Malcolm Gladwell - How to be a Success

[redforever]

I found these articles pretty interesting reads.

Excerpt from “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell

How to be a Success – Talent plus practice, practice, practice and being in the right place at the right time

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/15/malcolm-gladwell-outliers-extract

Maclean’s interview of Malcolm Gladwell

Being successful is all about whether you have the skills to impose your will on the world

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/11/21/macleans-interview-malcolm-gladwell/

[llama64]

Interesting reads, thanks!

But is it just me or does Malcolm Gladwell get a little too much attention stating the blindingly obvious?

Success is bred through hard work, good planning, and luck. Is there really more to it then that?

I've never believed in such a thing as "talent". Some people take an interest in something, and then just focus on it in a nearly obsessive manner. That amount of attention will inevitably lead to a very large amount of skill which could be viewed by some as talent.

The more I do something, the more I learn. The more I learn, the better I get. But some things just become so much work that I stop working on them before I hit that elite level. My interest isn't up to the task.

Environmental factors are kind of a "well, duh" point.

[redforever]

Oh, I personally do believe talent does play some part in success.

Yeah, most of us take an interest in something and then work hard and go from there. BUT, I think we take an interest in things we already have some talent for.

And then what do we define as success? I mean there are the extremes, top rungs of the ladder for their skills like for instance Mozart and Beethoven for piano, Gates, Joy for computer programming, Gretzky and Lemieux for hockey and the list could go on....

Now if you just take the average Joe off the street and have them put in 10,000 hours of study, do you think you can make or mold someone into a Mozart? into a Gates, into a Gretzky? I personally dont think so. I think you can certainly improve their skill set that will enable them to have some success in that endeavor though.

But just because they might not get to the top echilon of success, are they not successful?

[missdpuck]

Well I think Gladwell's point is that alot of people think that geniuses never have to apply themselves or practice. A few years aggo I saw an interesting show about so-called prodigies that pointed out ,though rare, there are more of them around than alot of people would think. Not everyone wants to pursue their talent...being gifted doesn't mean you enjoy the gift or have the ambition for it.