I finally got the chance to finish Malcolm Gladwells book 'Outliers' from 2008. I must admit that I didn't read hi's other books 'Blink' and 'Tipping Point', but I knew about him and my expectations was quit high. And I really did enjoy Outliers. The theories in the book are easy understanable and makes a lot of sense. The storys just a like 'a walk in the park'.
I just found this video from a presentation I heard in NYC this fall. Its a bit long but you can see Malcolm Gladwell's fine way of building up the plot and story. Here he's talking about how you must do something for at least 1000 hours before you become really good at it. It's both exhausting and engaging at the same time!
This talk gives a perfect introduction to this one side of the book. But to get the overall idea – how success is not about one person being 'born to do something', but about context, time in history, opportunities, hard work and so on – you must read the whole thing. Some of the ideas are quit surprising, and it's encouraging to read such a likeable book about succes.
Start with this video – maybe you will get hooked too? (introduction by Tom Kelley and a guy from Helicopter).
