What is the question we always ask about successful
people? We want to know what they’re like – what kind of
personalities they have, or how intelligent they are, or what
kind of lifestyles they have, or what special talents they
might have been born with. And we assume that it is those
personal qualities that explain how that individual gets to
the top of his or her profession.
But according to Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, we
are asking the wrong questions. He thinks that while talent is
obviously a factor, there are two other more important ones
that make a person successful. The first of these factors is
luck.