OUTLIERS · CHAPTER 5 · JOE FLOMCLASSROOM GAME · 8–12 MINUTES
The Opportunity Auction
You have 100 points to invest in career opportunities. Choose what looks most promising, make your bids, and see whether the most prestigious option is actually the best path to success.
How to play
Split the class into teams or let classmates play individually.
Each team starts with 100 points.
Bid on the opportunities you think will lead to the greatest long-term success. You can spend your points across several options.
Once everyone has made their choices, reveal the outcome and connect it to Joe Flom's story.
Your challenge: Think like a young lawyer at the beginning of a career. You do not know what the future job market will look like.
Choose your opportunities
Enter how many points you want to invest in each opportunity.
ROUND 1 · THE BIDS
Points remaining 100
Total invested 0
You can leave points unspent. You cannot bid more than your 100-point budget.
BIDS LOCKED
Your strategy is set.
Before revealing the outcome, ask the class: Which team thinks the most expensive opportunity will produce the most successful career?
ROUND 2 · THE REVEAL
The opportunity nobody wanted becomes the advantage.
Imagine the job market changes. Corporate mergers and hostile takeovers become increasingly important. Suddenly, the lawyer who has spent years building experience in this overlooked area is in demand.
Joe Flom's unexpected advantage
Prestigious law firms often avoided takeover work and discriminatory barriers also limited the opportunities available to Jewish lawyers. Joe Flom built expertise in corporate takeovers at a time when this work was not widely prized. When mergers and acquisitions became a major part of corporate law, that experience became extremely valuable.
The twist: The path that looked less prestigious at the beginning could create a major advantage later.
What does this teach us?
1. Opportunity
An opportunity can exist in a place others overlook.
2. Timing
Skills become more valuable when the world changes and demand grows.
3. Disadvantage
A barrier can redirect someone toward an unexpected path, although discrimination itself is never an advantage or justified.
Important distinction: Joe Flom did not succeed because discrimination was good. He succeeded despite discrimination, and his circumstances shaped the opportunities available to him.
Final jury question
Was success mainly about choosing the most prestigious opportunity, or recognising the potential in an overlooked one?
Debate prompt: If you were Joe Flom, would you choose the prestigious firm or the smaller firm offering takeover cases? Defend your choice using the ideas of opportunity, timing and accumulated experience.