Outliers: The Story of Success

Ever wonder what makes a hockey star, famous lawyer, or billionaire entrepreneur, different from the rest of society? Malcolm Gladwell, #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, poses an interesting answer to that question in his psychology based book Outlier.

The book is organized into two parts. The first part of the book analyzes individual success stories of famous people such as Billy Joe, Bill Gates, and The Beatles, rightfully naming them the outliers. In this analysis of how each individual got to the position they hold today, Gladwell claims they are merely a productive of extremely lucky and unlikely circumstances that happen to befall them. In doing so, Gladwell does not undermine the ability of these individuals nor does he deny their hard work. He often points out their tireless efforts to achieve mastery of their trade as one of the leading factors to their achievement, merely elaborating on how it was they gained the opportunity to have access to the tools they needed to work hard.

In the second part of the book the main focus is on how culture influences daily actions of people, leading to success or failure in their everyday lives. Gladwell ties events such as family feuds, plane crashes, and academic ability all to culture. The underlying theme of part two is developed as if cultures effects on individual’s success or failures can be acknowledged without insult, than it can be used as a means to bettering performance of all individuals. Gladwell ends the book with a very personal account, detailing his own mother’s story of success.

Gladwell flaunts a very easy-to-read writing style with well-connected ideas, facts and anecdotes to try to persuade the reader of what he is saying. He brings up many good points, presenting some interesting information that most readers would be unaware of, which keeps the pages turning. There are some issues that came up while reading. The overall theme of the book was not built upon well. The start of the book seems to supply information of little use towards any central point. To point out the circumstances these individuals achieved is interesting yet not practical to the reader in any sense. There are small moral lessons in part one such as work hard and a suggestions to change the system, but they are overshadowed by his insistence that the only way many achieve greatness is through luck; not very motivational.

In the second part of the book a theme emerges when Gladwell claims that this knowledge can be used to grant everyone a chance at becoming great, which although valid, was never brought up throughout the majority of the book. Even once that theme is identified, He chooses to end the book on a passage about being thankful for the circumstances that landed you where you are today,  which is not central to the other themes throughout the book and in no way was ever suggested until the last page.

This book provides an interesting, quick read that allows readers to be exposed to multiple interesting thoughts and ideas about the reality of certain situations.  The lack of development of the theme makes it difficult to pull a central message, but the reading was still enjoyable. I would recommend this book to readers interested in subtle facts of social psychology and how the world works, not the best option to provide intellect on how to become successful. Overall the book deserves a 3.5 out of 5.

Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-. Outliers : The Story of Success. New York :Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print.

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