My greatest triumph!

Sorry. I can't resist. John Carson, a fellow runner from Canada, unearthed this photo from the archives of the Toronto Star. It's the finals of the 1500 meters at the Ontario 14-year-old championships, many many years ago. The runner on the left is Dave Reid, who was the greatest Canadian miler of his generation. I will only say this: in this particular race, Reid placed second. I "retired" from competitive running a year later, in large part because I realized that the particular statistical fluke represented by me beating Dave Reid was unlikely to ever be repeated. (For the runners out there, I believe I ran something like 4:05.) 

 

Comments

[Brian]

Malcolm chooses not to run.

[TM]

How is it possible that no one has made the obvious Seinfeld reference yet?

"I choose not to run!"

[Erik Saether]

I thoroughly enjoyed your books - I've read them all.

I first read "outliers" on a plane to a vacation in Barbados. We touched down as I finished the last page and I wanted to read other writings by you. The next day I went to a nearby bookstore - in Holetown - and looked depressedly at the few bookshelves in the shop. Unexpectedly however, I then immediately saw in the front row of the fiction section your book "What the dog saw." I looked at the book with surprise and the book gently looked back at me. I was overjoyed and purchased the paperback. After a few days I had read the book - after hours on the patio of our apartment on the beach - and checked out other listed bookstores on the island. Unfortunately none had any additional titles of your work and, one of the best advertised bookstore, actually didn't really have any books, only school supplies. So, the fact that I found one of your works in the first place I'd looked - a local store - made me suspect that this occurrence on Barbados was effectively impossible and that it must have been due to some kind of divine intervention. Not being spiritual in any sense I, therefore, placed the memory into a mental '?-box' in which I store occurrences that appear to have no real-world or physical explanation and do not attempt to provide any kind of justification.

Your insight into human nature and the pleasant manner in which you present these insights in your books is uniquely enjoyable. My work is involved in research of materials and much of what I normally read is rather terse and not really directed towards everyday experience. Therefore, I have truly enjoyed your work!

Thanks for your work!

[silvanna panzarelli]

Success: ability, opportunity and courage

World's population is about 6,830,586,985. Being surrounded by so many people, it’s hard to be seen as an individual, that's why there's a tag that distinguish you from everyone else, a mix between luck, intelligence, perspicacity and why not?, being in the right place and time; success.
Success is subjective, it depends on the goal that each one puts on himself along the way, and how satisfied they feel with the results of their efforts, even if someone’s feels that has achieved everything he wants in life, that doesn't make it successful to the rest of the world. Being successful sometimes means to put everyone else in a debate with themselves Have I tried enough? Can I give more?

Success with capital S is made when you can balance professional and personal success and in some way they depend on each other, because the human being is potentially many things

Success is that old trio: ability, opportunity and courage. Charles Luckman was right when he affirmed this, success, to be outstanding or being someone extraordinary, the majority of time is about knowing how to make good use of opportunities, to give it all until you see the results, but opportunities could be just an illusion if you don't have the ability to withstand it.

It could be that opportunities aren't the same for everybody, but everyone has them, the matter is to recognize them in time, whatever the time is, it doesn't matter if you don't have that much luck as many people from the book Outliers. Being clever of what do you want to be in life it’s fundamental as well as to have short, mid and long-terms goals.

The important thing is to have the suitcase ready when the opportunity knocks the door.

We must avoid falling into frustration after failure, because failure is necessary for learning and move on. If you feel that has not got where you wanted, there are two options, see what is not working and understand that nothing is coincidence, and everyone has different processes and different times, and in another way, while all this happens, you can help others to reach success.

Confidence and perseverance are the key factor to obtain people goals, it’s necessary believe in ourselves even anyone does, the secret it’s to be stand out in everything because you don’t know when then luck could finds you change your whole life.

[maria]

The man is a social being. His environment will always be a part of what he is and what he will be. His formation refers what “living in a society” is. However, he is an individual person too, and because of this, he owns internal faculties that make him different of the rest. The will and the intelligence define what his future decisions and actions will be in each situation of life.

Happiness is everybody’s goal. The joy, as a result of goodness, depends of the effort the person puts on the objective. The inner freedom becomes stronger if every step the person makes brings positive consequences. The change everyone expects to see comes inside their selves.

We think the same way the writer does about the success related to the environment. It affects the person’s success but it doesn’t determine it at all. For example: if someone goes to college, it means he is more prepared and would be more successful that who doesn’t go.

Nevertheless, this success depends of their actions; if they take more or less advantage of all the elements and opportunities around them, they will be more or less successful respectively. At first, the person has to be able to recognize each opportunity, and then, be capable to use it for his own benefit.
Each person has a different point of view in a situation and will establish which way he wants to take to get closer to his goal. Not every person makes a choice. There are certain people that prefers being always in the same point than taking risks.
The author says some tips for people to help them to realize what are they missing and what they are capable of. But we say what you need as a human being to get prepared for trying the author theories.
People need to have a very strong will. It’ll get stronger and stronger every time you make a choice full of goodness. And if your soul has harmony your virtues will grow. Then you’ll be a better person. That’s what happiness is about. And when you are truly comfortable with yourself, then you’ll be able to work for your goal.
The change we want to see in the world begins inside of us. All the answers are inside as well. However we keep asking other people about what do we have to do. That’s why we wrote this essay. Our nature is our cure.

Oriana Ramírez
Claudia Vázquez
Ma Victoria Villena

[no prescription hydrocodon]

This is one of the best posts that I?ve ever seen; you may include some more ideas in the same theme. I?m still waiting for some interesting thoughts from your side in your next post.

[home jobs]

Its so inspiring.

[home business]

This has been a very interesting read, would love to read more on this.

[work at home]

You have tried a lot

[work frim home]

I like this post so much.

[part time jobs]

well done keep that spirit always.

[LL]

This is awesome. I love seeing correlations between writers and runners.

[Reader]

Hi Malcolm,

I would like to thank you a lot for the insight about crime reduction in NYC at the book called "Tipping Point".

It was clear for me that the Steven Levitt's justificatives about crime reduction linked to abortion were not enough. Simple because many countries, like Russia, have a very aggressive pro abortion policy and their crime rates only increase year by year. I knew it had to be something completely different. And since I live at a very dangerous city (Rio de Janeiro), I can say curious facts about the crime patterns of my city. Here, crimes in general have always been high, but not at the subway system. We have, for sure, a safer subway system than many other capitals of the 1st world...The Subway is beautiful and very clean. It's funny to have a very violent street above and the most peaceful subway under.

The broken windows theory can definitely improve the world a lot.

Thanks again!!!

[Adam]

Agreed with Conrad - I guess you found a style that worked!

[Lisa]

I'm glad you decided to make a living as a writer instead of a runner.

:)

[(Dave's brother) Chuck Reid]

You guys are both lucky that the race was on a Sunday, so Steve Wellum didn't run.

[Retro Jordans]

The things attracte me in your blog is what you write and the style you demonstrate. Thank you. Best wishes to you.

[Saigol]

Please see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4

I get the feeling that somehow these guys got the wrong message from outliers.

[TriExpert]

No, he's put in his 10,000 hours with it, and then some ;)

[david]

no more posting? I see the number of posts has increased but I cant find those new posts. What is wrong?

[Gordon C Greene]

What a fun px. I am a total fan of yours and somehow I knew you'd excel in lots of other activities. Cheers!

[Yuka]

Love the hair. Love your writing. "OFSAA" brings me back to highschool. 4:05 = killah!

[Eusebiu Blindu]

So it is a powerful correlation between mental and physical activity?

[Gluggergames]

I like the look on both your faces.

[DaraBell]

I think you could have beaten him. Maybe it is not a Strengtfinder 2.0 approach but loving the running is big part.

Anyway becoming a best selling author must make up for it. Your an Outlier as Frank says.

Dara