Professor Elam

Outliers was rated by Tom Sowell as one of the most important books of 2008. I read it over the last two days, gee it certainly attracted my interest, and you should too. In fact I suspect we should shut down every class on campus and read and discuss this over the next week, it is that important. You can click and go to amazon and read about it. The essence of the book is that Gladwell examines successful people who stand out from the crowd, outliers as they are known statistically. These folks land two or three sigmas from the mean usually for 'inexplicable' reasons. Yet Gladwell digs to explain these anomalies. It turns out the explanation is usually simple. One the person is a product of timing, born at the right time. This may be a hockey player or a successful NY Jewish lawyer. Two, the culture brings a work ethic that other competitors simply do not have. Three, and this is very important, the person is the product of 10,000 hours of practice at their craft.

This is easily understood in athletics. Individuals who show promise at athletics are showered with attention, usually from an early age. It is erroneously thought that individuals who show academic excellence at an early age are somehow 'gifted' and they too are showered with attention. Yet my own experience is that is not the case with students that have performed well in my classes. Too many have told me of mediocre previous school experiences. Once they begin again, as an adult, things change. They work harder, they focus, and they succeed.

Gladwell manages to bring Chinese peasants, Eastern European tailors, Korean aircraft pilots, Bill Gates no less,  and immigrants from the Caribbean all under his microscope. The common threads of culture, hard work, timing, and success are amazing.

Gladwell is also the author of the success Tipping Point.'

I can readily see this in my own experience. I was a marginally successful debater in grades 10-11. Then things changed, a lot. I moved to another school district. The high school had a tradition of great success, they won the state championship the year before. We had hour long classes twice a day in speech. We attended every tournament of consequence in the area that year. The year before I attended two tournaments. IN the 12th grade for one stretch I attended one every weekend for six weeks. We read and studied the topic at least two hours a night. Guess what, I started winning.

The same thing happened when I decided, finally, to study for the CPA exam, I had not been particularly interested in accounting previously, that changed. I immersed myself in it and passed the exam the first time.

The same thing happened when I started studying bond market trading in 1984, not bond market accounting as we study in class, bond market trading, they are not the same. The result?   I became a successful bond trader.    Time spent studying  matters.

Read this book.