The Untold Story of Success and the Right Learning Values

I have been reading "Outliers- The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell. Mr Gladwell writes popular social science books like The Tipping Point and Blink that are all top sellers. In his latest book, he examines success and why some people are successful and some people are not (despite having high IQ).

One of the fascinating facts is this - Bill Gates was the only few American teenagers at 13/14-year old who has accessed to a time-sharing mainframe terminal, the ASR-33, in his school computer club in 1968! The rest of the working world were still using punch card system and that was considered cutting edge, the very concept of having a modern kickass mainframe in elementary school is simply mind-boggling!

The author pointed out that we are often enamored by these rag to riches stories, one man against all odds success myths. "I am a useless schoolboy with poor grade and I suddenly transformed myself to some amazing entrepreneur through my hardwork, foresight and brilliance!" etc. Sure they are hardworking, opportunistic, street-smart and lucky. What was not asked is what kind of family background, what kind of support they had when they were kids and what kind of freak events that catapulted them to their own meteoric rise.

Another interesting findings were all the technology business billionaires were born within a few years apart. Why? Because if you were born in the right year, you would experience and get to "play" with the microcomputer. You become CEO of a mega software company. If you are born a few years later, you might become, perhaps, their 250th employee.

Of course, there are many counter examples and exceptions to the rule. It is always easy to say, "look my cousin went to the wrong school, came from a poor family, his dad abandoned him when young and now, he is the most successful lawyer in his firm." Well, one of them became President of United States. But it is worthwhile to get the complete story and not take the myth at the face level.

While on a plane reading the book, I could not resist asking my company Chief Technology Officer, Vic Sent the same "Outlier" question. His IT skill is legendary and in our group of companies, we have this "VSA" stamp of approval. It stands for "Vic Sent Approved". It means that it is a piece of hardware, software or technology that is worth buying or investing. My question is "What make you what you are?"

He thought about it for a moment and he was told me he was building his first hi-fi speakers from scratch at a grand old age of 17! He bought wood from a DIY shop in Bukit Merah, saw them to the right size, made a mess in the house (his  mom did not commit murder), borrowed books on audio mathematics and succeeded building a set of bona fide speakers!

Then he thought about his childhood and he said he took apart his remote control S$1000 car, removed the casing of the motor and rewired it with new copper wire. He tried various ways of winding it, he tried different thickness until he optimized the motor. He was a KID and his parents allowed him to access copper wire, DIY tools and take a toy apart. Vic Sent was imbued with the right learning values when he was a mere curious kid taking things apart.

His neighbors also played a part. As he stayed very near the university, they had many neighbors who worked in the education field and their kids are pre-disposed to sciences and technologies. So among his playmates, they had computer "nerds", engineer "wannabe" and "mad" scientists. It is such an environment that Vic Sent grew up in. Think about the possibilities and opportunities that he saw that were probably unavailable to many other school children and teenagers.

So what can we do as parents or as policy-makers? Due to limited resources, it is impossible to be "fair" and make such amazing learning environment accessible to all. I do not believe in the noble mantra "no child left behind" when the benchmark of staying in front is so incredibly varied. However, we can try to offer learning opportunities. We must train our kids to be curious. We must train them to be opportunists. We must encourage them to be life-long learners. The trouble is most parents (and the media) train their kids to be mere consumers and tourists of this planet when so much more can be achievable.

You may be poor. You may not go to the top schools. Your parents may be divorced. Your father is a drunkard. You may not have a computer. You may not speak well. But if you have the right learning values, you may not be the next software billionaire but you will be fine.

Harold Fock

(This is not an ad but the book is a good read. Check this out at Amazon.com or your nearest bookstore.)

Comments

[Cow Mucks]

I'm reminded of another book, apparently a social science 'classic' which I have yet to read. It's called "Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs" by Paul Willis. It's not one of those popular 'how to be successful/gaziliionaire/whatever' kindda book but I think its important to not ignore social inequities. still.

[Harold Fock]

Hi Cow Mucks,
Agree. You can never ignore or remove social inequalities. The world is never fair nor a level playing field. The trick, to this optimist, is to maximise the chances of educational upgrades and opportunities to learn.

I come from a low income family during my childhood days and my parents did better financially as I grew up, and I got a decent education and wonderful "Brainiacs" types of buddies to do so much amazing stuff. Maybe it really helps (1) being born in Singapore, (2) being nerdy before nerdy is cool and lucrative, and (3) having cool parents and relatives who gave me books and more books :-)

Harold

[speck]

is it in the interest of policy makers to create a learning environment conducive for all? is it in the agenda of the ruling parties to level the playing field?

or is this social hierarchy a deliberate design? i wonder.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=613373886]

I think the above structure predates government and of course, the PAP. Enlightened policy makers instinctively know they need learning opportunties for all citizens and yet intellectually know human performance is like the proverbial bell curve. We try to have a fairer level playing field but in reality, it is nearly impossible to achieve.

Harold