The Book “Outliers” written by Malcolm Gladwell is a fascinating read. Its basic thesis is that successful people are not merely a product of their own ability and talent. But that they have been shaped and formed by their culture, family, environment, opporunities and slight advantages in life.
The author spends a large part of the book analysing why people like Bill Gates, the Beatles, the director of Google, the National Ice Hockey squad etc. ended up where they were.
The author is a brilliant writer and fair in his analysis of the statistics. It left me analysing my own personal history and reverse mapping my life to see where influences and effects changed the path of my future. It is humbling to read this book because we often look at really successful people and wonder what the X Factor was that they had and we didn’t, but this book leads us to believe that theres many more factors at play in success from what month you born in the year, to what decade you were born, to whether your father was a garment maker etc.
While the Author is not a Christian writer, his arguments supports one of my Christian beliefs in the sovereignty of God. God has decided the times and places in which we live and everything in our life can ultimately be traced back to his sovereign “Controlling hand” working behind the scenes of our lives.
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