THE WORLD IS CHARGED . . .

I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's OUTLIERS yesterday and it has been on my mind.  I thought the first part, Opportunity, was fascinating.  It was life affirming in a way, the idea that there are very good reasons for personal success and they can be researched and explained. In addition to being a genius, Bill Gates was born the same year that something like 80% of tech wizard/entrepreneur's were born, the same year Steve Jobs was born.  The time was right, just like it was right when an equally high percentage of industrial tycoons were born within three or four years of each other.  The explanation for all this is compelling and impossible to ignore.

The vast majority of professional hockey players are born in January, February, or March because January 1 is the cut-off date for determining age group in Canadian youth hockey.  A twelve year old born January 2 is eleven months ahead developmentally of a twelve year old born on Christmas Eve. As a result, they get more attention, get asked to camps where they play with other stars, etc.  The same is true of other sports.

So the first part of the book does a great job of talking about individuals, but it also leaves a few important conclusions about the importance of Opportunity.

-HARD WORK.  Even though Gladwell is pointing out how the "stars align" somehow to provide opportunity, the bottom line is still an individual with a fanatical devotion to work, an individual with passion.

-OPPORTUNITY ONLY KNOCKS ONCE (or twice?).  The thing is, Bill Gates was in the right place at the right time (See book for explanation).  The Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Mellons, et. al. were similarly well situated, opportunity wise.  There were probably other Bill Gates and Steve Jobs out there who were born eight years too early, or too late.  More on that later.

-THE TEN THOUSAND HOUR RULE.  I love this.  All of the "geniuses/entrepreneurs" Gladwell has chronicled have one thing in common.  They all put in at least 10,000 hours of practice, time on task, rehearsal, whatever you want to call it.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent that much time playing eight hours a day, seven days a week for two years in Germany, polishing their craft.  The Beatles came out of that.  Bill Gates spent 10,000 staring at a computer screen before he got out of high school.  Invariably, all people who are great at something put in that time.

-WELL CHOSEN PARENTS.  I read something about musical talent a few years ago that I've always kept with me.  If you look at a musical prodigy, one of those 12 year old wizards you see on television who plays some amazing thing on the piano and then gets up and gives the audience a big "aw shucks" smile, bows awkwardly, and then waits to be congratulated by the host.  Sure, the kid has talent, but he also had parents who nagged him about practice, who perhaps borrowed money to pay for lessons and a suitable piano, who drove him to practice, waited around, and then drove him home, who made it to every boring recital where the beginning guitars led the program, who advocated for him at every opportunity, who cried every time they heard him play, who probably ended up driving the poor kid crazy.

The second part, Legacy, I found less satisfying.  It is basically making the same points listed above, but this time through the spectrum of heritage.  Why is it that asian people grasp math more easily than others?  What is it about the European origins of folks in the South that make them more likely to have feuds than folks from the North?  Why do you suppose European Jews were more apt to be shop owners and merchants than land owners when they migrated to America?  Etc. Etc.

The big idea I take away from the second part of this wonderful book is that if we would just be more mindful of Legacy, restructure, or refit, our institutions to take advantage of those differences, our world would become a fecund wonderland of innovation and entrepreneurship.  Imagine, Gladwell asks, how many other Bill Gates, or Lennon and McCartneys, or Cornelius Vanderbilts there are who have for whatever reason missed out on Opportunity?

Here is where this whole thing becomes fascinating.  Would the world really want to have more Bill Gates and Cornelius Vanderbilts running around looking for something to define, some niche to make, some market to conquer, some intriguing problem to solve?  Do you think there are enough big ideas to go around?  If we have the equivalent of the tech boom in California every five years, what happens to the previous tech boom, and the one before that?  I'm not sure our national blood pressure would stay at acceptable levels.

It is a cool idea though.  First of all, exactly how many Bill Gates are there out there unaccounted for?  Is there a new one born every year?  Five years?  Ten years?  Once a generation?  And second, are we living in a world whose atmosphere is charged with untapped breakthroughs?  Gerard Manley Hopkins where are you when we need you?