Billionaire Lessons from Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out titled Outliers: The Story of Success. What inspired the latest book?

"I've always been drawn to those who are exceptional or weird in some way," he says, "and the book is about people whose achievement exceeds every expectation."

So what are some of the key lessons on success presented in the book? Well, a big one is that there's really no such thing as overnight success. In other words, don't hold your breathe waiting to be discovered:

RD: Is there such a thing as an overnight success?

Gladwell: No. And that's my concern with a show like American Idol. It encourages the false belief that there's a kind of magic, that you can be "discovered." That may be the way television works, but it's not the way the world works. Rising to the top of any field requires an enormous amount of dedication, focus, drive, talent, and 99 factors that they don't show on television. It's not simply about being picked. Which, by the way, is why very few of the anointed winners on American Idol have gone on to true success. Most have flamed out and gone away. That should tell us something. (source)

Here are his 5 Steps to Success:

1. Find meaning and inspiration in your work.

2. Work hard.

3. Discover the relationship between effort and reward.

4. Seek out complex work to avoid boredom and repetition.

5. Be autonomous and control your own destiny as much as possible.

Find out more about the book here Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success.

Comments

[Henry]

Thought you would like to hear a billionaire's success secrets.

Warren Buffett's 7 Secrets for Living a Happy and Simple Life

Warren Buffett never flies in a private jet -- even though he owns the largest private jet company. He also lives in a small three-bedroom house he bought 50 years ago, and keeps himself occupied by playing online bridge.

It is refreshing, and inspiring, to hear of a man with all the wealth in the world who still believes that happiness lies not with riches but within yourself.

You, too, may become immensely happier by integrating some of the following wisdom into your own life.

Secret #1: Happiness comes from within.

“In my adult business life I have never had to make a choice of trading between professional and personal. I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.” -- Warren Buffett

If you do what you love and love what you do, you’ll naturally be productive.

Secret #2: Find happiness in simple pleasures.

“I have simple pleasures. I play bridge online for 12 hours a week.” -- Warren Buffett

You can also learn to be happy with the simple pleasures of playing cards with friends, playing with your children or taking a walk in the wilderness.

Secret #3: Live a simple life.

“I just naturally want to do things that make sense. In my personal life too, I don’t care what other rich people are doing. I don’t want a 405 foot boat just because someone else has a 400 foot boat.” -- Warren Buffett

Keeping up with the Joneses is the worst epidemic among those who should never contemplate that notion in the first place. Less is more.

Secret #4: Think Simply.

“I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand.” -- Warren Buffett

If you apply this rule in your life, you can develop clarity and sanity in your thoughts. Life is about simple yet profound choices.

Secret #5: Invest Simply.

“The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.” -- Warren Buffett

Often, the simplest route will bring you the most riches, and the most happiness.

Secret #6: Have a mentor in life.

“I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be. The qualities of the one you admire are the traits that you, with a little practice, can make your own, and that, if practiced, will become habit-forming.” -- Warren Buffett

Having a mentor is as important as having a purpose in your life, but having a wrong mentor is as devastating as having a wrong purpose in your life. The mentor has to be someone you can trust. You’ll find that person in your inner circle if you think hard enough.

Secret #7: Making money isn’t the backbone of your guiding purpose; making money is the by-product of your guiding purpose.

“If you’re doing something you love, you’re more likely to put your all into it, and that generally equates to making money.” -- Warren Buffett

Money should never become the object and end all of your motivation.

[JJ]

Interesting list of steps.

What does it take to succeed?

Very common asked question, But I know there are many others who are looking for that gem of advice. That spark to just get off your ass and make it.

I cannot stop thinking about how in the world I will become highly successful. It bothers me. I'm 30 years old already and just cant figure it out. I love business, I love to interact, real estate is fun, but I have no direction. I do not know where to start. Its burning me up.

To those who are successful financially and in any other endeavor , what do you think seperates you from the rest? What do you see in others that you know is just holding them back?

If you guys are up for it, lets get a discussion going about success.

What do you think are the top 5 qualities that breed billionaire level success?

Hopefully one day, I can read a post like this from the top and help others whose shoes I once walked in.

Thank you for commenting. Hopefully many can benefit from this thread.

[Hassan Mukri]

1 Get good Education.
2 Have a clear focus, vision and goal.
3 Burn down internal beliefs/feelings that might hinder you.
4 Get into Action (but now, because you want to because of step 3)
5 Calibrate, repeat rourself.

[Billionaire Man]

How do billionaires become billionaires?

Actually, it's really quite simple.

I should probably sell this "secret" for 10k on ebay. It's really THIS powerful.

Are you ready? Ok, here it goes...

GIVE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT = GIVE VALUE TO PEOPLE

Bill Gates created Microsoft and made it possible for every household to have a PC.
Steve Job invented the Mac and iPod.
Rich musicians have millions of fans because their music resonates with people.

It's all about giving people what they want, giving them something of value, making their lives a little bit better.

There you go. That's the "secret". Now get off the internet, stop worrying, and figure out how you can give lots of value to society.

[Warren Buffett Jr.]

Here's some more advice for aspiring billionaires.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.
Winston Churchill

We make a living not by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
Winston Churchill

Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston Churchill

[Keith Urban]

I'm gonna have to say that it's not always about what you know, but who you know. Get involved in something you enjoy and start networking like crazy. I am actually in the process of developing something brand new and am currently in the works of doing this.

If you are interactive, leverage that and get acquainted with people in the field you enjoy. Then once you are ready to start something, you'll have plenty of people that will be willing to help you out.

[Billionaire Man]

Just wanted to share this:

"In one of the most detailed studies ever conducted into the effects of self-belief on performance, the psychologist Albert Bandura discovered that a person's genuine beliefs about their capabilities can be a more accurate predictor of their future levels of performance than any actual results they had produced in the past. In other words, what you think about yourself now is more important than what you achieved in the past." -- Paul McKenna

[Tim Lassiter]

Good conversation.

Here's my opinion.

Figure out what it is you do REALLY fucking well. Then find ways to leverage those strengths.

See opportunity everywhere.

Take risks, daily. Expand your comfort zone and force yourself to grow.

Fail quickly.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go at it again and again and again...

Learn. Educate yourself.

Be passionate.

Put yourself in the company of successful people (in real life)

Have fun!!

[Billionaire Man]

It's all about having the confidence needed to begin.

[Ryan]

It's all about having the confidence needed to begin.
---

I really doubt that self-confidence can be magically "summoned". It is far too complex a trait.

Genuine confidence is all about belief in your abilities. So it makes absolute sense that the more you actively develop your abilities, the more confident you will become. There is nothing fake about it.

The simple fact is we all have to start off at the bottom in building that confidence, and that first gear is willpower. Use willpower to take the action you hate to take, get the results to build the first level of confidence, and then the momentum should carry you forward from there.

I'm a big believer that it is only genuine results that can lead to belief and not the other way around.

[Billionaire Man]

Ryan,

I disagree. You start at maximum possible level regarding your confidence. Baby for example has absolute confidence it will learn how to walk even though it can't even crawl yet and all its successes were successfully calling her mum to breast feed her and change her diapers.

It is with programming we get from parents, family, friends, school, church, society... that we start to doubt ourselves. So removing that programming is a way to (as it seems for someone who is not aware how our programming and our beliefs effect our behavior) "magically "summon" self-confidence".

This is confirmed every day in hypno-sessions throughout the world where people with agoraphobia, who can't leave their apartment out of fear, "magically "summon" self-confidence" and after 2 sessions just walk around like "normal" people do.

[Keith]

In my opinion "Change your thinking, change your life" is just a catchy phrase that includes more but was shortened for marketing purposes.

The full version probably sounds like "Change your thinking to change your feelings to change your actions to change your life to achieve more happiness".

[Tim Lassiter]

I disagree. You start at maximum possible level regarding your confidence. Baby for example has absolute confidence it will learn how to walk even though it can't even crawl yet and all its successes were successfully calling her mum to breast feed her and change her diapers.
--

I hate that damn baby analogy! It's a completely redundant cliche. Comparing adults to babies is as good as comparing apples to oranges.

As you yourself said, adults are the sum total of decades of social conditioning. Babies have little to none. Now you may very well call this "confidence", but as far as I'm concerned "confidence" is an exclusively adult concept. If we look at the Cambridge dictionary's definition of "confidence", we get this: "the quality of being certain of your abilities or of having trust in people, plans, or the future".

Babies simply could not comprehend that concept. No, what babies have is not "confidence", but rather FEARLESSNESS. Fear is, again, a mature concept, so it makes absolute sense that a baby would be fearless. It is because of fearlessness that babies are willing to fail and fail before succeeding, just as it is because of fearlessness that they'd be willing to touch a hot kettle or cross a busy road without supervision. So as far as I'm concerned,there is a key distinction to make between "confidence" and "fearlessness".

Thus, if confidence IS about being "certain of your abilities", then how can anybody be truly confident if their abilities do not come up to scratch? It is the classic style-over-substance misdirection that so many of these self-help gurus come up with. The ONLY way you can develop GENUINE confidence is to actually develop abilities. And the only way you develop abilities is to TAKE ACTION. And if you are languishing in first gear, then the only way to take action is to enforce WILLPOWER.

Willpower = action = results = abilities = confidence = increasingly effortless action = increasingly bigger results = increasingly greater confidence, etc.

Take two fat guys. One of the fat guys is coached by an NLP trainer for three straight weeks. The other guy is made to do exercise and dieting by a personal trainer for three straight weeks.

If I had to make a bet on which of them would be slim in five years time, I would go for the exercise-and-dieting guy every single time.

[Keith]

We don't know enough to make that bet. Just HOW willing to reduce the weight are they? And WHY do they want to?

Do they just HATE that they sweat like mad even when they use their body only a little bit and that the women who flirt with them have more belly than Bud Spencer? Or do they 'want' to lose weight because their wife/doctor/whoever said they SHOULD lose some weight, but they don't really feel like that, because for them being fat means being social? With the uncertainty involved here, I bet on the coached guy, if the NLP trainer is really good.

[Warren Buffett Jr.]

Visualization is an important tool for building confidence.

"They found the most effective ratio of visualization to physical practice at an Olympic level of training is 70:30."
-- David Allen, author of Getting Things Done

[MrBabyMan]

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with over $86,000. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do?

Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!!!!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "Tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running.

Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE-SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the "present"!!!

[Dave]

For the two fat guys argument. I'd go with the excersice and diet guy. The NLP guy in this scenario is looking for a shortcut.

The whole point is that there is no value in shortcuts. period. Maybe you get rich taking a shortcut, maybe you don't, but it doesn't matter because you won't value it.

Malcolm's 3rd point is the only point necessary imho. "3. Discover the relationship between effort and reward."

Do this and you won't even care about rich or poor. Money won't have value for you, only effort and accomplishment will be rewarding. Of course your chances of becoming rich with this attitude will increase as a side-effect.

So many people think it's a choice. It's not. It's a fact that you only value rewards based on the effort you put into them. It's how we're wired. The only choice you have is whether or not you accept this and act on it.

No self-help guru, book, marketing crap, will tell you anything more useful than this. But you'll buy into it anyways ;)