Patterns of Success

Outliers: the story of success. By Malcolm Gladwell.  New York: Little Brown and Company.  2008. 309pp. $15.07. hardcover.

Review by: Dave Keehn, Christian Ministries, Biola University, La Mirda, CA.

Americans are mesmerized by success.  As a society we buy many biographies of those who have arisen from “nothing” to “strike it rich” or achieve great status.  Building upon his influential books The Tipping Point and Blink, which provided business leaders analysis for improving their market share, Malcolm Gladwell, in his latest book Outliers, provides intriguing stories of successful people, “outliers”, to discover their “secrets”.  Contrary to popular opinion that success is based solely on individual effort and talent, Gladwell makes the claim success is based more on opportunity and cultural elements.  Successful people “are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot” (19).  These two very important elements form the outline of Gladwell’s book and will provide clues to what all people can do to increase their chances for success in their lives.

Recognizing opportunities is the first element of success.  The selective moments that offer someone a chance to achieve status or skills uncommon to the average person are often based on matters outside the person’s control.  It would be wrong to merely label this as “luck” as success is the result of what someone does with the opportunity. For example, Gladwell described the “Matthew Effect” based on the biblical principal cited in the Gospel of Matthew: to those who have some, more will be given.  “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success”  (30).  Researching the birthdates of athletic stars, Gladwell realized many of the professional stars in hockey, baseball and soccer were born in the same three-month span accordingly.  He realized this was due to the fact that these individuals were born soon after the age cut-off date for the children’s leagues.  Thus, when first playing the sport, the future sports’ stars as children were older and bigger then those born in the later months after that cut-off date.  As the time gap allowed them excel at the sport, they were given opportunities to play in advanced leagues, receiving more playing time and better instruction.  Gladwell’s key claim is “successful people…are products of particular places and environments” (119). Therefore, it was the optimum birth date not merely talent that promoted these child athletes to triumph.

Yet, opportunity alone does not make someone successful, otherwise all the people born in these select months would achieve great accomplishments.  Gladwell points out “the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works” (39) once given the opportunity.  The “10,000-hour Rule” is based on the observation that professional musicians and “experts” in various fields, from violin players to the Beatles to Bill Gates, put in many more hours of practice than others respectively.  Often times, it is “the extraordinary opportunity that gives them a chance to put in those hours” (42). Simplify stated opportune circumstances allow for extra practice which separates the great from the merely good.  The take-away for application is the leader must be prepared to work hard to seize upon an opportunity.  We cannot always create these rare chances so giving our complete effort in all situations will maximize any opportunity to its fullest.

Gladwell cited numerous examples of people who turned adversity into opportunity.  The key is to recognize the opportunities around us.  My experience is often people are unaware of the chances being offered to them.  This happens as people focus on the negative circumstances or “unlucky” breaks that befall them.  However, success comes from “particular opportunities that our particular place in history presents us with” (137).  While some eras are more advantageous, the challenge for all leaders is to do the hard work of analyzing the situations to find the “nuggets” of opportunity to build upon.  This is “hard work” because the opportunity may not be obvious or desirable to the common public.  While Gladwell did state that not all people could be successful as some are unable to escape the limitations of their generation (138), he offers hope with the lesson “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (151).  That statement is the secret to maximize any opportunity that is presented to you by the life circumstances of culture, generation and family history.  The leader must develop the personal ethos to seize every moment in order to insure all opportunities will lead to success.

The second part of Gladwell’s book focuses upon the reality that it is cultural elements that allow someone to take advantage of the opportunities presented to him or her.  His second key claim is “the traditions and attitudes we inherit from our forebears play a role [in our success]” (176).  Gladwell provides support for this thesis by discussing “cultures of honor” which propagated practices that repeatedly led to tragic results.  The plane crashes of specific airlines or the running feuds in particular rural communities highlight culture behavioral patterns.  “Each of us has his or her own distinct personality.  But overlaid on top of that are tendencies and assumptions and reflexes handed down to us by the history of the community we grew up in, and those differences are extraordinary specific” (204).  Thus, while each of us may have unique talents, skills and knowledge available to us, we subconsciously utilize them or submit them to the cultural legacies where we are from.  In the same way, to their advantage, some cultural patterns instill its people with an ethic predisposed to hard work or with mindsets that allow specific knowledge to be mastered easily.  A leader’s success may be based upon his or her ability to embrace these positive cultural patterns or, when necessary, create cultural distance to ignore these influences when such cultural elements place him or her at a disadvantage.  The challenge for all leaders is to actively work to create new cultural legacies that empower all people to achieve successful living.

A key question Gladwell does not answer is “what is success?”  For many of the case studies presented in the book, success was related to financial boom, popularity or recognition.  Yet, for many people success can only be defined in terms of relationships and attitudes.  Who is to say the single mom who raises her children to love God and love others, to make a positive impact on the world, to take responsibility for their actions instead of blaming circumstances is not as successful as the hockey star that becomes rich and famous for a moment of time.  For the ministry leader, success has wrongly been labeled as numeric growth of the ministry.  However, what ever the definition of success, Gladwell has identified that “success follows a predictable course… Outliers are those who have been given opportunities – and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (267).   For the ministry leader or business executive preparedness is the key to success.  We prepare ourselves to take advantage of opportunities by working hard in the small opportunities first presented to us so we are ready for when larger opportunities come along.  Accumulated accomplishments are the secret to success building upon success.

A second challenge Gladwell pleads for is to change the “patchwork of lucky breaks” to systems that provide opportunities for all (268).  As I have authority to remove barriers to personal advancement for others, I have the moral responsibility to lift up my fellow man.  For in this way, all of society will continue blossom to its full potential.  While that may sound like utopian thinking, this begins to become reality with each leader fully investing in the opportunities around them.  In doing so, we will impact the people around us for the common good.  Perhaps the best place to start on the path of success is with gratitude to our Creator for all that He has given us.  For when we are grateful for our circumstances, skills and family history, then we are able to better see what may become of the opportunities given us and do the hard work to seize success.