In Outliers, readers are told repeatedly how some people happened to be in the right place at the right time to be successful. For example, a generation of Jewish immigrants around the turn of the century were able to find outlets in the United States for the business and craft skills they learned in Europe. But on his blog, Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, says what's missing is why some individuals in the groups or cohorts were successful and others weren't. His reading: They had a higher level of competencies like adaptability, initiative and empathy - all elements of emotional intelligence.