Are We Born to Succeed?
I have enjoyed all of Malcolm Gladwell's books: The Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers. In his third book, Gladwell (who is a staff writer for The New Yorker) makes an interesting case for how the most successful people get to the highest of the highs in their area o(f expertise/career and become "Outliers".
Since we're talking about success here, I wanted to recommend this great read. Yes, it takes intellect, talent, perhaps physical prowess to be at the top of any given field, but Gladwell tells one story after another that also makes the case for:
1) when outliers were born
2) where grew up
3) what family they were born to
4) their culture and/or religion
5) and the BIGGIE: how much TIME was spent (i.e. professional musicians = 10,000+ hours)
There are stories about Bill Gates, the Beatles, hockey pros, concert violinists,why Asian students outperform Americans in math (not the reason you think...not that I know what you're thinking!)and many more. I enjoy reading Gladwell because he challenges myths and creates new perspectives to consider.
Although not an "Outlier" (yet!), I saw myself in this book. How did I first experience success ? My father had a connection to a music teacher when I was in fifth grade, which meant I was placed on the correct instrument from the get go, so it felt easy, so I practiced hours and hours longer than any of my peers (talent, yes, but practice - YES!), which improved my odds of getting a spot with the best clarinet teacher in the state, who I had to practice long hours to please . . . which got me a free ride to college . . . (which meant my sons had a huge advantage in the area of music: exposure, access, experiences) . . . for me, it meant I had a chance to experience success at a young age, then follow my path and recreate success along the way.
This is a sister blog post to my education blog: http://maestroeducator.wordpress.com which discusses the implications for educators of Gladwell's book.
What does this mean for those of us in the field of creating and sustaining success? The short answer is to pay attention to what is right around us, right under our nose and when we are passionate enough to spend a ton of hours on something we care about, we have a huge leg up on the thousands upon thousands who do not, will not. Tenacity is a massive tool in the success equation.
Check out more of my success journey in The DNA of Success Stories
"Embrace Your Journey"
Since we're talking about success here, I wanted to recommend this great read. Yes, it takes intellect, talent, perhaps physical prowess to be at the top of any given field, but Gladwell tells one story after another that also makes the case for:
1) when outliers were born
2) where grew up
3) what family they were born to
4) their culture and/or religion
5) and the BIGGIE: how much TIME was spent (i.e. professional musicians = 10,000+ hours)
There are stories about Bill Gates, the Beatles, hockey pros, concert violinists,why Asian students outperform Americans in math (not the reason you think...not that I know what you're thinking!)and many more. I enjoy reading Gladwell because he challenges myths and creates new perspectives to consider.
Although not an "Outlier" (yet!), I saw myself in this book. How did I first experience success ? My father had a connection to a music teacher when I was in fifth grade, which meant I was placed on the correct instrument from the get go, so it felt easy, so I practiced hours and hours longer than any of my peers (talent, yes, but practice - YES!), which improved my odds of getting a spot with the best clarinet teacher in the state, who I had to practice long hours to please . . . which got me a free ride to college . . . (which meant my sons had a huge advantage in the area of music: exposure, access, experiences) . . . for me, it meant I had a chance to experience success at a young age, then follow my path and recreate success along the way.
This is a sister blog post to my education blog: http://maestroeducator.wordpress.com which discusses the implications for educators of Gladwell's book.
What does this mean for those of us in the field of creating and sustaining success? The short answer is to pay attention to what is right around us, right under our nose and when we are passionate enough to spend a ton of hours on something we care about, we have a huge leg up on the thousands upon thousands who do not, will not. Tenacity is a massive tool in the success equation.
Check out more of my success journey in The DNA of Success Stories
"Embrace Your Journey"
Posted by Sharon Woodard at 8/1/2009 8:39 PM 
Categories: success, books, success principles
Tags: success Outliers Malcolm Gladwell books about success getting success
Categories: success, books, success principles
Tags: success Outliers Malcolm Gladwell books about success getting success
Hello Sharon, how ironic that the titlel of my first book is "Born to Succeed." I like this article. It is most encouraging. I believe that we all were born to succeed. But, it takes a plan and dedication.
Reply to this