What is a paradigm, and what does it have to do with success in "Outliers"?

A paradigm
(pronounced pare-a-dime) is a pattern, and its usually one that is quite firm and established.
(Whenever you hear someone talk about a paradigm shift, you can bet that a major
change just took place to alter a long-standing pattern.) Gladwell uses the term
paradigm twice in Chapter Two, The 10,000-Hour Rule, as he traces the path of the computer
programming success of Bill Gates.

The paradigm Gladwell looks at first is
one from the 19th century. 14 American entrepreneurs who number among the richest people of all
time were born in the...