The 10k hour rule myth / Hardwork ≠ Success

The Myth of 10,000 hours. Hard Work ≠ Success.

The tragedy of the book The Outliers is that it perpetuated the myth of hard work leads to success. The very myth the book was trying to dispel.

I read the book The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell cover to cover. I emphasize cover to cover because 98% of people don’t finish books. I am one of the 2%. Most people never finished the book and it’s evident because if they had the “10,000 hour rule” would not have become such a legend.

The Outliers tries to answer a simple question, “Why do some people succeed beyond expectations? Or Why are some people outliers?”

The answer is in the final page of the book, “Outliers are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy… Some of their success is earned and some are just plain lucky.”

Final page of The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The final plea in the book is to create opportunities and advantages so there can be many more outliers. A noble call.

Most people never got to the final page and the tragedy of this book is that it perpetuated the myth of the “10,000 hour rule”. It’s so tragic because Malcolm Gladwell works so hard to establish that it’s not just hard work but a set of conditions that enables outliers. Unfortunately “Work hard to succeed” is the message the world took away from it.

The tragic myth of 10,000 hours lives on.