This is a question to which my answer has evolved quite a bit as I've grown up, as it perhaps has for you too. When I was a kid, I probably would have told you that a successful life would include my owning a beach house in Maine with an unlimited supply of ice cream in the freezer and an unchecked budget at the local souvenir shop. While the ice cream piece may have remained a constant, when I think of success today I think beyond myself.
High school me would have defined success as getting good grades, racing well in a track meet, being friendly and well-liked, and as far as the future, getting into a good college and maybe someday down the road being well-known for making some contribution to humanity. I may have thrown in more altruistic elements to the definition, depending on if we talked about what I wanted to study in college or do with my life afterwards. My answer to this [still dreaded] question of what I want to do with my life is inevitably shaped by my definition of success, just as people's interpretations of my answer are shaped by their definition of success.
If success means money, fame, stability, luxury, status, power, or anything in this traditional category of success, then my answer of what I want to do in life does not fit, it won't garner the praise or attention of my listeners. If success is individualistic and competition based, no one will be impressed by my answer.
Success has to encompass a communal element, because we've come to the point in our globalized world where we will all fail together or all succeed together. The growing inequality gap between the rich and the poor, the hazardous condition of the environment, the growth mentality behind our economy, none of this is sustainable. When we work together to find answers, true answers, they will benefit all of us. The motivators will not be traditional, but rather the motivators will be ideals such as striving towards a better, more just future for all of us. Each one of us will be successful.
Although the common man has reclaimed the definition of success to some degree, in arguing that everyone can be successful in his/her own way, the popular imagery of success excludes many people. The successful person is the one who has distinguished him/herself from the crowd, risen above the masses, and done something not many others do. The popular conception of the American dream tells us that anyone can be this successful person, as long as they have the right mindset and determination.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell challenges us to reevaluate our notions of success, or more specifically how successful people got to where they did. Is it, as the American dream tells us, a keen sense of what hard work is, a clear idea of what the end vision is, and the determination and passion to get there? Or is it, as Gladwell explains using multiple examples throughout the book, an alignment of the right opportunities the successful person took advantage of?
Hockey players born in January are more likely to be successful because they have just missed the cutoff, ensuring they are the biggest and most mature children in their youth leagues, and more likely to be noticed and given special treatment when coaches are scouting for players with potential. Separated out at such a young age, these children who had the luck of being born in the first few months of the year are put on a fast track to success.
The stereotype of Asians being more successful at math? Perhaps it comes from the fact that while it takes on average 1/3 of a second to speak an English number, it takes 1/4 of a second to speak a Chinese number. When numbers don't take as long to say, a human can remember more numbers. Furthermore, when the spoken number just makes more sense - eleven being, literally, "ten one" and twenty-four being "two ten four" in Chinese- mathematical functions are easier to do in one's head. Math doesn't seem as daunting or impossible, and children aren't as easily discouraged.
Gladwell extends his examples to encompass the stories of Bill Gates, who had extensive access to computers and programming while a child, and The Beatles, who had a particular gig that required them to play for an extraordinary amount of time over a few years. He talks about a magic number of hours, 10,000, that one has to reach before they can be an expert in their field, and some people such as Gates and the members of The Beatles had the opportunity to reach this number quickly.
I highly recommend reading Outliers to understand Gladwell's theory of success more. His thesis, that success is not only product of hard work but also of the opportunities one is given, becomes clearer and more persuasive with every page. He is careful never to discredit motivation and hard work, but pairs them with other critical elements that explain why more people don't reach this ideal of success.
The biggest takeaway from Gladwell's work? Well, perhaps we need to think a bit harder about the systems in place in our society that allow only certain people to be successful. Are there ways to even the playing field, to account for everyone's talent and abilities? How do we reward talented, driven people without sending the message there is only one way to get to where they are?
One of the hardest lessons I personally had to grapple with as I graduated high school and entered college is the answer to the question, who was responsible for my success? I would have liked to believe it was me: the late nights studying until 2 a.m., the passion I had for learning, the drive and determination to do well academically; but I slowly realized the plethora of factors that had contributed to my success. A stable home environment, parents who could provide and care for me, being involved in activities as a kid, reading over the summer at the public library... the list goes on to include everything from the homemade cookies I often came home to after school to the fact that my Grampa had a long career at IBM.
So before you read Gladwell's Outliers, think of how you have regarded success up to this point in your life. When you look at a "successful" person, what qualities or attributes do you assume they have? How does this influence your image of yourself? How do you define success?
And after you're done, think about how we should be defining success, knowing what we now know about successful people and how they got there. Is it okay that not everyone can succeed in a society set up like it is?
High school me would have defined success as getting good grades, racing well in a track meet, being friendly and well-liked, and as far as the future, getting into a good college and maybe someday down the road being well-known for making some contribution to humanity. I may have thrown in more altruistic elements to the definition, depending on if we talked about what I wanted to study in college or do with my life afterwards. My answer to this [still dreaded] question of what I want to do with my life is inevitably shaped by my definition of success, just as people's interpretations of my answer are shaped by their definition of success.
If success means money, fame, stability, luxury, status, power, or anything in this traditional category of success, then my answer of what I want to do in life does not fit, it won't garner the praise or attention of my listeners. If success is individualistic and competition based, no one will be impressed by my answer.
Success has to encompass a communal element, because we've come to the point in our globalized world where we will all fail together or all succeed together. The growing inequality gap between the rich and the poor, the hazardous condition of the environment, the growth mentality behind our economy, none of this is sustainable. When we work together to find answers, true answers, they will benefit all of us. The motivators will not be traditional, but rather the motivators will be ideals such as striving towards a better, more just future for all of us. Each one of us will be successful.
Although the common man has reclaimed the definition of success to some degree, in arguing that everyone can be successful in his/her own way, the popular imagery of success excludes many people. The successful person is the one who has distinguished him/herself from the crowd, risen above the masses, and done something not many others do. The popular conception of the American dream tells us that anyone can be this successful person, as long as they have the right mindset and determination.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell challenges us to reevaluate our notions of success, or more specifically how successful people got to where they did. Is it, as the American dream tells us, a keen sense of what hard work is, a clear idea of what the end vision is, and the determination and passion to get there? Or is it, as Gladwell explains using multiple examples throughout the book, an alignment of the right opportunities the successful person took advantage of?
Hockey players born in January are more likely to be successful because they have just missed the cutoff, ensuring they are the biggest and most mature children in their youth leagues, and more likely to be noticed and given special treatment when coaches are scouting for players with potential. Separated out at such a young age, these children who had the luck of being born in the first few months of the year are put on a fast track to success.
The stereotype of Asians being more successful at math? Perhaps it comes from the fact that while it takes on average 1/3 of a second to speak an English number, it takes 1/4 of a second to speak a Chinese number. When numbers don't take as long to say, a human can remember more numbers. Furthermore, when the spoken number just makes more sense - eleven being, literally, "ten one" and twenty-four being "two ten four" in Chinese- mathematical functions are easier to do in one's head. Math doesn't seem as daunting or impossible, and children aren't as easily discouraged.
Gladwell extends his examples to encompass the stories of Bill Gates, who had extensive access to computers and programming while a child, and The Beatles, who had a particular gig that required them to play for an extraordinary amount of time over a few years. He talks about a magic number of hours, 10,000, that one has to reach before they can be an expert in their field, and some people such as Gates and the members of The Beatles had the opportunity to reach this number quickly.
I highly recommend reading Outliers to understand Gladwell's theory of success more. His thesis, that success is not only product of hard work but also of the opportunities one is given, becomes clearer and more persuasive with every page. He is careful never to discredit motivation and hard work, but pairs them with other critical elements that explain why more people don't reach this ideal of success.
The biggest takeaway from Gladwell's work? Well, perhaps we need to think a bit harder about the systems in place in our society that allow only certain people to be successful. Are there ways to even the playing field, to account for everyone's talent and abilities? How do we reward talented, driven people without sending the message there is only one way to get to where they are?
One of the hardest lessons I personally had to grapple with as I graduated high school and entered college is the answer to the question, who was responsible for my success? I would have liked to believe it was me: the late nights studying until 2 a.m., the passion I had for learning, the drive and determination to do well academically; but I slowly realized the plethora of factors that had contributed to my success. A stable home environment, parents who could provide and care for me, being involved in activities as a kid, reading over the summer at the public library... the list goes on to include everything from the homemade cookies I often came home to after school to the fact that my Grampa had a long career at IBM.
So before you read Gladwell's Outliers, think of how you have regarded success up to this point in your life. When you look at a "successful" person, what qualities or attributes do you assume they have? How does this influence your image of yourself? How do you define success?
And after you're done, think about how we should be defining success, knowing what we now know about successful people and how they got there. Is it okay that not everyone can succeed in a society set up like it is?