BizWiz Blog

I promised a review of the said book and here it is. I apologize to everyone for not doing this earlier, but I had to read every chapter twice or thrice to ensure I got the message. And it's not such a bad thing, since this book is excellent for reasons which I will detail below.

Outliers: The Story of Success is a compilation of the author's analysis of the lives of people who are successful. Perhaps more accurately, the book is about the story behind the story of success. Let me explain first the title: Outliers. An "outlier" is a term in statistics, which roughly translated to layman's terms, is "someone who is out of the ordinary or above average." They are the minuscule few who are exceptional in what they do.

Now, as I said, the book is about the story behind the story. I'll start with an example most familiar to us which is also included in the book: Bill Gates, founder of the behemoth Microsoft. He was the world's richest man and now he's doing charity work. All of you will agree that what he accomplished is simply extraordinary. He is a true outlier. And I think he's popular enough that everyone knows he dropped out of college to start his own company that eventually dominated the world of computers via their product Microsoft Windows. Was it just luck? The answer is "no." The book details how, by a series of extraordinary events and extraordinary effort, did Bill Gates achieve his lofty perch. It's not that he dropped out of college, but what happened even before that, the countless hours of labor he did with computers certainly come into play, coupled with opportunities. The details are in the book, which I will not spoil here. =)

The secret behind Bill Gate's success is also reflected in the phenomenal performance of many Chinese at math. Was it genetics that makes them good at numbers? The answer is "no" and the book tells you how early in life, Chinese children already have an edge against their non-Chinese counterparts which carries on throughout their life.

The book discusses other examples of outliers and how they become successful. I would recommend this book to everyone, but with a bit of caution: it's easy after reading this book to blame circumstance, heritage or family background for one's failures. As strange as it may seem, that is valid - to a point. But what Gladwell beautifully points out is that everyone just needs a chance. That is it. One doesn't need the best opportunities in the world, one doesn't need to be the smartest kid or have the most favorable background but just a chance to get a shot to be good in his or her endeavor, to be a success.

I think the challenge here, for us entrepreneurs, is to open new vistas so that everyone else can have a shot for a successful life. It may be in the form of a life-changing product or service, opportunities for employment or charitable work to help the less fortunate be equipped and prepared to aspire to be the best they can in life.

It's just a chance, but what a wold of difference it can make.