A small advantage at an early age compounds itself into being the difference between a world class player / Outlier and an amateur.

The 10000 Hour rule

Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good

Several studies have concluded that around 10000 hours of deliberate practice is required to achieve world class expertise, at anything. Breaking it down, this translates to roughly 10 years of practice in the field of choice to become an Outlier.

Mozart started writing music at 6, legendary Bobby Fisher took 9 years to become a chess grandmaster. At Hamburg, The Beatles played music for 8 hours every day.

We can also note that clocking in 10 years of practice is practically impossible unless you have a supportive family, financial resources and many other things that are out of our control.

IQ is not Important

Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.

In 1921, a psychology professor at Stanford studied around 1470 children with an IQ of above 140. He tracked all their achievements till their adulthood. Surprisingly the success rate among this group was similar to any random sample taken with similar family backgrounds.

Practical intelligence is more important i.e knowing how/what/when to communicate with whom.

On Child Upbringing

The wealthier parents raised their kids one way, and the poorer parents raised their kids another way

A sociologist named Annette Laureau did a study on a few 3 rd grade children, following their daily routine and interacting with their parents, both the wealthy and the poor

The wealthy parents tend to make an intense schedule for the kids, moving them from one activity to another and exposing them to several experiences. They were also constantly  enquiring about their teachers,coaches and classmates.

Laureau summarized these children’s behavior as follows

They acted as though they had a right to pursue their own individual preferences and to actively manage interactions in institutional settings.

By contrast,the poorer Parents had a passive approach towards their children’s activities. The active involvement approach seemed to work much better

Meaningful Work

Those three things – autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward – are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

The author defines meaningful work as something that has 3 underlying characteristics

1. Autonomy – You need to have a say in the decision making process i.e an element of entrepreneurship.

2. Complexity – Work must be complex enough.

3. The reward must be directly proportional to the amount of effort put in.

These qualities are more important than any amount of money you’re paid.

Summary

We focus entirely on the talent, hard work of Outliers. However, it’s just a part of the equation. Any success story will have lots of lucky external advantages/opportunities that are specific to the individual’s environment and culture.

So the next time you come across a success story, ask yourself this question.

“How many unsuccessful people have the same/better individual traits as this guy?”

The answer will reveal the whole story behind those Outliers.

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