Book Analysis

Why is it that some people get to succeed in accomplishing their life goals and are able to exceed theirs and everyone else’s expectations? Is it because they are smarter than the rest? Is it because they are more talented? The answer to these questions lies within the definition of a certain group of people that Malcolm Gladwell calls “Outliers”.

In this book Gladwell presents a series of cases of people who are successful in life, and others who should have been but weren’t. He brings all these cases together and puts them into perspective using examples of sociological data to draw different scientific conclusions that can help us understand the different characteristics that determine an outlier.

In order to be capable of understanding what made these people become outliers first we need to be able to understand success, and what led these outliers to it.

Gladwell describes success as something that is neither random nor deliberate but as something that is determined by a series of circumstances and opportunities that a person can use to his or her advantage. In the different examples and cases we find as we read the book, we can notice that there are a lot of aspects that can determine success: where you were born, who your parents were, how much money you had, your religion, your education, etc. Even the tiniest feature, like for instance the year you were born, can determine if you can reach success. So, we have all these circumstances, and if these circumstances exist or are arranged in a specific way, they can lead you to success.

The other element that stands in a person’s road to success is one of utmost importance: opportunity. When living under these circumstances, opportunity appears, and the most important part of achieving success is how you are able to take advantage of these opportunities, and have the strength and presence of mind to seize them. It’s like the ever-famous “Carpe Diem”, seize the day, take advantage of what you are given, and use it.

Malcolm Gladwell uses several examples of how opportunity and advantage lead some people to success, like Bill Gates and all the computer access he had since such an early age, or Bill Joy and the number of computer hours he managed to log in the University of Michigan. These two and more characters are used to describe the way possibilities and chance lie before some of us in a favorable manner.

So we have discovered the first big part of the secret. To become an outlier and grow to be someone successful, you must take advantage of all the opportunities that life bestows upon you. Now, is there another part to this mystery? Is it just circumstance and opportunity? Is there something else?




The other key element in becoming successful is practice, yes, lots and lots of practice. Gladwell introduces us to what he calls “The 10.000 hour rule”. This rule was discovered by Anders Ericsson in the early 1990’s in the Berlin Music Academy, he correlated achievement and hours of practice and drew results that showed the level of skill based on the time accumulated in practice. Basically, the rule consists in accumulating approximately 10.000 hours of deliberate practice to completely master a skill. Malcolm Gladwell claims that greatness requires enormous time, using the source of The Beatles’ musical talents as a savvy example.

The Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, therefore meeting the 10,000-Hour Rule. Gladwell asserts that all of the time The Beatles spent performing shaped their talent, “so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, “they sounded like no one else”. It was the making of them.

So, at least 10.000 hours of practice, practice, and more practice are what truly make you more skillful within your environment. And using those skills you’ve mastered when taking advantage of the opportunities life gives you is the greatest way to achieve success.

Thus we can agree that according to this book, an outlier is simply a man or a woman who has been able to accumulate around 10.000 hours of practice and has put those hours to good use within a specific setting where a series of opportunities arise.

BY ANDRES POLANCO AND ELIZABETH REY