What is an outlier? An outlier is a person who has\ndone more than the ordinary. They stand out from the crowd. They have reached\nthe peak of success. The outliers are the geniuses, rock stars, athletes,\nbusiness tycoons and billionaires of the world. What is their secret?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We always admire people who are successful. We are\ninspired by stories of rags to riches. We are interested to know them. What is\ntheir lifestyle? What is their personality? Do they have special talents? We\nthink that these qualities explain their success. But there is a bigger picture\nthat we are missing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this summary, 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, is pure talent enough? What\nabout upbringing? What about the people who helped them? What about the culture\nand society they belong to? By reading the stories of outliers, we will uncover\nthe answers to these questions. We will have a new perspective of success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPractice isn\u2019t the thing you do once\nyou\u2019re good. It\u2019s the thing you do that makes you good.\u201dIn the 1990s, a group\nof psychologists conducted a study in the Academy of Music at Berlin. They want\nto know how much do talent and practice determine success. Do the violinists excel because of innate\ntalent? Or is it because of practice? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psychologists observed that the more\nhours the students spend in practice, the more they become better at playing\nviolin. As the children grow older, they spend more time practicing. At twenty\nyears old, the best violinists have already spent 10,000 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same study was conducted to\npianists. Amateurs have only spent 2,000 hours since childhood. But the\nprofessionals increased practice hours every year. By age 20, they have played\na total of 10,000 hours. The psychologists found that there are no \u201cnaturals\u201d.\nThere exists no musician who became the best by practicing lesser hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be a world class in anything, you\nhave to spend 10,000 hours. Other studies have proven this magic number. From\nmusicians, to athletes, to writers, to criminal masterminds, it takes 10,000\nhours to be on top. It appears that our brain needs 10,000 hours to achieve\nexpertise and mastery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the thing is, not everybody can\nafford to spend 10,000 hours. It is not possible to be achieved on your own. As\na child, you need to have supportive parents. As an adult, you need spare time.\nBut if you are poor and you have to work, you would not have enough time for\npractice. To have 10,000 hours is an extraordinary opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take for example, Bill Gates. He has\nbeen programming since he was in 8th<\/sup> grade. That is a special\nopportunity because it was in the 1960s. Only rich people can afford to own a\ncomputer at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The father of Bill Gates is a lawyer\nwhile his mother is also from a rich family. They enrolled him to an elite\nschool in Seattle called Lakeside. It was one of the few schools in 1968 which\nhave a computer club. Since 8th<\/sup> grade to high school, Bill Gates was\nable to practice programming nonstop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Bill Gates dropped out of college\nto start Microsoft, he has already spent more than 10,000 hours. He is a\nbrilliant programmer and entrepreneur. But Bill Gates was able to have that\nunusual opportunity. As Bill Gates said, \u201cI was very lucky.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To be an outlier, you need to have that\nspecial opportunity. You need to be given that lucky break. If you have an\nextraordinary talent, you also need an extraordinary opportunity to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLift up your heads and look at the image of a man\nwho rose from nothing, who owed nothing to parentage or patronage\u2026\u201d That is\nwhat Robert Winthrop said when he unveiled the statue of Benjamin Franklin. But\ndo outliers really rise from nothing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are obsessed by autobiographies of successful\npeople. They all have humble beginnings. But they conquered every challenge and\nachieved success. They did it from their own unique abilities. What we don\u2019t\nsee is that great leaders like Franklin are beneficiaries of opportunities and\nadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Outliers owe their success to their parents, patrons\nand the community they belong to. They owe it to the legacies of their\nancestors and their culture. If we want to know how a person succeeded, it is\nnot enough to learn about his qualities. We should also ask when and where did\nhe grow up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Take for example, the Beatles. Before\nbecoming popular, they had their special opportunity in Hamburg, Germany. It was\nin 1960. At that time, the Beatles was only a high school band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamburg was full of strip clubs then.\nThe rock bands were invited to attract more customers. There was a club called\nBruno which always featured bands from Liverpool, England. The owner Philip\nNorman wanted the bands to play nonstop for hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As John Lennon said about their\nexperience in Hamburg, \u201cWe got better and get more confidence\u2026We had to try\neven harder, put our heart and soul into it, get ourselves over.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Beatles would play in Hamburg clubs\nfor eight hours straight every night. They developed their creativity, stamina\nand discipline. In Liverpool, they would only play the same songs in one hour\nsets. But in Hamburg, the Beatles had to play different versions. They\nperformed rock and also jazz to cover for eight hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of only 18 months, the\nBeatles performed 270 nights in Hamburg. When they became popular in 1964, the\nband has already played live 1,200 times. That is what set them apart from all\nthe other rock and roll bands. They had a lot of practice with live audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamburg was Beatles\u2019 special\nopportunity. They became a beneficiary of the culture and community of Hamburg,\nGermany. As Philip Norman said, \u201cThey were no good onstage when they went there\nand they were very good when they came back\u2026they sounded like no one else. It\nwas the making of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Beatles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n