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Outliers: The Story of Success Paperback – 24 Jun. 2009

by Malcolm Gladwell (Author)

4.5 34,571 ratings

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From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever.

Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary?

In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined.

He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone.

Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique.

'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian

'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer

'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

24 Jun. 2009
Dimensions

22.86 x 15.24 x 3.18 cm
ISBN-10

9780141036250
ISBN-13

978-0141036250
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Popular highlights in this book

What are Popular highlights?

Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.
Highlighted by 6,569 Kindle readers
Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
Highlighted by 4,974 Kindle readers
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.
Highlighted by 4,778 Kindle readers

From the Publisher

international bestseller, malcolm gladwell, revisionist history, podcast

Also by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers

The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives?

Through a series of encounters and misunderstandings Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature.

Also by Malcolm Gladwell

What the Dog Saw

Are smart people overrated? What can pit bulls teach us about crime? How do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job? Gladwell explores the minor geniuses, the underdogs and the overlooked, and reveals how everyone and everything contains an intriguing story.

What the Dog Saw is Gladwell at his very best - asking questions and seeking answers in his inimitable style.

Also by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink

An art expert sees a ten-million-dollar sculpture and instantly spots it's a fake. A marriage analyst knows within minutes whether a couple will stay together.

This book is all about those moments when we 'know' something without knowing why. Here Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon of 'blink', showing how a snap judgement can be far more effective than a cautious decision.

Also by Malcolm Gladwell

David and Goliath

Why do underdogs succeed so much more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong?

From the conflicts in Northern Ireland, through the tactics of civil rights leaders and the problem of privilege, Gladwell demonstrates how we misunderstand the true meaning of advantage and disadvantage. When does a traumatic childhood work in someone's favour? How can a disability leave someone better off? And do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into?

Talking to Strangers

What the Dog Saw

Blink

David and Goliath

Product description

Review

You will never again think as you did before about [success] ... This book deserves the gold star that adorns its front cover ― The Times

Malcolm Gladwell is a cerebral and jaunty writer, with an unusual gift for making the complex seem simple ― Observer

Makes geniuses look a bit less special, and the rest of us a bit more so ― Time

Gladwell deploys a wealth of fascinating data and information to illustrate his thesis ... Outliers challenges accepted wisdom ― FT

About the Author

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of six international bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath and most recently, Talking to Strangers. He is the host of the podcast Revisionist History, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and co-founder of the audio company Pushkin Industries. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He lives in New York.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0141036257
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (24 Jun. 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780141036250
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141036250
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.86 x 15.24 x 3.18 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 3,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 47 in Job Hunting (Books)
- 49 in Applied Psychology (Books)
- 63 in Sociology (Books)

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4.5 34,571 ratings

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Malcolm Gladwell

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Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996. He is the author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. Prior to joining The New Yorker, he was a reporter at the Washington Post. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He now lives in New York.

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Wireboy

Best book ive read in years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 May 2023

Verified Purchase

This book demonstrates how the successes of the likes of Bill gates are largely due to accidents of being born at the right place at the right time.

And how the marked achievements of the South East Asian peoples are in large measure due to how their culture of work and education was shaped by the growing of rice whereas that of westerners was shaped by our agriculture.

Real ammo to use on genetic determinist -'I'm not a racist honest ' IDW right wingers.

Also very moving, very sad but ultimately very uplifting,

I feel that I really learnt something.

READ IT

2 people found this helpful

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Regan Cipher

Worth a read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2022

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Malcolm Gladwell has a storytelling style that makes for compelling reading, albeit based around 'one big idea', in this instance 'grit'.

Gladwell's argument, that success can be attributed to a combination of opportunity, 'right place, right time' and hard work, is underpinned by the notion that culture plays a pivotal role in the relationship between those variables and tangible success, and is woven into examples ranging from the Beatles to Bill Gates.

It is pretty one-sided, as is often the case these days with non-fiction, because, as David Epstein argues in Range, for every Tiger there is also a Roger, but Gladwell is fairly open to admitting this in interviews, which is why I take his books for what they are: one side of the story, creatively written to ensure the reader enjoys what they're reading.

The only real disappointment is the bizarre skew towards arguing the case for charter schools, which takes up a disproportionate section of the book, and is a little spurious in some of the observations and statistical analysis. Otherwise, an enjoyable read.

6 people found this helpful

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Stiven Skyrah

Salient and grounded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2018

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Gladwell argues that success is tightly married to opportunity and time on task. He states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master something and that gives me comfort. It helps me feel better about my many failures at initial attempts to master things (like glazing pottery, algebra, Salsa dancing, skiing and sewing... to name a few). I kept thinking, "I've just got to put in more hours if I want to do better."

While I can see a different way of spinning the data provided to support Gladwell's argument, I didn't care. In a rare moment, I found myself not wanting to argue. : ) Instead, I found myself reflecting on things that have felt like lucky opportunities in my own life. This reflection was very humbling.

Moreover, I felt the text tugging at the need for greater equity. What could all the people with limited opportunities do if given greater opportunities? Think Darfur. How many people who might have come up with the cure for pancreatic cancer been forced to spend their time standing in lines waiting for clean water or food?

My own personal experience as a teacher of refugees reflects Gladwell's primary thesis. Many of my refugee students are pre-literate. They have not been given the opportunity to gain a formal education. As a result, there are many well-intended, but misinformed people who place these students in special education courses or deem their I.Q. low, diminishing their opportunities even more.

The students I teach are hungry for skills and spend hours outside of class practising. They make huge gains despite earlier opportunities denied them. While many will not go on to big colleges out of high school, I feel like given enough opportunity and time they could make it there. Sadly, many have families who depend on them to work to help financially support the family. (Yet, another limited opportunity to spend time focused on developing skills.)

In the past week, I have shared Gladwell's thesis with my students. We have applied the 10,000 hours to master a task to reading and writing. I remind students that if we don't get our 10,000 hours this year together, they must continue on their own. I remind them that it IS possible to move forward if they are focused and keep adding hours of work to their reading and writing. We even write on the board how many hours left before we are masters.

"2 hours down, only 9,998 left to go."

Friday, I had a student from Somalia smile and ask, "So it's not true that white people are smarter than black Africans? They just get more chances to read?" Imagine my pleasure when I could respond, "YES! That's correct. You are just as smart as any white kid in this school. It's just that some of them have been reading for years and you are just getting started."

Thank you for your work Gladwell, it is salient in today's political conversation surrounding education (especially for our most vulnerable students who have been given the fewest opportunities).

66 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

History, culture, psychology and stats - what’s not to love?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 January 2023

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Title says it all

One person found this helpful

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Mr. P. Holt

Is your future already decided?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2010

Verified Purchase

In Malcolm Gladwell's third book, Outliers he looks at why there are people who are outside the normal population, those who excel, he investigates why these people are so great.

Gladwell again gives examples of successful people, and groups, to explain what he is telling us, and shows us that it is not always genius that makes these people a success, but the history of the family going back generations, the culture of the person, even that date of birth could make the difference between being a high achiever or failure, an outlier or an ordinary person.

Gladwell also explains that to be an outlier we should be in the right place at the right time, and to take advantage of the opportunity.

Having the above factors in-place does not mean success, to become an outlier, a person needs to become involved with the area of expertise of greatness, to DO the action, the work, for 10,000 hours. Gladwell cites examples of the Beatles, Bill Gates etc, of how the Beatles played in Hamburg nightclubs for long hours, amassing the required 10,000 hours, how Bill Gates spent hours and hours programming the early computers, again amassing the 10,000 hours before setting-up Microsoft.

Gladwell looks at the birth dates of those who created the leading computer software companies, and surprise, they mostly fall within a narrow year range, and he looks at American lawyers who specialise in takeovers and litigation are mostly Jewish of a certain age.

Gladwell asks, why are top basketball players birthdays mostly in the early months, January, February, March, and why pupils who achieve better exam results have their birthdays closer to the start of the academic year, than those pupils whose birthdays are nearer the end of the academic year. Simple really, the older pupil is nearly a year older and has a more developed brain, take for example a baby of one year old and compare it to a two year old child, there is a big difference in ability, understanding and behaviour.

An amazing book, which gives an insight to what could make people great, an outlier.

8 people found this helpful

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