Each quarter I post a review of a leadership/motivational book I recommend to colleagues and friends. Some may be old favorites, others are hot off the press. I am always open to suggestions for books to review. If you have a favorite you'd like to share with others, please contact me.

Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell dedicates his latest release Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) “For Daisy”. The dedication would have been more aptly put “Because of Daisy”. For this reader, the story of Daisy, presented as the last chapter of Outliers: The Story of Success brought home in stunning relief the connections Gladwell makes throughout this incredible book. Is Outliers: The Story of Success engaging? Yes! Are there lessons for the business community? Absolutely. And for the education community and the human communities we all live in as well.

Not only does Gladwell literally bring home his points in the story of Daisy, he wraps this fascinating book just where he should, with a story of his family and how the concepts, trends, beliefs and cultural legacies he profiles throughout the book acted in his own life. It was the perfect way to bring it all together.

In 285 pages Gladwell takes the reader on a journey that involves Bill Gates, The Beatles, hockey players for the NHL, Korean Airline pilots, immigrants from a small village south of Rome, and the feuds of Harlan County, Kentucky.

What are outliers? Gladwell shares a dictionary definition as: something that is situated away from or classified differently from a main or related body. He then goes on to make this rather dry definition an intriguing read.

Gladwell shows us how timing, social change, even date of birth can send one person on one path and another down a totally different road. He maintains a multitude of circumstances creates the phenomenon and that we as a society are so enamored of the myth of the “best and the brightest” we cannot see how small changes in how we do things as various societies could make huge differences in the fortunes of people in those societies.

Two of the case studies he relates have a very real connection that is so deeply buried that when he reveals it, this reader just shook her head. The subjects were pilots for Korean Airlines and low-income children in the Bronx. What characteristics could they possibly have in common? In another chapter he looks at factors that contributed to the phenomenon of The Beatles and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Remember how our mothers told us to practice? These two success stories are a tribute to that advice according to Gladwell.

Gladwell creates a strong line of reasoning for looking differently at some of the beliefs we hold as truth. As a society, some of the traditions we accept with little question are traditions or systems whose time has passed. For example, he makes a very compelling argument about how the 19th century belief system behind how education is provided in the U.S. is undermining our educational standing in the world. As I read this examination, I wondered what myths are we holding onto about healthcare that makes the current system so impossible to change.

In the 21st century, we may think we are not connected to social movements of the past or not influenced by the cultural legacies left behind in “the old country” by our great-grandparents. We may believe that people can make it on their own, overcoming the obstacles of race, gender, poverty, and disease through a sheer desire to succeed and others fail because they are not so driven. Gladwell begs to differ.

Outliers concludes with the story of his great-grandfather’s purchase of a slave in Jamaica and how the union of those two people eventually led to Gladwell’s birth. He then tells the story again, this time in relation to the social mores of time and place. Had this same pairing happened just a few years one way or the other or in the U.S. instead of Jamaica, the story of Gladwell’s family would have taken a very different path. We might not have had the benefits of either Malcolm Gladwell as a writer or his cousin Colin Powell as leader.

At the end of Gladwell’s family story the conclusions reached throughout the book are seen again:

• The “best and the brightest” are not born that way
• We are products of not only our experiences/beliefs but the experiences/beliefs of our forbearers way
• The accidents of time and place plays a huge role
• No one gets to where they are or who they are alone

Outliers: The Story of Success left this reader wondering what aspects of her Swedish cultural legacy and what social, economic, and circumstantial phenomenon were at work shaping her into who she is today.

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