Gladwell opens Outliers by demonstrating that a young Canadian boy’s birth month, of all things, can have a tremendous impact on his likelihood of success in hockey. Luck also plays a crucial role in success. These outliers were not only talented and willing to work hard-they were able to. Mozart had tremendous innate talent, but just as important a contributor to his success was the opportunity and time he had to practice composing music for thousands of hours, making him more successful than others who, for a variety of reasons, did not have such time. For example, Bill Gates would never have been so successful without his unusually frequent exposure to computing technology in an era where computers were still rare. The surrounding context of available opportunity is also crucial. Gladwell endeavors to show that individual talent is necessary but not sufficient to achieve success. Gladwell is keenly interested in investigating the complex and often misunderstood relationships among individual talent, hard work, opportunity, and luck in creating “outliers,” like star athletes, highly successful entrepreneurs, and famous academics.
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