#8 - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The bold emphasis of this series is on the day-to-day applicability of the books I list. The problem is, all too often, books that have practical utility in a daily business operation are textbook-like and tedious. 

Generally, people read as an escape from their day-to-day tedium, to broaden their horizons and expand their imagination. Most of the books in this series do exactly the opposite - they constrict the mind by transforming limitless intangibles into qualified processes. Some of them I would even recommend against reading, for anyone who isn’t at a very specific stage of their career. 

However, doing justice to its name, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a true outlier in this series. It is the only book on the list that I would recommend to anyone, no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what they do. 

This book was so palpably not intended to be practical, it barely even qualifies as ‘business adjacent’. I read it for pure enjoyment, and yet found so much functionality embedded within the highly conceptual, anecdotal text. 

Outliers is an examination of the narrative of those who achieve phenomenal success – Bill Gates, The Beatles, Jewish Lawyers, Asian Rice Farmers, etc. We often think these outliers possess some mysterious innate ability that helps them rise to the top of their fields, but other arbitrary factors, like family, culture, or even birthdates, can have a huge effect on success, too. 

The book systematically explores the factors that contribute to success, curiously questioning every anomaly from “Why Chinese are better at maths?” to “Why Hockey players are more likely to be born in January?”. 

But more than anything, this series just wouldn’t be complete without a Malcolm Gladwell book... 

My Most Important Lesson from this Book?

This book is insightful and enjoyable, but the core reason that Outliers made the list of books that have helped me practically is due to a section in the 5th chapter, which has shaped my day-to-day management style as much as any other book I’ve ever read. This quote summarises the philosophy:

“Those three things — autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward — are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It’s whether our work fulfills us.”

Autonomy - processes that yield a sense of independence

Complexity - work that engages the mind and imagination

A connection between effort and reward - a noticeable return on the uses of time and energy

Research shows that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, meaning that only about one in eight workers is psychologically committed to their job and trying to make positive contributions. A young start-up simply cannot carry that weight as a corporation can, so I’ve naturally taken this piece of wisdom very seriously. 

How we’ve used this lesson in our company? 

A key issue that we set out to solve when we founded MultiplyMii was the VA (Virtual Assistant) fallacy, which essentially demotes a university-educated Filipino professional into an all-rounder that performs basic, time-consuming tasks. Most of the time, the VA has not been introduced to anyone other than the direct line manager in the company. They’re usually paid on an hourly basis and typically have notoriously low retention rates. 

In the beginning, almost all of our clients would ask us to source them VAs, and when we’d ask for a job description, it would be best defined as “a bit of this, bit of that”. Even more concerning was the fact that many candidates, some of them qualified accountants, engineers, or lawyers, would refer to themselves as merely VAs, rather than the distinguished titles they’d earned through years of study. 

While we’re not typically sticklers for titles, we made a decision early in the business to ban the word ‘VA’ at MultiplyMii - both internally and with clients. 

But more importantly, we made a commitment to prove to the world that providing meaningful work for your Filipino employee would render superior results than that of a traditional VA. Using the methodologies from Outliers, we work with clients to help subtly shift their mindset: 

Autonomy - once adequately trained, delegate your multiplier responsibilities rather than just tasks; “why”, not “how”

Complexity - by delegating responsibilities rather than just tasks, you transfer ownership of the outcome and challenge the multiplier to achieve the best possible result

A connection between effort and reward - our Onboarding Managers work with clients to build incentive programs that are based on performance metrics. However, simply recognizing good work can do half the trick. 

Additional Nuggets of Gold

• 10,000 Hours Rule - The key to becoming an expert or master performer in any field is 10,000 hours of practice. For example, Gladwell suggests that Bill Gates was one of the only people in the world with 10,000 hours of software development under his belt by the time computers became more accessible. Why? Because he lived next door to a university that let him code on their campus computer between 2 am-5 am in the morning. 
• Mathew Effect - There are loops in society in which the people that have an advantage will be able to use that advantage to gain even more of an edge over others.
• Power Distance Index & Mitigation Speech- Power Distance Index measures the order of inequality and hierarchy in a culture, and how one’s place in society is known and accepted. America, Israel, and Germany rank very low on the Power Distance Index, whereas Arab and Asian countries tend to score very high. Gladwell relates a high number of airplane accidents to high power distance cultures, due to the mitigation speech that accompanies a stern hierarchy. Instead of speaking in commands - “Turn thirty degrees right”- co-pilots are more likely to use suggestions - “Let’s go around the weather” - or preferences - “I think it would be wise to turn left or right”. Identifying mitigation speech is an unbelievable management tool for helping employees speak their minds and give you honest feedback.

Who Should Read this Book?

Everyone.

Favorite Quotes

“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”

“Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation”

“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.”

“My earliest memories of my father are of seeing him work at his desk and realizing that he was happy. I did not know it then, but that was one of the most precious gifts a father can give his child.”

Series Introduction - How Books Replaced a College Degree

#10 - The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz

#9 - The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

#8 - Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

#7 - Zero to One - Peter Theil

#6 - The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis

#5 - Freakonomics - Stephen D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

#4 - Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson

#3 - The Sales Acceleration Formula - Mark Roberge

#2 - Multipliers - Liz Wiseman

#1 - Traction - Gino Wickman