How to get to Carnegie Hall… Malcolm Gladwell’s new book ‘Outliers’

This story doesn’t feature in Malcolm Gladwell’s compelling new book Outliers, but it would not have been out of place. The powerful notion that long and serious practice makes for success lies at the very heart of the book. If you want to know why some people are more successful than others says Gladwell (in any field, and by virtually any measure), then the question to ask is not ‘what is special about the individual’s talent?’, but rather ‘where do they come from, what is their background?’.

Gladwell, as in his previous books The Tipping Point and Blink tells a great story. Never dry and never dull. His particular talent in fact is in finding narrative in the research of others and bringing it to life for the lay reader, and in Outliers he takes us on thrilling journey through talent and success, from the ice hockey leagues of Canada to the birth of Silicon Valley and from the Jewish rag-trade of early 20th century New York to the rice-paddies of China.

It’s fascinating to learn for example that the vast majority of top ice hockey players in Canada were born between January and March. It’s engaging to discover too that all the key players in the micro-computer industry, including Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates (and numerous others) were born within a year or so of each other.

What’s more important of course is why these things matter. And Gladwell’s simple answer is: opportunity. Computer boffins born just a little earlier (a year or two is all it takes) than Jobs or Gates would have headed into careers at IBM or similar old-style (main-frame focused) computer companies. Those born just a couple of years later (and thus graduating later), missed the Silicon Valley boat setting sail. They could apply to join the fast-growing little companies that were beginning to change our world, but they couldn’t start the revolution: it was already underway.

Similarly with Canada’s hockey players. The reason for the clustering of talent in certain months of the year is actually nothing to do with ‘talent’ but much more to do with size. Initial selection for school hockey teams are made late in the school year. The ten-year-old boys who were born in January, February and March are naturally slightly taller, slightly heavier and slightly stronger than boys just a few months younger in the same year. And these slight physical advantages (which wouldn’t be noticeable if they were just a year or two older) give them a tiny advantage in the hockey team trials.

Coaches don’t set out to select older boys. They’re looking for ‘talent’: but an illusion of talent is created by the minor age variations.

And this is where the Rubinstein story comes in. The boys selected by the coaches all over Canada get to play many more matches, and have many more hours of coaching and practice than those not deemed to be the potential stars. The extra practice of course makes them better players and thus the self-fulfilling prophecy of talent is fulfilled.

Is this a problem? Well yes, argues Gladwell. For one thing if you’re born in the summer or autumn in Canada you can forget your dreams of hockey stardom. And Gladwell cites numerous other examples of this type of selection mechanism at work, in education, in industry and business, in society as a whole.

The principle behind it all is that we think (all over the world) that ‘winners’ are special, whereas (if Gladwell is right) ‘winners’ are more accurately described as those who make the very best out of the right combination of circumstances. And the idea of ‘making the very best of’ is just as important as having the right circumstances. Gladwell cites research which strongly indicates that this ‘making the very best of’ idea can be measured: it amounts to approximately 10,000 hours of practice.

Rubinstein was dead right it seems. Whatever your starting-level of ability, whatever your apparent ‘gift’ (or lack of one) it appears that 10,000 hours of serious, concentrated effort on one skill will make you a world-class expert at it. So, if you’re feeling left behind in the talent race. If you want to be an overnight success, don’t lose hope, just put in 3 hours a day for the next ten years and you’ll be a star!

There is way too much in this book to do justice to here. Suffice to say that for anyone interested in creativity, talent, training, people-development, education or social reform, this book is a must-read. It’s easy to read: the challenge is in learning from it.

Date posted: Monday 9th February 2009Back to news home page >