Outliers: The Story of Success Reviews

The first book of 2009 and what a cracker it is. Malcolm Gladwell hits another home run (his third in a row, following 'The Tipping Point' and 'Blink') with this remarkable book. The book is sobering and enlightening at the same time. It explains with absolute clarity how success doesn't come from (just) innate ability, opportunity and hard work play an even bigger part in anyone's success.

The last chapter in the book has this passage which captures to a great extent the message of the book:

"It is not easy to be so honest about where we're from. It would be simpler for my mother to portray her success as a straightforward triumph over victimhood,
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Bill Gates could accept the title of genius, and leave it at that. It takes no small degree of humility for him to look back on his life and say, "I was very lucky." And he was. The Mothers' Club of Lakeside Academy bought him a computer in 1968.
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Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don't. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional and mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is no outlier at all."


Reading the book, the whole book, not only gives me a sense of gratefulness for the immense opportunities that my family has provided for me, but also a little shame for not recognising and making the most of them. And last but not least, it hopefully gives me some insight into the best I can do for my children, which at this point seems like following most of what my parents did for me.