From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever.
Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary?
In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined.
He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone.
Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique.
'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian
'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer
'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times
Why are people successful? For centuries, humankind has grappled with this question. In this stunning new book, Gladwell takes us on an invigorating intellectual journey to show us what makes an overachiever. He reveals that we pay far too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where successful people are from: their culture, their family, and their generation. Gladwell examines how the careers of Bill Gates and the performance of world-class football players are alike; what top fighter pilots and The Beatles have in common; and why it is correct to say that the mathematician who solved Fermat's Theorem is not a genius.