Is it all about being in the right place at the right time?

I’m not a reader. Growing up, I’d see my mom and brother constantly reading books, finishing a book every 2 days and excitedly running to the library to check out 4 more books. I’d always laugh in my brother’s face and call him a nerd for being such a bookworm. I was generally a pretty good big brother throughout our years growing up, but I remember always making fun of the little runt for constantly reading. So much for me and my big mouth. I enrolled in Indiana University as a Criminal Justice major and my brother has a 3.9 in the Honors Business School at Emory University. Oh well. Recently, I have been reading a pretty decent amount myself. I have never been able to read story books, I’ve always been more the biography or business book type of guy. While I sat at home over winter break in of one of the most entertaining cities in the U.S., I read an amazingly interesting book called Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell is the author of The Tipping Point, which in my opinion, is one of the best non-fiction books ever written. In Outliers, Gladwell makes an extremely compelling argument about success in business, sports, and life in general. He argues that it is not only brains and ability that allow the world’s most successful people to get to the level that they are, but it is also about being in the right place at the right time. His argument is much more complex than that, but he basically discusses how people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in the perfect time periods to start computer companies. As I was reading this book I kept asking myself, “Am I in the right place at the right time?” Lately, I have been asking myself this question even more, as I see so many discouraged young people out there who are struggling to survive in today’s economy. Anyone that knows me well will tell you that I am a pretty laid back, usually optimistic guy. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time, but I just don’t know it yet. All of the Gen-Y young adults are in the right place at the right time, but they just don’t know it yet either. We have to be able to see the opportunity while the world around us is crumbling. But what does being in the right place at the right time really mean? I wish I had the answer to that question. Every day, I am seeking the answer to that question myself. This economic downturn has ruined a lot of lives, but it has motivated me, and hopefully all of us young adults out there, to try to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Sounds optimistic doesn’t it?