Malcolm Gladwell Must Be Stopped
Malcolm Gladwell’s latest piece in the New Yorker is about how “entrepreneurs really succeed.” It reminded me of two things. Gladwell is a brilliant storyteller. He's also a purveyor of garbage. Gladwell devotes several thousand words to the premise that successful entrepreneurs aren’t swashbuckling risk-takers, but rather are calculating predators who exploit opportunities before anyone else recognizes them. Smart businesspeople are conservative; they aren't gamblers, says Gladwell, who goes on to ask: “Would we so revere risk-taking if we realized that people who are supposedly taking bold risks in the cause of entrepreneurship are really doing no such thing?” Except they are. Because an entrepreneur minimizes his or her downside doesn’t render the risk meaningless. And is it really so hard to believe that successful entrepreneurs are both bold and cautious? (It would be far harder to believe that success is one dimensional, but Gladwell has already turned several grossly oversimplified theses into best-selling books, so why stop now?)
