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

One example that he talks about is “The Matthew Effect”. “The Matthew Effect” is shown through the Medicine Hat Tigers elite hockey team of Canada; if one was to look at the roster, which includes their birth dates, they would find something quite peculiar. Most of the players were born in the early months of the year, for instance, January, February, and March. The cutoff date for making the elite team is also January 1st; meaning that all the hockey players born close to the cutoff date would be enrolled for the next year and therefore, have a whole year on people born in December of that same year. Not only are the early month players physically developing more quickly, but they also get more practice, which causes them to be more successful than others and have a huge advantage. The same results also appeared in Czech junior soccer teams as the cut off date was also January 1st. Gladwell states, “...the Czech soccer coaches might as well have told everyone born after mid-summer that they should pack their bags and go home” (27). Overall, this effect helps contribute to Gladwell’s main statement about opportunity, which is that the opportunities presented to you stem from the month, year, or era you were born in, your culture, and your family background. Sometimes they are even presented to you just by luck but, with either case, to become successful, you must be able to notice your opportunities and then invest yourself in

All children are not raised the same exact way. There are many different parenting styles, ranging from authoritative to neglectful parenting. Along with those many different styles also come many different opinions on which ones are better or worse for children. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that essentially looks into many factors that contribute to people's successes. In chapter four, Gladwell writes about how different parenting philosophies impact how successful the children will be when they are older. Gladwell claims that there are essentially only two main parenting philosophies, “concerted cultivation” and “accomplishment of natural growth” (Gladwell 104). Gladwell goes on to also claim that between those two parenting philosophies, children raised from concerted

Each of those opportunities continues to build, and they continue to gain the experience needed to become successful in their field. The hockey players that were born during a certain time of the year, January and February, to be exact, already had a greater advantage over the rest of the players born in any other months. This was because of the way the cut off is set in place for hockey at the elementary level. Those player, then, are a little older than the rest of the team, grow and mature a little faster, and become the better player. They then will be offered more opportunities, such as club teams, to continue their practice and eventually put in enough hours of practice to become a professional hockey

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

In many instances, those who are successful are made out to be some sort of separate breed, those who were innately able to perform remarkable feats that others, no matter how hard they tried, simply could not. Through this exhibition, many people view success as an elusive feature that only a select few can obtain. This theory is the main inspiration for Malcolm Gladwell’s exploration of success in Outliers: The Story of Success. In the book, Gladwell analyzes not only those who are successful, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, J.R. Oppenheimer, and Joe Flom, but what path led them towards becoming exceptionally skilled. This extremely in-depth analysis of successfulness forms Gladwell’s layered theory of what creates success, and his attempt

Success has been pondered over for centuries. How does one gain success? Is it worked for or is it only designated for a special few? Looking past the multitude of self help books that have been written, many like Malcolm Gladwell have begun to consider factors beyond just “working for it” as a contributor to success. One of these factors are cultural legacies. Though it is true that cultural legacies can be extremely powerful and that we should acknowledge them when considering someone’s success, it should be evident that the extent of power culture has is less than what Gladwell proposes. The place someone originated from has extremely influential effects on how that person thinks and acts, and in turn how they gain their success. The culture they grew up with becomes deeply rooted in their minds and results in different thought processes that shape the mindset they have while developing into an individual. However, Gladwell overestimates how powerful

In the book Outliers, the author Malcolm Gladwell elucidates that people have to practice for more than 10,000 hours or 10 years in order to fully become successful. People can achieve more regardless of not being financially wealthy. Even though some people that have practiced for less than 10,000 hours did achieve their goals, the majority of the successful people have practiced for more than 10,000 hours. Gladwell states that, “they work much, much harder” (39). and that they have to want to stand out from everyone else. I believe that very successful people are lucky, and have talent, and are willing to work harder than everyone else.

Malcolm Gladwell introduces his readers to his story by discussing an advantage several hockey players possess that cannot be controlled by the individual. In a roster that was provided with birth months, Barnsley, a Canadian psychologist, identified that, “in any elite group of hockey players—the very best of the best—40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March” (qtd. in Gladwell 22), and the percentages decreased as the months reached the end of the year. What

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).

Subject: In the Outliers, the author, Malcolm Gladwell, talks about how and why people are successful. It shows that hard work and dedication aren’t the only thing a person needs to be successful. In the first chapter of the book, Gladwell investigates one of Canada’s best hockey teams. He shows that nearly two thirds of the team were born in the first four months of the year, which is due to the fact that as children these players have always been the oldest on the team giving them a physical advantage. This small advantage had a domino effect because they were better as young children because of their physical dominance. Then they were on better teams,

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he portrays many stories of success. He writes about many situations that produced being successful. Jeannette Walls wrote a memoir, The Glass Castle, about her crazy upbring. In doing so, she wrote about her success story. Her story proves some of Gladwell’s theories.

In Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers he argues that outliers, people who have achieved success almost entirely by their own means through perseverance and hard work, are not possible. Gladwell claims instead that people achieve success primarily through the opportunities they are born with or are presented with throughout their life.

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

One published believer of successful people being a result of their constraints and opportunities alone, is Malcolm Gladwell. In his book “Outliers” he highlights several aspects of the histories of well known identities. He argues