In the book Outlier, author Gladwell throws some interesting insights behind the ‘secret of success’. He cites examples of both well known personalities including Bill Gates, Beatles etc. as well as lesser known, e.g. the youth who made it to the Canadian Hockey team. He points out that the qualities that have been all along considered essential for success, such as, hard work, talent, skill, knowledge etc. are alone not adequate, and that there are other crucial factors without which spectacular success would not have been possible.
While many of the success stories support his logic, some, including the reasons for Asians’ superior performance in Mathematics due to their ancestors working in paddy fields is less convincing. In fact Gladwell himself quotes contradictory claims to this effect.
Over all this is a well written book and worth a read.
