The secrets of success can be decoded—and copied and reconstructed. In his stunning new book, the bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink reveals the real—and mostly overlooked—secrets to extraordinary success. As in his earlier books, Gladwell builds his case with stories of real people, brilliantly told from an all-new perspective. He reveals that we pay far too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where successful people are from: their culture, their family, and their generation. Gladwell explains what Bill Gates, the Beatles and other world-class successes have in common, how culture affects their careers and performance, why some cultures are good at math and what drives the so-called achievement gap in American education. Along the way, Gladwell overturns many of our conventional notions about what makes a person successful. He creates an entirely new model for nurturing success and suggests ways to give people the best opportunities to succeed. Because we so profoundly personalize success, we squander human potential. We miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung.