Summary

Chapter 5 is called "The Three Lessons of Joe Flom." Joe Flom is a partner in a very successful New York law firm. Gladwell provides a short summary of Flom's successful career. He is born in the 1930s and grows up in Brooklyn. He goes to work for a small law firm after college and later is made partner. The firm expands and grows to become one of the most prominent in the country. The story looks like a typical rags-to-riches success story, Gladwell explains, but he adds that he hopes his readers are skeptical of such stories at this point.

The first "lesson" of Joe Flom, Gladwell calls "The Importance of Being Jewish." Flom is Jewish, and when he goes looking for his first job after finishing school he is excluded from the "white shoe" law firms...