OUTLIERSTHE STORY OF SUCCESS BY MALCOM GLADWELL

INTRODUCTION “THE ROSETO MYSTERY”

Outlier: It is something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body

The people in Roseto were dying of old age. That’s it.

University of Oklahoma Press, 1979 published the Roseto Story which emphasizes on the influence of Human relationships on heart disease.

Roseto became an Outlier owing to their value system and cultural heritage.

THE MATTHEW EFFECTMatthew Effect• For unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall

have abundance . But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

Implication• It is those who are successful in other words, who are most

likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.

Relative age effect

• In teenage years a difference of 6-8 months makes a huge impact on the physical ability of a kid. This was an advantage for the Canadian Junior Hockey League champions because most of their players were born in January-March where as rest of the teams had a majority born in the later months of the year. Thus the physically stronger kids were given better opportunities at the sport whereas the rest missed the bus because they were born a few months late.

THE 10000-HOUR RULE10000 hours of practice is required to

achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert- in

anything

Bill Gates born on October 28, 1955

which is considered a

perfect birth date for software professionals

since they were experienced enough with

10000 hours of practice in computer

programming when the

software industry took off in 1986.

Bill Joy born on November 8, 1954, went

on to establish Sun Microsystems

is also a gainer due to his birth date.

Beatles got an

opportunity at Hamburg to perform 8 hours every night for 7

days a week for 3 years. This is how

they got their 10000 hours of practice.

THE TROUBLE WITH GENIUSES, PART 1“Knowledge of a boy’s IQ is of little

help if you are faced with a formful of clever boys”

Christopher Langan

The average person has an IQ of 100, Einstein one fifty, Chris

has an IQ of 195

IQ is lot like height in basketball. You need to be atleast six foot or six one

to play basketball. Its probably better to be six two than six one

and better to be six three than six two. But past certain point height

stops mattering. A player who is six foot eight is not automatically better than someone 2 inches

shorter. A basketball player has to be tall enough and same is true of

intelligence. Intelligence has threshold. Langan’s IQ of 195

doesn’t make him smarter than Einstein whose IQ was 150.

Intelligence is of little use if we want to understand someone’s chances of being a

success in the world. The likelihood of someone becoming a true outlier lies in the

opportunities presented to them by the world.

THE TROUBLE WITH GENIUSES, PART 2

Christopher Langan

Robert Oppenheimer

My mother was supposed to fill out a parents’ financial

statement which she neglected and then I lost my scholarship

at Reed college.Then Chris enrolled at

Montana State University. He wanted to shift from morning batch to afternoon batch due to car issues, but his request was rejected owing to which

he had to quit education.

Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who famously headed

American effort to develop nuclear bomb during world war 2 was very

much like Langan in terms of intelligence.

Robert went to Harvard and then to Cambridge to pursue doctorate in

Physics. He struggled with depression for his entire life. He

became so despondent that once he tried to poison his tutor But

guess what he was put on probation and continued his stint with regular

psychiatric help. • Considering both cases of Chris and Robert. Chris had to quit education due to failure of financial aid and timing issues due to car problems. Whereas Robert tried to kill someone and still got away with it and continued with elite education. Though Chris and Robert possess the same analytical intelligence, Robert had an added advantage of practical intelligence. Practical intelligence is a skill that allows you to talk your way out of murder rap or convince your professor to move you from morning to afternoon session. Practical intelligence comes from concerned cultivation in the childhood, which generally happens with wealthier or higher middle class. Robert had this advantage whereas Chris lacked it.

Practical

Intelligence

THE THREE LESSONS FROM JOE FLOM

• Jews were not considered as someone from right background to work in high profile law firms of Wall Street. Consequently Joe had to join a smaller, second-rate, upstart law firm of Marshall Skadden and Leslie Arps.

• Mergers and acquisitions and takeovers were considered hostile by big time law firms of new York and hence such litigations were handled by Joe’s firm. Suddenly the scenario changed with the investors becoming more aggressive with dollar figure rising enormously. It was during the mid 1970’s to the end of 1980’s. by this time Joe had developed a skill in this arena and was suddenly very valuable.

Lesson No. 1: The

Importance of Being Jewish

• Flom was born in a decade when ‘The Great Depression” had struck America. Owing to which his generation was smaller due to demographic trough. He was exposed to best of the facilities right from the hospital where he was born, his schooling ad upto his college education.

Lesson No. 2:

Demographic Luck.

• He belonged to a family of garment manufacturers who migrated to America from Eastern Europe. Garment manufacturers had the best of the occupational skills which became the need of the day in America. Their business took off and their next generation was the beneficiary of all the skillsets. Most of the jewish kids from younger generation took to law or medicine as their profession.

Lesson No. 3: The Garment Industry and Meaningful

work

HARLAN, KENTUCKY

Success arises out of steady accumulation of advantages: when and where you are born and what your parents did for

living and what are your circumstances of your upbringing.

Also a the success quotient depends on what you take from your cultural legacy and how it

helps you to excel

Harlan, Kentucky were the two counties popular for their family feuds. They could easily cause

blood shed in the name of defending their “culture of

honour”

THE ETHNIC THEORY OF PLANE CRASHESKorean Airlines went through a leanest patch in the

aviation history when their planes were crashing one after the other leaving the safety of passengers in jeopardy. The main reason for these crashes was lack of comfort in communication between the Captain and the first officer.

This happened due to the cultural baggage of tolerance and its ambiguity. The captain being a senior in stature, the rest of the crew would not directly communicate with him even during turbulent times. When they realized this, all the crew members were trained to effectively communicate with each other regardless of the seniority thereby shedding the unwanted cultural ethos and they became an outlier in aviation industry.

RICE PADDIES AND MATH TESTS“No one who can rise before dawn

three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich”

Farming in west is mechanically

oriented whereas in Asia it is skill

oriented. Farmers in Asia do not

have money to buy modern

equipment and extra land. So rice farmers became

smarter by managing their own time and making better

choices.

Asians have a built-in advantage when it comes to math. They have

outperformed their western

counterparts time and again. Difference

between the number systems

suggest that being good at math is also rooted in

group’s culture.

Asian countries always top the lists in math

Olympics because there is shaped by the

tradition of wet-rice agriculture

which is laborious as well as complex like

math.

MARITA’S BARGAINPoor kids’ extra time spent

in school

Reduced

vacation

Daily Homework

Group studies and extra

curricular

activities

On par with

Wealthier

students

This goes in sync with the rice paddy principle where the students from a poor background are made to put extra effort in school. Being from a poor background they are unable to get a desired support in education from home as their parents themselves had dropped out of schools at some point in their lives. Schools like KIPP become an oullier by bring such poor kids on par with students with decent family background.

A JAMAICAN STORYwhite Black

Less black Brown Light

The offspring born to a black lady who was a slave to a white man would be born as light, brown or less black or less coloured. These offspring became outliers in Jamaica because they were freed from slavery. They got all the privileges of whites. They could educate

themselves in the universities in UK or US. During that time getting yourself less colored partner was considered a blessing as it would

ensure privileges for your next generation.

OUTLIERS

Opportunity Legacy

OUTLIERS

THANK YOU