Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, a novel depicting success, provides different examples of how an individual can achieve success in every chapter of his book to show his audience that success, despite a variety of barriers, is in fact in our control. A very important chapter titled, “Marita's Bargain”, explains the flaws in today’s public school systems. He shows the problems with the solutions to fix them while showing the alternatives to the regular system such as the KIPP Program in New York. The KIPP Program (Knowledge is Power Program) is a new kind of middle school that selects students from less fortunate locations and uses unique teaching strategies to turn them around into fantastic learners. In the chapter, Gladwell is extremely descriptive by using visual words to paint the picture of the South Bronx in New York City. He describes the buildings that were built in the 1960’s as squat and bleak looking. Gladwell had an interest in this subject as it involves success, however he had no prior experiences to produce the piece. Gladwell establishes personal credibility through the use of knowledge, reason, and facts and figures. He comes across very knowledgeable on the subject presenting great data with excellent vocabulary. He is able to do this with no obvious bias as well. Gladwell shows authority because he is well known for writing novels that involve success. His intention is to teach and explain how schools need to change the length of vacation breaks

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book with very insightful and intriguing information that is important for all people with professional careers to understand. It allowed me to understand the importance of success and how that success will be achieved. Success will never be achieved by taking short cuts or beating around the bush. It is accomplished through hard work and many hours, just as Gladwell explains in his book.

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).

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, his central premise is that success is not obtained the way most people think it is. We are often told that success come from sheer luck, or a triumphant rags-to-riches story. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of many successful outliers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, and many more. He breaks down each story and points out what actually made that persona successful. While breaking down the story her also introduces the reader to what he believe are the actual keys to success. In the book he talks about The Matthew Theory, The 10,000 hour Rule, Practical Intelligence vs Analytical Intelligence, and Demographic Luck.

While the author, Malcolm Gladwell, does not dispute that hard work in a necessary component, we learn that many factors, lucky breaks, and some coincidences all occur in making high achievers into true outliers. We also learn that many of the richest, most famous, and most successful people in

Malcolm Gladwell points out that being considered an outlier is a matter of opportunities. He states that to be a great achiever, one must have been born into the right home, at the right time; and in the right place. Provided, money does not necessarily signify future success, nor does intelligence. Hard work can only take one so far, while the rest is already set in motion. Here’s how Gladwell portrays this in his book Outliers: The Story of Success.

In the book, The Outliers: The Story of Success, written by Malcom Gladwell he described an outlier as someone who does something out of the ordinary or different, something that lies outside the box. His beliefs about people being successful are easily supported. He reviews the lives of extremely successful people and how they obtained success while utilizing their social interactions, last name and distinct events that occurred throughout their life. His writing throughout the book was sturdy and powerful. Gladwell writes effectively to get his point across by using deductive organization, repetition and logos.

In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell examines the reason why some people are anomalously more successful than others. One would normally think that success is achieved through intelligence, however Gladwell squashes that notion. Throughout his book, one sees that relying on only intelligence can sometimes be detrimental to one’s success, especially in chapters three and four, where one man (who possessed an extremely high IQ) was forced to drop out of college due to a lack of money and social skills. Gladwell argues that, while these outliers can seem to be more successful due to mere intelligence and skill, in reality, they have achieved it through a highly interlinked mix of background, practice habits, and legacy.

The Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, attempts to disprove the widely-accepted myth that successful people attain their success entirely through hard work and dedication. Gladwell insists that outliers, or extraordinary achievers, are beneficiaries of opportunity, and owe their feats largely to chance. Gladwell aims to convince that “…the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are” (Gladwell 11), through various case studies, in which the subjects’ achievements can be attributed to their environments and circumstances.

Success is all about the time and place; it can make or break someone’s chances. In the context of this book, and outlier is someone who stands out from the crown, someone so exceptional it is challenging to find anyone like

During the Kennedy era, many Americans saw Jacqueline Kennedy only as the wife of the president who did not know much; however, not only was she a faithful wife and First Lady, but she was also a very intelligent magazine editor with a very interesting life. In the New York Times bestselling novel called The Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell challenges the way that success is typically viewed by introducing the idea of an “outlier.” Gladwell defines an outlier as “something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body (Gladwell 1).” Throughout the book, he goes on to explain that success is much more than hard work; it also has to do with what he calls “The 10,000-Hour Rule” or “The Matthew Effect.”

Success is a very sought after aspect in our society. Everyone strives for the nicest car, the largest home, or the most exciting job. However, Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, discusses how the path to success is not simple and it has a lot of factors that play into it. Being on a sports team throughout school or being a “student-athlete” may be one of them. Student athletes learn concepts like teamwork, hard work, and persistence—all of which are critical parts of the average adult career. The sports that these children and teens participate in fuel their competitive drive that can only help them in the workplace.

Every book as a meaning for being written, and every teacher has a specific purpose for a book to be read by their class. Each book presented to this class provided a multitude of life lessons to take from them. These books are Choosing Powerful Words, Outliers, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. Each book was assigned for a given purpose whether it be to teach the class the eloquence of words, how to use those words to influence others, or just being successful in life. Choosing Powerful Words was written by Ronald Carpenter and is a source for tips about speaking and using your words to better present your message to others. In his book, he states that two ways to do this are emphasis and metaphor. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell provides examples of successful people who’s achievements ‘fall outside normal experience”. In this he explains the ten thousand hour rule as well as the Matthew Effect. The final book for reading is How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie. Originally published during the depression, Carnegie gives tips for being a leader as well as techniques in handling people. Two key components of this are to not criticize, condemn, or complain. One aspect of being a leader is to praise every and the slightest of improvements. Each of these components of each book are important and can be related to parts of every person’s life in some manner.

He notes that we tend to believe in the power of “individual merit.” Moreover, we believe people are unusually successful because they are unusually gifted. They have innate talent, determination and drive; therefore, they are rewarded with great success. Gladwell’s fundamental objective in this book is to demonstrate that our perception of success is wrong in many ways. He argues that expertise and achievement do not just happen, but rather they are created from a combination of various factors.

Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the importance of the relationship between success and a person’s upbringing in Chapters 3 and 4, “The Trouble with Geniuses, Parts 1 and 2” of “Outliers.” This book attempts to help people understand what true success is, the value of it, and how the few people that actually achieve it get there. Gladwell’s theories helped me to realize that success is simply reaching your full potential in life by taking advantage of every gift and opportunity offered to you in order to make an impact on the world. In the opening chapters Gladwell mentions the importance of experiencing “extraordinary opportunities” (Gladwell 42) throughout one’s life to reach ultimate success. He also makes it