The Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell poses a....provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky." from Amazon.com

I was only mildly impressed with Gladwell's first two books - but this was terrific. Perhaps it spoke just to my experience directly. Gladwell mentions how great musicians in their later years only have hard work in common - opportunities as well that they have taken advantage of, but never just "talent" as their only path to success. What I was most struck by is the sheer amount of work it took for those successes to happen. Bill Gates, brilliant, perhaps - but also he spent hours working at a computer "club" at a time when they did not even exist in most places.

Gladwell made a fascinating point for me - those successful people in his book took advantage of opportunities. How many people do not have those advantages? What if our school systems provided those opportunities to enrich all students? What if we had the time to consider them all "gifted"?