Now that you’re settling into the year and have set yourselves some goals for 2017, you might be looking for some inspiration to set you on your way. How about reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers – one of my favourite business books.
An outlier is something outside the norm; people outliers achieve extraordinary things. Gladwell questions how they do it.
He links success to a variety of factors for example culture, time of birth, social background and in doing so gives the reader many ‘ah-ha’ moments. He makes links between success in sport and birth dates; ability to learn maths and language; culture and risk of crashing planes; number of hours and mastery. Gladwell provides food for thought that can be applied in business, parenting, coaching, and life in general.
Outliers will interest anyone who is open to learning more about how our environment and culture, opportunities and attitudes impact on success. It’s not a typical management book of models or theories, it simply investigates a wide variety of stories that make a compelling argument to Gladwell’s suggestions.
Managers, parents, teachers should all be interested to see how they impact on the success of others. Enjoy.