Outliers: secret to success?

Malcolm Gladwell has come out with yet another succesful book called Outliers: The Story of Success. It's a big hit everywhere right now. 

He has been recently on Charlie Rose. And on almost every other show and channel as well.

The Science of Sport blog adressed the major dilemma Talent vs Work.

I guess the million dollar question is: is there a simple secret to success, and can a book like this help us learn how to use it? 

First, there's obviously a 'lie' hidden in the middle of Outliers.

Having said that, I believe (oops there goes that lie again :-) Outliers is onto something relevant in stating that 10,000 hours is a minimum time of practice required to excel in anything. 

I'd like to add that the younger you start the better. Just think about Tiger Woods and other successful athletes. 

Our conclusion must be that the attitude of plain old persistence plays a starring role in most success stories. 

Now Malcolm Gladwell himself has certainly become one of those outliers he has been studying. He must have spent at least 10,000 hours writing bestselling nonfiction books!