The book revolves around two simple questions:
- Why do some people achieve so much more than others?
- Can they really lie so far outside of the ordinary
Examples are pulled from a variety of places. He looks at geniuses, business tycoons, rock stars, programmers, lawyers, and pilots. The reader is taken on a journey of discovery, beyond the typical rags to riches celebration or the “it was all about how hard he worked to get there” argument and into a deeper level of analysis. What we discover is that there is one thing that virtually all impressive people have in common in one form (or more often in a multitude of forms): opportunity. There are always pivotal moments within a life that define it. A few of the examples used are Bill Gates being in one of the first schools with a certain type of computer at an early age. He was given opportunities to practice his programming skills at the age of 13, and by the time a handful of other high schools and universities in America had similar machines he had literally spent thousands of hours behind a computer learning to program. Another example was several trips that the Beatles to a small town in Germany while they were a young, struggling band. They were forced to play eight-hour sets for weeks solid. They played for almost nothing and didn’t gain much in terms of popularity, but this rigorous schedule taught them to work as a team and made each one of them into phenomenal musicians and performers. We all know what happened from there once they were literally forced to become great by an unexpected opportunity in Germany.
The author goes on to tell many similar stories, both about individual opportunities and the legacies that are left behind by cultures and people groups around the world. He examines the concept of “practical intelligence” and how deeply it is woven through our lives.
The most fascinating concept (in my opinion) that is discussed relates to class and education in our country. The reality is that a majority of children in America that come from low class families live a life containing very few of the opportunities that some of us are presented with. A group of children with IQs that were off the charts were selected at a very young age and studied in depth throughout their lives (check out the work of Lewis Terman for more – super interesting stuff). After literally a life’s work attempting to understand the consequence of “genius” upon individuals the results were surprising. There were various things used to measure success in the individuals, but in the end “success” seemed to have almost nothing to do with intelligence but everything to do with the family and culture environment that the children were raised in. The middle and upper class parents seemed to expect something different of their children. They were engaged in adult conversations, taught to ask questions and solve problems, and often emerged in a much more rigorous schedule filled with sports, music, and any host of other opportunities that the children from lower class families did not have access. Again, it seems that success can always be traced back to opportunity, which many children in our country and around the world do not have access to.
The premise really lies in the fact that there are a handful of people that are born at the right time, into the right family with the right set of circumstances around them (all of which are much more complex than simple economics), but if we as a society could identify and help to create more of those circumstantial opportunities then our society would look vastly different than it does today. Of course that premise led me to look at my own life. I feel as thought I have been given so many “golden opportunities.” I have a very rich set of circumstances, if you will. But what can I do to create similar opportunities for others? From there I thought about the team I work with every day. Is it possible that I can, in some small way, orchestrate the type of opportunities that could open a multitude of yet unimagined doors for them? How can I help them tap into the opportunities that surround them every day and make the most of the circumstances they have been given? Very challenging question…
