From the best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia, learn what sets high achievers apart - from Bill Gates to the Beatles - in this seminal work from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

Listening Length

7 hours and 18 minutes
Author

Malcolm Gladwell
Narrator

Malcolm Gladwell
Audible release date

18 November 2008
Language

English
Publisher

Hachette Audio
ASIN

B00NPB4T3K
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
See all details

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible narration with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $13.99 after you buy the Kindle book.

Get this audiobook free then 1 credit each month, good for any title you like - yours to keep, even if you cancel
Listen all you want to the Plus Catalogue—a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts, including exclusive series
Exclusive member-only deals
$16.45 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime

Learn more about membership

By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice.

Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company

People who viewed this also viewed

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

Product details

Listening Length	7 hours and 18 minutes
Author	Malcolm Gladwell
Narrator	Malcolm Gladwell
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	18 November 2008
Publisher	Hachette Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00NPB4T3K
Best Sellers Rank	108 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Statistics (Books) 1 in Social Statistics 1 in Social Sciences (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		75%
4 star		16%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buyers Remorse

You Will Be Officially Dumber For Having Read This.

Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2022

Verified Purchase

Just a bunch of Obama "You didn't build that" nonsense. No wonder my leftie mates love this book. I really feel sorry for anyone who incorporates the authors worldview into their system of belief about how to become successful. Most life-long under-achievers can now read this book and give themselves a bunch of excuses as to why they aren't successful. The author makes a decent point about how public schools produce poor results, and that more hours spent on learning a skill equals better results. The rest of the book drifts off into pointless biographical schtick, mostly to try and elbow in the authors belief of how successful people were just there because they just got lucky. I found myself skipping over it to find out if the author has an actual point, but then found the 1-2 page conclusion where he just tells you what he's already said, with no actionable philosophy.

The author should point his critique at himself. If success is just due to luck, that means his book got published purely due to luck and not because of any real quality or merit of said book. If that's the case, why does the author think anyone should bother to read it? No one can outperform their own belief systems.

You Will Be Officially Dumber For Having Read This.

Helpful

Y Altamimi

Absolute Genius

Reviewed in Australia on 14 November 2019

Verified Purchase

This is the first book I read for Malcom Gladwell, and I am impressed. The fascinating way of demonstrating how different so called outliers outperformed others is clear, scientifically based and analysed very well. The style of the chapters is good and follows scientific appears with results explained and critiqued by Gladwell. I certainly recommend this book to all people who are keen to learn about the reasons behind succcess and to consider all factors lead to that ( your own genius, your heritage, culture, parents, social privileges, colour, religion and the list goes on).

Well done MG and I am so looking forward to my next book (Blink). Regards
Yasir

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dr. David Arelette

I did not know that ...

Reviewed in Australia on 25 August 2021

Verified Purchase

Read this book, as ever Gladwell sees behind the glitz of reported genius to show much is structural and the 10,000 hours applied to Bill Gates and The Beatles shows how they were ready to take up the opportunity which came their way. If you do not read this you will miss an opportunity for yourself.

Helpful

Michael

Good entertaining and illuminating read

Reviewed in Australia on 3 January 2019

Verified Purchase

It’s a short and sweet explainer for our perception of outliers in terms of people’s success and the reality of their background, circumstances and historical context being supremely pivotal to that success, rather than the traditional “self-made” widely perpetuated story.

Negatives: it’s quite short (which is also good), and it’s a little loose and inconsistent with the level of statistical rigour under which the points are made (which also makes it much more accessible as an entertaining read rather than scholarly text).

And, as some reviewers are noting, perhaps unfairly, it it not a self-help book. This book will help people understand some of the key not so intuitive mechanics behind success or failure at a population level. It won’t necessarily give you a large list of actionable items as an individual, although I think parents in particular of young children will be very interested in the read. The most direct “takeaways” from the book are more for educational ministers and policy makers in terms of what they can do to improve the opportunities and outcomes for their populations.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Chloe

Excellent read by a brilliant mind

Reviewed in Australia on 15 March 2022

Verified Purchase

Mr. Gladwell has a sensational way of breaking down complex ideas in a new way that's easily consumable and repeatable. I found myself repeating much of his findings and points in everyday conversation about success. Highly recommend and am continuing to read more by him.

Helpful

Joel M

Fantastic concepts, and facts to back them up

Reviewed in Australia on 24 May 2018

Verified Purchase

Malcolm Gladwell is a brilliant author. Too often authors express their opinions and little else. However, Malcolm Gladwell delves deep into research, studies and statistics to back up his points about success.

It's an inspiration book that impacts us all and is a must to read or listen to (via audible). It's fairly light and can easily be completed within a few days. His writing style is soft and made for anyone to be able to enjoy. I highly recommend this book

Helpful

Lokesh B.

What storytelling!

Reviewed in Australia on 19 October 2021

Verified Purchase

Gladwell’s prowess at building beautiful stories and deriving meaning out of them is unparalleled. The diversity of examples he uses to draw his central theme is incredibly vast, and offers the readers a lot of insights into several cultures and times in history. A very easy read, that lends a lot of perspective still.

Helpful

Heldith

great book

Reviewed in Australia on 25 July 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a great book. Lots of insights and full of interesting facts about outliers/successful people. An advice would be reading Peak ((from Anders Ericsson) and then into Outliers (from Malcolm Gladwel).

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Spectrum314k

Journalism and pseudoscience

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2017

Verified Purchase

Having read lots of favourable reviews, I was extremely disappointed. The book essentially argues against the notion that people are born to succeed. If you believe that success is a bit more complicated than that, you may be in for a tedious time ahead as it laboriously tries to convince you against something you never thought in the first place. There is simply not enough here for a book and so the material is stretched out, presenting points that would be common sense to most people seemly expecting the result to be paradigm shifting revelations to the reader. It circles around the same points approaching from a variety of angles, while ignoring any counter arguments you feel should be addressed.

Despite being reported as being "inspiring" (it's literally on the front page), it's hard to see why. The book argues the point that success can be largely attributed to a person's circumstances. As most of these are out with anyone's control e.g. the time of year you are born, I struggle to see how anyone could be inspired. The best I can imagine is that someone will feel better that they were not the next success because of factors beyond their control.

The book tries to make its point by cherry picking studies and examples that will help prove his point. I found one response from authors of a study stating that they thought that Gladwell had misinterpreted and oversimplified their findings and I strongly suspect they were not alone. It presents a series of anecdotes and hypotheses as to why a trend was observed. My issue is that these hypotheses, that are all in keeping with the central theme of the book, are presented as if they were facts, when they are anything but. There is no attempt to give a balanced discussion, exploring arguments, studies or examples not in keeping with the oversimplified central point. Let's be clear, this method of starting with a point you want to make and then working backwards finding "evidence" to prove your view is journalism, not science. Gladwell can dress it up as much as he likes with statistics and citations, but don't be fooled, this is not how anyone with any scientific credentials works. Within a few pages I realised I was not reading a book by an expert in the field attempting to make their work accessible to the public, this was written by someone who could write a good story, but had little or no understanding of the scientific method. The book reads like an extended magazine article, perhaps not surprisingly as I was later to find out that the author is indeed a magazine writer.

You will not learn how to be successful by reading this book. You will not be better informed about what makes someone successful. At best this is a thought piece with a few discussion points worthy of a conversation at your next dinner party and others may enjoy the idea that they could have been as successful as The Beatles or as rich as Bill Gates if they had just been in the right place at the right time. Just a shame that it's not true. I didn't enjoy this book but more than that, I was incensed by it. This is journalism. A pseudoscience stretched out magazine article masquerading as an evidence based insight into success written by a modern day snake oil salesman who has bought into his own hype.

213 people found this helpful

Stiven Skyrah

Salient and grounded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2018

Verified Purchase

Gladwell argues that success is tightly married to opportunity and time on task. He states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master something and that gives me comfort. It helps me feel better about my many failures at initial attempts to master things (like glazing pottery, algebra, Salsa dancing, skiing and sewing... to name a few). I kept thinking, "I've just got to put in more hours if I want to do better."

While I can see a different way of spinning the data provided to support Gladwell's argument, I didn't care. In a rare moment, I found myself not wanting to argue. : ) Instead, I found myself reflecting on things that have felt like lucky opportunities in my own life. This reflection was very humbling.

Moreover, I felt the text tugging at the need for greater equity. What could all the people with limited opportunities do if given greater opportunities? Think Darfur. How many people who might have come up with the cure for pancreatic cancer been forced to spend their time standing in lines waiting for clean water or food?

My own personal experience as a teacher of refugees reflects Gladwell's primary thesis. Many of my refugee students are pre-literate. They have not been given the opportunity to gain a formal education. As a result, there are many well-intended, but misinformed people who place these students in special education courses or deem their I.Q. low, diminishing their opportunities even more.

The students I teach are hungry for skills and spend hours outside of class practising. They make huge gains despite earlier opportunities denied them. While many will not go on to big colleges out of high school, I feel like given enough opportunity and time they could make it there. Sadly, many have families who depend on them to work to help financially support the family. (Yet, another limited opportunity to spend time focused on developing skills.)

In the past week, I have shared Gladwell's thesis with my students. We have applied the 10,000 hours to master a task to reading and writing. I remind students that if we don't get our 10,000 hours this year together, they must continue on their own. I remind them that it IS possible to move forward if they are focused and keep adding hours of work to their reading and writing. We even write on the board how many hours left before we are masters.

"2 hours down, only 9,998 left to go."

Friday, I had a student from Somalia smile and ask, "So it's not true that white people are smarter than black Africans? They just get more chances to read?" Imagine my pleasure when I could respond, "YES! That's correct. You are just as smart as any white kid in this school. It's just that some of them have been reading for years and you are just getting started."

Thank you for your work Gladwell, it is salient in today's political conversation surrounding education (especially for our most vulnerable students who have been given the fewest opportunities).

50 people found this helpful

J C Mitchinson

Interesting enough but certainly no revelation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2014

Verified Purchase

Basically, this book *reveals* that people don't gain success through talent and hard work alone; rather they have other, often hidden, advantages. These can be cultural, social, financial, and circumstantial. It also suggests that talent + advantages+ 10000 hours of practice = unusual success. This is demonstrated by a set of examples (The Beatles, Bill Gates etc).

Things I liked:

- Interesting to read the stories of how various people came to success

- Well written

- Somewhat vindicating for those of us who already knew the dice were loaded

Reservations:

- How is this a revelation? I felt a bit like this was written for people who are themselves pretty advantaged. If come from a lowly background, with little money or good social connections etc, you KNOW that these things disadvantage you, and you KNOW that those who get ahead, do so because of these advantages.

- There was no follow through. I was expecting (and hoping for) a "but if you don't have these advantages, you can still do X, Y & Z". But there was nothing. So if you aren't advantaged, you end up feeling a bit flat at the end.

Summary: Worth a read

121 people found this helpful

Marty M

Fascinating and thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2019

Verified Purchase

It takes a special insight to uncover truths that have always been there, but never been identified. Gladwell brings together evidence - and hindsight - to show how the most special of humans have been the product of their circumstances, opportunities and timing, which allied to hard work and talent makes people outliers. The lesson is that people can thrive only if given the opportunity and resources to do so, and in an oblique way is a damning critique of the winner-takes-all culture in Western societies, and the enormous inequities of inherited wealth and privilege.

17 people found this helpful

bobrayner

Enjoyable read but scientifically it makes me feel uneasy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 February 2020

Verified Purchase

I would like to put Gladwell in the same category as Jared Diamond - he writes books that take you on an enjoyable sweep through different places and eras and whole swathes of pop-anthropology but, deep down, I have to wonder *why* he picked a story about dental statistics in 1930s Luxembourg, or the rate of unexplained bus crashes in Peru versus Chile. I can never quite rule out a suspicion of cherry-picking. Which is uncomfortable, because I really *want* to believe these neat stories that let you in on a little secret that underpins whole swathes of the modern world.

Let's go back to a specific example. For instance, Gladwell points out the role of culture in airliner crashes; if aircrew come from cultures that have stronger deference to social superiors, maybe a copilot would shy away from challenging a pilot who'd made a mistake. He works through examples of Korean Airlines crashes that seem to fit this paradigm, and Korea is high up the ranking of countries by deference-to-superiors, and we hear about how Korean Airlines challenged that culture and then had fewer crashes. That's a good story to read! Problem is that we never really tackle the fact that the deadliest airline crash in history involved aircrew from a country which was at the opposite end of the ranking-of-countries. No doubt individual deference to superiors was a factor in that crash too, but CRM alone is pretty boring, people enjoy reading the different-places-different-cultures stories.

I won't say it's all like this; I didn't get such a worry from the study of the backgrounds of lawyers in New York, for instance (maybe we'd see something different if somebody took on the Herculean task of expanding the study to different trades & different national backgrounds, but I don't think the main conclusion would shift much).

7 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Outliers: The Story of Success Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Read & Listen

Free with Audible Trial $0.00

Pay with 1-Click $42.90

People who viewed this also viewed

Product details

Customer reviews

Review this product

Reviews with images

Read reviews that mention

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Free with Audible Trial

$0.00

Pay with 1-Click

$42.90