Michelle Scott, urban fantasy author

As Americans, we tend to think of highly successful individuals, such as Bill Gates, as somehow making their fortunes because of their own innate skills and talents. In fact, we hold the ideal of the self-made man/woman in such high regard that we ignore the facts. In this book, Malcolm Gladwell examines the stories of several very successful people and comes up with some interesting conclusions. It isn't a spring of talent that gushes inside of these outliers, but a combination of hours of drudgery combined with some amazing good luck.

The book is well-written and the examples are fascinating. What's lacking is the idea that any of these observations can be learning experiences for the rest of us.