Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, & The Rules To Success
I’ve been on a Malcolm Gladwell reading spree recently and if you haven’t gotten familiar with his work then you should. I became aware of Outliers after seeing it referenced by several very successful people and decided to pick it up. I’ve mentioned it in passing but really wanted to go into it a little further here.
Gladwell discusses several prominent examples of massively successful groups and individuals in the book and what led them to becoming so successful. Bill Gates, The Beatles, why Asians seem to be so good at math, and why the best hockey players are born at the beginning of the year are just a few of the case studies in the book that make for intriguing observations.
These are some of the principles of success you can find over and over again throughout the book and that you can apply in your own quest for success in personal development and your life:
1. The 10,000 Hour Rule: One common theme among most massively successful people is that they practice to get better right around 10,000 hours which averages out to be about 10 years at 3-4 hours a day. This would seem to be common sense. You say to yourself “Oh well I’ll just start the clock and get to it!” and you should, but the reality of the matter is that most people don’t, won’t, or can’t practice that much at anything and fall short of their 10,000 hours to mastery. In a study of musicians in the book, Gladwell takes note of how the musicians that end up being just very good, or average, or music teachers, just have about half the time of the world-class orchestra performers. Most people grow sick of doing something repetitively, tell themselves they are burned out and go back to the same routine. Think about how you can keep yourself going, get your practice time in, and move closer to 10,000 hours of practice to gain mastery in your chosen field.
2. Coming along at the right time This one is beyond any individual’s control but there are some things that can be taken from it. Gladwell mentions how being born at a certain point of the year or in a period of years can be pivotal to one’s success. The key example of this being how the majority of elite hockey players typically have birth dates during the first quarter of the year. The reasoning behind this is that hockey season begins at the start of each year and the children with a year of physical maturity over their peers will be perceived as bigger, stronger, & better. This leads to being picked for the best teams which leads to more practice, better coaching, more experience, & ultimately success. Another example is one of a Jewish law firm that specialized in handling corporate takeovers for clients at a time when they were unpopular and irregular. 20 years later when corporate takeovers were the norm, this group had a head start of leaps and bounds over their competition and has continued to grow exponentially. There is nothing you can do about when you were born, but what you can take away from this one is to take note of those who are successful in your field. Has the time they started had anything to do with their success? Observe and take away what you can about the things that make others successful and model those behaviors. Understanding why somebody has such a great deal of success, whether it be doing it at the right time or having a huge headstart can give you a better idea of how to emulate and apply those lessons to your own routine.
3. Being VERY Lucky The Beatles got the chance to go to Germany to perform for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week because of a lucky meeting with a club promoter. Bill Gates had the immense fortune of being able to have wealthy parents that got him access to a computer at a time when they were rare, AND continued to have lucky break after lucky break when it came to having continued access to perfect his coding skills. Lucky breaks are important, but in this day and age many people are at a point when Rule #1 can help them create their own but so few actually choose to do so. As golfing great Gary Player once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. Be proactive and create your own luck.
How successful you want to be in your personal development endeavors is inevitably tied back to these points as well. The 10,000 hour rule is for the most part what makes successful people. This is applicable to anything worth pursuing in life. If you want to be in better shape, make more money, or have more friends or dates, you have to put in the time to getting these things. You don’t necessarily have to put in 10,000 hours but the more time you can spend, the better. Just conciously put forth more time and practice into those areas in your life where you want more. As Malcolm says in the video above, examples of failures really just boil down to those people who didn’t get their 10,000 hours in! Hard work and perseverance will almost always determine your success. Keep that in mind whenever you think of giving up!
To your continued success,
Clark
