I found an interesting article in the New York Times this morning about the Obama's and their close social network of lawyers, doctors and political allies that have spawned since the Obama's were back in college. You are obviously what you surround yourself with, and as I have been reading Outliers its made me look at the success of situations like this from a totally different perspective.
The Obama's like their close social network came from modest backgrounds, backgrounds that allowed the opportunities to pursue the type of careers they have become successful in. It also made me think about the civil rights movement and how this generation was the graduating class of those experiences. My mother for example who is in her late 50's, lived in D.C. when King was killed at the peak of the civil rights movement. You can imagine the since of purpose that was coming out of that generation directly effected by the civil rights movement. Education was a must, it was the direct conduit of change, the magical element their mother's and fathers weren't afforded the opportunity to. Yet their was a small group of African-American individuals who had enough intellectual wherewithal as well as the right kind of support systems (which is essential in the development of an individual) to succeed in fields that African-American's were up to that point almost non-existent.
In the article you can see the evidence of this, from where the Obama's lived to what their parents did to the minority they were in college. They are the generation just after my mother, those who were - as the article states - "too young to be in the civil rights movement." Where you come from, who you are surrounded by, your drive and intellectual level all obviously have an effect on your outcome of success. Yet understanding that in correlation to yourself to recognize your strong points can become a very integral part in understanding your power and help you define what success is for yourself.
