Is The Self-Made Man A Myth?

CBS Evening News: Best-Selling Author Malcolm Gladwell Explains His Out-Of-The-Box Thinking

(CBS)  He's considered a geek God with hipster status. His ability to punch holes in conventional wisdom has made him a rockstar to everyone from college students to CEOs.

Malcolm Gladwell's first book was "The Tipping Point," was about small actions haveing profound impacts. He seemed to put the phrase on the tip of everyone's tongue.

His second book, "Blink," argued snap judgments can be just as effective as protracted analysis.

In his newest book, "Outliers," Gladwell sets his sights on the self-made man - and claims he does not exist, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports.

"People who were very successful, the big CEOs who were making their $100 million paychecks, were patting themselves on the back very firmly and saying 'I deserve it.' And I wanted to ask the question, 'do they deserve it?'" Gladwell said.

"And what I discovered is that's not true. And success is a product of culture of background and what your parents and great-grandparents and great great grandparents did for a living."

In fact, culture, he claims, plays a significant role in education. Why, he wondered, are Asian kids so good at math?

"You can do experiments with Asian kids and American kids where you give them a really hard math problem," he said. "If the American kids can't solve it right away, they will quit after a minute. It's a cultural attitude and it's about persistence."

And he says Americans only go to school 185 days a year. The Japanese, 250. Which brings him to his next point: Practice makes perfect.

"In almost any field that's difficult, it's impossible to find someone who's good who hasn't spent 10,000 hours practicing," he said.

There are other ingredients in his recipe for success, and some, you simply can't control.

"Well, luck, if you look at a list of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley an incredible number of them are born in 1955. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. All the founders of Sun Microsystems are born in the same year. That is not a coincidence. It has to do with the fact that the personal computer revolution happens in 1975 when they were 20 years old and that is the perfect age to be confronted with a revolution. Right? You don't have a family or kids or a mortgage. Your mind is wide open. You've got nothing at stake in the existing order of things and you can embrace some new paradigm."

If in the end, this all sounds like something your mother could have told you, Gladwell is unapologetic.

"Do you ever feel your work is oversimplistic? That it is stating the obvious?" Couric asked.

"Sometimes. I don't think that's a bad thing. I think my role is, I'm trying to start conversations," he said. "I want to start from a simplistic place and I want to complexify that and take you on a journey. I am trying to make complicated ideas accessible."

[hypnotoad72]

"haveing" - I stopped reading the moment I saw that "word".

[olderthnadam]

I consider this entire article utter BS. My father, while not a billionaire, was a self made man. He was born to a poor farmer on a hardscrabble farm, grew up in a two room tarpaper shack the size of most peoples living rooms, was forced to quit school after 8th grade to hire out plowing with a team of mules to help support his family, and grew up during the depression. When he retired in 1990 he owned a trucking company with seven late model Kenworth conventional tractors, 15 employees (all of them drivers), did his own mechanic work, his own bookwork, and handled all dealings with dispatchers of the company he leased his trucks to. At his death he owned 3/4 of a million in real value of his assets and $150,000 in the bank. His parents were not able to help him achieve this and he had the help of no government programs. He often worked 36 hours straight repairing breakdowns in order to get the trucks back on the road without losing a load and paid his employees better than most of his peers and treated them very well. If he wasn''t self made then I have a real problem figuring out who made him. No other members of his family fared so well.

[stephaniew8]

As with all complex theories and phenomenom there are always going to be exceptions. Yes, many women and men are TRULY self made, with no genetic leg up, no parental wisdom or help, and no societal loans or forgiveness. And for the most part, I agree with Gladwell, with just the right timing, place and dumb luck, many folks ride the wave and become millionaries. Now, one could say, so what? Well perhaps the point is, no matter what your position, time and place in the cosmos, just do your best. Sooner or later most folks will be successful. And that is whether they are scientists, plumbers, teachers, waitresses, or criminals. Oh well. But kudos to Gladwell, he is a stunning thinker. Stephanie

[clathrate]

Sooner or later most folks will be successful.

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Posted by stephaniew8

If only that were true Stephanie.
Sadly, I''ve not found that to be true at all in my experience.

Frankly, what most often separates the successful from the not so successful is persistence. Brilliance and talent help, but persistence is absolutely key. And by far and away, most people just don''t have the persistence to be successful, they are completely content with "good enough" or "it''s not my problem".

[longtree-2009]

nothing new in what gladwell writes. kudos to him for making money off of it.

[idnnsg]

"...and he had the help of no government programs." --olderthnadam

Really? He "grew up during the depression." What did HE do to end the depresseion? How many of the roads his drivers drove down did HE personally build?

It sounds like your dad was a real hard worker, and probably a real good guy... but LOTS of OTHER PEOPLE are real hard workers and real good guys, and they don''t all "make it"!

Gladwell is correct. No man is an island.

The "self made man" myth is just something successful people tell themselves so they can feel like they DESERVE it, and that lets them sleep at night without worrying about doing anything to help those who have not been so successful.

[glenn_lewis]

It''s worthwhile noting that I think if you look closely at those who were successful that they come from middle to upper class backgrounds. They speak and think that way. They are not afraid of where their next meal is coming from.

[docadams3]

Yeah, it takes two to tango. The self-made man can go self-make himself.