My youngest son seems to have an inclination for sports, all kinds. Baseball, football, soccer, swimming, hockey, and hockey ball (miniature golf). And he likes sports equipment. Recently in Sears, he insisted on getting a batting helmet. Although we bought the helmet skeptically, he has certainly gotten his money’s worth by wearing the helmet everywhere.

One place he wore it lately was the local library. Being quite a conversation piece, the helmet caused the librarian and I to talk about my son’s interest in sports and how successful sports players often show similar tendencies at a young age. At the word “success,” the librarian said that there was a book that I had to read: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. This book, she said, would change the way in which I view “success.”

And she was right.

In this book, Gladwell analyzes and describes the reasons why different people and groups have found success. Rather than being dependent on a single factor like intelligence or raw talent, true success begins with these innate traits but mixes in ambition, opportunity, environment, and a bit of pure luck.

I’ve shared these concepts with my graduate writing students, as well as my children. I want to share them with you too. They can help you to help your children with their personal success:

1. Practice makes perfect. While intelligence and talent are necessary for achievement, another, almost-as-important factor for success, is practice. The most successful people have devoted hours and hours to practicing their craft. Gladwell says that 10,000 hours of practice is needed to develop an “expert” level of proficiency in a given field.

2. Motivation for practicing is also obviously needed, but I will add to this point that intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic motivation. In other words, the person needs to be motivated from inside rather than pushed from the outside to have the greatest chance for success.

3. Practical intelligence is, well, practical. Almost as important as analytical intelligence (the kind of intelligence measured by IQ tests) is practical intelligence, which is knowing how to do something to achieve a desired result. It’s a person’s social savvy that is learned from her environment.

4. Who you are can’t be separated from where you come from. Cultural backgrounds and legacies can impact a person’s success in a variety of ways.

Should success be the ultimate goal for your children? Perhaps not. But with these guidelines, you can just maybe provide them with advantages as they make their own ways through the world.

Source: Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Graphic source: http://www.sportsdesktopwallpaper.net/backgrounds/baseball/Baseball_success.jpg