04/27/23
views 9980
comments0
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
04/27/23
views 9981
comments0
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
DIAMOND
RATING
Senteo Rating 4

Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers 2008
Senteo’s Review information

Malcolm Gladwell is a prolific journalist and author. His 2008 book Outliers, paraphrasing the author’s own words, is an effort to overturn crude and simplistic notions of success, specifically of success as being a product of innate talent, ‘hustle’, or intelligence. Gladwell’s central thesis is that success goes beyond any single individual’s talents or qualities – rather, the circumstances and surroundings in which any individual exists play an equally, if not more, important role.

Outliers is divided into two parts: Part 1, titled ‘Opportunity’; and Part 2, titled ‘Legacy’. In Gladwell’s eyes, these two components are the foundation of any individual’s road to success. Both parts are further broken down into chapters, each of which examines a case study and draws key conclusions from it.

The central thrust of Part 1 is that an individual’s success largely depends on the opportunities they receive to exercise their abilities, rather than their abilities per se. Part 2, meanwhile, explains how an individual’s cultural background, family, friends and community also play a deciding role in their success, by shaping mentalities, outlooks, and allowing them to interpret the world in innovative ways. One of the most interesting lessons one can draw from part 2 is the importance of ‘meaningful work’ as a prerequisite to success: Gladwell characterises ‘meaningful work’ as possessing a combination of autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward.

This book is an ‘outlier’ among common explanations of success. While many books offer motivational messages, Gladwell clearly explains that success is often arbitrary and outside any individual’s control. In the reviewer’s opinion, this is a fundamental lesson to be learnt. Although more enlightened readers may see this as a truism, truth is not dimmed by repetition. Moreover, this book is more than just its central thesis. It offers a range of important conclusions, one of the more interesting being the importance of ‘meaningful work’.

The central thesis of this book is not particularly ground-breaking, and journalist John Horgan went so far as to label the book “oddly anticlimactic, even dispiriting.” Indeed, at its worst, Gladwell’s thesis can be regarded as deterministic and reductionist.

The central limitation of this book for the business reader is this: Gladwell offers no clear methodology or concrete steps the reader could take in order to capitalise on either the opportunities they have or the advantages their legacy may have bequeathed to them. Readers are left to interpret Gladwell’s manifold conclusions in their own way.

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

Outliers contains a number of important ideas on what success is and how it is achieved. However, owing to the lack of any clear methodology or recommendations from the author, the reader struggles to find a practical application for them. One possible application is that leaders ought to give their staff ‘meaningful work’ if they want them to excel. Gladwell’s characterisation is that ‘meaningful work’ combines autonomy, complexity and a corelation between effort and reward.

 

Senteo Subject Category
Senteo
The best book reviews in your inbox!
Subscribe now and receive a special gift with your subscription.


    Leave a Reply

    Outliers
    Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers 2008
    Have you already read this book?
    Here, are people invited to rate the book?

    How useful was this post?

    Click on a star to rate it!

    Average rating / 5. Vote count:

    No votes so far! Be the first to rate this book.

    See content on this topic

    Don't miss the 2021 CXCI - with 778 visits by mystery shoppers to 82 banks in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Michael Ruckman & Alexey
    Do businesses lack the intelligence to effectively manage customer relationships? This article explores the various forms of intelligence that businesses must develop in order to better serve this goal.
    Voice On Demand Retail Podcast: Contacts, Experiences and Journeys: What customers really want
    Michael Ruckman, President & CEO of Senteo talks about Customer Contacts, Experiences, and Journeys in this fast moving presentation from the MECS+R Congress in 2021 in Dubai.
    Voice On Demand Retail Podcast: Part 2 – The three faces of Digital for Retailers
    Michael Ruckman talks about Customer Experiences & Customer Journeys, The three faces of Digital for Retailers and the state of leadership in the retail market today.
    Michael Ruckman Talks about Customer-Centric Business Models
    What is the difference between retention and loyalty, and between customer-centric and relationship-centric business models? How exactly can one monetize customer experience? Michael Ruckman answers these questions and more…
    Voice On Demand Retail Podcast: Part 2 – The three faces of Digital for Retailers
    Michael Ruckman talks about Customer Experiences & Customer Journeys, The three faces of Digital for Retailers and the state of leadership in the retail market today.
    How to Build a Business That Lasts 100 Years
    Join strategist Martin Reeves as he explains how executives can apply six principles from living organisms to build resilient businesses that flourish in the face of change.
    Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
    Simon Sinek explains that starting with ‘why’, having a strong driving motivation behind the work you do, can be the deciding factor between success and failure for a business venture.
    Senteo Rating
    What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
    Senteo Rating
    Connected Strategy
    Related Book Reviews & Education
    This book is about customer experience and how to implement it, stressing that customer experience is sustained not just by customer-facing elements but by the entire organization behind the scenes.
    In this third edition, the author sets out to give a comprehensive model for development and use of customer satisfaction questionnaires. This edition contains additional information about customer loyalty measurement.
    Northern Irish poet and author Michael Foley investigates the foundations of fun and what it has meant throughout the ages. Underneath the veneer of light-hearted and witty text lies a conceptual template for creating fun and memorable experiences.
    Ricardo Semler explains why we need to move in the direction of a “work culture” and environment that emphasizes opportunities for employees to be happy and independent.