Summary, Analysis, and Review of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

PLEASE NOTE: This is a key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.

Start Publishing Notes’ Summary, Analysis, and Review of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success includes a summary of the book, review, analysis & key takeaways, and detailed “About the Author” section.

PREVIEW: Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success argues that success is not solely the result of merit and hard work. Rather, Gladwell says extremely successful people are successful because they were in the right place at the right time, or because they received crucial help. In order to understand success, it is important to look not at the characteristics of the individual, but at the social and cultural factors that enable success.

Sports are often seen as a uniquely meritocratic endeavor. People believe that the most physically talented athletes are the most successful. However, this is not true. In fact, in Canada, children whose birthdays fall just before the cut off date for participation in youth leagues have a huge advantage. These children are the oldest ones in their leagues, and so are most developed, and are stronger and faster than their peers. In Canada, this means that they are chosen to move into more advanced teams and leagues, and so get more practice and training. As a result, almost all professional hockey players in Canada have birthdays clustered around the dates just before the youth league cut offs. The professional players all have great talent, and all work hard. However, what truly made them outliers was not work or skill, but the accident of their birthdays.