Quote

The fact of being an underdog changes people in ways that we often fail to appreciate. It opens doors and creates opportunities and enlightens and permits things that might otherwise have seemed unthinkable.

Malcolm Gladwell

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Malcolm Gladwell
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: September 3
Journalist
Screenwriter
Sociologist
Writer
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell
Way
Failing
Permit
Things
Doors
Creates
People
Ways
Opportunities
Enlightens
Fact
Otherwise
Permits
Opportunity
Seemed
Underdog
Often
Fail
Enlightening
Facts
Changes
Unthinkable
Might
Appreciate
Opens

More quotes by Malcolm Gladwell

Image
Of the great entrepreneurs of this era, people will have forgotten Steve Jobs.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
What we do as a community, as a society, for each other, matters as much as what we do for ourselves. It sounds a little trite, but there's a powerful amount of truth in that, I think.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
The ethics of plagiarism have turned into the narcissism of small differences: because journalism cannot own up to its heavily derivative nature, it must enforce originality on the level of the sentence.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Acquaintances represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't understand what you're writing, then everything else you do is superfluous. Irrelevant. If any thoughtful, curious reader finds what I do impenetrable, I've failed.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Outlier are those who have been given opportunities-- -and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
It's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Jenny Simpson loses her shoe in the women's fifteen hundred, with a lap and a half to go, destroying her chances to repeat as world champion, and she gives the most gracious interview afterward about how she's had a wonderful career already. Great for Jenny Simpson. Bad for the sport! We need drama!
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
That was it! The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
People can't do much about the fate part, but we can certainly do a lot about the man part.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Incompetence annoys me. Overconfidence terrifies me.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
We need to look at the subtle, the hidden, and the unspoken.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
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
Image
Father: 'Anything but journalism.' I rebelled.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Occasions when you can change your mind should be cherished, because they mean you're smarter than you were before.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Activism that challenges the status quo, that attacks deeply rooted problems, is not for the faint of heart.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Six degrees of separation doesn't mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps. It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few.
Malcolm Gladwell
Image
Nobody accomplishes success by themselves.
Malcolm Gladwell