#2 Musings on Failure: Gladwell Might Have Solved the Puzzle of My Life in 163 Pages
How one declines from an A student in a tough course like Further Mathematics to constantly doubt himself is quite a story. I used to be extremely confident in my abilities, so much so that I lacked empathy for failure. I simply believed you were not ready to succeed if you failed. I was not number one but I was usually found in the top five, a worthy contender. A few months after I left secondary school, I got admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The future looked promising. Looking back now from five years down the road, I have become a shadow of myself. I recently had a conversation with an old friend who said; "You are no longer the guy I used to know. Back then, you could take on the world by yourself." Frankly, he was right, my words and thoughts these days reek of self-doubt.
How did this happen? What role does Malcolm Gladwell play in my story? What puzzle did he try to solve? You see, he wrote a book called Outliers: The Story of Success. In this book, Gladwell claims that there are factors beyond our control that are responsible for our successes and failures. He expounds on this theory by citing examples using Bill Gates, Joe Flom, Chris Langan, and so on. Considering that I believed myself to have a pretty good IQ, imagine me going on to have four Ds out of seven courses in a semester; I needed answers. I was doing the same things I had been doing when things were going well. What went wrong this time? Outliers came with lots of answers to choose from: was I born into the wrong family? Was I born at the wrong time? I wondered. I am not yet done with the book, but I hope to get answers somewhere along the line.
In chapter five of the book, Malcolm explains his points in almost surreal ways. He takes his readers on a journey and we follow blindly. He stresses the importance of family background and upbringing, he talks about how your time of birth can be an advantage [and of course, a disadvantage] He explains the place of IQ and its impact; positive and negative. Yet, he does not leave us helpless in this idealisation of his. He takes us through the “ten thousand hours of work concept”. What a guy! Now, I'm wondering: Did I get to a point where my IQ was not enough? Maybe I lacked the practical intelligence to navigate through University. Before now, I had been quite confused, but it seems to me that I am closer to solving this puzzle of my life.
When Malcolm talks about ten thousand hours of work, he is admonishing his readers to prepare themselves for opportunities. I love that he does not lie to us, promising opportunities that may not come. He simply wants us to stay prepared. Malcolm understands the place of randomness with the successes we get. However, the good thing about this book is that it doesn't just make you settle for whatever disadvantage you have, but it makes you self-aware so that you can adjust where necessary. However, I do not think Gladwell has solved the puzzle yet, but he definitely seems to be in the right. Maybe I suffered in school because I studied under the wrong conditions. Maybe I studied the wrong course, but, whatever the answer is, I hope to get an answer at the end of this book.
Yours Truly,
Discovery Shoppe Book Club
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It's really amazing how factors beyond our control could determine success or failure. I hope this puzzle is solved as you finish reading the book.
ReplyDeleteYeah its intriguing. Though I think Gladwell aimed at making us more self-aware so that we can know how to manage and exploit our circumstances. I also hope the puzzle is solved and there'd be a part 2
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