Have you ever wondered how some of the most successful people that ever lived achieved their success? If so, you’re not alone. Outliers (2008) takes a deep dive into the topic.
Often, we consider the greatest successes as fortunate or lucky. Seldom do we actually analyze how great feats of success happened.
Fortunately, Malcolm Gladwell pondered the same question and provided a research-backed answer to the question: opportunity.
What is an Outlier?
Gladwell describes an outlier as “men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary” and who have “reached their lofty status through a combination of ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage.” Eventually, the author concludes that “the outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.”
In Outliers, the author provides familiar examples of successful people. Gladwell focuses on Bill Gates, the billionaire and famous founder of Microsoft. Did you know that Gates had access to a computer when he was in 8th grade in 1968?
He obsessed over the computer, writing software for it. By the time Gates was in college, he clocked in nearly 10,000 hours working on computers and programming.
10,000 Hours is the Key to Success
What’s the big deal with 10,000 hours? In Outliers, Gladwell hypothesizes it takes 10,000 hours (or 10 years) of working on something to become an expert in it. What separates successful people from the average person is the amount of time they spend in their niche and the timing of an opportunity.
Consider The Beatles. When they were young – teenagers – they played together in Hamburg, Germany. Their time in Germany consisted of nightly gigs sometimes as long as 8-hours.
They quickly accumulated the prerequisite 10,000 hours it takes to become expert musicians, including learning brilliant stage presence.
10,000 Hours Isn’t Enough
Yes, we can all spend 10,000 hours mastering a niche but does that mean we’ll all be successful? No, of course not. We’re missing an important piece of the puzzle – opportunity.
Consider Bill Gates’s timing, starting Microsoft when the personal computer market was in its infancy. The same goes for The Beatles. The 1960s was the emerging decade when rock and roll spread across the globe. Opportunities are important.
Conclusion
Ultimately I highly recommend reading Outliers. The book is a short blueprint for leading a successful life by mastering a niche and finding opportunities. I rank the book alongside Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People as books that changed my life.