Malcolm Gladwell on Outliers: The Story of Success--Exclusive Extras (page 2 of 2)

RD: Or Mozart. Would you want your kid to be Mozart?
GLADWELL: At least Mozart was doing something he could do for the rest of his life. With athletes, it's over at age 23 or 24. Do I want my children to sacrifice their entire childhoods for something that ends when they're just out of college? It seems absurd.

RD: But that early commitment—that exclusive thing where you're inside practicing the piano all day to the exclusion of your friends and the outside world—that's the trade-off for success, right?
GLADWELL: Well, that's the other thing. In all the stories I tell in the book, the sacrifices and the trade-offs are necessary to create success.

RD: I know this is a ridiculous question, but what did the success of your first two books do for your life? How did they change things for you?
GLADWELL: It means that now people return my calls (laughing). Also, I'm no longer anonymous. I get recognized a couple of times a week. You only have to be recognized once a week for it to make a difference in your life. But on the good side, it's a kind of validation that what I'm doing—the kind of writing that I've been doing—has an audience. That people are appreciative of it. That I'm on the right track. That gives you a lot of confidence when you tackle something new.

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