Book Focuses On ‘The Story Of Success’

“Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell, 2008, Little, Brown and Company, $27.99/$30.99 Canada, 320 pages: Your college alumni letter came the other day. You read it, surprised and a little depressed.
A first-class slacker you graduated with is a multi-millionaire now.  The guy most likely to succeed has done just that and more. And that cheerleader you dated? She’s parlayed her pom-poms into prosperity, and she’s living large.
And you, well, you coulda been a contender, but the only “Rocky” you know has been life since college. Although you’re not doing too badly, your classmates obviously did better. Were they born lucky or did their parents “know somebody”?  Find out the truth in the new book “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell.
You know a star when you see it. It’s the athlete who makes the game look effortless, the businessperson who breezily turns junk into gold, the lawyer who’s top in your address book, the teacher you remember best. Gladwell calls those people “Outliers.” They lie outside – but above – the norm.
And they are successful. But why?
Gladwell says that, in order to understand highly successful people, you need to look at where they’re from, ancestrally, culturally and geographically.  Mix in innate ability, seizable opportunity and plain old luck, and you can predict who succeeds.
In Canada, for instance, Gladwell says that an overwhelming majority of elite hockey players were born in the first three months of the year.
The months themselves aren’t the key. Instead, the best players are best because youth-team age-bracketing runs Jan. 1 through Dec. 31. 
Pucksters born early have a several-month advantage over their smaller, younger teammates.
Birth year can play a part in success, too. Gladwell says it’s no coincidence that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other computer giants were born in the middle 1950s, just like it’s no coincidence that some of today’s most respected law firms were started by men who were born in the mid-1930s.
But success isn’t just a matter of birth. Researchers say that it takes an average of 10,000 hours of practice to become the best at any task. Seizing opportunity definitely helps. If your parents were born to a hard-working culture, that’ll give you a leg up. Somehow getting entire organizations to change their schedules would be beneficial.
But brains? Great if you’ve got ‘em, but high intelligence isn’t at the top of success-making lists. Practical intelligence is much more desirable.
“Outliers” is – for the most part – a lively and fascinating trip through the making of a success. Taking readers from Canada to Europe, Jamaica (where Gladwell himself caught a lucky ancestral break) to Wall Street, author Gladwell is gleeful in revealing his findings. Although he sometimes rambles before he explains himself, what you’ll learn is layered so that it’s not overwhelming.
The only problem I see with this book is that it’s going to tell you how to spot success, but you won’t learn how to get it. Still, Gladwell’s latest is one of those business books that doubles as fun, making “Outliers” a book to stay in with this winter.

‘MERCY’ REVIEW
“A Mercy” by Toni Morrison, 2008, Alfred A. Knopf, $23.95/$27.95 Canada, 176 pages: In the natural order of things, parents sacrifice for their children.
If there is hunger, a mother will feed her child and go hungry herself. If it’s raining, a father will be drenched while the child stays sheltered. Parents work long hours to make sure the child has a good education and a sunny future.
And sometimes, a parent will do the unimaginable to save her child’s life. In the new book “A Mercy” by Toni Morrison, a girl forever mourns her mother’s decision while those around her nurse their own griefs.
It is 1690, and Rebekah Vaark is gravely ill. If Mistress dies, it won’t be good for the farm, or for the three women servants who live there, too. If Mistress dies of the pox, Lina fears that she and Sorrow and Florens will be taken by the Anabaptists. They’ll take the farm, too, and everything Mistress and Sir worked hard for.
A trader by profession, Jacob Vaark never wanted a farm, but he was pleasantly surprised when a distant uncle left him a plot of land. Suddenly wanting roots, Jacob paid for Rebekah’s passage and married her, straight off the ship that brought her across the ocean. Soon, babies came, but none of them survived except Patrician, the little girl who put light in Rebekah’s eyes.
But Patrician was gone, as were the brothers who followed her in birth and to the grave. And so was Jacob, dead of the pox. He left his wife an almost-finished mansion, a tumble-down farm and three slave women. Jacob never wanted slaves, but when he was offered first Lina, then Sorrow, then little Florens in exchange for debt, he knew he could give them a kind home.
As Mistress lay, delirious, Lina had no choice but to send Florens out to find the blacksmith who could save Mistress’ life. The blacksmith was a freed-man, and Lina knew that he had been with Florens, which was bad. Still, she knew he could save Mistress, so she sent a love-struck girl to fetch him.
No matter where he was, Florens was sure she could find the blacksmith. Wearing Sir’s boots and carrying a wax-sealed letter from Mistress, Florens set off to bring him to the farm. She had hopes that they would be together after he saved Mistress. The blacksmith would never send her away in the way that her own mother did.
It’s been said about author Morrison’s work that you’ll either love it or hate it. I loved it.
“A Mercy” is tender and brutal, quiet and urgent, with a cast of characters that will make you forget you’re reading a novel. I loved the contemplative Lina and Rebekah, who seemed to so resigned. Morrison gives Florens the perfect touch of “teen-with-attitude,” which made her heartbreaks all the more painful.
If you’re looking for a short novel that will, at the end, make you want to turn around and experience it again, get “A Mercy” and sacrifice some time. You won’t be sorry.

TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.