6 Success Strategies Hidden in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers

by Brad Isaac March 18, 2009

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success by its title implies it is a how-to be successful book.  And if you read my review of Outliers, I concluded it is not.

The reason for my conclusion is he doesn’t give any step-by-step methods for becoming successful.  In fact, some readers come away from the book feeling there is nothing we can do to reach the pinnacles in our lives – that our success or failure in life is the result of the cards we were dealt by our parents, race and heritage.

However, I found some good success principals hidden in the book.  If you read closely, and (in my case) argue with some of his logic, you come away with some astounding strategies that can offset any limitations brought on by your birth and heritage.

Keep reading to see the 6 I found hidden in Outliers…

  1. Put the 10,000 hour rule to work as quickly as possible -  Gladwell points to many “geniuses” in current times and history.  But also goes into depth about how all of these geniuses had the advantage of working 10,000 hours or more on their trades before they became well known. 

    The Beatles, before becoming an international sensation, didn’t know how to play their instruments.  But they gained 10,000 hours of practice playing live for long gigs in Hamburg, West Germany

    Bill Gates acquired 10,000 hours of programming experience by the time he was 19 – before any other teen on the planet had started programming.

    Mozart, yes that Mozart, was influenced (possibly forced by his father) to learn and perform music starting at the age of 3.  He got his 10,000 hours in before becoming a teenager.

    So we are left with two questions 
         1.  What one skill would you like to master? 
         2.  How can you get your 10,000 hours of practice in as quickly as possible?

    Obviously, 10,000 hours is a long time.  So getting started sooner is critical.   Why not start today?

  2. Learn great negotiation communication skills – I mentioned in my review I had some squabbles with some of Gladwell’s logic that heritage and birthright account for success and failure.  Communication was the biggest oversight.  While the book points out examples of (for example) Oppenheimer having family advantages other physicists didn’t, Gladwell overlooks the obvious skills of communication and negotiation.

    Gladwell gives the obvious example of Oppenheimer talking himself out of a prison term.  What other physicists by their nature, have that power of negotiation?

    However, we can all learn to negotiate.  There are many good  books about developing negotiation skills, classes or even a negotiation boot camp you can take.  Note, I haven’t taken Ed Brodow’s course, but I’ve heard good things about it.

    Additionally, you can check out my series Winning Through Effective Self Promotion for some effective ways to break out of your shell and get your point across.  But in the meantime, here are the top 3 negotiation tips in my arsenal:

    A.  Lead with what you want – years ago, I used to beat around the bush and rely on the other person to figure out what I’m wanting.  The problem is what happens if they don’t figure it out?  Now I lead with what I want. 

    For example a statement like “I am here to ask you for the contract.”  There is no mystery in what I want.  The other person knows precisely what I am there to do. 

    B.  Provide a reason why it benefits the other person -  In negotiation. the other person is always thinking “What’s in it for me?”  So answer that right up front. 

    Example: “I am here to ask for the contract because I’ve proven I’ll save you the most money.”

    C.  Prove it – It is one thing to say you’ll do something.  It  something else to prove it.  How can you prove to the other person you can and will do it?  Quite often, you’ll need to do it. 

    If, under contract, you can save a company $50,000 a year, why not prove that during the negotiation by saving them $2,000 now?  You aren’t giving away the whole $50k but you are putting forth a powerful negotiation strategy – proof! 

    If you can prove it, but your competitors can’t or don’t.  Aren’t you more likely to get what you want?

  3. Rise early – Gladwell details how the Chinese philosophy of rice farming may be the single most important factor in determining why statistically, people from the orient are better at math than everyone else. 

    Without getting into all the prickly details of rice farming, I’ll begin with a quote typical in rice farming.

    ”Anyone who rises before dawn 360 days each year never fails to make his family rich.”

    Most success happens during the day.  And I’d argue most of the daytime success is made in the morning hours.  There are many reasons beyond the scope of this article I feel this way.   But logically, after lunch the body is digesting food which accounts for at least some tiredness and productivity loss.

    So get up early and get to work early.  If it can make a Chinese rice farmer rich, it will help you too.

  4. Seek autonomy – Gladwell repeatedly calls on the subject of autonomy.  He says that the people who are successful were fortunate enough to have freedom to pursue their interests.  While other people do not have this freedom.

    Autonomy is a tricky subject.  

    Reason asks how can we have autonomy (freedom) while we’re in debt up to our eyeballs, working two jobs and have a family to take care of?  

    The answer in that case is simple.  You can’t.

    However, there is one thing in that example keeping you from enjoying autonomy – debt. Debt is slavery, not freedom.  So if you are in debt, seek to get out of it as soon as possible. 

    The quickest debt reducer I can think of is to sell high priced luxury items you don’t need and use the proceeds to pay off the bill.  If you are in debt due to driving a Lexus LS400, sell it and pay off that debt.  Buy a used Camry.  It may seem painful to give up a dream car, but freedom has a good way of erasing that pain.

    Never squander autonomy

    If you are out of debt and have cleared your evenings and weekends from work, do not waste this opportunity. 

    Use your new free time to practice.  Remember 10,000 hours is the magic number.  If you can put in 3 hours a night 5 days a week, you’ll be at 10,000 hours in less than 10 years.

    I know, I know 10 years is a long time.  But what if it was a skill you truly enjoyed?  Suppose you wanted to be a classical guitarist.  3 hours of practice a night would be fun most of the time.  Plus, you’d probably enjoy it so much you’d dedicate weekend hours too.  And that would decrease the time spent to 7 or 8 years.

    I never said success was easy…did I? 

    Books on debt reduction: 
    Dave Ramsey The Total Money Makeover  
    George S. Clason The Richest Man in Babylon 

  5. Take advantage of your gifts – When we discuss success, it means something different to everyone.  For some it might be monetary success.  For others it might be fame.  For me, it is about creating helpful software and articles that benefit as many people as possible.

    What would you want to master if you had the autonomy to do so? 

    Before you decide, take your natural gifts into account.  I can hear people asking “What are my natural gifts.”  Well, that’s where Gladwell does a good job of explaining how our heritage can give us a good foundation for our future success. 

    His examples include:

    *     How Jewish immigrants paved the way for their descendents to become some of New York’s highest paid lawyers.

    *     How immigrants from an Italian village could stave off heart disease in a corresponding American town.

    *     And even how a fairness law passed in Jamaica led to Malcom Gladwell’s family being educated and his eventual success as an author.

    Looking at my heritage (and I don’t know my entire family history) but on the Irish side, I come from a line of Irish ‘Tinkers’.  I don’t mean Tinker in the Irish Traveller sense.  But instead the Tinker who fixes broken things such as pots, pans and lamps.

    If you look at my gifts, I am a natural at fixing stuff – I fix broken applications and networks all day every day.  But extend that out a little and you’ll see I’m pretty good at building stuff too.  

    So what are some of your natural gifts?  What does your heritage give you in terms of skills, culture and attitudes?  Are your pursuits in line with your history?

  6. Take advantage of luck – What is luck?  Personally, I don’t believe in luck the way it’s normally defined.  I also don’t talk much about it because it can be confusing. 

    But what I do believe is we all have good times and bad times.  Luck – if you want to call it that – is when you take advantage of the good times and good opportunities. 

    Let me rework an example from the book to demonstrate:

    Imagine Bill Gates for a minute with all of his “lucky” advantages such as access to a computer network before everyone else, the free time to program, the freedom to sneak out and learn about computers…  What would Bill Gates be if he didn’t take advantage?  Suppose he was sneaking out at night to pursue his dream of becoming a great basketball player.

    Would Bill Gates be one of the richest men in the world if he preferred basketball to computers?  No, of course not. 

    Like Gates, we all have good opportunities to do and be more.  But what is important is to take advantage of those opportunities. 

    I had an “unlucky” friend who complained at me in the past about “if she only had a better education, everything would be great.”  But after signing up for night classes, she stopped going after the first semester.  That is not taking advantage of an opportunity – yet this person might just as easily call herself unlucky when her lack of a diploma shuts her out of yet another job. 

    How can you be unlucky if you have opportunity, but squander it?

    So when luck happens, grab it.  Don’t hold back.  Move forward – take advantage.

So those are the six hidden success strategies I found in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success.  Did you find any I missed? 

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The Outliers: A Review & Tips

by Brad Isaac March 8, 2009

What does it take to be successful?

outliers Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell is an interesting perspective on genius, work ethic and what it takes to make it in the world.

Before reading, I had skimmed the many reviews on Amazon and it resonated with many readers and offended others. Since I enjoyed Blink and The Tipping Point I decided to pick up a copy.

The revelations in this book are as intriguing as in his former works, however since this is a Goal Setting site and the book claims to be “the story of success,” it seems like a good match, eh?

Are you an outlier?

I’ll get straight to the point.  Gladwell’s thesis is we cannot succeed on our own. You can have all the talent in the world.  But it is going to take other people and some subtle advantages (luck) helping you along the way for you to achieve high levels of success.

In Outliers, Gladwell runs through the some historical geniuses we think of when we think of the term genius. He details Mozart, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Oppenheimer and other physicists I’ve never heard of – All of them with great minds.

Talent is not enough

Some of the geniuses made it big such as Einstein. Others did not reach their full potential.  He runs through obscure names such as Chris Langan, whom we may never hear about outside the book itself. Langan, although having a brilliant mind, was not an Outlier. For Gladwell’s theory is the people who have achieved high levels of success do have above average intelligence and natural talent in their chosen fields. However genius and talent are not enough.  Once you become "smart enough", the difference between your talent and the genius talent is a small cause in determining your overall success.  Instead it is having the "Outlier" trait which becomes more important.

Outliers Get “Lucky Breaks”

He points out that each of the famous successful people were helped in one way or another along the way. Maybe they were born at an opportune time in history, or the right mentor took a liking to them, or perhaps they were born to wealthy parents in the “right” part of the world. Gladwell says these were advantages the famously successful have that others simply do not have. The unsuccessful geniuses around us are not helped and possibly hindered by their random birthright.

For example, Bill Gates, by the sheer lucky timing of his birth date, his living in Seattle and a "rotary club" membership held by a parent, gave him his Outlier status.  It was these advantages that provided him with the time, but more importantly the opportunity to program computers before computers were available to the general public.  Thus, he had a head start on computers that almost nobody else in the world had.  If the tide of personal computing never took off, we’d never have heard about him.

10,000 Hours of Practice Makes Perfect

Gladwell’s other theory is that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of hard practice in a chosen field to become a master in that field.

Since Gates was obsessed with the computer, and who isn’t, he spent every free minute he could hacking in the computer lab.  His head start gave him plenty of time to reach the 10,000 hour mark before anyone else could catch up.  Gladwell, also breaks down the 10,000 hour rule to explain Mozart’s success, the Beatles music popularity and Oppenheimer’s rise in physics.

When I read his 10,000 rule theory, I was both reassured and disappointed.  I was reassured in knowing much of what I knew about lasting success was true – that it takes a lot of hard work.  But disappointed I didn’t know the 10,000 hour rule earlier in my life.

Would I have chosen differently if I knew a day 15-20 years ago started my 10,000 hour journey? 

How many pursuits have you put 10,000 hours of sheer effort and practice into? For me, it’s probably server administration. I’ve put more time into architecting and maintaining networks than probably anything else in my life. And that’s probably why I am highly sought out as a network admin when sometimes I’d rather be a famous author or computer programmer.

The 10,000 hour rule is reassuring because if you have talent in an area — be it computer programming, guitar playing or surgery, all you have to do is put in that 10,000 hours. And I don’t think he means just at a job reading websites, but in heavy practice for those 10,000 hours.

Gladwell points out that getting 10,000 hours in is difficult.  For most of us it means early mornings and late nights. For example, you could practice 3 hours each day 5 days a week.  How long would it take you to be successful?  Twelve years!  That’s a huge commitment!

Yes, it is a commitment.  But It means mastery is within all our grasp. If you are reading this blog you probably have higher than average intelligence or you have a talent in some area you are aiming to improve. Well there’s your secret.  Beg, borrow or steal those 10,000 hours of practice and you can become an international expert.

Bottom Line

The Outliers an interesting study that is well worth reading. It is not a motivational or how to be successful work as the title suggests. I do have some squabbles with some of Gladwell’s comparisons between successful geniuses and non-successful geniuses.  And I think he overlooked the overriding skill non-outliers can develop that can perhaps make them Outliers.  But if you liked Blink and The Tipping Point, The Outliers will not disappoint.

What can we take away from The Outliers? I’ll save that for my next newsletter.

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MyDiary: Cool Journaling App for iPhone/iTouch

by Brad Isaac February 22, 2009

mydiary_for_iphone

Pursuant to my last post about keeping a 100 year old journal, found a .99 cent journaling program for the iphone / ipod touch in the App store called MyDiary.

This software closely mimics the journal approach of the small pocket calendar I was talking about before. Plus it feels similar too – with exception of the pen to paper tactile sense.

I’ve been using it right at 1 month and here are my thoughts…

 

Again, one of the cool things about MyDiary is the fact that it resembles the day by day calendar I was describing in the prior post. Each time you hit the new post button [+] you start with a new date where you can do your journal entry. This is an advantage over paper journals because when you miss a day in a paper journal, you get a blank spot.  In MyDiary, there are no blanks, it just goes to the next entry. 

Another advantage is obviously the portability. You carry your iPhone or iPod touch with you anyway, here you have your journal in your pocket with you too. I put the application on the first screen so I see it every time I turn on my iTouch.  So I am prompted to make a journal entry every day – even when I wasn’t intending to.

Privacy

There is simple dial controlled password feature of MyDiary.  This isn’t the most secure code on the planet as someone could brute force break it in a couple hours if they really wanted in.  The code dialer resembles an old combination lock you’d use to lock your bike to a rack.  By simply going through the numbers 0001, 0002, etc.  You’d eventually hit the golden code.  Maybe they’d consider doing a 10 minute lockout if you dialed 3 passwords incorrectly.  Or they might consider making it a 5 or 6 digit code, which increases the brute force time.

Either way, the code IS a better security than a paper based journal.

Other Features

Widescreen (yay!)- Most appreciatively, they’ve included widescreen entry and editing.  This, of course, makes text entry much easier for giants like me. 

Email journal entries to yourself or others – If privacy isn’t your biggest concern, you can email your journal entries all over the world.  I can see this possibly being handy if you’ve got an email to Twitter or FaceBook account set up and wanted to keep your Twitters in your journal as well.  Simply do an entry and choose the email button.  Just be careful not to send your entry about what’s going on between you and that cute co-worker up the hall ;)

Auto backups through iTunes – The reviews in the app store express concern about no backup feature.  I did some poking around and found the database is pulled into an iTunes backup when you dock your device.  I contacted the developer and he said that was true.  If you factory reset your iPhone you’ll get your MyDiary entries back. 

Bugs and wishes

MyDiary does have a few small bugs. First and foremost I will say that it has not crashed once on my iPod touch. That is a good thing.

But in widescreen mode, there is no way to go back to the main screen when you complete an entry.  You have to physically rotate the iPhone to go to portrait mode to get back.  So if you are editing one of your diary entries, you hit the done button, nothing happens. You must go rotate your device in order to see the back arrow button. This is a small oversight that I am sure will be easily corrected in the next version.

The other thing I would like to see is a way to a way to back up outside of using the iTunes application. As I mentioned, iTunes does backup your MyDiary database.  The database itself is not encrypted.  However, finding it on a computer is difficult and virtually impossible to find on an iPhone itself without doing major surgery.

But it would just feel a little bit better if there was a button that said backup and you could copy your database in an encrypted format to a hard drive of a computer or e-mail the encrypted database to yourself.

But overall, I consider MyDiary an excellent substitution for the paper based journal I mentioned in the prior post.  It is a convenient way to keep track of your life with some bonus features thrown in for good measure.

What are your thoughts?

Link: MyDiary in the App Store 0.99 cents

Developer website: MyDiary for iphone/iTouch

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The Secrets of The 100 Year Old Journal and How to Keep One Yourself

by Brad Isaac January 25, 2009

moleskine_12_month_journal Do you keep a journal?

These days you might feel like you don’t have time or you don’t want to keep up with another "thing" like a paper journal. I hear ya…

But journaling is still important. A journal helps you reflect on what you did right. It helps you learn by reminding you what you did wrong so you can avoid the same mistakes in the future. It is also great fun to sit down and read your own history and how far you’ve come.

In my 20s, a 70-something British friend of the family gave me my first journal. It wasn’t a big journal.  It was slightly larger than a book of matches – which surprised me.  His method of keeping a journal was brilliant in its simplicity.  Even lazy students like me could keep up with writing every day. 

 

My friend Maurice’s journals covered his World War II experience as a foot soldier, his dating life, marrying his true love and 100 years of life details until his death two years ago at the age of 99.  He explained how those journals were such a great addition to his and his wife’s life.  How simple it was to reminisce.  How easy it was to remember when everything was written down.

Again, his method was simple.  Keep a tiny, pocket sized or smaller date book in your pocket at all times.   Each day has only about a 1 inch by 1 inch space to write.  That means you can’t write a whole book.  You can only write 2 or 3 of the most important details.  “You’ll remember the details, just write down the important topics and the details will come back to you.”

I was on my way.  I kind of liked keeping a journal this way.  Every night before bed, I’d write down the most important events of the day.  But eventually, I ran into trouble.

Maurice would sometimes ask me how my journaling was going. I’d sheepishly explain that while I did ok keeping a journal sometimes, there were sometimes months, and possibly years of gaps in my record keeping.

You see, I tampered with his method. I tried doing a ‘traditional’ 8 x 10 journal here and an ultra thin month-only journal there. Since both these types were harder to keep on hand and easier to misplace, I got slack and would skip days and weeks worth of entries.

What worked and still works for me is still the small, pocket sized datebook. I know Moleskine makes one and they are nice.  It’s their Moleskine Weekly Notebook 12 Months Hard Red Cover Pocket version.  But it is a little too bulky for my tastes – and that bright red has got to go! Why not stick with black like their other journals?  I prefer something more the size of the Mini Weekly Planner. 

Turns out nothing beats having a journal in your back pocket at all times.

Keeping the years in line

Maurice shared another tip with me for keeping your years in order when the journals start piling up.  After all, when you have 50 or so of these books lying around or on a bookcase, it might be tough figuring what happened in what year.  His method?  Every New Year’s day, he and his wife (now deceased) would go through the prior year’s journal and type up a 1 page index of the most important happenings from that year.

There as an additional benefit to indexing the prior year.  It helped to reinforced the memories of the events.  At the end of the year, almost like studying, he’d review his notes and make a cheat sheet. 

He would then fold up the index and tape it to the inside cover of the journal so it would be handy.

99 Year Old Man Keeps 100 Year Journal?

So how was my friend Maurice able to get 100 years of the Journal from 99 years of life? His secret was that he went to the library and pulled the microfiche of the newspapers that existed that were planted at the time of his birth. So here you had someone 99 years old and from the time of its conception there was a historical record of his life from conception on.

I think this is a pretty cool way to share your history with your family. If you’re going to create a unique life worth living, it is worth recording and sharing with future generations.

Don’t you agree?

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10 ways woodworking is better than drinking for relaxatuon

by Brad Isaac January 17, 2009

You’ve had a hard day’s work. You want to just sit back and decompress. What’s your choice for unwinding? Do you pick up your hobby tools and get crafty? Or do you reach for the booze? I’ve talked about my woodworking for several years here on the blog. I find it incredibly relaxing. I am […]

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Goal Setting Diaries: The Freelance Writer Fighting For More Billable Hours and Less Web Surfing

by Brad Isaac January 13, 2009

This is the second in our new series The Goal Setting Diaries.  The Goal Setting Diaries is a group-think project similar to the sex diaries and the money diaries.  Real stories from real people who want to achieve a goal.  This is a diary from David, a Freelance technical writer.  Do you see any tips you can offer?  Post them in the comments below.  P.S. David was awarded a free copy of Achieve-IT! goal setting software for submitting a goal diary.  You can get the same if you submit yours and I post it on this site or in my newsletter read the FAQ for more information.

 

Goals:

I’m a freelance technical writer and I’m aiming to overcome my constant challenges.

But first, what’s a technical writer? Technical writers generally write user guides and manuals for products. I mostly write for high tech companies. If you need to know more, Wikipedia is here to help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_writer

For the upcoming week I hope to do the following:

1. Internet-free diet.

I’ve done it before though it’s not easy. The aim is to avoid wasting time on the web by cutting out news sites and other sites I go to for on particular reason, other than to pass time. I can still check e-mail, my bank account and go to web sites where I need info or need to do something, but no aimless surfing.

2. Bill 6 hours a day.

Thank God I have a few projects, the challenge now is to do them! To bill 6 hours a day you need to work more than 6 hours because you can’t work 6 hours non-stop without a break. But I aim to get to 6 hours daily.

That’s enough for now, more later.

Continue reading the rest of David’s goal setting diary and see if you can help him. 

Monday December 15th 11.15 pm

Well, on the first front it’s been fine — I haven’t checked any news sites or aimlessly surfed but I didn’t get close enough to billing 6 hours. However, I did manage to cross a few stubborn items from my to-do list.

How do I get to bill 6 hours? I have to be awake and alert so it starts the night before by going to bed on time and then making sure I’m at my desk by 9.00, so that after a few “warm-up” tasks I can start working at 9.30.

So, good night…

 

Tuesday December 16th 11.15 am

Not sure why the updates have so far all happened at 11.15.

I’m only now about to start work which is of course not very good. The good side though is that instead of checking the same news on 3 different sites, ten different times in 30 minutes, I have been doing items on my to do list. But that’s no excuse for starting work so late.

So, today’s aim is again 6 hours billing plus some other business related tasks and other to do items. Here goes…

 

Tuesday December 16th 11.15 pm

I got to 5½ billed hours so I have to be pretty happy with that. I also completed a couple of important business-related tasks. And a client that has been dormant for almost 4 months called to say that they want to start working with me again TG.

And no checking of news sites or aimless surfing so that’s good too.

Plenty of room for improvement but TG overall a good day.

 

Weds December 17th 12 noon

I’ve been at a client this morning and that always makes it easier to notch up billable hours because there are no distractions and if the meeting starts early then I don’t need to find the self-motivation to get started.

I’ll be back in my home office this afternoon — let’s see how I fare. As I’m in the middle of my Internet-free diet I don’t have to worry about web distractions which is great. I don’t have any particular tasks today, just a few phone calls, so I just have to do my best and get down to work.

 

Thurs December 18th 2.10 pm

I thought that seeing as though I am keeping this diary, which I’ll be sending to Brad, just by virtue of keeping the diary I’ll be spurred on to greater things. Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon was a bit of a write-off and today the day just hasn’t got going. My Internet-free diet also lost a bit of ground. But I’m determined that from now things will improve.

 

Thurs December 18th 6.10 pm

Yep, you guessed right. Our hero didn’t manage to improve things. Some days just get shot and I find it very hard to take a deep breath and re-focus. And now I’m off to the theatre and then going out with friends.

 

Fri December 19th 11.45 am

A slow start to the day. I have found a possibility of office space outside my home which I’m going to look into on Monday.

Lots to do. Here goes. Can I end the work week on a high and finally report that today I billed 6 hours?

 

Fri December 19th 11.30 pm

Boy, am I dejected. My least productive day of the week.

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Poll: Did You Set New Years Resolutions?

by Brad Isaac January 4, 2009

I am curious to see how many of you do set New Years Resolutions… Poll: Did You Set New Years Resolutions? ( surveys) If you feel like sharing why you do or do not set resolutions, post in the comments below. You can also post your resolutions (if any) there too.         […]

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