Outliers, the story of success (Malcolm Gladwell)

It took 10 hours flying time from Sydney to Seoul, the first leg of my European holiday. I normally read during holidays and this one has begun in fine fashion: Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.

Ordinarily I don't read a book in one sitting. This book breaks all the rules. Especially the rules about how one thinks. That's the thrust of the book. Gladwell demonstrates from page one that we are so immersed in our cultural presuppositions that when we hear the great stories of success we hear one truth: people who are successful have individually triumphed over the obstacles other mere mortals fail to negotiate. In other words, we accept as truth without question that the difference between success and failure is up to the individual; his or her choices, drivenness, expertise and intelligence.

Gladwell, basically, rewrites history's biographical stories of success in terms which causes us to respond: ah ha! I didn't know that! He writes about Bill Joy, Bill Gates, Christopher Langan, Robert Oppenheimer, Joe Flom and (unsettling as it might seem because I was flying in one of their planes as I read this book) the horrid history of Korean Airlines (they have since recovered their safety reputation, thank goodness!). Malcolm is saying this: success is always due to the right person being in the right place at the right time. Before you jump all over Malcolm or give up your dream of conquering the world, he is not shoving environmental determinism down our throats. He is not saying that you have no control over success or failure. He is saying that we've gotten the parameters wrong and we need to recalibrate our thinking when it comes to understanding success (and failure).

So what are some of those principles? Read the book! I recommend it. But until you do, here are some of the things I have learned.

1. "Outliers are those who have been given opportunities -- and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them." Nothing surprising here. Except to remember that when we compare ourselves to the great social innovators of life, we are doing ourselves an injustice. We are not all given the same opportunities and no matter how hard you try, you cannot create a place where the playing field is level. A lot of it is by chance. He demonstrates this by showing the prevalence of birthdays to success (no, he's not talking about astrological signs here). It actually gave me a great sense of relief to know that the struggles I face in making my project and story a success is all about the opportunities I have been given. And the "greats" usually have been given opportunites by chance.

2. It's all about community. Being a social entrepreneur and a "community organiser", i took delight to see how Malcolm snatches the definition of success from the culture of the individual to the community context. Wonderful stuff! He asserts that the great and successful entrepreneurs reached their pinnacle of success on the shoulders of the community in which they operate. We think of success in terms of personal drive, individual IQ and and one's innovative powers. He debunks this myth.

3. There's no substitute for hard work. Malcolm really gets under our skin with this one. He proposes the 10,000 hour rule. Successful people have worked hard. Really hard. 10,000 hours hard. Whether they are violin players, sports stars, rock stars or social entrepeneurs, they have given hours and hours of effort to the area of expertise. 10,000 hours of practice, practice practice seems to be the minimum requirement for success. He really bothers us with the Chinese rice paddy culture and the KIPP school in the bronx examples in which we come to understand that people aren't just lazy or driven due to their character. We develop our viewpoint of hard work from our journey. Wow.

These are just three of many principle which Gladwell highlights throughout this story-filled book. But what did I take from this reading? It definitely changed me and my way of thinking. From reading Galdwell, I would want to apply the following principles to what I do in life:

1. See in everyone the potential for success and leadership. I think there are so many people around me that are untapped resources of change and good but don't even realise it. They are trapped culturally as I am trapped in my "small thinking" that if I could help them release themselves from those walls, we will make a difference in this world.

2. I want to become even more disciplined in my life. I am not even sure what that means. Sure, I want to enjoy life. But Gladwell has reminded me that we must waste a lot of our time in trivialities which are not really necessary.

3. I am going to rely even more on the community around me for the success I am after in life. I will look for the opportunities as they arise. I am not going to worry about the opportunities that don't arise (if that's even possible). I want to tell a story that is much like the stories he tells and be satisfied that they may be on a smaller scale.

And have fun doing it all.

Read this book. It will change you too.

Ronaldo

11 July 2009

Seoul, Korea

Outliers. The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

Penguin Books, 2009

Social Entrepreneur on the Radio

I had the privilege to be asked to talk on air about social enterprise and my project, NationsHeart, this past week. There are a number of lessons I learned from this opportunity. Let's see if I can summarise them:

1. Be aware of events in your area onto which you can "hitch a ride".

Social Ventures Australia was having a launch in Canberra and we, NationsHeart Connect, were invited. We would have naturally thought that SVA would be invited to do a radio interview. No. We were. We had written a press release announcing our intention to support the launch and the radio station chose us probably because our story was much more interesting. Lesson: "Hitch a ride" on events happening around you to get your story on air!

2. Don't bend to the media's urgency.

I got a call from the radio station at 6.15am for a phone interview at 7.10am. Fortunately for us, I missed the call and didn't pick up the message until 8am. Thinking I had missed my opportunity, I called the station. The program manager questioned me and realised that the story I told was worth not missing. As a result, I was asked to come to the studio the next morning and do a live, in-studio, interview. I went much better prepared than I would have been had I answered my phone.

3. Don't expect a lot of time but you can help yourself greatly to get more time.

I was promise 5 minutes. I ended up being interviewed for 12 minutes. Why the additional 7 minutes? I tend to think it was the fact that my answers were crisp, clear and illustrated. I had prepared myself in such a way, I anticipated what might be asked me. My answers were not rambling, never-ending responses. On several occasions the brevity of my answers seem to catch the interviewer off guard. It kept him coming back for more, I believe.

4. Know your audience.

My first question to my team in preparation for my radio interview was: who is listening at 7.10am and what do they want to hear. The answer guided my preparation. Since that interview, a number of my acquaintances have told me they heard me and one said: I now understand what you do. I knew my audience.

5. Prepare the interviewer.

When I arrived at the radio station and was met my the program manager, the first thing I did is hand him materials which would give the interviewer a brief overview what I was on about. This material was read by the interviewer (I could see him through the window). When introduced to the interview, 5 minutes before I was live on the air, I gave even more pertinent information which I would want him to know. These two points were made during the interview.

6. Write down what you want to get out of the interview, in dot-points.

I went into the interview with a 5 point wish-list. I covered 3 out of the 5 points in the 12 minutes. So as the interview was doing a wrap on the interview I interrupted to bring one more point to the listeners attention: the actual website address. Without this the listeners would not have been able to go further in investigating us. It proved the most important thing I did. If not for the dot-point wish-list this would not have happened.

7. Feel comfortable in the studio.

I've done radio before. I always used headphones for broadcast. When I entered the studio I asked if I could us them (they sat connected and on the desk). I was told it wasn't necessary because we would not be taking phone calls. I insisted I could benefit from them and put them on. Headphones seem to help me centre my thoughts when I am on radio. I recommend trying them out but most of all do what feel comfortable.

8. Let your people know you're going to be on.

I told everyone I knew that I was going to be on air. It was a great feeling of support as I spoke and knew many were listening who were behind me. One of my supporters who is not the best technical person had to sit in her car to listen. Now that's encouraging.

9. Be ready for the opening question.

I wasnt ready for the interviewer's opening question. What was so surprising? Well he asked me the most difficult question I didn't expect: tell us about what you do? Huh? Why didn't I think I would be asked that question? I don't know but nontheless it caught me off guard. As a result I stumbled a bit at first and immediately the nervous-level went up 100%. Although I refuse to ramble on this surprising question, it took me about 60 seconds to settle back down and handle the interviewer. I guess my suggestion from this lesson is this: ask the interviewer what that first question would be. Oh yes, that would have been much better!

10. Say thank-you.

I have written, texted and twittered thank-yous to the interviewer after the radio broadcast. Afterall, I am thankful for the exposure. I have met people who have learned about us for the first time. I had someone even donate money to us as a result of the interview. Thank yous go a long way. Just do it.

Now tell me what you might have learned doing this...

Ronaldo

5 July 2005

Canberra, Australia

Ron's interview was live on-air interview at 7.10am Tuesday 30 July 2009 on Triple 6 ABC radio in Canberra; interviewer: Ross Solly breakfast show.

Social Project vs Social Enterprise

As I discussed last week, our School for Social Entrepreneurs went to the Sydney CBD, the Westpac Building in Martin Place, for this week's session. We met with representatives from Perpetual Foundation , Philanthropy Australia and Westpac Foundation to discover all there is to know about applying for social enterprise funding. Unfortunately, the Canberra fog delayed my arrival by 6 hours and I missed the first session. I was able to catch the second session, the Westpac one.

The outstanding lesson I learned in that time is this one -- these funders are not necessarily huge institutions looking to distribute funds "from up on high". Rather, these are real people who are emotionally moved by the social welfare needs of people around Australia and the world. And they are moved by stories which entrepreneurs tell about their projects. In fact, we were encouraged not just to tell our stories but to connect with these people personally, yes one-on-one, who are in this place of decision-making. I was encouraged by this new found understanding. I am now motivated even more to tell my/our story (the stories at NationsHeart are certainly moving!) in different ways and through different mediums. Perhaps, now, even to start to collect or compile such stories that will become "our story" through the journey which is NationsHeart Connect.

Let me share another lesson I learned during our Westpac time. The representative from Westpac told us they support Social Enterprises around Australia with funding. We we told that Westpac takes a broad understanding of social enterprise, I think Westpac is saying that they are ready to support most social projects which have viability. This differs from my view of social enterprise which goes further than requiring viability but requires independent sustainability from within the enterprise.

Let me see if I can explain this.

To me, social projects are programs which are designed and run to meet needs within the community. These projects require resources outside themselves for initiation and for continuation despite, perhaps, the project generating some kind of income through trade. At NationsHeart we operate a number of social projects which are meeting needs of our community people and which create some profits but certainly not enough to continue without outside support.

I take a more narrow view of social enterprise. Like social projects, social enterprises exist for the benefit of society. Social businesses, like social projects, may need to call upon outside financial assistance (grants, loans and in-kind support) to start-up the business or to invest in capital. But the goal of social enterprise is, on the basis of a business model, to become financially and organisationally self-sustaining; even profit making. This requires a cogent business plan, a supportive client base, a viable market place and a stable governance.

While I understand that there are different views and definitions of social enterprise, I continue to believe that we need to distinguish between these two methods or strategies for meeting needs within our communities. It is my opinion that the community service sector requires both of these arms, the social projects and the social enterprises, to provide a full spectrum of care to close the gaps which exist in society. And while I encourage the support of social projects from major funders, I would also like to see clear and ongoing support of those who, like us, are working to establish social enterprises in the narrow sense of the word.

Ronaldo

27/06/09

Perpetual Foundation

http://www.perpetual.com.au/philanthropy/3798.htm

Philanthropy Australia

http://www.philanthropy.org.au/

Westpac Foundation

http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/publish.nsf/Content/WIWCWF+Westpac+Foundation

Building the Wall: one brick at a time!

At the School for Social Entrepreneurs this past Wednesday we were told that next Wednesday we will spend the day at Westpac Foundation in Sydney's CBD meeting with various executives from that institution. Westpac is a great supporter of the social enterprise model giving giving away over $16m in the past 10 years to promote social enterprise in Australia. I went straight to their website and began to read all about Westpac Foundation and soon realised that, at the moment, gaining a grant from this Foundation would be next to impossible for a number of reasons (and I won't go into that right now). After shaking off a bit of discouragement, I reminded myself of something: we are in a building process, Ron. To use the Nehemiah illustration (which is what we are using these days at NationsHeart Christian Community), NationsHeart Connect's walls are just taking shape. We are probably not even half way through the building process. We need to simply keep working one brick, one stone, at a time. The Westpac Foundation stone is not for us at this moment.

These thoughts made the vision come a clearer for me. I suddenly realised: What if we set our sites on becoming a Social Enterprise model who would actually one day become viable for receiving such support? Now that's a challenge I could take on. And that excited me. I am looking forward to meeting these executive next Wednesday who are setting the bar high for us in the social enterprise sector.

On Thursday, when I returned to Canberra to my office and shared this with my PA, we could envision the steps that we need to take to build the wall and develop an organisation that not only would meet Westpac's standards but be effective in the community. The vision now had a plan and some short term goals.

And then came the thrill.

Opening the mail an hour later, we discovered that we have been awarded a $26,000 grant from the ACT government for a Health Promotions grant we applied for months ago. Now $26k is not a huge amount of money in the world of grants out there, but for us, it's a huge milestone. It's our first real programme grant, it's our opportunity to demonstrate our ability to provide social service with quality and good planning. We just entered the arena of being a viable recipient of grant moneys for social enterprise projects. This is our first step in being able to qualify for grants from the big boys, the Westpacs, out there.

We are building: one brick at a time.

Ronaldo

20/06/09

The $26k grant we received is for a new program we call "More than a Food Bank" which will enhance our FoodHut program at NationsHeart by providing nutrition and cooking information to our Community. The grant will increase our staffing for a year and provide us with an industrial dishwasher. We believe that we will help people provide for themselves and their families nutritious and affordable meals.

Also. Westpac Foundation website

http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/publish.nsf/Content/WIWCWF+Westpac+foundation

Also. We continue to promote our Belconnen Business Breakfast for the Belconnen Town Centre on Friday 3 July 2009 at 7am. See www.nationsheartconnnect.org.au for more info.

Hope and Hard Work

Dreams are fantastic.  I don't mean those night time visions.  I am talking about our day time dreams of what we would love to see changed.  Those kind of dreams drive people to incredible accomplishments.  I have had a dream to bring together the business leaders of Belconnen Town Centre for about 3 years now.  It was one of my goals last year that never got short-listed.  I hoped that it would happen, but it didn't.  I didn't put in the hard work.

It takes hope and hard work to pull off dreams in the social entrepreneur sector.  No matter what you believe about the concept of hope -- that it is drawing upon the power and assistance of a supreme being or it is adding positive thoughts to bring about substantial change -- hope is necessary for the accomplishment of social enterprises.  We believe in the project, we believe in ourselves and we believe that the change we are bringing is vital to the future.  Hope is our mind, will and emotions accepting that belief on  a day-to-day, moment-by-moment, continuum.

Hard Work is as vital to the success of social enterprise.  Any project that has as its goal the meeting of some need or issue in society that has been untouched will require arduous labour.  Presently I am visiting all the businesses in the Town Centre and while it's not killing me it's hard work.  In fact, though people who may know me may be surprised at this, I don't enjoy it.  I don't like doing cold-turkey visits, I don't like, for the 200th time, saying my name, my project, my purpose and my invite, I don't like the feeling of vulnerability that comes everytime I step through an unknown doorway.  But I do the hard work knowing that my dream is being accomplished.  And I like that!

The opposite of hope is not despair.  In social entrepreneur circles the opposite of hope is cynicism.  Cynicism is that which says "this will never work and my dream will not come about and this hard work is useless".  Cynicism are those negative thoughts which attack our dream in all points from questioning motives to declaring futility.  Cynicism says that nothing will work to bring about our dream.  Cynicism makes the hard work even harder.

The opposite of hard work is not laziness.  The opposite of hard work is false hope.  False hope says "I don't really have the time and energy to pull off what I know I must do, I will hope that the project succeeds."  And we actually believe that statement.  We actually believe that for some reason everything we dream about will fall into our laps like a winning lottery ticket found on the street.  The opposite of hard work is believing my hopes, my thoughts and prayers and magical formulas, will bring about the fulfilment of the goals without the struggle and trouble and pain.

So what do we do?  Give up hoping?  Never be cynical or critical of our project?  No, we must find and maintain the balance.  We hope as if that's all there is and work as if hope doesn't matter.  These two, overlapping, will bring us to the place where our projects succeed and our dreams come true.

I'm off to visit more businesses soon.  This is going to work and my dream will come to fruition.  I just know it.

Ronaldo

Learning from Ruthlessness

Those of you who attend the School for Social Entrepreneurs will understand the background of this blog. Enough said. 

Ruthlessness is not a pretty quality. It means "without Ruth": without pity. It can mean to be without regret; not sorry for past decisions and actions (neutral). But it often carries the negative meaning of merciless or cruel. 

In the business or enterprise setting, ruthlessness implies "using  people and resources to attain the ultimate goal (profits for the stakeholders) without considering the negative consequences ".  Although we might think (and hope) that ruthless leaders would not be successful in the enterprise arena, this simply is not true. I won't name names but just the word "tycoon" conjures up a list of celebrity business men and women who have accrued fortunes as ruthless leaders in their sector. 

Why discuss ruthlessness in a Social Enterprise blog? Well let's remember that social enterprises are businesses which use people and resources for the attainment of their goals. Because of the social nature of these endeavours, social entrepreneurs tend to be repulsed by ruthlessness in the business sector.   But rather than end it there, to respond in repulsion, I think the social entrepreneur can learn from the ruthless nature of business leaders.  It's not about adopting a ruthless character, it's about asking the right questions, adopting the right principles.  I think we need to be asking this question in relationship to successful, driven entrepreneurs: what is it that actually drives ruthless business leaders to fulfill their entrepreneurial goals at all costs?  and, more importantly, in the journey of their ruthlessness, what are they trying to avoid? 

So here is my attempt to get us to learn something from ruthlessness.  I hope you can read it with an open mind and, perhaps, respond in some way.

Highly driven entrepreneurs set their sights on three things:

success, profit (beyond sustainability) and competence. 

So, what are these same people trying to avoid? The opposites of these are:  

failure, loss (unsustainability) and incompetence. 

Let me speak to each of these paired issues.

Success (vs failure).

Generally speaking, ruthless entrepreneurs clearly define business success in monetary terms (e.g. someone might say that success is to earn enough money to be happy!)  Social entrepreneurs tend to argue against such a definition and avoid the implications of money in their definition of success.  But I think we need to remind ourselves that this is a valid definition for businesses.  Think of it this way, few of us would argue with this statement:  a business which declares bankruptcy or enters voluntary receivership has failed.  Therefore the obverse statement must be somewhat true: a business which turns a profit is successful.  It is valid for businesses to define success in monetary terms. 

What's my point? Ruthless entrepreneurs know why they exist and go at that purpose with all their energies.  Unfortunately, people and resources may be seen more like obstacles than assets for attaining such outcome.  In fact, those who have experienced business failure and have had to recover from such pain tend to develop  a stronger desire to succeed at all costs.

 

Where am I going with this?  Social entrepreneurs will do well to clarify their definition of success.  Further, the social entrepreneur must not shy away from including a monetary aspect to such a definition and allow this definition to drive them.  Social entrepreneurs forget they are in the business world.  It is my opinion that the social entrepreneur distances him or herself from a definition of success which carries any dollar value in order not to be associated with ruthlessness.  I’m not sure this is best for the social enterprise.  Perhaps the next section of discussion will clarify why. 

Profit (vs loss).

Ruthless entrepreneurial leaders are driven by the need to succeed.  Success defined in monetary terms requires their endeavour to become more than financially sustainable but to turn a profit.   Large businesses, to reach beyond sustainability, gain large sums of money. Think of the implications of this.  A $50 million dollar a year business is bringing in about one million dollars a week, $200,000 a day! In my experience I cannot imagine myself getting out of bed this morning and going to bed tonight and saying: my business just earned $200k! When I think of that kind of pressure which these entrepreneurs must face, I think I can forgive a bit of ruthlessness in their behaviour. The entrepreneur in the $50m a year business is held accountable each moment of each day for the income, the profit and loss, he or she is operating. The financial burden must be tremendous.

 

In the social enterprise sector, we tend to define our achievements in the non-accountable realm. I helped people (while losing $500,000!) but I helped people! We seldom hold ourselves in the social enterprise model accountable for anything truly measureable.  If we do, we don't tend to worry about missed goals. After all, the bank doesn't show up and take away our building if we don't reach them.

I am suggesting that the social entrepreneur needs to get a bit more honest about his or her goal setting and a bit more ruthlessness in the pursuit of the fulfilment of those goals.  Social enterprises need to become a bit more driven in the area of profit and more concerned about avoiding loss.  I think we can learn this lesson well from driven, even ruthless, business leaders.

Competence (vs incompetence).

Ruthless business entrepreneurs have a drive to be the best among their peers; to be declared competent. Incompetence in a business which claims the corner on expertise is not tolerated. Reputations depend on consistently displaying a high level of competence. Good reputation means profit, profit means success. Ruthless business leaders demand competence from themselves and from others. Incompetence is not tolerated and employees are fired who harm the company's reputation. 

In the social sector which focuses on the person and his or her contribution no matter how small, competence is measured, many times, in being and not so much doing. As a result, outcomes are not measured in quality or (as we see in the previous section) quantity. Outcomes are measured in a fair-go (to attempt something, no matter what the quality of the attempt, is what counts).  But many businesses have failed in just giving it a go. Quality and quantity, efficiency and durability, are important factors in delivery and service in the social sector.

Again, I am suggesting social entrepreneurs must learn how to raise the bar of quality and quantity of product and expectations on production. My impression is that social enterprises need that kind of ruthless behaviour, “drivenness”, as they lead those serving the community.

Conclusion

Can we learn from ruthless entrepreneurs without becoming ruthless ourselves?  I think we can and must!  Social Entrepreneurs need to work on a definition of success that includes in some significant way the concept of money.  The social entrepreneur must become more driven in the profit-making arena.  The social entrepreneur must work hard at raising the bar of quality and competence in the area of his or her business.  Rather than becoming repulsed by ruthlessness, let’s embrace those principles which will be powerful examples back into the business world. .

Exult the Entrepreneur! ! !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0