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

The author’s thorough investigation of an industry that many tend to overlook or avoid uncovers an incredibly vital part to his overall point. Joe Flom, along with the many other Jewish lawyers that shared his same experience in the 1950’s and 1960’s, exemplify Gladwell’s point that success, “...is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities” (Gladwell 155). Their circumstances of constantly and predictably being segregated from white-shoe firms due solely because of their appearance and religion allowed them to put deliberate practice, or their ten-thousand hours, into mastering the law of litigation and proxy fights that would become a premium in modern business. In addition, the circumstances of their upbringing allowed them the opportunity to have their parents instill a great work ethic into them as children, which would influence their success in adulthood. The author shows through the analysis and realization that many of the Jewish lawyers that became prominent through this law were sons of business owners. Gladwell ultimately uses this chapter to display how truly attainable success can be if the opportunities to work toward success are taken, and also how success is created out of a long process, and many times, people will, “prematurely write off [others] as

Is it coincidental that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and many other multi-millionaires were all born within a span of 3 years? Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, suspects that there is something more behind this occurrence than just a simple coincidence. He asserts that there is no such thing as a self-made man and success does not come from natural talent, rather it comes from extraordinary opportunities and hidden advantages. In Outliers, Gladwell attempts to debunk the myth that people are successful because of themselves, and not because of other factors. Even Malcolm Gladwell acknowledges that passion and hard work are required to succeed. However, he believes that this passion and time to put in the work would not be possible without the aid of extraordinary opportunities. Gladwell prepares a firm set of logical arguments, including the advantages of birth dates, cultural legacy and family backgrounds, to guarantee that his audience will be convinced of his conviction.

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 his book Outliers: the Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell discusses successful people, and what it is in their lives that make them successful. While many believe that it is one’s intelligence and personality that allows them to succeed, Gladwell argues that it is the environment they live in. The author provides numerous examples that support his argument, including the people of Roseto who rarely die of heart disease, sports players born at a certain time of the year that are highly accomplished, the importance of culture in airplane pilots, and many more. Out of all the various people doing extraordinary things described by Gladwell, a certain individual caused me to stop and think. Christopher Langan is known as the smartest man in America. With an IQ of 195, Langan is a clear example of what is referred to in Gladwell’s book as an outlier. His cognitive abilities are far higher than than that of the average person, who possesses an average IQ of 100. Langan should be a highly successful man, but he isn’t. Chapters 3 and 4 of Outliers explores why Langan, who is possibly the most intelligent person in the world, has accomplished nothing more than what an average person will accomplish in his or her lifetime. This inspired me to further examine people like Langan, and why they weren’t as successful as they were expected to be.

What exactly is an Outlier? Malcolm Gladwell explains to his readers in "Outliers" that an Outlier are "men and women who do things out of the ordinary." Gladwell explains to us that an in order to become successful, there are many factors that can lead to it including birth dates, community and culture, and legacy. He doesn't entirely believe that you can achieve success just from individual merit and hard work but that it takes the environment around you and opportunity to become successful. In the contrary, Gladwell writes a whole chapter titled, "The 10,000-Hour Rule" which he explains that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become successful in something. Then he mentions that it opportunity plays a part in this success, when speaking about The Beetles, and how they were giving an opportunity to play at a club for about ten thousand hours. If it wasn't for this opportunity that was given to The Beetles, Gladwell believes that they wouldn't be as who they are now and would have never been as successful and wealthy as they are now. Gladwell claims that social and economic background can determine whether or not a individual will succeed. This claim is false becaus a person who is wealthy can not be as successful as one who is not wealthy.

Gladwell’s book Outliers is the most interesting book I have ever read. I say that because of the ideas that are presented and the way that he presents those ideas. He uses stories with characters to get the ball rolling of what he was to talk about. He then uses other books, professionals, and experiments to provide reasoning for his ideas. The chapter that I especially liked, and that I thought he did a good job of getting his point across in was chapter 6— “Harlan, Kentucky”. I believe in this chapter he did his best job of trying to get his point across which is, cultural background plays a bigger part in our way of living than we realize.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his novel entitled, “Outliers,” explores the landscape of success and shows us that success comes from the culture that surrounds the successful , not their intelligence and ambition. Gladwell explains this through a series of situations and studies. In Part One, he discusses success as a result of timing, such as the month or year you were born. In Part Two, he focuses on cultural legacies and how they play a role in helping someone become successful. He unfolds the reasons why hockey players are not born in the latter part of the year, why the Beatles and Bill Gates were able to become so successful, and why Jewish immigrants were able to become successful lawyers and doctors. Gladwell disproves many beliefs by discovering

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

In the prevalent view today, a great number of people believe that the building blocks of success are within the personality and quality of the person. Malcolm Gladwell asserts a totally different nature in his bestselling non-fiction book Outliers, he indicates that majority of success comes from external forces in which few people are granted particular opportunities and advantages that not everybody is broken by destiny (i.e. Date of birth, family background, money, etc.). Although he poses strong evidence to back up his arguments, Gladwell, somewhat neglected the value of hard-work, knowledge and determination in his book. Gladwell’s theory of success holds some legitimacy; even so his record is ultimately depressing about the possibility of success. The

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book analyzing the traits and characteristics of the most successful people in human history, hence the title Outliers as it examines those who have stood out dramatically in society. Born in Fareham, Hampshire, England in 1963, Malcolm moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of six and spent his remaining developmental years in the country (Dphiffer). After graduating from Trinity College in Toronto in 1984, Malcolm began work for the Washington Post in 1987 where he stayed until 1996. Since then, Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker, and in addition to Outliers he has also written two more New York Times best-sellers, and is highly regarded in the field of journalism and writing. He has received numerous accolades for his work including being named one of the top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, along

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.

Outlier is defined as “something that is situated away from or classified differently from a main or related body” or “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample”, which is the beginning to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. The meaning of outlier itself in relation to success symbolizes those who stand out with exceptional rates of success. The book does not necessarily cover how to become an outlier (in fact it first deams becoming an outlier is nearly impossible) but more which are the factors that have contributed to certain outliers in history on a broad spectrum of hockey players to the beatles to even the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates.

We both are firm in the fact that success comes from the lessons we learn from our past generations, opportunities available at our time, and our surroundings. Before I read Outliers, I always believed that if a person applies hard work and effort that the person can be successful at whatever the person put their mind to. Gladwell agrees with me, “Those three things---autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward--- are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying” (Gladwell 149). In other words, work is only hard work if it is not meaningful, if it is not something you desire in doing. Becoming successful at the profession you aspire to be is not technically work, it is just something you love to do in life. Malcolm Gladwell’s words of wisdom in the novel Outliers, personally has created a new perspective in my mind not only about success, but life in

In the Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell, one main idea introduced is that the success of an individual generates from the ‘10,000-hour rule’. Gladwell comments, “researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.” (40) The idea behind it is simple. Any person who wants to succeed must devote ten thousand hours of practice to what they want to achieve. Gladwell also suggests that instead of viewing a person by their success, people should focus on where the success thrived from.