Course Description

15 years ago, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book that changed the way we look at very successful people. Or at the very least, it started a conversation about how greatness happens. This book, Outliers: The Story of Success, pointed out that outsized achievement is rarely about a singular talent rising up above all others. Instead, there are circumstances, opportunities, and luck (among other things) that must be considered.

This course will use Gladwell’s book as a jumping off point to consider great achievement in the United States. We will focus on relatively recent history, the last 50 years or so. Built into this investigation, we will consider matters of innovation and longevity as well. As a class we will analyze 6 outlier cases, 2 from the world of sports (Steph Curry and Serena Williams), 2 from business (Mirian Ilitch and Warren Buffett), and 2 selected by the class during the course of the semester. Throughout these case analyses, we will be searching for common patterns and trends in these high achieving individuals.

Texts

Malcom Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

Book Excerpts (from the American Success canon):

Amy Duckworth, Grit

David Epstein, Range

Jim Collins, Good to Great

Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

Primary documents:

Letters, speeches, writings, statistics, financials, etc. of subjects investigated.

Requirements

Assignments:

Class participation (20%)

- discussion, presentation of cases, group work

Case Analyses (6) (60%)

- verbal and written analyses of outlier cases

Final Project (20%)

- final assessment course findings and patterns

About the Instructor(s): Ryan Swanson

Ryan Swanson is a Professor in the Honors College at UNM. He also serves as the Director of the Lobo Scholars Program. Ryan earned his Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University 2008. His latest book, The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete, came out in 2019. In the classroom, Ryan teaches courses on sports, history, and the legacy of failure. During the pandemic, Ryan was one of those professors who frequently forgot to unmute himself while talking on Zoom. Ryan and his wife Rachael have three children. They reside in Corrales, NM.