An Outlier from the hills

Last week a golfing buddy made a casual remark that he wish he was like Khairy,having plenty of money and thus able to do charitable works while not needing to work hard anymore.

Hmmm, a wishful thought indeed and then he started to rant that successful people have that particular traits that sees them go beyond everybody else and against all odds ,not needing any tertiary education,being street smart,shrewd and has good PR...and so on and so on.

I did not respond then because hey man am trying to do damage limitation on my awful golf game that day but i did remember a book that i read a month back, "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell.

The book has an interesting postulation of success...To quote:

"In Outliers ,I want to convince you that these kind of personal explanations of success don't work.People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. 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. ...."
Interesting view indeed and as i try to grapple with its continuing message in the book i also tried to look for a living individual that i knew well enough who may fit this theory by Gladwell.

I knew him while we were working together in a multinational oil company.
He was a Human Resource man and admittedly being a front liner in the business facing the realities of the work challenges one does have a dim view of human resource personnel..but he was though different.

Now he heads the national Malaysian Airlines,yes the man is Datuk Seri Idris Jala.He is now widely accredited to the man behind turning around MAS.

So let's see not the man but what beneficiaries that he has earlier acquired in his life and career that makes him take most of the opportunity offered by the MAS turn around challenges.

He grew up in the hills of Bario thus explaining possibly the value of a Spartan life with no excesses.He was a son of a teacher thus again giving him the right kind of upbringing where education and intellect is viewed as a gateway towards a better and more meaningful life.

Here come the crunch..he was assigned to lead and execute a company wide business re engineering agenda in the multinational company that he works, thus honing his skills in areas of business turnaround and seeking a most cost effective ways of running a department or business unit.

I still remembered being part of his team then and his skillful grasp of the concepts and underlying issues as offered by Hammer and Champy's Business Re engineering impressed me to the core. Here is a man i knew will be good at turn around role.

So no surprise that he did well at MAS and to a certain measure it does prove Gladwell postulation..

"It makes a difference where and when we grew up.The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievements in ways we cannot begin to imagine.Its not enough to ask what successful people are like.its only asking where they are from can we unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."
So Idris indeed you are an outlier from the hills and as a friend am proud of your achievement!!!