Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell Essay

Think of something you are passionate about. Is it a skill that you are able to push yourself in? People are always told that with enough hard work you could become a master of that skill. Even without natural talent, enough hard work at a skill will eventually build up the ability. By constantly pushing oneself past their limits during practice, they can improve quicker than someone who has the natural ability and doesn’t try. However, skill doesn’t always equal success. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his book The Outliers, luck plays a large role in the ability to obtain the 10,000 hours required to become an expert in a subject. However, many studies and even the researchers of the 10,000 hour study have rejected the rule outright. I disagree with Gladwell that 10,000 hours is required to become a master, and that luck plays a much larger role than he states.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers defines an outlier as “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.” According to this definition, an outlier in society is one who achieves something highly unusual when compared to their peers. According to the theory Outliers presents, success is based not only on one’s individual merit, but on the accumulative advantages they gain throughout their lives. Seemingly arbitrary circumstances such as the time and place of one’s birth can affect the entire course of their life. Society’s outliers are produced from an extremely unusual set of circumstances that allows them to diverge from the paths of those around them. One such example of an outlier comes from F. Scott

Malcolm Gladwell insists throughout his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, that the recipe for achievement is not simply based on personal talents or innate abilities alone. Gladwell offers the uncommon idea that outliers largely depend upon “extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies” (Gladwell19). According to Gladwell, successful men and women are beneficiaries of relationships, occasions, places, and cultures. The author draws on a different case study in each chapter to support a particular argument concerning success. Despite his indifference and suppression in regards to counterarguments, Gladwell’s claims are effective for many reasons, including through the accounts of experts, tone and style of writing, and the

“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.

Gladwell describes what makes some people more successful than others. His central premise focuses on the different opportunities that people receive throughout their lives and how those people use the opportunities to their advantage or disadvantage. Gladwell describes this theory as the Matthew Effect:

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.

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

Becoming successful is what most people aspire to be. Most people fantasize the dream house, car, and having the dream job. Even though success is viewed so highly, not everyone can be successful. Malcolm Gladwell explains that idea throughout his book Outliers. Gladwell’s chapters contain endless amounts of evidence that support his claims exceptionally well. But, Michiko Kakutani, a critic for New York Times, exposes Gladwell’s evidence as unreliable and unconvincing, and upon further research, Gladwell’s faults grew deeper. Even though Gladwell provides an extensive amount of evidence, that evidence is one-sided and relies on suggestion.

Social inequality stems from many facets of life and mindsets reproduced continuously in America. The main backbone of systematic inequality is formed off of race, gender and class, which all contain crucial aspects that further oppress those subjected to inequality in various aspects of life. The resources-schools, occupations, invested parents- around one fuels the opportunity in their lives, a concept highlighted by Malcom Gladwell, in his book, Outliers. Situations one are brought up in or uncontrollable genetic aspects can very easily restrain their opportunities. Racial discrimination, gender roles and inferiority and the lack of fluidity in the low and working class push inequality, which simultaneously influencing the rich and privileged.

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.

Success has several definitions and differs for each person. However, In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”, Gladwell prattles about Lewis Terman, a young professor at Stanford University during the First World War who conducted a special experiment that who charted some people from childhood into adulthood. After scanning through the results, Gladwell concludes that socioeconomic status and class as a good indicator whether an individual was destined for the higher or lower group. However, Gladwell’s findings are not truly correct due to the fact that socioeconomic class and status are only some of the factors that determine whether a person belongs to the higher or lower group.

Chapter 6 of Matthew Gladwell’s book Outliers, there are illustrations of many family feuds. While the feuds were horrific, they were indicative of pattern which existed within the Appalachian Mountains and surrounding areas. The region was seemingly plagued by a “culture of honor” (p. 167). Because of the ancestral heritage of the “Scotch Irish”, these mountaineers were willing to fight at the slightest challenge to their reputation (p. 167). This behavior results from the need to survive, and is strengthened by the clannish ways of the people. This inevitable violent way of life is correlated to the number of murders in the South, and the implication is these murders are personal, in the same way family feuds were in previous years. Moreover

The novel Outliers, aims to investigate the very thing we want for our family, our students, and ourselves. For most of our lives we have believed that with hard work, anyone can achieve success. That had to be the reason that poor immigrants like Andrew Carnegie and college dropouts like Bill Gates achieved unimaginable wealth. Most of us were taught that working harder than anyone else would lead to ultimate success.

Essentially, the topics Gladwell covered in this book include are, being at the right place at the right time, the 10,000-hour rule, timing, upbringing, and pursuing a meaningful career. Although all of these have been proven by Gladwell to be a major component of success, I do not agree with the idea of a particular upbringing will determine success. With this idea, Malcolm also includes that

Visualize a ball of clay, perfectly round, cold, and anxiously waiting for its potter to form it into a masterpiece. The ball is prepared for molding and the process begins. The strong hands of the potter pull the ball, squish the ball, and rubs out any imperfections. The potter brushes the newly shaped clay with glaze that seems to be dull and lacks beauty at every angle, but little does the viewer know that this pot holds secrets because their eye deceives them and doesn’t allow them to see the lively color lying beneath the surface. The potter makes yet another examination of the pot to be sure that he has erased any blemish or imperfection before gently placing it into the kiln. The kiln fires the pot allowing the pot’s colors to come through