Each month, one of our colleagues, David Chinsky offers a book review that he puts in his newsletter.  The choice is selected to both engage and challenge leaders as they seek to make a difference in their organizations.
Their pick this month is Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.  I share David’s preferences in authors and encourage you to visit his website.

By Guest Author David Chinsky

I must start by saying that Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors.  As a reporter for The New Yorker, and author of The Tipping Point and Blink, Gladwell impresses with his story telling abilities and easy reading prose.

In Outliers, Gladwell forces us to reassess what “really” accounts for success in life.  By examining patterns that most of us overlook or ignore, Gladwell patches together explanations for success that are both compelling and sensible.

Two of the most interesting chapters in Outliers are “The 10,000-Hour Rule” and “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes”.  Each of these stories help us look beyond the obvious to see what actually leads to success in the world around us.  In a heart-warming epilogue, the author permits us to peek into his own life to see how having the right opportunities in life can explain a large portion of our success.

This gem of a book will alter forever the way the reader thinks of outliers, and present a perspective that will go on to challenge the way we see success in life, ours and that of others around us.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved by David Chinsky & Associates, a management development and executive coaching company.  Visit them at www.theleadershipfit.com

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If you want to get a feel for some of this, here is a 16 minute video from Pop! Tech of Gladwell talking about his new book.  Pop sociologist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell has honed in on a profound new question: what separates extraordinary and average people? Discussing findings from his much-anticipated book “Outliers,” Gladwell details how we’re squandering human potential everywhere from the football field to the classroom – and what we can do to change it.

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