Why the Formula for Success manufactured by Malcolm Gladwell is futile in our modern society
1) Malcolm Gladwell proposed a mission to find the answer to an obstacle that plagues the modern civilized man; crafting a concrete method to success. Thorough out history we have defined the path towards success to be paved by the individual; through his or her ingenuity, intelligence, and perseverance. Gladwell’ personal opinion about the formula for success is voiced indirectly through his specific real-life examples. His assertion is that with ample amounts of hard work, creativity, personal belief, and intelligence anyone can succeed at shaping the world. To take his statement at face value one needs to realize that it is a generalization of the
Bill Gates and Bill Joy, the Beatles, Ray Ewry, Helen Keller, and Oprah Winfrey all applied Gladwell’s factors of success. Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion was correct that “if you work hard enough, assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” It’s not wise to complain about your physical abilities, financial disadvantages, or possible misfortune. Rather, it’s judicious to invest your time and energy moving forward by using Gladwell’s 4 factors of
Gladwell’s intentions for this book include persuading readers to see success the same way as he does and also to enlighten or teach the world about what factors play into being successful considering his inspiration for this book was that no one truly knew what success meant. Malcolm writes, “In Outliers, I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don’t work. People don’t rise from nothing” (Gladwell, 19). Malcolm’s intended audience is any and all people because his goal was to education the world on this topic. Outliers appeals to an audience because people want to discover what success stories are and how people become prosperous. There were various success stories told throughout each chapter, Malcolm describes his purpose for this as follows, “This is a book about outliers, about men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary. Over the course of the chapters ahead, I’m going to introduce you to one kind of outlier after another: to geniuses, business tycoons, rock stars, and software programmers. We’re going to uncover the secrets of a remarkable lawyer, look at what separates the very best pilots from the pilots who have crashed planes, and try to figure out why Asians are so good at math. And in examining the lives of the remarkable among us - I will argue that there is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success” (Gladwell, 18). All of these stories are unique and different and are
In the novel, Malcolm Gladwell states, "If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires" (Gladwell 151). That is, true for some people, but for others, success is more involved, such as talent and preparation, as well as being at the right time and place.
Gladwell’s last example of opportunity paving the way to success is Bill Gates. Gladwell paints a picture of a privileged childhood, private schools, well-funded computer clubs and easily accessible
Through an adage, Gladwell also provides a general truth, stating that “The sense of entitlement…is an attitude perfectly suited to succeeding in the modern world.” This allows him to appeal logically
In the passage Gladwell talks about how there is a pattern and it is quite clear but no one seems to recognize it but that has to do with the fact that unless someone does the research or has read his book. People won’t and don’t notice the pattern as much as he thinks they would. Gladwell is blaming and once again calling people out on how themselves and society doesn’t give the people and place any credit. In the passage Gladwell states “Their success was not just of their own making. It was a product of the world in which they grew up” and I truly believe he is not giving them enough credit. However they did have some advantages based on when they were born and where they grew up, nevertheless they did have to put in some hard work. Gladwell
Throughout the book, Gladwell talks about other ingredients to success such as culture, opportunities, and upbringing. He discusses how people who are brought up in middle-upper class families are more likely to be assertive and get what they want, and how when Korean pilots began speaking English, they performed better and were responsible for less plane crashes than before. He repeatedly makes claims about how one thing or another is more likely to guarantee success to an individual. How is the reader supposed to know what is really going to help them become successful? There certainly is not enough time to just go from one method to another until the end goal is finally reached. Gladwell’s hypocrisy throughout the book not only disproves his own claims, but makes the reader less likely to buy into these claims in the first
Success in society is dependent on individuality and work ethic, but in Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell insists that success is determined by specific opportunities that are uncontrollable. Gladwell’s argument stems on details that are not commonly identified as being relevant to a person’s ultimate success. This includes, birth date, their hometown, and culture. While not traditionally the main topics when considering success, these topics have merit that is shown in Gladwell’s research. However, Gladwell’s novel is somewhat one-sided. Gladwell does acknowledge that there are anomalies to his research, but he disregards anyone’s decisions and work ethic that helped them achieve and continue success. Many people are given opportunities to for instance be a famous piano player by their parents buying them a piano and paying for lessons, but it takes ambition and grit to continue and never give up despite life’s challenges. It is therefore the individuality factor. The determining factor of “outliers” really is their ambition, not their background as Gladwell insists.
Malcolm Gladwell”s main purpose of this piece of writing is to list reasons to why some people are able to achieve success while others can not achieve it. The intended audience for Gladwell’s writing is mainly aimed to those who are looking for that pathway to success, whether it’s a teen or an adult. He mentions how success is worked for and not just given to you in your hand. He is able to talk briefly about KIPP, KIPP is a school that mainly focuses on motivating and keeping kids in school, teaching the kids how to be polite and not give up. KIPP wanted to strive to help these kids get out of poverty and reach that line of success that KIPP intended to reach with its kids. Kids are
Sometimes the right opportunity just does not come and you have to assert yourself. Make the right opportunity, create a way to get yourself to the top. That is what Gladwell means when he talks about using your imagination, sometimes you have to find your own way and work hard. Using your mind is critical to your own success. If you do not find ways to prove your worth above others then how will you become accomplished? You won’t. It takes a lot of effort to become the best and it takes the right opportunity. Gladwell gives an example of excellent opportunity, “It’s as if you were interested in fashion and your neighbor when you were growing up happened to be Giorgio Armani” (66). That is the kind of thing that helps build successful people. But at the same time, those who are not willing to work hard will never find the opportunities they need. Sometimes though the opportunities are just out of reach, or they are given to someone
Success has long been viewed as a result of an individual's determination and in some cases, innate talent. Said individual would generally be of a less fortunate background and rise to triumph with seemingly no assistance from others. Conversely, Gladwell argues against this individualistic approach to analyzing success. He instead argues that “It is only by asking where they [successful people] are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.” Gladwell looks deeper into the environment from which the successful spring and, using logic, thoroughly explains every aspect that lead to their success.
Malcolm Gladwell focuses on an individual’s ability to effect change within society. Outliers deal with the cultural and societal forces that give rise to opportunistic individuals. Most people when telling a story about a successful person usually only focusses on intelligence and ambition. In the book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell generally argues that the true story of success is ultimately very different, and that if we as individuals want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. The story of success is more complex and a lot more interesting than it initially appears. This paper will examine Gladwell’s purpose for the book, his major themes, principles, concepts and how they relate or differ to Andrew Dubrins book Leadership.
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and the author of several books like The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What The Dog Saw. This book tackles about the success of the underdogs by playing in their own strengths in this competitive world, that despite of the adversities in life, there are benefits to it. He covers fascinating stories about people with disadvantages overcome the struggles in life, and how it can be applied in business strategies.
Gladwell discusses the various theories of how many people had succeeded in life and their careers. Most of these theories lineup together or falls hand-in-hand with one another; especially race, the skin color of these people have a lot to do with their success. Receiving opportunities are very essential to success, as well as being born at the right time, and how you are raised can all impact how we will succeed in our lives. Many of the most successful people say to be able to succeed all you need is merit and to work hard, this is usually said upon white people. Whereas it is more difficult for people of color succeed majorly due to discrimination.
In “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell an interesting point is made, this point is “if you work hard and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to you desires” (Gladwell 151).This is true in many of the stories told in the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell several famous people are talked about such as, The Beatles, Bill Gates. But in this book several studies on education, parenting, and psychology are cited. We also learn that there are many differences between what others may consider to be success, and what Malcolm Gladwell considers success.