Chicago Art Life Media

So, I’m reading “Outliers”  by Malcolm Gladwell.  Im on the second chapter, I was going to wait until I finished reading to write a post about it, but a lot of emotions started to stir within me as I continue to read and I need to blog my thoughts so bear with me. When I read, i am very open minded to all views and try to completely understand what im reading while I’m reading, which is what you’re suppose to do while you’re reading but I have a really short attention span.

So an Outlier is defined as:

situated away from or classified differently from the main or related body or a statistical observation that is marked different in value from the others of the sample.

Ok so the point of this book is to prove a point, that people who succeed are successful because of when and where they are born and how they grew up, their environment. Also can be phrased as, if you have a good environment and you’re better than your peers, you will be given an advantage in life and are more likely to succeed.
Let that soak for a minute, maybe two minutes because it took me 5.

Now you may be saying…”Nooooooooooo!, people were raised in bad neighborhoods and became successful. “  I said the same thing.  But Malcolm has a really good point and after reading the intro and first 2 chapters….uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh he makes sense. It makes sense. Let me explain.

In the intro and first 2 chapters Malcolm uses examples to prove his point. I’m going to paraphrase because even though they are important the details confused me and I’m forced to reread and once I understand everything I realize that its useless information, and I’m not perfect with storytelling, so again bear with me.

The intro:

A family immigrates into the America, from Italy.  They stay in one town, generation after generation, they stick to themselves. And some doctor was like “Hey no one from that town is dying from heart disease”. And this was way back in the day when modern medicine was not that great so people who were 50 and older usually die from heart attacks. But the people from this one town was only dying from old age. So they test everyone in the town, no one has signs of heart failure or anything that would lead to it. They researched how they ate in Italy and how they ate in America, they ate worse in America,  so it wasnt the food. It wasnt genes. They even tested distance cousins who migrated and they were at risk for heart disease. So it was something about the community that made everyone healthy.  (As I read their conclusion,  I seriously though they were full of crap) the community was very together, they valued family and love and that sense of community.  And those values passed down from generation to generation. 
The story is better in the book, obviously,  but there also details in the book of who conducted the research, so google it, learn something.

Anyways
Chapter 1 opportunity,

So the example the author uses deals with hockey and Canada, from a young age, there is a cut off date for children to play hockey. January 1st.

So when this cut off happens to see who is the best kids have to play and compete against each other. So lets say cut off date was JANUARY 1st of 2013.  So we have kids who are older that was born January to lets say april, kids born September to December and kids born in the middle. Kids grow like weeds and a couple of month do make a difference,  so the kids born in January to April are more mature than the kids born in later month. So the kids who are more mature than the younger children, may be a little stronger,  faster and more focused.  They appear talented, they get picked to play, they get more attention and they get better, while the younger children are left in the dust.
As they get older the same thing occurs over and over, next thing you know some people are picked to play at the top and others are again left in the dust.

This example is what the author used to explain the Mathew effect.

“Matthew 25:29
New International Version (NIV)
29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Find a bible and read from the first verse to fully understand, not the first chapter the first verse.

If you don’t want to do that I’ll explain it really quickly.
A wealthy man give 3 men bags of gold, the first man 5 bags, and after some time he doubles his money brings the man 10 bags, the second 2 bags and after some time the man doubles his money and brings back 4 bags, and he gave the last man one bag and he goes and hide it and after some time he brings back one bag. The wealthy man snaps, tells him that if I wanted that same bag of gold I would have put it in the bank at least I would have gotten interest.

Point: those who have will get more, those who don’t will get what they
have taken away from them.

Heres another example of the verse… TAX REFUNDS!
So many people get excited about tax refunds and blow them in about a month or two, I can look on my Facebook page right now and people are going to the club, buying new outfits with their tax refund money.

Why do they do it, and don’t get me wrong I have done it many times, it is because during the whole year, you have nothing, living paycheck to paycheck struggling to survive and now you have the chance to splurge, more than likely you’re going to take that opportunity and then you’re back to struggling.
People who earn a decent income and don’t have to worry as much do what….make their money work for them, savings, investments, cd accounts or put money into a business they started.
The rich get richer the poor get poorer.

Solution: educate

Back to the book, chapter 2: 10,000 hours

So instead of explaining I will ask simple questions.

Ok, name someone who is an expert at what they do? An expert who knows thenins and outs of what they do and they know they are great at it and everyone else knows?

I will someone people can relate to, Beyonce. International super star.

Why is she successful? Because she can sing right. Well one of my best friends can sing, shes not successful at it.

What does Beyonce do to be able to sing so well? Well she practices, a lot. My friend…..not so much, she sings when shes in the mood and when she wants to audition for a show.

Now how long does Beyonce practice, for how long? Shes has been singing nonstop from her childhood. If you calculate that in hours it will be over 10, 000 hours.

You can try this with any other person, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah, whoever. In the book they used Bill Gates and the Beatles.

In the Outliers, researchers studied different groups in different fields, seperated the greats from the rest and calculated how many hours they practice, it estimated to 10, 000 hours for the best 2, 000 for the rest.

So guess what to get good at something, to be the best you have to PRACTICE, keep going find the resources to get better, you can always learn something and um practice. Yea

Bummer I know. Accept it.

So the book:

“The Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell

Very good book so far…..as I continue reading I will post more, if you gt the book please feel free to post comments share your views, I love opinions, unless you try to attack me for no reason…..yea peace and love here, from my inner hippie. Lol.

Update: on a personal note, reading this book shouldnt make you feel bad as a person, I do not feel that there are people who only have a purpose to fail, but have a purpose to fail and try again and to try again and again or I don’t want to make you feel like you missed your mark to make it in life, I say this because God or the universe constantly provides opportunities, you just have to be open to recieve them. There were many times where I thought it was over, but the negativity attracts more negativity. Being open and positive brings positive things and gratitude into your life. Have hope in misery is hard, but its worth it, find who you are, your talent, take it, protect it and run with it