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book review – Outliers: The story of Success

by Dr. Farid A. Muna

Outliers: The Story of Success

By Malcolm Gladwell Little, Brown and Company, November 2008.

Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling author of The Tipping Point and Blink. His latest book, Outliers, has been on the list of best-seller New York Times for eight consecutive months, since it was published in November 2008. Gladwell attractive and journalistic writing style and his talent for simplifying the complex issues, I think, are their secrets of success. And these are the reasons why his books are both controversial and popular. His latest book is no exception.

Outliers tries to explain the secrets of successful people, but proposes that intelligence (IQ) alone is no guarantee of success in life. However, this view is a fact already well known that has been established during the 1990s by a group of academic studies that found that success requires additional powers, in effect, known as emotional intelligence (EI). Unfortunately, Gladwell explains, or even refer to the growing body of literature on EI.

Instead, Gladwell focuses on several other important and equally important ingredients of success. In fact, his book, of course, complements the studies of the IE and explains the "secrets" success from a different perspective: given personal contexts, environmental, cultural and success.

In this book review, I will highlight the main secrets of success enclaves covered by starting with the advantage (or luck) of having been born at the right time of year. An example is Gladwell highlights of hockey players and football in Canada and Czech hockey players who were born during the first six months of a year and have a clear advantage of higher age and maturity their teammates. This is because the age limit for eligibility from 01 January in those countries. As Gladwell explains: "A child who turns ten Jan. 2 then, might be playing next to someone who does not turn ten until the end of the year – and at that age, in preadolescence, a gap of twelve months of age represents a huge difference in physical maturity. "

And the year of birth? That also explains the consequences of being there at the right time, at the age appropriate. Gladwell cites Silicon Valley tycoons who were born between 1953 and 1956 and were therefore in the perfect age in 1975 to exploit the personal computer revolution. Here the names and birth years of some of these successful men: Paul Allen (1953), Bill Joy (1954), Scott McNealy (1954), Steve Jobs (1955), Eric Schmidt (1955) Bill Gates (1955), and Steve Ballmer (1956). Gladwell argues that most lawyers in New York later born in the 1930s also had a big advantage when the boom in the number and size of corporate mergers, hostile takeovers and litigation took place during the 1970s, mainly due to the relaxation of federal regulations.

Gladwell proposes that it is the "rule of 10 thousand hours" of hard work and practice that explains why many people become successful. He provides examples of Bill Joy contributions to UNIX, Java and the Internet; Mozart's masterpiece was written when I was twenty, but began to write music age of six years, the Beatles and Hamburg the experience of playing music eight hours a day, seven days a week between 1960 and 1962, and Bill Gates, who put in thousands of hours of computer programming since the age of thirteen. In addition to being smart, these people have achieved success by putting in 10,000 hours of practice before to become outstanding at what they did.

Two other "secrets" are widely discussed in Outliers: culture and education. Gladwell compares the level safety of aircraft in the 1990s, noting that the master of Colombia (Avianca) and captains of Korea (Korean Air) in some cases could have been avoided plane crashes if their culture allows subordinates (co-pilots and flight engineers) to speak out and warn of impending disasters captains. These two cultures place a great value on power distance, which means that the subordinates to submit to their superiors, even when the above may actually be to blame. In summary, the subordinates were reluctant to speak because of fear and / or respect, a very dangerous culture "dimension" when you're flying an airliner! Indeed, Gladwell argues that no matter where they were born and what culture they were raised in.

Quoting again the culture, Gladwell attributes the high score on math tests in countries such as China, Singapore, South Korea and Japan to a strong work ethic and the demanding nature of the agricultural countries the most important rice wet. Again, Gladwell does not mention that the rice is also grown in other countries like Philippines and Indonesia, whose populations are not necessarily known to high math test scores. Gladwell also does not mention the Protestant ethic of hard work may have contributed to the rise of capitalism and revolution industrial, or the fact that the cultivation of snuff used to be as demanding as working in rice fields.

Finally, Gladwell joins the quality of education for success. He cites the longer days and hours of high schools in Japan and South Korea, "the school year in the United States is, on average, 180 days' duration. The school year in South Korea is 220 days long. The Japanese school year is 243 days in length. Finally, Gladwell mentions vast advantages and opportunities offered half Academy KIPP schools, which began in the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhoods of New York. KIPP students stand in math and reading, and a large percentage of them go to college and "in many cases, be the first in his family to do it." KIPP school start date the seven twenty-five continues until 17:00 All students take classes in thinking skills, English, science, math, social studies, music and orchestra. KIPP offers students the opportunity to work hard and excel at.

Although written with a journalist, rather than an academic approach, enclaves "has undoubtedly contributed to the current thinking about success in the corporate world. Emphasizes the importance of hard work, determination, opportunity and luck, family education, personal circumstances, and culture.

Despite its shortcomings, mainly its lack of academic rigor, enclaves is a book highly recommended for those who want to explore the "secrets" of success, beyond IQ and EI.

About the Author

Dr. Farid Muna is Chairman of Meirc Training & Consulting. He holds a Bachelors degree in Management from San Diego State University, an MBA in Finance from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from London Business School, University of London.

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