Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell is a non-fiction writing that was originally published in the year 2008 by Little, Brown, and Company publishers, which is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The book contains 309 pages, and it is perceived to be the third bestselling author book of Malcolm, after the “The Tipping Point” and “Blink,” which were considered the most influential books in the past decade. The author crafted this book as a response to transforming the way people understand success. This book is about individuals who achieve the success that is extraordinary in various fields, from rockstars to scientists, and the complex web factors which play a role in that success that supersedes the mere innate abilities like IQ and intelligence, and the author uses back-to-back narratives to support these stories. Gladwell argues that success is very different from what people mostly focus on the intelligence and ambition, and that to understand the reason why other people succeed, other factors such as their birthplace, family, one’s upbringing, cultural legacy, and even birthdate plays a role. The book consists of two main parts: part one “opportunity” with five chapters and part two “legacy” containing four chapters. The books also comprise of an epilogue and introduction. The main theme that runs throughout the book is the “10,000-Hour Rule,” which Gladwell uses to claim that requires enormous time.
Character Analysis
There are various characters in Outliers: The Story of Success who bring significant value. Christopher Langan is one of the main protagonist, profiled by Malcolm in his success and intelligence relationship discussion. Gladwell uses Langan as an anecdote to discuss his claim that genius is neither the important nor the only thing when determining the success of a person. Often referred to us “the smartest man in the world” (Gladwell, 2008), Chris is an extremely intelligent man with an IQ of 195, but was not able to earn a college degree. Growing up in a family that is very poor in Montana, Langan shows an intelligence that is remarkable at a tender age when he is capable of grasping mathematical concepts that are complicated far beyond his years. He earns a scholarship after high school to a private college but losses it due to financial issues to aid some paperwork. Tries college again in Montana but drops out when he is unable to attend classes and unable to arrange for rescheduling of his classes. As such, in general, Gladwell argues that the genius of Langan did not guarantee him success and that factors such as his family background and childhood made it challenging for him to achieve his potential in full.
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The second main character is Robert Oppenheimer, who is described as the atomic bomb father, and a celebrated physicist who turned to be the Manhattan Project director. Malcolm compares Robert with Langan and argues that the affluent background of Oppenheimer is what assisted to give him the skills necessary to achieve success, unlike Langan. Oppenheimer was brought up in one of Manhattans’ wealthiest neighborhood, a son of a successful painter and businessman, attended good schools and afforded a concerted cultivation childhood (Gladwell, 2008). All these in his upbringing makes a pivotal difference between him and Langan and is what gave him the opportunity to become successful in life. Gladwell describes him as a man who knew how to navigate the world and makes himself successful in a way that Langan did not: “Oppenheimer possessed the kind of savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world” (Gladwell, 2008).
Other characters include Bill Gates, Bill Joy, and The Beatles. Bill Joy is the renowned computer scientist whose Gladwell associates his success not only to his intelligence but also to his good fortune because he happened to attend a school which had a computer system, and he got the opportunity of working on that system for many hours on a daily basis. Similarly, Bill Gates is the Microsoft co-founder and one of the most successful, and wealthiest philanthropists and entrepreneurs. Like Bill Joy, Gates was also fortunate enough to interact with computers at a very tender age. The Beatles is perhaps the most famous rock band in history. The Beatles got the opportunity to practice live show which outshined close to all other bands in their era, and this became a factor in their success (Gladwell, 2008). All the three characters had one thing in common: along with ambition and talent, every one of them enjoyed an opportunity that is unusual to intensively cultivate a skill which enabled them to rise above their peers. Gladwell uses their path to success to describe that it is not only the innate abilities that make people successful but also their extraordinary opportunities. Gladwell (2008) contends:
It is not the brightest who succeed,” “Nor is the success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them. (Gladwell, 2008).
Plot Summary
Outliers is a non-fiction book that was set up in America in the 21st century. This book is a fascinating book which examines the success nature using different stories as case studies. Malcolm starts by explaining what people tend to imagine of successful people and notes that people believe in the individual merit predominance. The primary objective of Gladwell in this book is to show that such assumptions are frequently wrong. As such, Malcolm argues that expertise and achievement do not just happen, but rather they result from a combination of different crucial and at times seemingly contextual factors that are superficial. In this context, the other two success factors that Gladwell greatly explores is social skills and practice time. In his opinion, Malcolm asserts that great success needs a massive amount of practice time, a point which Malcolm backed up by demonstrating that successful people frequently spent ten thousand hours or even more practicing. Thus, it is not only the innate talent that makes people successful, but Gladwell asserts that other factors like childhood circumstances, heritage, ethnicity predecessor’s life experiences have an enormous effect on the potential for individuals success. Therefore, the book is intended to transform the way people think about success.
Conclusion
In summation, my final thoughts on a balance that is fine are that this book is fascinating and I truly like it. I like it because the author went beyond and above in explaining what entails success beyond the ordinary thinking of the innate talents that people always believe and attributes to successful people. The book opens up my mind to think that it is beyond intelligence that makes us successful but other factors are involved, and most importantly, seizing the opportunity that presents itself to an individual. As such, I would recommend it to my friends to read it and gain the rich knowledge that the Gladwell presents in the book.
Reference
Malcolm, G. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Bown & Company .
