Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers: The Story Of Success

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

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 Malcolm Gladwell's national bestseller "Outliers", Gladwell makes many intriguing assertions, one of them being "If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your imagination, you can shape the world to your desires." This statement is indeed authentic. When one is privileged with extraordinary talent and yet incorporates time and effort to improve it, that person is destined to succeed.

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

In Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell argues that success is not earned through talent. He states that success is obtained through forces people can not control such as luck and opportunities giving to them by others. Success is also gained through backgrounds and the year in which one is born. To support his argument Gladwell uses facts, statistics, and a few anecdotes.

In chapter three of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discourses about IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and evidently convinced that IQs are merely digits measuring one’s intelligence that does not determine one’s chance of success. Gladwell describes the Termites, an experimental group created by Professor Lewis Terman, as having phenomenal intelligence, who unfortunately ended up earning incomes that are “not that good” (pg.89). Description-less for a minority of lines about their incomes, the short sentence served a purpose for creating an important point across readers. The important point is that no matter how brilliant a person may be, he/she might not end up successful and earning great sums. By this, Gladwell is offering readers advice that one

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 book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell“It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy… it’s whether our work fulfills us” People say money can’t buy happinesses, while some base what they decided to do in life off high pay. Interior Designers create and decorate a comfortable, safe and aesthetically pleasing interior (The Art Career Project). The occupation keeps growing four percent from 2014 to 2024 which is slower than average but is expected to be in demand articulated in The Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also asserts one in four are self-employed. Not only do you need a bachelor's degree but also traits such as communication skills (All Art Schools). Its average pay is within the range of $40000 to $60000.

Outliers-The Story of Success is a sociological, and psychological non-fiction book, which discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. Malcolm Gladwell explains this by dividing the book into two parts, opportunity and legacy. Opportunity discusses how select people are fortunate enough to be born between the months of January through March, and also includes the idea that those who are already successful will have more opportunities to improve and become even more successful. The 10,000-hour rule proves the idea that in order to become successful in a certain skill, one must have practiced that skill for at least 10,000 hours. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule, timing

Do you have a natural born talent or know anyone with a gift or talent? Some people believe that if you do not practice that talent you will not reach your ultimate success and you will not be as successful as you can be. In the story, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell he reveals the true definition of success by researching various groups of people ranging from different ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and family culture and their path to success and how they got there. Everyone’s story of success wasn’t the same, and that was his main objective in writing this book to show society that everyone has the chance to succeed or fail regardless of your situation in life. Although many people may believe that having talent is

In chapter seven and chapter eight of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell effectively claims that acknowledging cultural legacies betters the chance of success. In chapter seven of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell entices readers on the topic of plane crashes in the aviation world, while commendably and credibly synthesizing the controversy around the question of how and why plane crashes occur.  When illustrating the terrible crash of Korean Airlines Flight 801 in 1997, Gladwell intricately describes the language, words, actions, and psychology of the pilots and crew members associated with the plane crash to better the authenticity of his claim.  Combining these ideas, Gladwell forms a theory that arguably proves to be true

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.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, believes that working at something for 10,000 hours is required to achieve mastery and become a world class expert at anything. While this is a nice way of making it seem like anyone can be successful, it is not true. Some things you will never be good at, no matter how much practice you put into it. There are also a variety of factors that play into success and becoming a world class expert besides practice. Some things require much less practice than the magic 10,000 hour threshold that Gladwell established.