Malcolm Gladwell citations

“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.”

“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.”

“Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from.”

“Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”

“… If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires. (151)”

“It's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.”

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

“In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.”

“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”

“Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.”

“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.”

“….. it would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions.”

“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

“Emotion is contagious.”

“In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.”

“Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.”

“I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing…. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.”

“If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior… you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.”

“We overlook just how large a role we all play--and by 'we' I mean society--in determining who makes it and who doesn't.”

“There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.”

“Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation”

“When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex.”

“Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions… by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions.”

“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.”

“My earliest memories of my father are of seeing him work at his desk and realizing that he was happy. I did not know it then, but that was one of the most precious gifts a father can give his child.”

“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.”