Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, speaker, and bestselling author. Having written five books, ‘Outliers’ goes on to examine the key factors that drive high levels of success. Here is a look at some of the most outstanding quotes from ‘Outliers’ to get you inspired.
“Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.”
“All the outliers we’ve looked at so far were the beneficiaries of some kind of unusual opportunity. Lucky breaks don’t seem like the exception with software billionaires and rock bands and star athletes. They seem like the rule.”
“But as is so often the case with outliers, buried in that setback was a golden opportunity.”
“Don’t depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.”
“Each of us has his or her own distinct personality. But overlaid on top of that are tendencies and assumptions and reflexes handed down to us by the history of the community we grew up in, and those differences are extraordinarily specific.”
“Flom had the same experience…He didn’t triumph over adversity. Instead, what started out as adversity ended up being an opportunity.”
“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.”
“Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation.”
“If you work hard enough, assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.”
Book recommendation @JerlingJayhawks …Just finished Outliers by Malcolm @Gladwell . Powerful implications. #osd135 pic.twitter.com/5fC5OVPFjc
— Kevin (@SenorBrownOSD) January 15, 2016
“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.”
“It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.”
“No one-not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses-ever makes it alone.”
“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities—and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”
“People don’t rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
“Schools work. The only problem with school, for the kids who aren’t achieving, is that there isn’t enough of it.”
“Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.”
That one time @PeterHamilton & @Gladwell chatted by a fire at #Postback15… announcing #Postback16 keynote soon.. pic.twitter.com/XCGJx47czd
— TUNE (@tune) January 22, 2016
“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.”
“the 10,000hr rule is a definite key in success.”
“The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”
“The most advanced computer science programs in the world, and over the course of the Computer Center’s life, thousands of students passed.”
“The poorer children were, to her mind, often better behaved, less whiny, more creative in making use of their own time, and have a well-developed sense of independence.”
“The sense of possibility so necessary for success comes not just from inside us or from our parents. It comes from our time: from the particular opportunities that our place in history presents us with.”
“The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.”
“Those three things — autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward — are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”
“To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success–the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history–with a society that provides opportunities for all.”
"You are looking where the light is and not where the keys are" ~ @Gladwell quote on Talent Search #adprethink #RPO pic.twitter.com/EhqzSskoA9
— Roger Nyffeler (@RogerNyffeler) January 27, 2016
“We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds. But do we know enough about the sunlight.”
“We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don’t matter at all.”
“We do ability grouping early on in childhood…if we look at young kids, in kindergarten and first grade, the teachers are confusing maturity with ability.”
“We overlook just how large a role we all play–and by ‘we’ I mean society–in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.”
“We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail.”
“Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.”
“Why is the fact that each of us comes from a culture with its own distinctive mix of strengths and weaknesses, tendencies and predispositions, so difficult to acknowledge? Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from — and when we ignore that fact, planes crash.”
“Working really hard is what successful people do.”
“You master mathematics if you are willing to try. That’s what Schoenfeld attempts to teach his students.”
Malcolm Gladwell appears at this talk as he discusses how human potential is being squandered. As the author of ‘Outliers,’ Gladwell looks at the stories of achieving success.
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