Malcolm Gladwell On The Beatles’ Success

I read "Outliers" as well and I was struck by the Beatles example as evidence of the requisite practice hours, a price many talented people are unwilling to pay.

The challenge with being really talented is that it can make you lazy, and if you grow up (for example) dominating your academics with little or no effort, you are ill equipped for the rigors of a greater challenge. Getting by on talent only goes so far, in the Beatles example, super talented and paid the sweat equity needed to be great.

I agree that during their Hamburg experience they put in the hard work and the time necessary to tighten their music up and become a unified band, however - and I'm sure this is addressed in his book - it's not pure talent that makes anyone or any band successful, it's chance - being at the right place at the right time and getting heard by the right person at the right time. Without that discovery, the Beatles could have just been another wallflower band that wrote amazing music but was only known by a discrete few. What makes something an outlier is the slight chance to be successful, and if that chance is missed, they're just another hard working band playing strip clubs and other local joints for a sufficient and steady income.

You may further be interested in the book Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Nicholas Taleb), which similarly covers the idea that nothing is random, everything is determined by chance and probability.

Great clip. I enjoyed reading this.

Rikin, I agree. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were lucky, brilliant, and worked hard. I haven't read the book but I should get it. I read a previous book of his called The Tipping Point I think.

Stephen, Tipping Point was in my opinion Gladwell's finest work. His other book, Blink, has been my least favorite of his three books. Check them out here: http://www.gladwell.com/