Malcolm Gladwell Work Quotations

The paradox of endurance sports is that an athlete can never work as hard as he wants, because if he pushes himself too far, his hematocrit will fall.

You walk into the class in second grade. You can't read. What are you going to do if you're going to make it? You identify the smart kid. You make friends with him. You sit next to him. You grow a team around you. You delegate your work to others. You learn how to talk your way out of a tight spot.

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.

I think that persistence and stubbornness and hard work are probably, at the end of the day, more important than the willingness to take a risk.

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

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig. (150)

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

Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard.

The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up.