From the book jacket: There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking arond them - at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. The story of success is more complex - and a lot more interesting - than it initially appears.

This was a quick read, despite the fact that I still incurred overdue charges at the library. The first half of the book discusses how a person’s environment and circumstantial opportunities contribute to amazing successes or lack thereof. The second half of the book looks at the role of one’s culture and heritage as it relates to success as well as failure. He has a variety of interesting examples that illustrate each of these points.

Two main thoughts kept coming back to me as I read. The first is that, if taken from a certain perspective, this book could cause some readers to give up on their dreams. (Depending on a person’s determination, of course.) After reading the first half of the book you could easily make the argument that if certain conditions don’t exist, your exceptional talent will never result in amazing success. However, the conditions that led to the successes discussed in the book were likely much more apparent in hindsight. So, to anyone who might find the book demotivating – you better not give up because your ultimate path to success won’t be clear until it’s history!

Secondly, and completely unrelated, I was in awe over the amount of research that must have been involved in the book. At the very least you must be skilled at seeing patterns in data in order to form the conclusions that Gladwell did. And, once you’ve formed your theory, you likely need to identify additional resources that support this theory. Lots of work!

I have read all three of Gladwell’s books and, although it’s been a few years since I read it, I believe Tipping Point was the best. I still think back to its main concepts every now and then as it relates to business and marketing. Each book has its merits and clearly illustrates that Malcolm Gladwell has a unique perspective on everyday concepts. Lucky for us, he is also skilled at explaining that perspective to those of us who typically think more inside the box.