Outliers (English)
Introduction
What is an outlier? An outlier is a person who has done more than the ordinary. They stand out from the crowd. They have reached the peak of success. The outliers are the geniuses, rock stars, athletes, business tycoons and billionaires of the world. What is their secret?
We always admire people who are successful. We are inspired by stories of rags to riches. We are interested to know them. What is their lifestyle? What is their personality? Do they have special talents? We think that these qualities explain their success. But there is a bigger picture that we are missing.
In this book, we will find that there is something wrong with how we define success. We only see it as personal. We think that individuals who succeed did everything on their own. It is their own abilities which led them to where they are.
However, is pure talent enough? What about upbringing? What about the people who helped them? What about the culture and society they belong to? By reading the stories of outliers, we will uncover the answers to these questions. We will have a new perspective of success.
Canadian Hockey
Hockey is a very popular sport in Canada. Boys learn to play starting from kindergarten. There is a hockey league every year at school. But how are the best players chosen for the national team? It is noticeable that the best hockey players were born in the months of January to March. How did this happen?
Here’s the secret. The coaches actually choose the boys who are older in their class. That is to say that if the boy is born in December, he would not be chosen to play for the team. This is because the older boy is more mature physically. The gap in months presents a huge difference in their body built. This selection happens for boys at age 9 to 10.
The boys born earlier will be trained by the coach. They will practice three times more than the average. By the time they reach their teens, the boys are already experts at playing hockey. And they will move on to the big leagues.
This is also the selection process for other sports. Age difference is also valued in the Olympics. The talents of children born on the later part of the year are being ignored. Younger children are often discouraged from the sport. But if the same opportunity is given to them, their talents would also be honed. They would also be successful athletes.
The national hockey team of Canada became outliers because of coincidence. It so happened that they are born earlier and more physically mature. The opportunity for success has been given to them. It led to one opportunity to another.
We are a society who gives more advantage to those who are successful. More doors would open to them and further elevate their status. Meanwhile, those who fail are dismissed. We look up so much to individual achievement. We, as a society, overlook the role that we play in determining who gets the opportunity and who does not.
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10,000 hours
Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”In the 1990s, a group of psychologists conducted a study in the Academy of Music at Berlin. They want to know how much do talent and practice determine success. Do the violinists excel because of innate talent? Or is it because of practice?
The psychologists observed that the more hours the students spend in practice, the more they become better at playing violin. As the children grow older, they spend more time practicing. At twenty years old, the best violinists have already spent 10,000 hours.
The same study was conducted to pianists. Amateurs have only spent 2,000 hours since childhood. But the professionals increased practice hours every year. By age 20, they have played a total of 10,000 hours. The psychologists found that there are no “naturals”. There exists no musician who became the best by practicing lesser hours.
To be a world class in anything, you have to spend 10,000 hours. Other studies have proven this magic number. From musicians, to athletes, to writers, to criminal masterminds, it takes 10,000 hours to be on top. It appears that our brain needs 10,000 hours to achieve expertise and mastery.
But the thing is, not everybody can afford to spend 10,000 hours. It is not possible to be achieved on your own. As a child, you need to have supportive parents. As an adult, you need spare time. But if you are poor and you have to work, you would not have enough time for practice. To have 10,000 hours is an extraordinary opportunity.
Take for example, Bill Gates. He has been programming since he was in 8th grade. That is a special opportunity because it was in the 1960s. Only rich people can afford to own a computer at that time.
The father of Bill Gates is a lawyer while his mother is also from a rich family. They enrolled him to an elite school in Seattle called Lakeside. It was one of the few schools in 1968 which have a computer club. Since 8th grade to high school, Bill Gates was able to practice programming nonstop.
When Bill Gates dropped out of college to start Microsoft, he has already spent more than 10,000 hours. He is a brilliant programmer and entrepreneur. But Bill Gates was able to have that unusual opportunity. As Bill Gates said, “I was very lucky.”
To be an outlier, you need to have that special opportunity. You need to be given that lucky break. If you have an extraordinary talent, you also need an extraordinary opportunity to succeed.
The Beatles
“Lift up your heads and look at the image of a man who rose from nothing, who owed nothing to parentage or patronage…” That is what Robert Winthrop said when he unveiled the statue of Benjamin Franklin. But do outliers really rise from nothing?
We are obsessed by autobiographies of successful people. They all have humble beginnings. But they conquered every challenge and achieved success. They did it from their own unique abilities. What we don’t see is that great leaders like Franklin are beneficiaries of opportunities and advantages.
Outliers owe their success to their parents, patrons and the community they belong to. They owe it to the legacies of their ancestors and their culture. If we want to know how a person succeeded, it is not enough to learn about his qualities. We should also ask when and where did he grow up.
Take for example, the Beatles. Before becoming popular, they had their special opportunity in Hamburg, Germany. It was in 1960. At that time, the Beatles was only a high school band.
Hamburg was full of strip clubs then. The rock bands were invited to attract more customers. There was a club called Bruno which always featured bands from Liverpool, England. The owner Philip Norman wanted the bands to play nonstop for hours.
As John Lennon said about their experience in Hamburg, “We got better and get more confidence…We had to try even harder, put our heart and soul into it, get ourselves over.”
The Beatles would play in Hamburg clubs for eight hours straight every night. They developed their creativity, stamina and discipline. In Liverpool, they would only play the same songs in one hour sets. But in Hamburg, the Beatles had to play different versions. They performed rock and also jazz to cover for eight hours.
Over the course of only 18 months, the Beatles performed 270 nights in Hamburg. When they became popular in 1964, the band has already played live 1,200 times. That is what set them apart from all the other rock and roll bands. They had a lot of practice with live audience.
Hamburg was Beatles’ special opportunity. They became a beneficiary of the culture and community of Hamburg, Germany. As Philip Norman said, “They were no good onstage when they went there and they were very good when they came back…they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.