Book Report: Outliers The Story of Success

Author: Malcolm  Gladwell

Pages: 285

What is it about: How people become successful.  The author's point of view is told by telling stories of successful people and how he believes that they became successful using research and facts.
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What did I think of this book:  I have a pretty large collection of unread nonfiction books that I have decided to focus on getting read.  And this is the first one.  I REALLY liked this book.  The funny thing is it took me about a month to finish.  Yes, I was reading other books at the same time that I was spending more time on and I was reading it on vacation with three children.  Excuses aside.  I have learned something about myself and reading nonfiction.  I need to read it slower than fiction.  For the absorption.  Not that I am stupid.....although I have several algebra teachers that may not agree with  me on that.  I just need to read a chapter and think about it for a day or two.  That is how I came to love this book.


This book is filled with numbers and scientific research (yes..I did scream a little bit inside at this) but it also filled with practical knowledge and the author writes about how these people or groups of people became successful and overcame obstacles. It was truly fascinating and very well WEAVED together.

Here are some of the tidbits I learned or that truly stuck out to me:

1. Hard work does help you become successful
2. However, luck does have something to do with it
3. Successful people do not attain success by themselves; they have a lot of help along the way
4. Ambiguity can be detrimental to success
5. Rice Farming is very hard...seriously...there is a whole chapter on this that is pretty fascinating

Favorite Quote (from a rice farmer in China) : "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich".  I have been trying for years to continue getting up at 5 every morning.  Motivation perhaps?

Who would like this book? Anyone interested in "reasons why things are the way they are".  People interested in business or success...or rice farming.