As with many books I read, the first few chapters seem to be the most captivating, and have the biggest impact on my thinking. To sum up the whole book Malcolm Gladwell tries to prove that the success of an individual, group or company is not just due to unexplained "natural talent", there are many factors that contribute to these successes such as age, opportunities that they are presented with, cultural background, and hard work. These are all interrelated of course and also require some sort of intelligence and natural interest to turn these things into a success story. In the book Malcolm Gladwell explains that success is also due to chance, not just the individual, and he achieves convincingly what he means by this, he also doesn't take away credit of the individuals own drive. The book is not about the individual, it's about how many other factors help the individual which is down to chance.
Book Summary:
Chapter 1
A very interesting an dshocking first point in the book was that your age and birthday is very important to what you can achieve (and what you are given the chance to achieve). Malcolm Gladwell gives the examples of Canadian hockey players, how one day he noticed that nearly all top Canadian Hockey players were born between January and March. This had a simple explanation. Due to the dates in the year trials started and ended, the kids born near the start of the year were bigger and had more experience, and were picked out as the "elite", and from there joined "elite" programs which developed them more, kids born in near the end of the year couldn't catch up.
Gladwell also investigated other sports and saw the same pattern. One interesting point he mentioned as well was this was also true with the school system. Kids born near the start of the school year had at least a 6 month advantage in learning and maturity.
In the case of hockey players the rule of "you can only be a successful hockey player in Canada if you were born in January, February or March" was nearly an iron tight rule with little exceptions. For the education system, the patterns were still present but not as defined.
Chapter 2
"10,000 hours of practice is how long it takes to become an expert"
Gladwell analysed many so-called experts and virtuoso's and tried to find a pattern with this rule. The rule never failed. He gave examples of virtuoso violin players, Bill Gates, Mozart and The Beatles. Bill Gates by the age of 21 already clocked up over 10,000 hours of programming practice, and The Beatles with their time in Hamburg playing 8 hours gigs for 7 days a week also clocked up over 10,000 hours before they became successful. He also mentions in the book that to get this amount of practice the individual will initially be working hard by themselves, but to get this 10,000 hours, most could only achieve this because of special situations, such as, chance (in the case of Bill Gates, as he was born and lived exactly in the right time when access to computers was available only in his area). In the case of hockey players they could only clock up this time after getting into specialist programs because of their "talent", which is also linked to the first chapter of age, they would only be recognised for "talent" because they had an advantage.
Malcolm Gladwell doesn't aim to say this is all that is required, he is just saying that these things make a difference, otherwise why didn't all the kids, the same age as Bill Gates's in his neighbourhood become programming experts.
Chapter 3: Genius's
Does the genius actually exist? Well, it depends on what you define as a genius. If you define genius as simple as a high IQ then Chris Lagnan is the current genius. However Gladwell shows that although Chris Lagnan has a high IQ and high intelligence, he can never be influential in the world because he hasn't got something basic for life " social intelligence". Chris Lagnan couldn't even stay in school and made up excuses of why the education system let him down, but the truth is he gave up and got angry at simple problems with required a certain social intelligence. I was interested in seeing Chris Lagnan and after reading this section searched on youtube for him. The half hour show on him did show he was intelligent, his vocabulary and the way he spoke showed this, and he is also working out calculations and theories of the universe in his private study. I also noticed the youtube comments below, it was filled with other wannabe genius's, and no doubt they have a high intelligence as well. But what occurred to be is that these people (including Chris Lagnan) have no social intelligence, and no respect for others, and that's why they cannot get respect and recognition in their intelligence, they were all the same. If Chris Lagnan was associated with a university then he may get the resources, recognition and be revolutionary in his theories about the universe, but instead he's a farmer that makes notes to himself that will never be recognised, I will also note that Chris Lagnan's ideas on how to improve society are ridiculous and further prove that he has no social awarness.
Gladwell writes about how a high IQ is not the answer to success, you just need to have a high enough IQ. There is less correlation between ability and IQ for IQ's above 120.
Other topics in the book: Cultural influences, language and communication, Why Asians are better at Maths, Working hard will get you results.
Conclusion
This book is not actually a business book, it's an analyses of success and the factors deeper than an individual that allow success to occur. What I've learnt from this book is that you have to make the most of your opportunities and act upon it, otherwise something great may never happen. Malcolm Gladwell correlates hard work with results, and puts down the idea of "Genius's" and "a self made man", he makes a great argument that you could say is conclusive. Gladwell promotes hard work and persistence, however he doesn't aim to say that that is all that is required.
