4.5 Stars

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is one of the groundbreaking books in terms of our understanding of the culture of the rich and successful. In his book, Gladwell analysis the cultural, economical, physical, and even astronomical implications of the success stories in today’s world.

With his intelligent, well researched, factual piece, Gladwell provides the reader with answers to why certain people make it in this world. By providing examples about the extremely successful and the not so much, he explains in thorough details the obvious, yet overlooked, aspects which contribute to the success or, otherwise, failure of certain individuals.

This book is not a pathway-to-success handbook, nor is it a motivational narrative of people who rose from nothing and amounted to something great. On the contrary, it feel pessimistic, at times – I had to put the book down for a few days, at a certain point, before I was able to resume reading. But I did resume reading, eventually, because no matter how tough the facts in the book were, I was nodding in agreement with every sentence.

Gladwell is unapologetic, he will tell the truth like it is. And the truth is that smart doesn’t equal successful and, most of the time, the poor will remain poor while the rich will continue to grow wealthier. Gladwell provides reasons for this, however; reasons which, when acknowledged, can be avoided.

If you can’t handle the truth, or don’t like to challenge the status quo, then this book is not for you. However, if you are one of those people who don’t mind taking a second opinion, you will find Outliers very entertaining. A documentary of success, this book is nothing short of a paradigm shifter accompanied with a wake up call.