Tag Archives: Outliers: The Story of Success

Had Illusions? Been In The Entrepreneur Dip? Focus & Persist!

Probably every person who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur is looking at a bit of a rosy scenario. Life , or, in this case, success in business, through rose colored glasses.  An Illusion.

Not just about the outcome. About the process as well

THE ILLUSIONS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By makes no bones about it. Launching a business is hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight.  Businesses, like oak trees and flower gardens, take a long time to grow._
Illusions of Entrepreneurship - Best Small Business Book

Want to know how long?

10,000 hours.

Yep, that’s what it takes.

More than talent and more than luck, although those certainly help, it takes a lot of nose to the grindstone, seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, actually improving your skills every hour.

Malcolm Gladwell‘s new book Outliers makes this point, among others:

Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

As marketing guru, author and blogger extraordinaire, Seth Godin sagely points out : Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods–do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

Seth Godin also mentions this is somewhat  a restatement of  his concept and book, the Dip. It’s not easy to get there.

“What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

 Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.”

Someone has said that every success is a transformation of an earlier failure.  So, if you don’t succeed, it’s because you quit too soon. ( I would put that right up there with another immutable tenet of success never run out of cash.  Do those two, and you will succeed.)

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10 Best Business Books 0f 2008

You know, I’m sure, these “10 Bests Business Books of 2008″ lists may vary.  But whoever is creating the list, more than half of these books appear on just about every list.

My personal favorites are three of those on a list by by Drea, who also made some insightful comments in The 10 Best Business Books of 2008 | Business Pundit.

  • The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley & Ram Charan, Crown Business. “Growing and sustaining profits is fundamental to any business, period. It’s also the focus of 98% of business books out there. What makes The Game-Changer different is that it’s written by Proctor and Gamble Chairman/CEO A. G. Lafley, whose company is doing astoundingly well relative to its global counterparts. Now, Lafley and consultant Ram Charan share the tricks to using innovation to thrive, including revitalizing your business model, creating new customers and markets, and mainstreaming innovation into your management style.In a rapidly changing world, innovation is the only way to survive. This book tells you what you need to do, from the mouths of leaders who have been there.”
  • Outliers: The Story of Success by by New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)“The brilliant Malcolm Gladwell strikes again, this time claiming that individual inspiration has little to do with success. Instead, circumstance, luck, timing, and culture explain why some individuals, such as Bill Gates and Mozart, are able to rise above others with similar talents. Gladwell’s trademark refreshing style makes you realize your traditional perspectives may be cliched.” And Hardy Green books editor for BusinessWeek says: “Finally, for an upbeat read, consider Outliers: The Story of Success . Challenging common wisdom about achievers, he says it’s key to have the right opportunities at exactly the right time—and the presence of mind to seize them. Examples range from Bill Gates to sports stars. Gladwell ends by arguing for educational reforms that, he says, could broaden opportunity. His points are well worth pondering.”

    • For some reason, the following book didn’t make Drea’s list but made many others and I, for one, would never dream of not including a book by the ever prescient and insightful Thomas Friedman. His book did make Hardy Green’s list in Business Week,and Green  has some thoughtful comments, as well.

  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. “Innovation is also vital to the nation’s revival, argues New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. His Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) is a call to unleash creativity—and capitalism—on the challenges of energy and climate change. The author hops from Sumatra to Connecticut and China to document the interplay of trends.” And we know that’s always interesting : Friedman’s global hot spot hop, where we can see, at least vicariously, what’s really going on, the underlying dynamics and how they do or will impact us.

    • The Best Business Books of 2008 as selected in an article by Hardy Green, Business Week books editor – you decide which appeals to you….. there are a lot of lists out there:

  • The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris, PublicAffairs
  • The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder, Bantam
  • The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis, Penguin Press
  • Hell’s Cartel: I.G. Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys, Metropolitan Books
  • Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely, HarperCollins
  • The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives by Michael Heller, Basic Books
  • The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley & Ram Charan, Crown Business
  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang, Spiegel & Grau
  • Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown


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