Jeff Lail

In Outliers, The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell tackles success: where does it come from and how to people become successful?

The American myth that success is built on hard work is explained to essentially be a lie as is the idea that self-made people exist. No one is self-made, we all require help to be successful. Sometimes just being born in the “right” month can contribute greatly to our success – as in the example of the Canadian born professional hockey players (a disproportionate number are born in the beginning months of the year).

Cultural legacies also play a role in success according to Gladwell. He uses the example that airplanes from certain companies and with certain pilots crash because of the role of power and authority in their lives; also that Chinese are more likely to be good at math because of the cultural tradition of the rice patty and the hard labor required to work rice.

Gladwell discusses the Matthew effect, calling it “cumulative advantage” – ie the rich get richer because of more resources and the poor get poorer because they lack resources.

The most compelling example to me was of why poor kids have a harder time in school than rich kids; Gladwell explains that it’s not technology, or lack of money in the schools but instead the presence of a summer vacation. Data supports that poor students make no gains during the summer (no summer enrichment camps or extra classes) while rich students that have the money to get such extra help actually make gains during the summer. A slight change in the school schedule might provide more opportunity for people to make the jump from the lower rungs of society.

Essentially Gladwell’s argument is that we should stop mystifying the rich and the famous. They’re not necessarily the best and brightest, they’ve probably just had more help and more opportunity to excel at their chosen discipline. He believes that we should look at the cultural impediments we put on those who aren’t successful through simple things like a summer vacation and fight to take away as many of these as possible.

He thinks we’re all better when one of us is better; I’d have to agree.