'Outliers' - truly an outlier among scores of books on successful people. Success is the output of a complex web of social, cultural factors and personal characteristics coming together at a desirable time. That is the message of the book. It is not a discouragement for those working day in day out to acheive something big, rather it is an eye opener for them to look at things other than hard-work. It gives an idea on who among the lot is going to make it to the end and why so, through candid elucidation of real life examples.
We have heard of stories of talented players in a game failing to make it big, while it has been a dream come true for many others from a similar background. Hardly we would have thought that something like a player's date of birth would decide if he will be a champ or an underdog. Date of birth is no magic, it has nothing to do with talent neither it has anything to do in sports at a national or international level. However, how old are you in comparison with your fellow team-mates when you played the game for the first time matters a lot. Surprising? Read on...
Its common to see age categorizations among younger people in sports. Like we have under-18, under-16, under-14 teams playing against each other. These classifications are done based on specific cut off dates for date of birth. Players who fall behind the cut off date for a particular age group level in a sport, fall into the next lower level. Among kids, being older by 10 to 12 months makes quite a difference. Say for example, in a match among boys under-14, the boys with age closest to 14 have relatively better physical and mental maturity than boys 13 year old.Those older boys who failed to make it to the next higher level by a matter of days are more likely to perform better than their younger counterparts and hence, more likely favoured to move forward in their careers. This goes on and on like a snow ball until the day comes when the advantaged guys make it to the national league while their younger team mates from the under-14 group sit on the arena watching them play. The above example has been supported in the book with data on date of birth of Canada National Hockey League players with reference to the cut off date adopted by the league to promote talent from a young age.
A famous Indian media personality, was once asked how he made it big in a very short time. He said that he has been preparing himself for so long and when an opportunity came by, he just had to grab it. It never asked if he is prepared. 'The Outliers' narrates the story of several successful men who had almost similar experiences. Like, Bill Gates who had more than 10000 hours of computer programming under his belt already even when the personal computer revolution was beginning to happen. All he had to do is to make use of the opoortunity. He was one among the few who were ready for a ride and the flight just came in time. The book also talks about the culture and society in which one is brought up.
The social and cultural factors discussed are inherent in their own sense in everyone of us, but have been ignored or looked upon all the time. Like the characteristics of shepherds in the early American settlements, rice growing farmers in China among several others. The author goes on to explain how traces of such factors are evident in people even today in the way they work and react in the soceity. The existence of a power-distance factor in societies is also discussed. Power-distance is a typical cultural factor that gives an idea about rigidness of hierarchy, respect for seniors etc. For instance, its not uncommon to see American kids address their teachers by name. While in Asia, elders are addressed with a sense of fear and respect. Its not uncommon to find the usage of 'sir' on any elder person in India, let alone teachers and professors. It might not be right to judge the power-distance factor as good or bad. However, it becomes important to be taken into account while choosing people from different cultures for specific jobs. Some jobs, like the first officers in air planes assisting the captain have to be assertive at times when the captain seems to be wrong. The knowledge of social and cultural factors that are embedded in people will facilitate differential training as the job necessiates.
I have always had a good feeling when I read books that threw light on things that were always there but ignored all the time. Outliers was no exception.
