I remember as a kid watching one of the Olympic games, and I was cheering for a big track athlete. He was the favorite to win, and he lost. I realized in that moment the pain he felt was so much greater than the pain that those who never thought they were going to win would have felt had they lost.

Malcolm Gladwell

It takes ten thousand hours to truly master anything. Time spent leads to experience; experience leads to proficiency; and the more proficient you are the more valuable you'll be.

Malcolm Gladwell

valuable hours masters

That's your responsibility as a person, as a human being - to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.

Malcolm Gladwell

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The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Success has to do with deliberate practice. Practice must be focused, determined, and in an environment where there's feedback.

Malcolm Gladwell

environment determined practice

If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Occasions when you can change your mind should be cherished, because they mean you're smarter than you were before.

Malcolm Gladwell

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If you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.

Malcolm Gladwell

bases ifs thinking

Innovators have to be open. They have to be able to imagine things that others cannot and be willing to challenge their own preconceptions. They also need to be conscientious. An innovator who has brilliant ideas but lacks the discipline and persistence to carry them out is merely a dreamer ... But crucially, innovators need to be disagreeable ... They are people willing to take social risks-to do things that others might disapprove of.

Malcolm Gladwell

persistence creativity ideas

The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years, if you think about four hours a day.

Malcolm Gladwell

practice years thinking

Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.

Malcolm Gladwell

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What does it say about a society that it devotes more care and patience to the selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?

Malcolm Gladwell

care doe children

A radical and transformative thought goes nowhere without the willingness to challenge convention.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Sometimes the most modest changes can bring about enormous effects.

Malcolm Gladwell

enormous modest sometimes

If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior...you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.

Malcolm Gladwell

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We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.

Malcolm Gladwell

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A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle.

Malcolm Gladwell

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...If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires. (151)

Malcolm Gladwell

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That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.

Malcolm Gladwell

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What is learned out of hard work and trial is inevitably more powerful than what is learned easily.

Malcolm Gladwell

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