The inspirational author Malcolm Gladwell is known for his journey into the overlooked and misunderstood. In his well-known book The Outliers, he claims that genius is over-rated and that a number of key factors such as opportunity, meaningful hard work and one’s cultural legacy all play a role in your path to success.
Outliers are people or groups of people who break the norms and excel at what they do. They find their motivation in opportunity, they seize it, work hard and live according to sound values.
I resonate with a number of Gladwell’s discoveries and would like to share these with you:
- When opportunity presents itself, seize it . I cannot remember where I read an interesting quote on fortune (read as ‘opportunity’) who knocks on everyone’s door, once in a lifetime – but in a good many cases, man is in a neighbouring room and doesn’t hear her… Gladwell has researched many successful individuals’ life stores and believes that factors like chance, when and where you were born can influence the opportunities you have. People who were raised in periods or places of war or depression, obviously had fewer opportunities than generations who had it easier.
- But the theory that I love to embrace is the one that there is no short-cut to short-cut to success without ‘putting in the hours’. He maintains that it typically takes 10,000 hours to ‘master’ something. Those who seize the opportunity, have the chance to ‘do’ the 10,000 hours. Others don’t.
- Hand in hand with this fact, goes the principle of meaningful work. If you feel that there is purpose to your work and your life, Gladwell says, it is more likely that you will work hard and put in the necessary hours to master the necessary skills. Sociologist, Louise Farkas studied family trees of many immigrants who went through hardship and found that their offspring became professionals. She maintained that it was because of their humble origins not in spite of it that they did well – because they were raised in families where hard work was valued and practiced.
- Our legacy and values drive our behaviour, he believes. Often without appreciating this fact, these values are passed down to us from generation to generation. Gladwell maintains that the Koreans’ overly submissive attitude to authority, led to a series of plane crashes; Asians’ reliance on rice taught them the value of hard work and perseverance. This has resulted in a better ability at maths!
