This article over at Guardian is an excerpt from “Outliers - The Story of Success”, the new book from Malcolm Gladwell, my favorite pattern-seeker, a.k.a. the author of best-selling books “The Tipping Point” and “Blink”.
The book is an account and analysis of people we tend to consider outstanding, if not geniuses - people like Mozart, The Beatles, Bill Gates, Bill Joy, Eric Schmidt.
Shortly put, the raw, uncut and untrained/unpracticed talent alone is not sufficient to be successful and remarkably good at something. What it takes is a combination of hidden advantages, extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies (a.k.a. “the right person at the right place at the time”) that allow them to work hard and makes sense of the world in ways other people cannot. The key is working hard.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book seems to gravitate around 10.000 hours of hard work as a break-even point when you cease being (just) very good and start being brilliant at something. As a matter of fact, researchers seem to agree about this number being a pre-requisite to brilliance. With good timing a few lucky breaks, mind you. :-)
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