Book Review: Outliers The Story of Success

I rarely write about books that I read. The other times I can remember was for The Dip, The World is Flat and 4 Hours Workweek.

But this is a rare exception and for a really good reason. Simply put, I’ve enjoyed reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It really gave clear examples, stories and facts which cleared up up lots of myth about how and why certain people achieved success.

Good Points About Outliers

Here are the few important points that I was able to learn out of this book:

– The Ten Thousand Hour Rule. To achieve greatness and success, it pays to work hard and practice, practice, practice and work much, much harder then the rest. Mozart, Bill Gates and Bill Joy were all good examples.

– It matters when and where you were born. There’s a difference in terms of mentality, social attitude and opportunities at the time you were born and the people around you during that period which you grew up with and interact with.

– Why Asians are better in Math than Americans. Tips: it’s because of the American long summer plus the fact that Asians are rice farmers while westerners are mostly wheat farmers. This might sounds weird but wait till you read the book.

– We are all deeply rooted and influenced by our cultural and family background, no matter how hard we may try to deny that.

– Success can be cultivated. People just need the guidance and chance from a community/family/society to show them that meaningful hard work can be fruitful.

– No one does it alone. No one reaches the top without the help of any external forces (opportunities, chances, luck, coach, family, friend, partners etc).

Conclusion

Once I picked up the book, I can’t let it down. In fact, I finished it in 2 days. It was really that good!