13 August, 2009

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell believes exactly what I have always known: that success is a combination of hard work and luck.  There are a lot of hard working people in the world, unfortunately not all of them are lucky enough to be successful.  

It makes me wonder what I've done in my life for ten thousand hours.  Several things come to mind, however I don't think I can apply any to my career (reading would only work if I was intending to be a book editor, which I definitely am not).

In the end, however, my dad is right.  While is was a very interesting read, in five, ten years, it will be dated.  

"Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning."

2 comments:

  1. I think I disagree with your assessment (although perhaps it is mere semantics). Gladwell isn't saying success it a combination of luck and hard work, he is saying that the wildly rich, standout success stories (the "outliers") result from a combination of hard work and luck. Success is achievable without the luck, I think.

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  2. Success is within the beholder. Each of us must determine what our own definition of success is.

    Outliers are the elite level of anything and luck plays a role; but, they must have the basic gift which turns into passion which leads to endless work.

    Not many will be elite, but we can all be successful.

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