Greatness=Genius, Luck, Hard Work, or All Three?

Malcolm Gladwell, the king of counter-intuitive observation and reporting, in his book "Outliers," outlines what he sees to be the path to success.

The first interesting observation he makes is that a lot of the success out there has to do with fate, simply being in the right place at the right time.

For example, if you were born in January, February, or March, you are much more likely to be a professional athlete than if, say, you were born in September to December. Why? Simply because as a child you were more likely to be chosen to be on a team and have access to special training and be motivated to do more practice than kids born later in the year. Why is this? Because December 31st is the arbitrarily chosen cutoff date to make the team in a given year, being born earlier in the year gives you the age advantage to outperform other children in your year and be given access to the chance to become great.

This is the type of observations Gladwell is well known for making, however, in this book, Gladwell takes a different spin on the theme. He posits that fate alone does not make people great. He discusses how social advantage can be shaped by your cultural background. I.e. a whole bunch of things that are unique about your history that lead to you be in the right community, at the right time, in the right place to be more likely to become great in a given area.

However, all of these ideas have to do with matters that are out of your control. One observation that we can influence is the observation psychologists made that people who are great masters in their field are shaped by 10,000 hours of practice and apprenticeship (usually over the course of 10 years). Apparently these 10,000 hours are inescapable. All great people had to do 10,000 hours of real hard work and practice (usually learning from a master) to become really good.

The moral of the story is, even if you are a genius, if you want to become really good at what you do and make it as a master in your field, then you've got to put in the hours and years of hard work and practice.

Another detail I enjoy is the notion that some communities have a much higher rate of people cashing in on their talents, putting in the hard work, and making it to the top. So if you were born into such a community, you don't have a head start, but you have the conditions that make it more likely to put the petal to the metal, do those hours, and possibly become great.

One word of caution. While Gladwell is intriguing and entertaining, we should not loose site of the fact that he is a journalist by profession. That means he spins stories to make them sound more sell-able than they really are. While it is fun to keep his observations in mind and share them with others, I haven't found the ideas in his books very useful in practice. Perhaps someone can share how they have found his ideas useful in a practical sense.

Here is a SHORT interview with Gladwell talking about his book:

And here's a much LONGER one: