Understanding the difference between success and greatness

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The valedictory address at a high school convocation shines a light on a student of unusual promise, someone who has excelled scholastically and socially, seemingly headed for greatness. And many achieve success in their future careers. But few achieve greatness.

A study by Boston College researcher Karen Arnold that followed 87 high school valedictorians found their future marks at university high, many going on to graduate degrees and nearly 90 per cent winding up in professional degrees. But they didn't shake up the world, perhaps because they were too conformist and were generalists, more inclined to shore up weak parts in their academic studies than spectacularly excel at anything.

Compare that to Winston Churchill, a maverick with many flaws but who proved the right man for the Hitler era. Or Abraham Lincoln, whose strengths overwhelmed his glaring weaknesses. In his book Barking Up The Wrong Tree, Eric Barker, who has spent eight years interviewing experts on what makes for success, points to the research of Gautam Mukunda, who differentiates between "filtered" leaders, who rise up through the ranks, and "unfiltered," who barge in from left field, unexpectedly. Filtered leaders are like those valedictorians: solid and traditional in their approach, effective but indistinguishable from each other. The unfiltered folks can't be relied on to make the standard decisions and are often unpredictable.

"Yet they bring change and make a difference," writes Mr. Barker. "Often that difference is negative. Since they don't play by the rules, they often break the institutions they are guiding. A minority of unfiltered leaders are transformative, though, shedding organizations of their misguided beliefs and foolish consistencies, and running them toward better horizons. These are the leaders that the research said have enormous impact."

Prof. Mukunda, of Harvard Business School, highlights "intensifiers," attributes that are considered negative but in the right context become positives, like Mr. Churchill's defence of the British state, which at one time seemed paranoid but became exemplary. Mr. Barker points to Glenn Gould, who went beyond eccentric but was a magnificent pianist. "That nut is a genius," the Cleveland Orchestra's George Szell said.

What does this mean if you're not Glen Gould or a high school valedictorian? Mr. Barker says we spend too much time trying to be "good" when that only makes us average. "To be great, we must be different. And that doesn't come from trying to follow society's vision of what is best, because society doesn't always know what it needs. More often being the best means just being the best version of you. ... In the right environment, bad can be good and odd can be beautiful," he writes.

This applies to colleagues as well. "The same traits that make people a nightmare to work with can also make them people who change the world. Research shows that creative people are more arrogant, dishonest, and disorganized. They also get lower grades in school," he says, noting they are disliked because they don't do what teachers or bosses expect. "So it's no surprise that creativity is inversely correlated with employee performance reviews."

This also applies to companies. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says picking winners is "a game of outliers." Too many VC prospects don't have an extreme strength that makes them an outlier. At the same time, companies with extreme strengths often have serious flaws. "So one of the cautionary lessons of venture capital is, if you don't invest on the basis of serious flaws, you don't invest in most of the big winners," he observed.

Tragedies may also be helpful. Mr. Barker notes that Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Michelangelo and Mark Twain all lost a parent before they were 16. "The list of orphans who became spectacular successes – or at least notoriously influential – is much longer and includes no fewer than 15 British prime ministers," he says.

The book can be maddening at times, as Mr. Barker takes unexpected twist and turns through the success research, leading you on tangents that prove fascinating but contradictory. However, the former Hollywood screenwriter and popular blogger is a smooth writer, entertaining and engaging, and at the end of each chapter offers a summary of how the information can be used.