In this example and others cited in Outliers, Gladwell offers the 10,000-hour rule: to be an outlier, it usually takes 10,000 hours of practice at your craft. That practice may come because — to cite some examples — you are seen as special at a young age, it may come because you come from a culture of extreme hard work, or it may come because you were shut out of your first choice of career, sports.
(To explore the latter, Gladwell uses the example of corporate takeover attorney Joe Flom, forced to practice in his specialty when the bigger law firms wouldn't take him because he was Jewish. When hostile takeovers became common, Flom had his 10,000 hours in - the discriminatory firms who had seen this work as beneath them could not match his experience.)
To pique your interest, I'll tell you that Gladwell also takes on the success of the Beatles and Bill Gates, suggests why Asians are better at math, and perhaps indirectly takes on his own success when he tells his mother's unique story. He also looks more briefly at the factors that create failure, from cultural norms that cause plane crashes to family norms that keep geniuses unknown and unsuccessful.
In interviews, Gladwell has suggested that his work is meant to provoke discussion, and that it is not the last word on any subject. This is good, because you will undoubtedly try to poke holes in his theories. (I for one would like him to explain Oprah Winfrey's success - given her early life, the fact that she is African-American, and the fact that she is a woman, she overcame a triple whammy to get where she is.) I'd love to hang out with Gladwell for a couple of hours and try to trip him up.
Despite the objections that can be raised, Outliers is thoroughly compelling in the same vein as The Tipping Point and Blink. While Gladwell says this is not a self-help book, I dare you to read it without thinking about where you could've, should've, or still can spend your 10,000 hours.
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