Malcolm Gladwell’s Secret To Success Is Weirdness And Being Part Jamaican

New Yorker journalist and Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell is one of those wiry guys whose ass you might have kicked in high school. And just like those kinds of guys, he is a far more successful adult who’s probably had more sex than you can ever dream of. Which is why its nice that he wrote a book recently outlining his beliefs on how to become a success. If nothing else, it makes a nice diversion with which to wile away the time at work, when you could actually be making something of yourself. Follow us after the jump as we analyze his interview with Readers Digest (Really?) about Outliers: The Story of Success.

Aside from saying that he’s always been drawn to people who are “exceptional or weird in some way,” (You don’t say, Malcom?), the interview can be broken down into four important points:
#1 If you didn’t have awesome parents, you’re screwed: Malcolm points out that both Bill Gates and Tiger Woods had parents who allowed them to focus solely on the thing that gave them joy and that they were good at.
#2 Then again, if you’re really patient, you could become awesome when you’re fifty: “Hitchcock began making his best movies in his late 50s. Cézanne had his first one-man show at 56. Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and many others did their best work very late in life. Sometimes success isn’t recognized until late in life. That’s not uncommon.” Sometimes it’s not even recognized until you die penniless of alcoholism, lying in the gutter! Don’t give up!
#3 Being part Jamaican has benefits beyond the hair: Malcolm says that during the course of researching this book, he discovered that he is the descendant of a white Jamaican slave owner and his black slave. (This explains the ‘do.) To Gladwell, this is indicative of the tolerance found in the islands as compared to the way things were in the American south because, in Jamaica, the couple’s mixed-race offspring were allowed to be free. Malcolm’s great-grandfather was a preacher and his grandmother achieved “great personal and professional success,” and on down the line. So what about the descendants of white people who’ve had every advantage in life but still turned out mediocre? What’s their excuse?
#4 American Idol is evil: One point of Gladwell’s with which we wholeheartedly agree is that there is no such thing as an overnight success and shows like American Idol make people believe that there is. Which is why pop music is so unremarkable these days. (Do we sound old?) “Rising to the top of any field requires an enormous amount of dedication, focus, drive, talent, and 99 factors that they don’t show on television. It’s not simply about being picked. Which, by the way, is why very few of the anointed winners on American Idol have gone on to true success. Most have flamed out [Ed. Note: Must...Not... Make... Clay Aiken... Joke.] and gone away. That should tell us something.”
Malcolm Gladwell on Outliers: The Story of Success [RD]