George Saunders's Speech Analysis

George Saunders and David Foster Wallace mention the importance of being kind to one another and the steps necessary in graduation speeches. Both writers state that acting in kindness, ultimately leads to new freedoms and creates an enlightened human being.

Having the mind and determination to become successful isn’t an easy task. Success isn’t considered a gift, it should be a hard task to achieve and it matters how it is accomplished. Success

“There is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success” (Gladwell 18). In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell is trying to convince his audience that they misunderstand how people become successful. Many believe one only needs hard work and determination in order to achieve success. However, Gladwell complicates this idea by explaining that hard work and determination is not how people become successful and instead, it is all about the opportunities one is given that decides if he or she is successful or not. Gladwell uses the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos in order to persuade his audience to accept his idea of the process of becoming successful.

Many people view success as merely hard work; dedicating oneself to something completely. Although the recipe for success involves this type of commitment, Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, opened up a new perspective. Although 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), he adds that many other things affect one’s ability to succeed. In society today, individuals tend to look at the big prize instead of the path that led them to it. It was very interesting because many stories about success involve time and perseverance, but rarely luck. Outliers gave a refreshing and unique way of looking at how goals are really reached. While the book was in the 3rd person point of view, it was very entertaining because with every chapter came another story that contributed to Gladwell’s overall idea. Throughout the book, Gladwell purposely went into explicit detail to push readers to further visualize and picture themselves in the shoes of the “outliers”. His friendly tone and his narration of anecdotes help captivate the reader. Although his style of writing feels slightly informal, Gladwell is very sincere and wants the readers to understand the misperception of success. In doing so, Gladwell separated the book into two parts; Opportunity and Legacy. By dividing the book into two parts he gives the readers two viewpoints to the overall idea of success and links them

We as human beings all strive for success. We use success as a measure of everyday life.

Vince Lombardi, a great American football coach, and player, once stated that the “dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success”. According to Lombardi, hard work will get you to where you want to go, and many people would agree. In Malcolm Gladwell’s novel, “Outliers: The Story of Success,” secrets and misconceptions about success are exposed and explained. Gladwell was right in saying that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself...you can shape the world to your desires”, as evidenced by examples from the book itself, the successful career of Serena Williams, and my own personal story (Gladwell 151).

“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.” As seen above, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers revolves around success and the constituents influencing it. His quote above wraps up the overall theme that drives this book; success and the things that make success happen the most. Gladwell argues in Outliers, that success can be derived mainly from opportunities that the everyday person does not encounter. For example, bill gates creating microsoft, athletes becoming famous because of the month they were born in so on and so forth. To me, success does not rely on one’s opportunities. Instead it comes directly from individual merit.

Many people try and many people have failed. Everyone hopes to succeed in something, whether it be anything from sports to seminary, school, or just life. Every day there are people who invent things, they try over and over again until it works out. There are many successful people in this world and they didn’t get there easily. Success is something earned not given, and comes with trial and error.

Having the desire to be successful is one thing but without the doing the little things you will never get there. Successful people are committed to doing something every single day. Regardless of what is going on in their lives they work on their craft. They overcome the daily battle between procrastination and motivation. Every day, most people have a list of things they want to do; need to do; or should do; and what they don’t want to do. It’s these daily choices that are influenced by our discipline and

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

It is every person’s wish to progress or, move from one point to another in life. Everybody loves being successful. However, there are a number of factors, which should be put into consideration in order to be successful. These are fundamental things that got you where you are, but will not get you to your destiny. On this note, this paper will discuss at length, the important factors that should be taken into account, so as to be successful. The paper will start by introducing the relevance of success, and later delve on what factors will get you there, and sum up by giving an overall view on the topic at

Success is an effective word that society uses to define what set of achievements an individual creates for themselves. Based on society, success is one’s ability, intelligence, and how gifted an individual is. However, In “Outliers The Story of Success” Malcolm Gladwell argues that it does not matter if an individual is talented, smart, or driven, it does not mean that they will achieve up to their full abilities. Gladwell believes that the way to success is by an endless amount of practice, timing, and opportunity one is given and whether or not the individual sees and takes advantage of that opportunity.

The book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, examines the nature of success. He challenges the commonly held misconceptions about why people succeed and fail. Gladwell states that success results from a mix of factors such as opportunity, time, luck, heritage, and many others. Gladwell builds his argument by examining many “success stories” throughout the book. Gladwell’s overall message in the Outliers is that no one is self-made, no one can take one hundred percent credit for their own success because they had so form of help. After reading the book, I could not help but to agree with Gladwell. He helped me to better understand the steps it takes for a person to become successful.

In David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon Commencement Address, he tells the graduate students that in order to fully receive an education, they first must learn to think. Through his use of dry humor, Wallace gives the college graduates a realistic view on life after college, and how it will be physically, mentally, and emotionally draining and lead to boredom and frustration. However, he provides them with tools to combat these negative emotions in hopes to lessen the stress they will encounter in their daily lives.

As the years come along one after another people have come in and out of my life, but at the end of the day it all comes down to what I did?, what will I do?, and what can I do? Sometimes you will ask yourself if what you do is even valuable and sometimes it might seem like it doesn’t, but truly deep down it is and will always be. Throughout this journey, I have faced many obstacles and will still need to face many more as the years come. However, one thing I won’t regret is making