Malcolm Gladwell's 'Success' defines 'outlier' achievement
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e biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work," the Manhattan writer says. "There's an awful lot more that goes into it than we admit."
Like the 10,000-hour rule. Greatness requires enormous time, Gladwell says. This explains why The Beatles were the best rock group and Gates is a billionaire.
From 1960 to 1964, The Beatles played live 1,200 times and racked up more than 10,000 hours of playing time, Gladwell says.
"Lennon and McCartney had a musical gift of the sort that comes along once in a generation," he writes. And all that playing time shaped their talent, so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, "they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them."
In 1968, a 13-year-old Gates got access to a high school computer and logged 10,000 hours of programming. Gladwell interviewed Gates, who credits his success to his luck in having that unique access.
Without it, Gladwell says, Gates still would be "a highly intelligent, driven, charming person and a successful professional" — but maybe not worth $50 billion.
How to explain Gladwell's own success?
His decade as a reporter at The Washington Post gave him 10,000 hours: "That was my Hamburg."
If Malcolm Gladwell has his way, that uncommon word soon will be tripping off everyone's tongue.
The best-selling author who made "tipping point" a cultural reference point is back today with a new book, Outliers: The Story of Success (Little, Brown, $27.99).
What exactly is an outlier?
EXCERPT: Take a peek inside 'Outliers'"An outlier is the person who doesn't fit into our normal understanding of achievement," he says.
Microsoft's Bill Gates and The Beatles are among his case studies.
Don't open Outliers looking for the usual rags-to-riches tales of individual triumph. Gladwell, 45, whose best sellers include The Tipping Point and Blink, likes to take a contrarian view.
"The
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