Nov 12, 20193 min read

Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers, and my initial thoughts

Outliers is considered a classic, amongst Gladwell’s fan base. In a previous post about Talking to strangers I was disgusted with Malcolm Gladwell’s twisted view of the Sandra Bland case. As I stated in that blog post I believe some of his work has redeeming qualities, but will probably never buy another one of his books again.

With that being said I have read all of his past books, and absorbed the information, so its not like it matters, he pretty much has all my money, all jokes aside. Who should read Outliers?

Who should read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell ?

Success leaves clues, and Outliers does an excellent job, pointing out what some of those clues are, and how and why certain events lead to success.

I think this book can be of great value to personal trainers, coaches, teachers, CEO’s, parents and the list goes on and on.

Having a solid understanding as to how culture, family, and location can lead to success, will allow you to recreate or mimic certain factors in your own life.

The myth of the self-made man

Everyone has some kind of unfair advantage in getting ahead, or some kind of life changing event where good or bad, that allowed them to become successful. Or what Malcolm refers to as outliers.

We willfully place more value on outliers successes, as them being immensely more talented or deserving and ignore, the many other factors that were integral in their success.

Related skills and traits, have to go hand in hand with talent. Being tall doesn’t make you a good basketball player. There are several other skills, like being able to think and compete under pressure, that go into it as well.

The critical minimum the 10,000 hours rule

We’ve all heard it before, you need a minimum of 10,000 hours in any given field to be good at it.

This is not saying that 10,000 is an absolute must, as much as it is saying that you need to practice, practice, practice.

You have to be willing to gain as much experiences as possible to be successful in any endeavor.

Encouragement, access to the materials needed, in addition to practice will determine your success.

Practical intelligence is key to becoming an outlier

The best way to think of this is the way a kid will negotiate with a parent to get something, especially a toddler in most cases. The know what tone to use, how to ask and when to ask.

This is the same skill required, when asking for a raise, or for a discount from a vendor.

In others fields like football, you wouldn’t throw the football, to the quarter back if he isn’t open. Granted that is what you may do in practice but in real life situations you have to use practical intelligence.

There is a such thing as being in the right place at the right time

The best way to see this philosophy is that this particular outlier can be a former colleague, or boss, who maybe only holds the position the have because they came at the right time,

What I mean by that is they may have started with the company started, or come in as someone left which created an immediate opening for them to fill.

Timing is everything, so we can neglect is role in success.

Legacy is everything

Pay just as much to the companies, and people who are negative outliers, or people who are only outliers, because of how terrible their ego or company is.

Think of how much retail giants immediate thought in terms of negative customer experiences is Walmart in most cases.

So study the failures just as closely as you do the greats and avoid their mistakes.

Summary of outliers

If you are willing to study why the playing fields appear uneven you can even the odds, and create a legacy that goes against the norm.

Other books by Malcolm Gladwell , that I own and have reviewed.