Malcolm Gladwell's story of failure

The first blow deafened my ear as if a thousand Woody Woodpeckers shouted at me all at once.

"You've been writing about piffling frivolities!" screamed my CNET handler, cuffing me like a pekingese who had just piddled on his presidential rug. "Can't you just do something serious for a change?"

Then he threw a book at me and shouted: "Read this. You might learn something." The book was Malcolm Gladwell's new bestseller "Outliers." Subtitled "The Story of Success," it is a pithy commentary on some of the entirely understandable (when you think about them) whims that contribute to huge successes.

The Canadian hockey team, for example, is comprised of people born in the early months of the year because they were physically advantaged when they were but little pucks. Bill Gates was fortunate to have access to just the right equipment at just the ripe young age to hone his skills and put him ahead of those who didn't wear glasses and didn't want to make a fortune.

Even The Beatles were lucky to be shunted off to Hamburg, Germany, where they were forced to perfect their pop ditties for more than 10,000 hours.

"It's not enough to ask what successful people are like," writes Mr. Gladwell."It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

(Credit: CC Nimbu)

It is a fine book that takes you many fewer than 10,000 hours to read. However, it is, perhaps, the most misnamed book of all time.

"Outliers" is not the story of success. It is the story of failure. Most of us, when we analyze our lives on cold, damp bar stools, fail. If we didn't, there wouldn't be shrinks. Or tequila.

And Mr. Gladwell's book is perhaps the most reassuring of any that has ever been written for those whose lives have vast holes of unfulfillment that only an extension of Google Earth called Google Soul (you think they won't try and create it, those googlies?) could identify.

"Outliers" encourages us to look for every single explanation as to why we didn't do what we hoped we would do. It tells us there are far more than we had ever imagined. It asks us to really analyze how the whole world is far more against us than for us. Except for a lucky few.

I would have been a brilliant left-fielder, you see. It's just that I was born in the United Kingdom. And my parents were foreign (it's their 55th wedding anniversary today. Do drop them a line). And English was my second language. And the nearest batting cage was, well, probably 3,000 miles away. And Joes Buck and Torre would NEVER have been able to pronounce my name.

See how easy it is? Try it yourself this weekend. It'll make you feel a whole lot better.

[sdandrew75]

Not only is it a book on failure, it is entirely useless. I read it on a long flight, when I finished, I closed the book, stared at it, read the front insert, the back of the book, and must have had the most puzzled look on my face because the guy next to me asked: "Good Book?" The only response after 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence was "I don't know, I still don't know what the point was". I mean, if you really want to spend 50 pages learning about his grandparents and mom, then it's a great book. If you actually thought you would learn something interesting, try one of his other books! I guess he has a contact to publish a couple of books, and he just wanted to knock one out real quick.

[alegr]

The point was that he could make money by convincing some losers to buy and read his book.

[camp88]

If one considers all the Yankees who had foreign-born parents or English as a second language, or who had a name that Torre and Buck had difficulty pronouncing, then one could probably field an all-star team.

Besides, that, simply establishing the conditions for success is hardly the same as a guarantee of success. While it takes at least ten thousand flight hours to develop the skills to succeed, it only takes an hour of complaining and making excuses to fail.

[rfelgueiras]

Well put. I guess it just depends on your general outlook. If you tend to have a negative outlook to things, you may only see it as "why you're not great" manifesto. I saw it as a collection of theories of what made talented people exceptional.

Still trying to read Tipping Point without falling asleep.
I just feel these books could impart their message better if they were cut in length by two-thirds.