Outliers: The Story of Success

by Malcolm Gladwell

They had to appreciate the idea that the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.

“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.” — MATTHEW 25:29

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. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.”

“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”

Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.