The book’s subtitle presents the main theme of the book: “The Story of Success.” Gladwell largely addresses this in terms of how to attain success and how we perceive it. In Chapter 1, he asserts that the way we think about success is “profoundly wrong” (18). Too often we view it as the result of individual hard work, even innate genius, that allows a few people to rise to the top of their respective fields. Gladwell’s argument is that success is more mundane than that, more predictable, and arises from one’s background and the systems we put in place to select people in the first place and then provide them with advantages.

It’s important to note that Gladwell does not discount the existence of innate ability or the value of hard work. These are required for success, but that’s not the entire story. Many people are born with ability, and many put in great effort. The effort, however, must be herculean to reach elite status in any field. Presenting both research and the personal stories of people like Bill Gates and the Beatles, Gladwell writes that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to master most any skill. This in turn requires an enormous amount of free time.