Malcolm Gladwell sets out to prove two arguments in The Outliers:-

1. There is no such thing as an overnight success and
2. Stars are born AND made.

Throughout The Outliers, Gladwell looks at several case studies including The Beatles, Bill Gates, New York lawyer Joe Flom and others.

Gladwell argues that it is possible to take a successful person and predict their history in terms of where and when they were born, who their parents were in terms of cultural identity, and what type of school they attended.

While looking at successful Canadian hockey players, it was discovered that the best were born at a specific time of year. With other case studies, Gladwell succeeds in building the case that it definitely depends on when you were born as to whether you will be successful or not, in a range of endeavours.

He then goes on to examine the importance of cultural heritages including Jewish immigration and the ensuing rag trade boom, and the significance of rice fields on success in mathematics and other academic enterprises.

Gladwell’s signature and most coined argument from The Outliers is the 10,000 hour rule. Using a collection of studies he suggests and proves that one will only be an outstanding success at anything once they have achieved 10,000 hours of practice and execution of their speciality.

Gladwell builds compelling arguments and makes one stand back and think about the nature of success. The information he provides and the argument he makes allows us to understand success retrospectively and to some extent predictively.

Cliff notes really don’t do this work any justice and it is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the pathology of success.

Another good story from Problogger. I think I must have been really jaded when I wrote the review. I stand with another foot in my mouth.  Blog sold for $95,000.

I am removing my foot from my mouth today. As reported on probloggr a one man blog was sold for $15million. So it is possible.  Or was possible.  I’m still not convinced that it’s possible from now but maybe I’ll be proven wrong about that. Here’s the link One Man $15 million gotta hate him

The last half of the book deals with writing, writing styles, blog networks and how they came to be, and whether or not you should (a) join one or (b) build one. Neither really seemed like a great idea or even possible.

They then went on to talk about marketing and promotion and then FINALLY the SECRETS we’ve all been waiting for.  And just like Kung Fu Panda there is no secret.  It’s a combination of all with no secret ingredient.  It seems it’s a matter of luck and persistence just like everything else.

They finish off with urging to make something worthwhile and maintain that if you give your readers what they want they will be happy and come.

So I’m still lost about this blogging thing.  It seems almost impossible to find a niche that is not already over crowded by either wannabes or heavily bank rolled networks determined to dominate the whole web.

Is is really possible to make money from blogging? If you’re patient for it, maybe but I think the days of the big bucks in blogging have missed the masses.  As even Rowse states in his book, if everyone is talking about it you’ve missed the boat, and everyone is talking about blogging, even CNN.

My advice is to keep it as a hobby and if it pays for itself and turns into something grand and brings in a few thousand, then congratulate yourself because you’ve managed to carve at least that out of an almost impossible marketplace.