10,000 Hours

Virtuosos in any field make it look easy. But the skills they possess didn't just happen. It's not magic.

We Americans love success stories -- you know, those stories that describe a person's rise "from rags to riches" or a "Lin-derella" story of a poor soul who languishes in obscurity but then overcomes impossible odds to hit the winning shot (Jeremy Lin) or take a seat at the head of the boardroom table. We see ourselves as a land of opportunity where people can pick themselves up by the bootstraps and make it to the top on his or her own. Our national anthem might indeed be more Frank Sinatra than Francis Scott Key: "I Did It My Way."

But is the rags to riches, bootstrap story really true, or is it a myth? Is it possible for us to really make it on our own, or do we need help? Does innate talent or ability matter more than anything else when it comes to success? When it comes down to it, what's the real key to success?

These are the questions that author and thinker Malcolm Gladwell was pondering when he wrote his best-selling book Outliers in 2008. Gladwell wanted to understand the...