What Malcolm Gladwell Should Have Told You In ‘Outliers’

Glen,
Good thoughts. I think we all see these OUTLIERS in our daily lives too and they are the ones who inspire us to do stuff.

I think you`re right, success is something personal, it can never be the same for everyone, those stories are great for inspiration, to show it´s possible, to show anybody can do anything if they really want it.

That video`s beautiful, watered my eyes

I loved this post, Glen. I really really really liked Outliers. It made me feel as though the countless hours I’ve poured into writing over the last year were all coalescing to something inevitable, but I also agree that success is different for us all. I don’t have to be the best to be happy or to consider myself a roaring success. I just have to have enough to have my needs met without the daily stress of wondering how I’ll pull it all together.

Glen,

What I take away from this well written article is this line, “Define what success means to you.” It is something that most people actually miss. That is why most people when do “succeed” their success actually creates more stress for than otherwise. A deep and valid point.

Here via twitter.
I, too, have heard great feedback about this book, but I haven’t read it yet. I agree with your premise that each person needs to define success for him or herself. It’s easy to get caught up in the pop culture mindset that success equals money or fame. For me, there’s more to it than that.
Thanks for a thoughtful post.

I simply adore John Wooden’s definition of true success:

“Peace of mind attained only in self satisfaction of knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you were capable.”

In the context of Gladwell’s book, though, I think he was absolutely right to profile those at the pinnacle of their field. When studying behaviour, looking to the extremes can teach us far more than digging around in the middle ground. If you’re trying to understand success in a way that’s universally understood, going to the top of the pyramid must be one of the best ways of doing it.

Or, put another way, a book about an average programmer who just did his best without changing the world wouldn’t have been as powerful a read.

Great post! I really loved the book and you make some great points about it here. Thanks for writing this!

@Glen: I completely agree with you that our perception of success and the reasons for success are skewed. In fact, Outliers was born out of Gladwell’s frustration at successes being misinterpreted as a divine gift or supernatural talent:

In the case of Outliers, the book grew out of a frustration I found myself having with the way we explain the careers of really successful people. You know how you hear someone say of Bill Gates or some rock star or some other outlier—”they’re really smart,” or “they’re really ambitious?’ Well, I know lots of people who are really smart and really ambitious, and they aren’t worth 60 billion dollars. It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude—and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations.

I think the book does this very successfully; Gladwell shows that success — whether you define it as acquiring 60 billion dollars or 60 donuts — is a combination of hard graft, blind luck, environment and happenstance, and this philosophy applies just as well to outliers as it does to those with more humble goals.

To me, the fact that Gladwell chooses to profile those with more easily recognisable signs of success is perhaps more a comment on society than it is a failure of the book.

“If you want to achieve mastery over a sport, an instrument or even lines of text on a computer screen then do it, but do it for you.”

I couldn’t agree more! There’s no way you can master something unless you love what you’re doing. Bill Gates loved to program and build his company. It also helped that he is brilliant and has close to a photographic memory.

Hiya

Beautiful video.
That display of love and commitment is inspiring! A powerful analogy for how and where we can take and share our own lives.

I understand success from taking a larger social, global view of it and working in to smaller individual examples. I think success begins with individuals and gets expressed outward to larger effect.

Success in my opinion is when a person expresses their hopes, desires, well being, determination and love for themselves in any way they choose (obviously without undue harm to others). If necessary, regardless of money, status or any social mores. Simple as that!

I liked what Timothy Leary suggested in an old recorded speech I heard last year: ‘Question authority and think for yourself.’

Thanks for a great post
Jens

Socrates said, “Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.”

My definition of success is simple: I want to be happy.

So, I feel like I’ve “made it” already.

=-)

Outliers is a wonderful and interesting book and tells us that success is not totally inherent. These successful people put a lot of effort into their “success”.

My goal in life is very different. It is to be happy. I have to define that for myself. One of the things that makes me happy is to see and experience new things and do that with someone I love. I have other things that make me happy of course but none of them would involve spending 10,000 hours doing something to make me better at it – Now I would love to spend 10,000 hours traveling and exploring but that wouldn’t necessarily make me better at something.

Just my two cents.

Hi Glen,

I have read the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. I love the point on the 10,000 hours to be a master of a skill. This proves the theory of 1% talent and 99% hard work is the key to success.

Cheers,
Vincent

Outstanding perspective. I always teach my kids that happiness is something you discover inside, not outside yourself. Too many of the world is hung up that our success and our happiness is only measured in wealth.

A parallel I like to speak of is movie stars who are adopting children. Some say it’s a great thing… I wonder, given our celebrities’ pension for drugs, alcohol and suicide whether they’re truly doing poor children a favor.

Great post.

I loved Outliers! I especially liked the chapter on planes. Communication is essential.

Great article Glen. Too often we are chasing something that may never come. We need to stop chasing and just live. This doesn’t mean we can’t have goals or can’t strive for something more but we must not forget to pay attention to what’s going on NOW.

As you said, success can’t be defined by others. True success comes from within. It is my belief that if you do something you love long enough the money will come. While money isn’t the most important thing in the world it plays a powerful role in expanding your purpose. Think at how many live’s Bill Gates has helped in Africa.

This isn’t to say that those who don’t have money can’t help, but money does indeed make a difference. Although to be honest I would take value over money any day.

Great read!

-Bud

Great post Bro. We have to be careful of what society defines as success. Usually it serves some role in keeping the majority of the people down or chasing phantoms.

This is good Glen, as is the video indeed. Even though I have not read this book, I’ve read similar. That being said, I also believe that achieving mastery in whatever chosen area(s) is very crucial, however, it must be for you first; the income, the status, and the like, these are secondary.

As for defining success, often you hear of money being linked to it all. While this is fine, money can help to achieve something beyond ourselves. There still needs to be a greater and deeper reason to persue whatever you are trying to persue, in the grander sceme of things. You also are not limited to only one thing either. Otherwise, whats the sense of it all? You define you; your successes; your life; certainly not on the terms of those near you, nor society. “Live life successfully on your terms.”

THAT video is what is going to get me through 89km and around 11 hours of running. There should be a warning: “This video will make you cry at work”…

Great post Glen!

You know, what Anthony Robbins taught me is that success and failure are not two big things, but smalls steps you take into a certain direction.

Doing a push-up is success, making that call you need too, setting up a site.. it’s all part of the road OF (not TO) success.
Same goes for failure.

Wow Glen, great post:)
The video is super inspiring, reminds us how much we all really have when some people would do anything to have what we take for granted.

My definition of success is achieving my goals.

However, success and happiness are far from the same thing:)

Ooh, I have a question, how do I add a picture to my posts for an avatar?

I, like you, am a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan. I agree 100 percent that success needs to be defined by you, the individual. As it is only when we are truly authentic to ourselves that we achieve greatness!

Thanks for your post. It helps a lot not to forget that success is what you think it is. Not necessarily what the media tell you

Glen, you always write inspiring works to elevate the human condition. Thanks for all you put into it each day.

I don’t think others being a success in the conventional sense means that we’re a failure. it’s not polarised like that. it just means we’re not a success on the measure of success that those with money or public acclaim are. but if you’re not rich it doesn’t mean you’re poor, it just means you don’t have so much money that you’re defined as rich.

I definitely do think that success is up to you to define. in everything. was talking to R about this since he’s been on his “get fit like jay cuttler minus the moobs (man boobs) =D” …and he was checking out all different ways of getting fit and healthy and there were a lot of contradictions…

thing is, healthy and fit by conventional science’s definition is different from healthy and fit according to the definition of some zen yogis sitting in tibet. in the conventional sense, you’re healthy and fit if you have big muscles and your glycemic index is at a certain level etc. zen yogis’ sense of success is more a measure of ease and they’d say that the person with massive muscles and extreme body tone is unhealthy.

to me…success is a measure of how immersed you are in reality, your reality.

most importantly though – i think being unsuccessful is a good thing. i like it when i’m not successful. it drives me to become successful. ghetto hood mentality. make it happen no matter what.

hustla yo

great post man, think it’s a really important thing to think about.
alex

Excellent point glen. I think traditional success is even harder now than it used to be and the “winners” are even bigger. You used to compete locally and now you have to compete globally. The “winners” are unbelievably big winners. Bill Gates wouldn’t have had the opportunity he did had he been born a few years earlier.

There are 6 billion people in the world. The chances of you being the “best” at anything are slim to none. There is one thing you can do better than any other person in the world though – be your own unique self. In that market you have a monopoly.

I could never practice a violin countless hours but I know there are people who get intense satisfaction from doing just that and the results it brings.

Being happy and growing is what it is all about for me.

You make some very good points. Success really is hard to define. There is no single definition for it.

I like your examples about someone practicing the violin for endless hours and others running through the fields! They both could be the best of the best depending on the person.

Just 10,000 hours until you’re a master? I guess that’s the easy part, considering you also need to run into the right opportunities once you become a master. It’s kind of a relief to know what it takes, but a little intimidating at the same time.

Hello ,
I do agree with most of you have a field that you have taken in consideration were you want success .Yes do it . Do it for yourself and not for any one .
Secondly I do agree the post Malcolm has proposed in his book about 10000 hrs of hard work . Make sense completely .
For me success is achieved in how good as a human you have been in your life .Even a beggar who roams in his dirty rags, can achieve success in life , if he is a gr8 soul and gr8 human .
Regards
Sudeep

Thanks for the helpful post, Glen! I love the 10,000 hours idea – it brings us to the awareness that behind every success, comes real hard work in cultivation of our skills first. I haven’t read the book yet, but will add it to my to-read list now.