At the time of this writing, we are just over a year into the most challenging economic downturn that most of us have lived through. A year of economic spills and chills, with no shortage of casualties or clear ending in sight.
Happy times, eh? If you are like most of your colleagues, it has been a year of hearing, reading and talking with other professionals about what we are doing to thrive at a time when “thriving” is akin to simply getting through the day. Everyone has an opinion of what we should and shouldn’t do, very often having to do with ways that benefit the opinion-giver.

Well, I think a year is a long time to go without a vacation—from the how-we-can-get-through-it reading material that has been accumulating in our offices. Instead, I propose that it is time to step back and take an open-minded look at what factors have led to history’s greatest achievements.

I discovered Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers almost by accident. Originally, approaching it as the father of a young child who I want to see succeed without driving himself or others crazy (if such a thing is possible), I quickly latched on to its lessons for every professional focused on winning the battle with a changing marketplace. Without a hint of perfunctory hype or cheerleading, Gladwell simply sets out to find the common threads that connect the greatest success stories in history.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the author that some ideas sound a bit far-fetched before Gladwell methodically sets out to illustrate his findings. Consistency is key to his writing, with certain factors cropping up time and again.

Gladwell’s first two books—The Tipping Point and Blink—were highly readable commentaries on self-marketing, self-help, and the psychology thereof, set against a backdrop of real-life examples. Outliers, who he describes as, “…men and women who do things out of the ordinary to accomplish great things,” takes a different path, instead examining success as a phenomenon that can somehow be predicted by taking a wide range of factors into consideration. Sure, hard work and practice are a given, but Gladwell goes on to illustrate how many of the western world’s greatest success stories, from The Beatles to Bill Gates, accrued approximately 10,000 hours of practice over the course of their sprint to legendary status.

By showing how the round-the-clock schedule of The Beatles’ live performances in their pre-Fab Four days and Bill Gates’ untold hours in computer labs led to their respective success stories, Gladwell shatters the myth that simply being talented, born into a wealthy family, or possessing a clever mind is enough to make the difference. On the contrary, Gladwell maintains that hunger is the best motivator of all, whether it’s a quest for food or to find a path to whatever possibilities seem slightly out of reach. Here, too, he uses examples to explore how necessity will lead to success more often than having all the resources at our disposal.

Not all of his theses are easy to accept. A card-carrying skeptic, I found it hard to digest that the month in which a person is born can make a difference how far they go in their chosen profession. Yet, Gladwell does not make these assertions without showing how, say, the older children in a classroom have a leg up on their younger classmates because they have had more time to master their ABC’s. Then, add on the benefits of a supportive family, or at the other end of the scale, a neglectful upbringing that can serve as the impetus for a student to break out of a negative situation through hours of study and practice.

I can still hear some friends in the business asking that old chestnut: “What does this have to do with me?” I say, plenty, since there are lessons to be learned as you work your way through one of the most entertaining and enlightening non-fiction reads to come along in some time. Even those readers who dispute Gladwell’s observations will never look at climbing to the top of the ladder in quite the same way again.  •

Adam Sohmer is the owner and president of Sohmer Associates, LLC, a public relations agency specializing in the consumer electronics, professional audio, and high-technology sectors. www.sohmerassoc.com