Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers includes a chapter on how many hours it takes to develop a skill (10,000 or 10 years) and how luck plays a part in allowing talented people to succeed.
I have a friend who had some bad luck as a kid – she lost her mother at age 3, her stepmother was a living bitch, and unrelated to either of those disasters, her father suffered severe financial reversals – but who’s been the recipient of some very good luck since. She is attractive (one of the few women I know who actually looks good in long hair) and has a gorgeous wardrobe, a beautiful home, a gentleman friend who can build or repair anything who is hopelessly in love with her, dozens of friends, a loving family and a sister whose unbelievable generosity is something out of legend.
Several years ago, a piece of concrete the size of a 500-page book hit her on the head when she was driving on a highway that was under construction. If that had happened to you or me, we’d be dead. Fortunately, my friend not only survived, she got a settlement large enough to allow her to put in an in-ground pool.
Last night, my friend came over to tell me that her son and daughter-in-law received an unexpected gift of $12,000 from a stranger, a philanthropist in New York.
I’m happy for them, of course, they are as the clich