“THE STORY OF SUCCESS".

''There is something profoundly wrong with the way we look at success. We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society, don't matter at all."

What does it take to succeed? Different management gurus have different theories. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman came out with the framework that made great companies in their best-selling work, In Search of Excellence, while Jim Collins attempted the same in yet another bestseller, Good to Great. There are also biographies and memoirs by the dozen in which different people trumpet different formulae for success. One point, however, that most people tend to agree on is the need to have a cocktail of talent and toil, to make it big.Malcolm Gladwell begs to differ. After attracting the world's attention with his two bestsellers, The Tipping Point and Blink, the man with the frizzy hairstyle is back to challenge conventional management thinking with a book that takes a closer look at what makes a person a genius.

Titled Outliers (the term he uses for truly exceptional individuals), Gladwell argues that while talent and hard work are indeed important, fate and one's surroundings do play a major role too. The time at which one is born, the upbringing and surroundings-all play as, if not more, important a role in one's success. While that theory will have many people frothing at the mouth as it seems to indicate that success is a matter of luck as much as hard work, Gladwell does make a decent attempt to explain this theory. He begins by showing how many leading ice hockey players in Canada tend to be born in January and February, for the simple reason that the date of the age cut-off for different levels of hockey is in January. So those born just before the cut-off date, though only slightly older, suffer a disadvantage. Therefore, for no reason other than their date of birth, a number of potentially great players get sidelined, while those that get selected, tend to receive the best of coaching and training facilities. Merit, thus, gets over ruled by a birthday. This is not to say that hard work does not have a role to play in a person's success. Gladwell stresses that most individuals need to work for about 10,000 hours before they can reach a level of exceptional expertise. But he also points out that getting access to facilities to practice is again something that can be a matter of chance. After all, would Bill Gates have achieved what he did if his school hadn't a computer or (to go back to the matter of birth) if he had been born a few years later or earlier? Similarly, the Beatles had a fair deal of talent but according to Gladwell, they wouldn't have become the legends that they did if they had not spent several hours working away in smaller clubs at Hamburg!Such anecdotes make Outliers an absolute pleasure to read. Gladwell is an amazing narrator and presents his arguments in simple and direct (sometimes even confrontational, when referring to conventional wisdom) language. The problem is that he does not seem to have addressed those instances that seem to defy his own theories. How did a 14-year old win an under-19 tournament? How come exceptionally young people do better than older and better built competitors in athletics? Worst of all, the book at times gives the impression that no matter how hard you try, you really cannot do much if circumstances are not in your favour. Not exactly inspiring, if you know what we mean. The biggest lesson from Outliers is to be aware of your surroundings and the environment you've grown up in. They might end up playing a big role in your life. And that is a lesson not just for people, but also enterprises-especially start-ups. That said, Gladwell's book should not be taken as gospel-his theory is just too pat and simple and he mostly gives instances that support his theory. But like Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, it definitely merits a read, if not blind belief. The narration is wonderful, the anecdotes interesting, and you will find yourself raising your eyebrows time and again throughout the book. We do recommend that you buy and read it, but also keep a pinch of salt handy.