Outliers
The Story of Success 
by Malcolm Gladwell 

Maintaining a level playing field where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed is the backbone ethos of America. Most will readily admit that certain socioeconomic conditions do create barriers to achieving the picket-fence dream, but no matter the circumstances, there is a steadfast belief that the only critical recipe to overcoming even the toughest obstacles is one part grit, two parts talent and three parts hard work. Like a character from a Horatio Alger story, anyone with enough moxie can do it. 

Testaments to this abound. Digital mavens Bill Gates and Steve Jobs rose from anonymity on the strength of their sheer will, talent and genius, and without them, the computer revolution would never have occurred at such a frenzied pace. Wayne Gretzky, the man universally recognized as the greatest hockey player of all time, was born to skate with a puck and rose through the ranks of Canadian youth leagues so effortlessly that no obstacle could have ever prevented the world from witnessing his talents on the sport's biggest stages. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's gifts were so visible at such an early age that he could compose master symphonies before he hit puberty even without formal training. 

But what if none of this is completely true? What if there are other, much more mundane factors contributing to the success of the people we consider to be the best and brightest? 

Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers rebukes the traditional approach to judging the world's most successful people-those he deems, from the scientific parlance for things that fall beyond any expected results, as outliers. His Outliers philosophy conjures a world where the most important factor in making the Canadian Olympic hockey team is the month that a player was born, the critical component in being a math wiz is the language and agricultural traditions of a student's culture, and the key to becoming a high-powered New York lawyer is having parents who can sew. 

The head-scratching logic of those statements becomes increasingly clear-and insightful-with each passing page, as Gladwell, in a similar approach to his previous books The Tipping Point and Blink, peels away the hazy layers of his thesis to reveal a cogent, unique perspective that Gladwell believes will help redefine all preconceived notions of success. Or in his own words, "It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude-and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations." 

And in one word, that better explanation is "arbitrary." Gladwell fully admits that talent, hard work, ambition, intelligence and the other long-standing attributes are of course prerequisites to becoming an outlier, but possibly no more so than the presence of luck.  

While these facts become increasingly self-evident as the book progresses-and, indeed, everyone from Gates to Gretzky will admit that they have stood on the shoulders of giants and benefitted from their fair shares of serendipity-the more controversial concept that cultural background, nationality and ethnicity also play an overlooked aspect in success are addressed in the book's second half. While there is never an insinuation that any cultures are predisposed for the blanket idea that is "success," there is a thorough and enlightening discussion of a topic that, due to the Gladwell's signature simplistic grace, make the notions not just seem warranted, but obvious. 

-JW 

Rich Like Them 
by Ryan D'Agostino 

Everyone wants to live in a mansion. The only problem is figuring out how to get there. Plenty of books offer advice on how to get rich but Esquire editor Ryan D'Agostino decided to take a direct approach. He visited 20 of the nation's wealthiest neighborhoods, knocked on hundreds of doors and simply asked people how they came to live in such splendor. The result is Rich Like Them, an entertaining account of D'Agostino's experiment and, more importantly, an informative and inspirational look at the unique and surprisingly common-sense ways that fortunes are made. During his travels, he spoke to people in a wide range of businesses including real estate moguls, doctors, art dealers, booksellers, Silicon Valley CEOs and even a manufacturer of shrimp-peeling machines. From their conversations he was able to organize their experiences and insights into maxims for anyone who aspires to any level of success in business such as, "Choose your purpose and don't let anyone tell you you're wrong," "Sometimes the biggest risk is doing nothing" and "If you hate your career, um, change it." The lessons may seem obvious, but that does not make them any less true. More importantly, though, by letting wealthy people tell their own stories, Rich Like Them demonstrates that those that live in dream houses are just people. And if they can do it, so can you. 

-M'OR 

Property/ Casualty Insurance: A Basic Guide 
by Ernest Gore 

Insurance influences much of our daily lives and understanding its complexities can be a daunting task. In his book, Property/Casualty Insurance: A Basic Guide, industry veteran Ernest Gore offers a basic overview of property/casualty insurance in order to help newcomers to the industry and provide a much-needed collection of historical, technical and legal perspectives for everyone from adjusters, underwriters, agents and brokers to attorneys, entrepreneurs and business managers. The book covers general insurance issues including a brief history of the industry, the various types of insurance companies, the major industry players, basic policy formats, the larger legal issues, the world of reinsurance and the complexities of how insurance premiums are devised-something that remains a mystery to even veteran risk professionals. Property/Casualty Insurance also covers specific coverage lines, from automobile and homeowners policies to commercial general liability and workers compensation. In addition, a handy glossary of insurance terms and conditions provides a valuable reference tool for industry rookies and savvy old-timers alike. With simple, easy-to-follow language and a wealth of information, Property/Casualty Insurance: A Basic Guide should be considered required reading for anyone who is new to risk management and insurance. 

-M'OR 

Financial Darwinism 
by Leo M. Tilman 

The central premise of this book is that since 1985 or so, financial markets have become so deregulated, complex and dynamic that only those firms willing to evolve at a fast pace have any hope of survival. It is a logical enough argument until its author starts pointing to organizations like Wachovia, AIG, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs as the kinds of companies typifying the change needed to survive the harsh new world of dynamic finance. That the book was clearly written before the crashes and bailouts beginning last September further calls the entire premise into question, despite its numerous attempts to acknowledge the "2007-2008 financial crisis" as it makes its arguments. Ultimately, this does more harm than good, as seen in the book's afterword, which, as it argues against a return to regulated financial services, notes that on the German Autobahn, speed limits and safety regulations don't reduce auto fatalities as much as educating drivers to the risks of fast driving does. It is a strangely Greenspanian argument that self-interest trumps any law when it comes to keeping a financial system in check. But just as Greenspan himself admitted he might have been a bit off, so too does the book's overall tone ring hollow, already an artifact of a bygone age of unbridled financial ingenuity that ultimately thrust the entire world into recession. 

-Bill Coffin