Running, reading, Learning- a 43 miles Book

Thoughts about the book of Malcom Gladwell- "Outliers - the story of Success"

The "Outliers" is about connecting your personal history with your life. The author highlights the role of the extrinsic events on top of the native ability…to be clear you are not just a IQ but you also come from a country, a city, a family and a culture…and the sum of all is impacting your life;

Let me take a short example from the author about Ice Hockey players in Canada. In this example, Malcom Gladwell demonstrates that

Players born during the first Quarter of the year have more probability (70%) to be successful in their career

…surprising no? What is magic in these months of January, February and March? Nothing! The eligibility cut off for the class is January 1st and you must be 10 years old. Then Selection of Rep Squad happens to be in September and coaches choose the best players and of course at this age 9 months of additional training make a large difference …so if you are born in during the first quarter you have more chance to be selected !...

In conclusion it is not only about the young guy being potentially an excellent player and working hard on the training, it is also about month of birth…both criteria are involved.

Malcom Gladwell uses many other examples to illustrate and convince the reader about impact of external factors on life success story.

When you read the book you may be initially surprised, not convinced or suspicious about the findings. I am convinced that we are owners of our life and that we decide about our future. I am also certain that every individual is responsible for its success in life and creates his future.

Nevertheless, I decided to investigate more about my personal story searching some external elements in my life which may have influenced my life. It has not been so long to identify from my country of origin, social environment and family events a large list of influencing and essential factors:

I was born in France, in a medium class family and loss my big sister (21) at age 11….

In consequence, I’ve been raised in a country where education is free, my parents pushed me to study to have better income than they had and at 11 years old I held my future in my hands because my parents were sad and in depression. it sounds easy…don’t think so it took me some time!

Together with my IQ it gave me the opportunity to study a PhD in Molecular Biology, an MBA and to leave home and parents early and travel the world.

I engaged the reader to do the same analysis while ready this book. It is not only about the stories of success presented in the book, it is about your story. Be ready to deep thinking and to refresh your mind about your history to identify your life major events. You are a sum of internal and external resources. The more you know about you the easiest it will be to create your story of success.

Vincent