After reading Outliers, I had the following thoughts - (synopsis):
Success is not entirely within our control; Outliers are not just the product of their effort.
1) Hard work is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of success
2) We cut many people out of realizing their potential because of the unfair way we mete out reward and success in our society.
Individuals are responsible for #1. Society (we) are responsible for understanding and changing #2.
And, if you find yourself successful (i.e. you make a lot of money), then you must allow for #2, and don't take on the arrogance or conceit that you may keep all that you've earned or look down on those less successful (at least not until you know for a specific individual that it was a lack of #1)
You certainly cannot disparage classes of people, assuming they don't work hard enough, because that is likely not true at all!
The book really flies against the ideas of the 'self-made individual'. Mr Gladwell's thesis is that success is a product of the environment and a nice chain of events, only one of which was the individual's effort, the remainder being culture, people, situations. His purpose is clearly not to give people excuses for not succeeding (remember, personal work is necessary!), but rather, to allow us to see that our society and culture contribute (even choose) which individuals will succeed, and give us pause to think about the potential for more contribution by more individuals if we change the rules and level the field, making success open to more.
The whole Horatio Alger "rags to riches" theme is so ingrained in our culture. It was refreshing to read this book. As someone who grew up in relative poverty and moved into the middle class, I know that social environment has profound implications for success (at least the larger society's view of it). Langan's story spoke to me in particular.
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