Critical Book Review - Outliers - The True Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

The origins of success or the broader picture of self improvement have been attributed to hard work and occasionally as being from the right family to actual luck whatever that is. Malcolm Gladwell looks beyond the common understanding and provides some new insight as to the hows, whys, whats, whos and wheres of success.Galdwell breaks this excellent book into 2 sections:
Opportunity
Legacy
However before he jumps in, Gladwell uses the introduction to provide the reader with a 30,000 foot view so to speak. In the introduction he discussed the Roseto Mystery and how until we change how we look at things the things we look at will not change. Through this mystery, the concept of being an outlier goes beyond being just explained, but extends into actual demonstration. For those who are unaware, an outlier is something situated away from the main body or a statistical observation that s markedly different in value from others within the sample.The first section of Opportunity explains how success in many cases is being in the right place at the right time due to birth date, personal connections, demographics, geography, etc. One of the first takeaways specific to self improvement within this section was this single number 10,000. Successful people invest 10,000 hours in practice from computer programming as in the case of Bill Gates to violinists.I reflected upon this number and realized my ability to read was based upon 10,000 hours of actual reading from first grade to college and beyond. Also, this also reaffirms my belief in writing because the better you write, the more you think, the more you think, the better you write. 10,000 is a critical number within the story of success.Gladwell illustrates his position about success with real life stories from real life people. His talent for making these connections only further validates his observations and brings a greater robustness to the test.In Part Two, Legacy, the reader is exposed to again to real life examples where we as individuals are a product of our conditioning, our families, the expectations of others. From families feuding to plane crashes, Gladwell illustrates the importance of how legacy affects success.I found the discussion about the rice paddy extremely insightful and enlightening when taken in content with the mathematical achievements of Asian students. Maybe this is why so many early American farmers did so well with their 40 acre land grants and why so many American students are now having trouble with mathematics.This book has an interesting ending. All I can add is if you wish to look at the word success differently then this book will help create that self improvement awareness. And awareness is the first step to change. dr seuss cat in hat quotes