Book Review: Outliers
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, 2008
I have enjoyed each of Gladwell’s books, but was surprised by Outliers. What I had heard about it was that he said one needs 10,000 hours of practice to get to an expert level in any field. That would seem to reinforce the common idea that if one just works hard enough, then success will come.
Instead, my take away from Outliers was that he is saying success is not a matter of personal effort but rather a combination of a variety of social/cultural/historical factors as well as personal effort.
Take Aways / Practical Applications
One of the questions I took away from Outliers is how we can use the various factors that Gladwell has identified as leading to success and use them to increase the chances for success within a business or franchise. If the late nineteen hundreds were the perfect time for Jewish immigrants to New York who had skills in sewing/garment making and 1953-57 were the perfect years for great programming/computer gurus to be born, then what are the factors today that we can take advantage of?
I do wonder if internet marketing is today’s equivalent of garment making in New York in the 1930s. If so, then that’s a great place to put effort since the payoff has a greater chance of success than (for example) traditional media marketing. What are the other areas that in 50 years looking back will have been the ‘right’ places to put effort today? It’s certainly worth some thought.
On the human level, Gladwell talks about a combination of factors that can lead to success, from the time of year an athlete is born to the ability to stay with problem solving for an extended period of time to learning that putting in effort will pay off to cultural differences that lead to different outcomes from the same event. Again, I think it’s well worth looking at our businesses and our clients’ businesses with that in mind. What are the factors that we need in employees in different roles? What are the power differential attitudes that will lead to success for a franchisor and franchisees? And how do we build those considerations into our selection and training processes? Then add in Nathan Greg’s great books about strengthening franchise relationships (see my previous review about The Franchise E-Factor) and we have greatly increased the chances of building a strong and succesful franchise or business.
Great quotes:
“the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.” (p. 11)
“These three things – autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward are the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying…and that’s worth more to most of us than money.” (pp 149-150)
“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.” (chinese proverb – p. 249)
Past Book Reviews
The Franchise E-Factor by Greg Nathan
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