As Americans, we tend to think that people simply rise up and are immediately successful. Malcolm Gladwell argues that no one rises to anything. He argues that when a person is born, to whom a person is born, and what opportunities are presented, along with hours and hours of practice is what makes a person successful. Swami Vivekananda says, “Take up one idea, Make that one idea your life- think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. That is the way to success.” You see, outliers, or people on the extreme end of success, are singly focused. They have found that one idea to make them stand out. That one idea that is their passion and they’ve made it a reality. Malcolm Gladwell cites many examples of outliers including the Beatles and Bill Gates. The Beatles were arguably the best rock band of all time. Did they rise from nothing? According to Gladwell, “The first interesting thing about the Beatles for our purposes is how long they had already been together Lennon and McCartney first started playing together in 1957, seven years prior to landing in America” (Outliers, 47-48). The Beatles, along with some lucky breaks like knowing a guy who was a club promoter, worked extremely hard at being the best of the best. They landed a gig in Hamburg (their lucky break) at some seedy strip club where they focused solely on playing. Pete Best, the drummer at the time, says, “At first we played almost nonstop till twelve thirty, when it closed, but as we got better the crowds stayed till two most mornings” (Outliers, 49) The sheer amount of hours played in that squalid hole is more than some musicians ever play in the entirety of their career. Before they started the “British Invasion," the Beatles knew what audiences wanted to hear and how to play for long period of time. The focus of the band was always the music