Reviewed by Me
Genre: Non-Fiction
Topic: Success
"Outlier" is someone that is unique; classed differently; does things out of the ordinary. Someone that made it big and is known as a successful person.
Generally, when we think of success, we praise the "self made man" and want to know that person by their personalities, individual merits, and intelligence told through autobiographies.
In this book about Outliers, Malcolm emphasizes the importance of understanding where, when, and how highly successful people were raised. An individual's success has more to do with the individual's upbringing than merit base. Malcolm shares his insights on how the surrounding, environment, social conditions, and cultural legacies made Outliers who they are.
He starts off the book by sharing the discoveries made by a physician, Stewart Wolf, on the healthy population of Roseto, Pennsylvania. No one under age 55 died or had any signs of heart disease. The death rate from heart disease was roughly half that of the U.S. as a whole. The success of this town's health was how the community looked after one another. The town's social structure had three generations living under one roof. Examining health shows we have to look beyond the individual. The culture and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.
Malcolm argues people don't rise from nothing. He says we owe something to parentage and patronage. Cultural values and attitudes have deep roots and are passed on from generations to generations. Outliers are beneficiaries of social advantages, extraordinary opportunities, and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and succeed in ways others cannot.
Malcolm writes about sports and education - the older kids in the same grade level gets a head start. Birth dates play a critical role who gets selected for gifted programs and a spot on the all star team roster. By having this criteria in talent search programs, we prematurely write off people as failures because they are born later in the year. However, Malcolm does not deny one must have innate talent to succeed. (Not all hokey players born in January makes it to the professional level).
Among students in top schools, the thing that distinguishes one from another is how hard he or she works. An interesting pattern Malcolm writes about is the critical minimum level of practice needed to achieve mastery: 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice is required. Therefore to succeed in a craft or artistry, you must have parents who encourage and support you. You can't be poor. You must be in a special program that gives you the chance to put in those hours.
Other examples of seizing opportunities, was 1860's and 1870's when the railroads were being built and the emergence of Wall Street. To be able to take advantage of that time period the wealthiest Americans were born in the late 1830s. If you were born in the late 1840's you missed it. You were too young to take advantage of that moment. Coincidentally, computer geniuses- Bill Joy, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, were all born in mid 1950s.
Malcolm shared a story about Korean Air as an example of how cultures with high power distance norms and values fail in the cockpit. The kind of errors that causes plane to crash are errors of teamwork and communication. Korean culture centers around the order of seniority and ranking. Subordinates show respect and sensitivity by speaking in formal speech and to never undermine the authority of the seniors. It is up to the listener to make sense of what is being said. Low power distance countries like the U.S. favors bluntness and direct instructions. It is the responsibility of the speaker to communicate ideas clearly and unambiguously. Korean Air decided to bring in an outsider, David Greenberg from Delta Air Lines, to run flight operations. All training was to be conducted in English. English would be the language of the aviation world. This would allow them to be free from cultural hierarchy and formal speech when doing their jobs.
In Outliers, Malcolm demonstrates how success is hardly ever earn by oneself. You need help and support from other people. There are special opportunities for people with the "right" birth dates who are born in transforming economic times. Being raised with a sense of entitlement and curiosity about the world is a major advantage in helping one develop their own voice so that they will not be scared about taking bigger risks and being ambitious. You need to have the confidence in your ideas. You need to have the knowledge to be able to see and take fruitful opportunities.
It is not the smartest who succeed. It is rather a gift of chance. Outliers are those who have been given great opportunities and had the support and resources to seize and benefit from them. Malcolm's book, Outliers, affirms the need to cultivate great minds that may be limited by their circumstances or environment.
