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Outliers
- The Story of Success
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
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Outliers
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Publisher's Summary
From the best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia, learn what sets high achievers apart - from Bill Gates to the Beatles - in this seminal work from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different?
His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
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What listeners say about Outliers
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Suraj Chakraborty
- 29-04-19
Luck by chance?
Outliers is an amazing piece subtly telling you that you can be great too. All it requires is hardwork, determination plus being at the right place at the right time. A welcome change of perspective in this highly competitive world.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hitesh Gaur
- 26-02-19
Amazing narration and story telling. I loved i
Amazing narration and story telling. I loved it for the simple way of communicating the intricacies of the reasons for success.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 08-12-20
this book is based on excellent research
Outliers is an excellent read as huge research is made about the facts written in the book, thoroughly enjoyed reading them
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- superman
- 16-10-20
Worth the time
My second audio book ever, I've been a fan of real books, but due to time constraints I've started to listen to audio books. And this book was a good one, it made me think that I might also be privileged and I might not know about it right now. I've always believed that whatever has happened in life is to prepare us for the future. And this book kinda proves it. I Recommend you to read it.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-01-23
decent book
decent book. narration was at times slow. good examples given In book....good to listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dr. Sundeep Dahiya
- 11-12-22
Knowledge Giving
Good Motivational and knowledge giving book, nicely story told. Great to know, How to put yourself and your kids into World winning steps.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Manish Limaye
- 12-10-22
worth reading
Interesting book. We know that success is a product of many things but this is a detailed explanation of that. Loved the narration style also.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Demonoid
- 13-08-22
Amazing Book
5 stars for Malcolm Gladwell. This book really humbelled me, and made me realize the importance of community and culture that has shaped my life. A must read. Thanks to the Author.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- shivangi
- 30-06-22
Books give very different perspective of looking at outliers
Loved the way how book has explained the role of ethnicity, timeline, environment, culture, hard work and opportunity in someone’s success.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Samit Banerjee
- 12-06-22
A brilliant insight behind success
Just loved it!!! Wonderful perspectives behind the success of people, which are absent to general public.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Scott T. Hards
- 13-12-08
Engaging, but overrated
Outliers has many interesting statistical anecdotes sprinkled throughout, to be sure. My interest was held. But at its core, the book's central theme is simply "successful people are aided in their success by their families, culture, education and other chance factors. They could not have done it alone." This is not exactly a particularly profound revelation. Gladwell repeatedly asserts that most people think Bill Gates-type successes are simply due to that person's raw talent and little else. But is that really the case? Does anybody really think Bill Gates could have achieved what he did had he been born in Botswana, for example? What's more, while crediting these outside factors with making these "outliers" possible, he fails to note that in almost every case, hundreds if not thousands or even more other people had virtually identical birth situations, yet failed to achieve greatness. Gladwell's goal seems to be an attempt to take the shine off of society's great success stories by, in effect, claiming they just got lucky. But I think the formula for producing an outlier is more complex than that. Too often in this book, Gladwell seems to be profoundly stating the obvious.
Gladwell's narration of his own work is generally skillful and an easy listen.
342 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- KevinH
- 21-11-08
Captivating (if not an outlier)
Regardless of what you ultimately think of the author's analysis, Gladwell is a masterful storyteller, weaving together interesting anecdotes from such diverse sources as plane crash research to hillbilly feuds to standardized math tests. That Gladwell narrates the audio book himself adds greatly to the listening experience. Critics will complain that his thesis is obvious (that opportunity, cultural inheritence and hard work play key roles in success), or that his examples are selective and ignore in turn outliers that don't illustrate his points -- or, somewhat inconsistently, both. But Gladwell's books are successful because he examines phenomena and topics of importance in an accessible and entertaining way. No one should mistake Malcolm Gladwell for a big thinker like, say, Stephen J. Gould, but Gladwell would be the first one to tell you that he's no outlier. Don't accept everything the author says as truth revealed, but do listen to this book -- it's one of the best non-fiction offerings available through Audible.
175 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Leah C. Day
- 14-09-09
Interesting
This was a pretty interesting book. I don't agree with all of the reasoning, but it's an interesting theory.
The one downside to this book is that if you're looking for motivation, it might work the opposite effect.
This book is about how luck and certain circumstances make you more likely to be successful such as your birthdate, ethnicity, and religion.
If you easily see your circumstances as beyond your control, you may read this book and feel disheartened that you're not lucky or have the right circumstances to be successful.
I believe luck is part of it, but drive and ambition are also important too. You DO have the power to alter your circumstances, even if you've not been given special advantages.
139 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Chris
- 23-08-10
This book should be called 'selective evidence'
Whilst a lot of the ideas in this book are not Gladwell's alone, he takes responsibility for presenting them as if they were fact. Some parts are fascinating - such as the investigation of pilot errors which lead to crashes - but much of it falls woefully short of sound argument. The main points in the book are either obvious or highly questionable: intelligence alone is no trigger for success; luck is big factor in all great achievements; 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve excellence at anything.
The examples he provides completely ignore the possibility that timing is not just luck, but actually a inherent quality of the thought process that goes into the idea of the business in the first place. Did Bill Gates really become so successful purely because he was: a) in the right place at the right time, and b) put in 10,000 hours of programming in an age when computers were hard to come by? By drawing these conclusions he overlooks the unprovable possibility that Gates may have become successful in another area had he not been born at the right time to start Microsoft.
Were the Beatles successful because of their 10,000 hours of practice in German nightclubs and the like before their 'breakthrough' US number one? Even if you ignore Gladwell's convenient use of their US breakthrough to mark his 10,000 hour cut-off (coming 18 months after their UK success), were they really successful because of the amount of practice they put in? Was it merely musical competence that raised them above their peers? What about inspiration, creative ideas, charisma, chemistry or pure unteachable songwriting genius? And what about the likes of Nick Drake, or Kurt Cobain, or Buddy Holly? They could not have possibly put in the 10,000 hours 'required' practice as prescribed by Gladwell. There must be hundreds or thousands more in the world of music, film, literature, or even business who do not conform to the 10,000 hour rule. Yet they are conveniently overlooked.
88 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Gaggleframpf
- 30-09-19
Not Really About Outliers.
This books title leads you to believe that it's going to talk about statistical outliers, but it only nominally does that. Gladwell ignores actual outliers in the teeth of the statistical cases he presents.
One of the earliest examples he uses of "Outliers" are individuals in Canadian hockey teams. Because individuals are filtered into teams by their birthdates, the players with earlier birthdays, in January or February for example, have a year of growth ahead of those in the same league with birthdays in December or November, and therefore they are advantaged over those players every single year through school and on up into professional hockey. These players get more advantages because they continue to outperform the others, which causes them to get more advantages, which causes them to continue to outperform the others, ad infinitum. The result? There are a supermajority of professional Canadian hockey players with early birthdays, and a minority with late ones. So far, so good.
He then goes on to say that those with the early birthdays are the outliers that go on to achieve Hockey success later in life. But these only seem like outliers if you consider them against the majority of humans that aren't professional hockey players and never would be. In reality, statistically, the minority of players with birthdays in October through December that nevertheless reach professional status in Hockey and succeed ARE the real Outliers in his sample! They represent a minority but must be truly outstanding individuals, or at least more outstanding than those who succeeded merely because of their fortunate position and nominally superior maturity. These people would be interesting to learn about. He ignores them in his analysis. It's not even clear whether he knows the problem of their existence presents a problem for his thesis.
I wanted to read a book about statistical outliers -- truly outstanding people and what makes them up. Instead, Gladwell conveniently ignores many truly remarkable individuals in his quest to explain away accomplishments that have been reached through privileged position or status.
61 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Robert W
- 09-05-09
Intriguing but the research is questionable
This book is quite intriguing, but often as I listened I began to wonder about his research methodology. His facts, while compelling seem to be only part of the picture and I began to wonder as to how much picking and choosing of facts was going on to support his points. His determination to support his rather deterministic view is clear throughout the piece.
47 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- S Prabhu
- 27-12-08
Excellent book; well adapted for the audio format
Unusual take on a topic that is taken for granted. The author's voice enhances the message-highly recommended audiobook-perhaps my best book of the year!
39 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Thomas
- 10-09-09
not drinking the cool-aid
I just did not find this book that compelling, much less convincing. The author is a master at taking a series of observations and making a circumstantial case for a point, but then never critically assessing whether his assertions are correct by looking at them in some objective manner. The hypothesis is that there are random but predictable factors control our fate. So here is the problem. It is easy to look retrospectively and say, Bill gates is who he is because someone bought a computer for his 8th grade class which gave him a unique opportunity. So if that purchase was the key for bill, what happened to all his classmates and why don't we know anything about them. Another hypothesis is that its really the extent to which you practise that determines your outcome, so really successful musicians are there because they practiced more over the years. Umm, but what led them to practise so much more at an early age? The author acts like he has solved the nature vs. nurture; argument, but it is not so simple. Then ther is the statements that once you reach a certain basic level of height for basketball players or intelligence for the rest of us, that additional height or intelligence does not matter. Umm, why do BB players get measured to the millimeter at pre-NBA draft camps, and why does their stock fall if a player is found to only be 6-6, instead of 6-8, and why are there so many slow relatively clumsy 7-0 white guys sitting on rosters if height above 6-2 does not matter.
Overall, I felt the entire time like a jedi master was trying to fool me with a mind trick. This is a nice book written to sell, not to really investigate or study an issue in any scientific or significant manner. Once you start poking holes in his arguments, it makes listening to him more and more painful, although the audio quality is good.
32 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- GW Support
- 15-02-19
Don’t dilute your potential with this book
This book’s entire theme is basically that chance determines your successes in life. Hard work, preserverence, determination, commitment and resilience are qualities that this book does not celebrate. Instead, it focuses on culture, upbringing, date of birth and chance. If you are looking for self improvement, I would highly recommend skipping this title and reading books like “The secret of the ages” by Robert Collier, “The power of your subconscious mind” by dr Joseph Murphy, “The richest man in Babylon” by George S. Clason etc.
31 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- J. Reichel
- 28-05-09
PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!
This book is a must read for every educator, administrator, politician, or parent.
In "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell writes a compelling book that everyone in anyway connected to the education of our children needs to read.
For too long, education has been stagnant; floundering in a system that continues to cling to outdated policies and practices. Through out this book, Gladwell provides solid reasons for restructuring while pointing out concrete changes that if made could provide higher levels of success for many more student than the current system provides.
It is NOT about haves or have nots. We all have, but we are not all given the opportunities needed to succeed. Our education system has got to change.
28 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Judy Corstjens
- 04-08-12
Just so stories
Mr Gladwell has a nice voice and is a natural storyteller, but unfortunately he cannot think straight for an extended period (such as a book). He contradicts himself: at one point, to succeed you need the 'right', well connected, parents (high IQ elementary kids) at another point the key to success (for New York lawyers in the 1970s) is to be born on the wrong side of the tracks (jewish immigrant). He has extraordinarily low standards of 'proof': having demonstrated that certain successes (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc.) got lucky breaks, he then breezily states, 'Now we have shown that circumstances are actually more important than raw talent'. I find this very irritating. The main thesis seems to be 'you need luck as well as talent'. Duh?? Is that a thesis or a statement of the bloody obvious? The three stars is because, despite all this, Outliers is quite listenable. It is so low powered and well read that you never need to hit the repeat button, which is handy if your hands are muddy (as mine usually are when I'm audioing).
54 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Mark
- 23-12-12
I never thought about it that way...
As a teacher I have spent years praising kids for being smart, then, however,they rely on that to wing the exams. now I praise them for the amount of hard work they do to achieve their goals and they do better.
Inspiring book, well read, and it has application outside its covers.
Mark from Enfield
29 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Dawn
- 20-05-10
Riveting - enjoyed it much more than the paperback
Malcolm Gladwell is a terrific writer; he's also an experienced and effective presenter. So when he's reading his own material it's a compelling package and I was totally hooked.
He's dug up some fascinating statistics to back up his overall hypothesis: when someone is exceptional at something it's not just a case of luck or hard work.
IT millionaires all born in the same 3-year period; high performers who all put in more than 10,000 hours of practice; entrepreneurs whose experience of being immigrants influenced who they knew and what they did - and many more fascinating examples.
I'll definitely be listening to this again.
23 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony
- 26-06-17
Very engaging
Its one of those books you can't stop listening to. I do feel however there isn't many ways to apply this to your life.
9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Derek
- 21-07-17
Amusing stories of success from a different view
This book is really well read by the author. The viewpoint he provides on how some people have got where they are challenges the idea that we are products of ourselves. He sets out to prove this point with a series of cases, each of which is entertaining to consider, but is by no means an exhaustive list. As such his argument is interesting and worth considering, but not rigorously examined.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Walter Rothon
- 07-04-13
Interesting, engaging and very informative
If you've read Freakonomics, then you'll love this. Malcolm Gladwell delves deep into the reasons and circumstances around what makes some people more successful than others. The people and groups he highlights will surprise you - but more so you'll be amazed at what things had to align for them to reach that point of success. Easy to listen to, simply stated but very engaging it was hard to pause while listening on my commute to work.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- nicholas legge
- 22-04-17
Full of repetitive facts and stories
I cannot stop talking about this book. It is so interesting it just makes you pass on the knowledge but with vigour.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alexander
- 02-02-14
round in circle
What did you like best about Outliers? What did you like least?
Never seem to get to the real point of the book in any concise way.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
Never seem to get to the real point and title of the book in any concise way.
Have you listened to any of Malcolm Gladwell’s other performances? How does this one compare?
no
If this book were a film would you go see it?
no it would not work.. good documentary thou
Any additional comments?
seem like self centred philosophy for his life rather than a completely thought through work. Some very interesting sections about how chance plays so much of a role in life, and why some people do better in certain fields, but can't real say that as well rounded Englishman I feel any way enlightened by this book. If I lived in a bubble, may be...
4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Richard
- 03-11-09
Great listen
Fascinating book with lovely insights into the development of so-called Outliers. Well read by the author. If the subject matter piques your interest, it is worth the time listening.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Alex King
- 05-08-17
Absolutely mindblowing!
A truly thought provoking book. I Have to listen to it again! Highly recommended book
3 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- laura
- 26-04-19
Where are the female outliers?
The absence of women in this book provides evidence for an unspoken point that women have not been afforded the circumstances to prevail as outliers. Rather than leave this unaddressed and simply provide a playbook of male leaders, surely a chapter noting why women are absent from the book, is warranted?
55 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 20-02-19
Some good stuff with some terrible stuff
I really enjoyed how the author explored the cultural / luck aspects of success, breaking down idea that success is all about individual talent and hard work. However, the author has somehow managed to write an entire book about privilege, whilst missing the entire conversation about privilege.
Almost all of the stories are about men, and almost every single academic he references is a man. He is over 75% of the way through the book before he discusses a women, and the two women he does discuss (one of whom is his mother) aren't famous and didn't achieve anything particularly noteworthy. Compared with his discussions of men which included likes of Bill Gates, this is frankly appalling (Oprah Winfrey springs to mind as an obvious "outlier" he could have discussed).
He completely misses any discussion of the "structural advantage" of gender, despite a significant portion of the book being dedicated to "structural advantage". He only discusses race at the very end in the context of Jamaica, so misses the profound structural advantages of being white in America and other Western countries. He also never discusses the advantages of being straight, or non-disabled, or any other form of privilege.
I expect better from a book written in 2008.
8 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Sarah
- 20-03-21
The story of successful men
There is notable absence of celebrating or researching successful women. How sad. This book ended up being quite painful to get through in the end. The concept began interesting enough, and then just fell flat every time there was a failure to mention another obvious contributing factor to success was gender.
I nearly laughed (or maybe rolled my eyes) in the chapter about garment making and the successful men that had their wives do all the work actually making the garments. Reading between the lines, I'm more than positive the thrifty, smart wife would have said 'I'm not paying $x for that, I'll make it on my own", but yes, give the credit to the patriarchal figure, I'm sure it was the only option back then (digital eyeroll).
Painful gender filtered writing, would not recommend.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 17-04-17
A fascinating analysis of success
Another great MG read / listen. Probably my favourite so far and a much more in depth analysis in comparison to his others. You're bound to learn something about why some have succeeded and others have not. Fascinating and engaging and well worth the listen.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Igor
- 11-05-17
great book highly recommended !!!!
Very insightful and shows new ways to look at factors that underpin success... probably good things to consider by parents when signing up kids in extra curricular activities
3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jennifer
- 27-09-20
Outlier opportunities
Interesting and thought provoking. Though considerably out of date, Gladwell's premise still rings true. I think to the influence of familiar attitudes and advice, local and world events and timing. Timing is close to being everything. Covid 19 disruption in 2020 will well be one of these times for the stars to align for the next wave of outliers.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Callum
- 23-05-20
Fascinating & intellectual
Malcolm has created a fantastic and interesting book. It is well written, full of excellent examples and shines light on success in a way I would have never imagined!
Malcolm is also an excellent narrator.
I highly recommend this book.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brendan
- 19-02-17
Such an entertaining book
I really enjoyed this even though it was short. I loved the aviation chapter and the last chapter at the very with a personal touch was great. I listened to every word and the narration was on point. I'd listen to this again for sure.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Melissa
- 09-02-17
Perspective
I've always been a believer that you make your own luck. With hard work and with practice patience and persistence. This book has made me realise there are so many other factors to opportunities that arise in ones life. I definitely have a new perspective. Great book!
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kieran.S
- 22-11-16
Great
I've always struggled to finish books as I get bored easily. I loved it and found it easy to get through as well as being very insightful and interesting.
2 people found this helpful