The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit.
Innovation-the heart of the knowledge economy-is fundamentally social.
To be someone’s best friend requires a minimum investment of time. More than that, though, it takes emotional energy. Caring about someone deeply is exhausting.
Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.
Achievement is talent plus preparation.
There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.
You can learn as much – or more – from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.
To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all.
Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.
We have the kind of self-made-man myth, which says that super-successful people did it themselves.
Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.
The great accomplishment of Jobs’s life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies – his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness – in the service of perfection.
Anyone who knows the marketing world knows that ideas come and go, and people latch onto things and think of them as a kind of solution...
There will be statues of Bill Gates across the Third World. There’s a reasonable shot that – because of his money – we will cure malaria.
We don’t know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don’t always appreciate their fragility.
Outliers are those who have been given opportunities – and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.
The nature of athletic celebrity is increasingly moving away from the actual field of play.
By shifting the balance away from the individual we open the door for the individual. Because we make it obvious that anyone can do it given the right circumstance.