In the forth segment of the Outliers (http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922) by Malcolm Gladwell, we learn how the time period we grow up in and our heritage affect our lives and our chances for success. We follow Joe Flom and other Jewish immigrants growing up in the 1930’s in New York City. Gladwell continues with his theory on how successful people today don’t make it simply by accident or fate.
Joe Flom was a partner in a very successful law firm in Manhattan. He grew up in the Great Depression with Jewish immigrant parents. Flom worked his way through school and served time in the military before attending Harvard Law School. He was very smart, one of the top students in his class, but was not able to find a job within any of the “old-line” Wall Street law firms. He was however able to partner with a few other men to create their own law firm. Today they employ almost 2,000 attorneys and serve top Fortune 500 customers.
Flom’s success did not come from opportunities like previous Outliers researched by Gladwell. This surprised me as I wondered how someone like Flom was able to succeed. Actually, it was Flom’s disadvantages, come to find out, that led him to being very advantageous. His first disadvantage was that he was Jewish in a time when so called “white-shoe” law firms were very particular about who they employed. If you were not the same background, religion, and social class as them, you joined a small, second-rate law firm in the city. This turned out to be an advantage to many young Jewish lawyers because old-line firms did not do litigation, as it was rare for corporations to sue one another in those days. It was the second-rate Jewish lawyers that gained this experience in corporate takeovers, which would be very beneficial in the years to come, as there was a boom in size and number of them. Flom was able to be in the right career at the right time because of this original disadvantage.
A second advantage that Flom had was demographic luck. Literally, Flom who was born in 1930 was a part of a time period where there was a demographic trough. Because of the hardship of the Great Depression families simply stopped having children at this point in time. Flom was a part of a small generation in comparison to past and future generations to come as the economy picks up again. This provided Flom with the advantages of an excellent education as far as teacher to student ratios. Also, the job market was open as demands were growing and employees were short. Flom was able to have great success just because of the fact that he was born at a certain time. As stated by Gladwell, “even the most gifted individuals cannot escape the limitations of their generation.”
The final advantage that happened to effect Flom was on that we recently discusses in class. His parents happened to be Jewish immigrants who worked in the garment industry in New York City. Jews at the time had not been allowed to own land in Europe like other immigrants. Instead they clustered in towns and cities taking on urban trades in professions. When the Jewish immigrants arrived in NYC they were able to use their experience in these trades to create their own work as new entrepreneurs in the city. Unlike their fellow immigrants who worked every day without learning, the Jews gained economic lessons trying to improve upon their businesses day to day. In the garment industry you could see exactly what successful people were doing and how to set up your own job. They had autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward. As we have learned in class, these three qualities are very important for job satisfaction and creating meaningful work. As a child of Jewish immigrants working in the garment industry, Flom was able to make the connection that if you worked had enough, and used your mind and imagination; you could shape the world to your desires.
I personally believe that this last disadvantage, or advantage if you look at it from a different point of view, was the most beneficial to Flom. In seeing the way that his parents were able to enjoy working for themselves and being their own boss, he was not afraid to take the initial risk of creating his own law firm when he was not accepted by the big shots of his day. He was able to shape his own future just how his father had with his garment industry. Only this time, because of the added factor of time and the demographic trough, Flom was able to become a very successful lawyer of his time period.
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