The first time I read the Outliers: the story of success; it was like a spirit entered me.
Well! I don't maybe I was too focused on the book. It made me think about success in another dimension.
My definition of success before I read Outliers was luck, good background, knowledge and talent.
After I read Outliers, I discovered that success depends on external factors.
I hate failure in my life; I don't want to encounter failure in my life. After I did a review of the book called ‘Outliers’ I discovered that success at times attracts failure. I understood that successful men do fail in business, career and other areas of life but what keeps them going is the heart of not giving up.
I realized that a person that gives up on his/her goal is a failure; a person that does not give up after he/she fails is making progress.
A man called Thomas Edison invented the bulb in 1806. Before he invented the bulb, he failed 9,99 times; people asked him about his failure but he responded “I have not failed 9,99 times; I have successfully found 9,99 ways that will not work”.
One of the external factors I found about the book was that ‘people who receive special advantage are more likely to be successful. Advantage like favoritism over others in contracts, businesses, career, and work.
Example: there is a musician when it comes to singing, it cannot be compared to some of the musicians competing for the award. Favoritism over others made him win; and because he has a good director, his music is a hot cake in the town.
When I read the 10,000 rule hours I concluded that practice, preparation, consistency, discipline and persistence are factors for success.
Those guys were going from one club to another playing piano. They ended up becoming professors by mastering piano.
Therefore, If a dullard applies 10,000 rule hours, he/she will make something out of it.
I understand that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. I mean within a year, iff(eef one can use 10,000 hours to learn something, such a person will master the skills of the particular thing.
Though ability and talent can make one successful in a particular field; but, applying 10,000 rules can make one be more successful than a talented young man without consistency and practice.
Success can be achieved by applying 10,000 rule hours.
My Mirror
The book - Outliers: The story of success authored by Malcolm Gladwell is indeed a mirror to my life in many ways such as:
Preparation and opportunity: this is where I discovered that one needs to prepare for any opportunity in his/her life.
A person misses an opportunity because he doesn't prepare for it. It happened in my school where two of the best students in mathematics in my school could not make it.
I received a letter from the school director to select three mathematics students for competition. One of my senior colleagues had a daughter in my class. She pleaded with me to register her daughter. Initially, I refused to register her because she took 10th position in mathematics.
Well!! She's my boss, I can't ignore her opinion to register her daughter. After a week of thinking about it, I registered her as the third person.
When the result of the competition came out, she took overall 2nd out of 1348 students. She received an award and was given a free scholarship.
I was surprised because I wasn't expecting her to reach that level. When I asked her how she did it? She said, “the moment my mother told me that I'm participating in a mathematics competition, she got another math teacher for me at home. I was studying mathematics for 6 hours everyday”.
Those two students missed the opportunity because they were not prepared for it. The other students were not prepared for the opportunity; and that was how they missed it.
Outliers is a mirror I always look at every day of life to prepare for any opportunity around me. I understand that I have to prepare for an opportunity so that greater opportunities will come my way. I understand that the opportunity loose cannot present another opportunity.
Everything in the book called Outliers is my mirror to my lifestyle.
There is more to it but I'm going to stop here today.
Credit to Malcolm Gladwell for the great job in the book called Outliers.
I stand up for success, and success is not achieved by merely making mouth, No room for laziness, no room for idleness. Success comes to the people who are desperately and consciously searching for it. When it seems unsuccessful or you smell failure around you, never discourage yourself from being successful.
“Discouragement and failure are the two surest stepping stones to success.” - Dale.
