Outliers

By Malcolm Gladwell
Published in 2008 by Little, Brown and company

Would you believe me if I told you that the success of amazing people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs depended on the year they were born? That Asians are so good at math because of the agricultural activities of their ancestors?  Or that the reason for several mysterious plane crashes was actually the ethnicity of the first officer? In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells us the real story of success. Whether it’s high school hockey players, software geniuses, or amazing math scores, there’s more to success than meets the eye.

In part one, Opportunity, we see how success depends more on opportunity and luck than on personal talent. Learn how Bill Gate’s success was thanks to  the ‘Mother’s Club’ at his school, and how Bill Joy the computer legend would have been a small, infamous biologist if he was born just three years earlier than he was. Through all these stories and more, we understand the amazing way that every small opportunity plays a part in turning unremarkable people into stars. Even setbacks are golden opportunities in disguise. It isn’t enough to have talent. To succeed you need extraordinary perseverance, fortune, ambition, and chances. But sometimes even that is not enough.

Part two, Legacy, tells us what influence the cultural background of a person can have on their success. The author studies how important it is for officers on airplanes to learn English and get used to American culture, and also how rice paddies play such an important role in the math tests of Chinese children.  You wouldn’t believe the effect ethnicity can have on a person’s achievements.

To read more of these remarkable stories about how exceptional accomplishments are made, read Outliers, an incredible book which will alter the way you look at the world.

 

To me, ‘non-fiction’ has always been pretty much synonymous to ‘boring textbook’. But then, I was given Outliers to read as a classroom assignment. After reading just a few pages I was fascinated. I went far past the one chapter I was supposed to read and finished the entire book. By the end, my views and ideas about success had changed completely. I’ve learned an amazing amount from this one book, and I will never look at a ‘rags to riches’ success story the same way again. For the first time, I have truly realized the amazing complexity and hardship success involves.

I would definitely recommend this book to all kids twelve years and above. A wonderful and informative read this is the kind of book that not only you will love, but your parents will be proud of as well!