Outliers - Book by Social Behaviour expert, Malcom Gladwell; an amazing read to understand how situations add to the potential of a person to become extraordinarily successful.
The author analyses data from various walks of life on successes in different fields and builds a common thread to pull out hidden principles involved in making them a success. And at times it is astonishing!!
Eg. Whats common between Bill Gates & Beatles. Both are connected by a common principle of 10,000 Hrs of practice. Bill gates becuase of the circumstances spent 10,000 Hrs in programming during his school and college and by the time he finished school/or dropped out, he had already clocked 10,000 hrs of programming on computers in that time of mainframe computers. Situations helped him in doing that - he went to not the best college but a college where he could crack a password to a mainframe computer so that he can work on the same 24 hrs!! His house was near to college so literally he spent 24 hrs in the computer room. Becuase of the same, he was hired by a company which gave assignment to kids to do something. - Result: he went on to become the person he is!
Same goes with Beatles. Beatles when they werent 'Beatles' were looking for work very badly; so badly that they agreed to go to a different country where they had to perform 8-10 Hrs straight & live in night clubs! And for 100 days continuosly. They did it for money and then crowd started loving them and by the time they finished the stint; they have toghether clocked 10,000 hrs of proactise which big guns take a lifetime to do. And the rest is history.
And more such hidden principles will keep you glued to the book. Eg. Most of the successful Basket Ball players were born in Jan-March. Most of the successful guys in Hockey were born in Sep-Oct in a different country? Why? Find out yourself.
And how far IQ is involved in Success? And how much 'Practical Knowledge' is additionally needed to help a 'Super IQ' guy to be a success? And what is the impact of going to 'THE BEST School' and next best school? All that and more in the book.
-nits
