Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. 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.

The people at the top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

Outlier are those who have been given opportunities-- -and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

We can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.

Lesson Number One: The Importance of Being Jewish

I write my books to challenge my own feelings and theories. Perhaps most surprising was what I learned about rice farming. It was really interesting to think of how different Asian and Western cultures are as a result of the kinds of agricultural practices that our ancestors used for thousands of years. The life of a Chinese peasant in the Middle Ages was so dramatically different from the life of a European peasant - night and day different.

Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.