o In addition to The Entrepreneurial Process, we also read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. In the book, Gladwell explores some of differentiating factors behind success such as family and upbringing. While we tend to focus on the founder, there are many outside influences that give an individual the opportunity to achieve success. For example, in chapter 6, Gladwell mentioned, “cultural legacies are powerful forces.” Lei Jun grew up in an industrial area and his parents were teachers who made around 300 Chinese Yuan a month, which is equivalent to $50 today. As a young child, he was instilled with the values of perseverance and hard work. Furthermore, as teachers, his parents were very involved in his education and pushed him to excel in the classroom. …show more content…
Furthermore, by winning a national competition, he received some media coverage, which helped boost his college admission application. His timing was critical because he enrolled in the 1980s, which was after the end of the Cultural Revolution and the Chinese government started investing heavily in technology and higher education. Not only was science and technology two of the major cornerstones in Deng Xiaoping’s (Mao Zedong’s successor as leader of China) Four Modernizations plan, he also implemented new grants and resources to fund research and training. This benefited Lei Jun because he had unprecedented access to new technology and support to develop his skills as a programmer. In chapter 2, Gladwell talked about the 10,000 hour rule and how “practice isn't the thing you do once you're good, it's the thing you do that makes you good.” Successful individuals are always seeking new ways to improve their skillsets. For example, in college, Lei Jun spent most of his free time at the electronics district in Wuhan. He would try to meet new people and volunteer for various software