Outliers, By Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, and the essay Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, interact with each other quite well with many similarities and differences. In Gladwell’s book, he shares many stories of how people become successful, explaining that success is not achieved based on the character traits and work habits of an individual. He says, “We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds. But do we know enough about the sunlight that warmed them, the soil in which they put down the roots…” (Gladwell, 20) Gladwell insists that success counts on where an individual comes from and all aspects of their life. However, in Self-Reliance, Emerson never mentions success. He explains the importance of individualism and free thought. “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.” (Emerson, 9) Emerson argues that everyone should go out and seek the life that pleases them, whether that is success, or not. Despite the differences in the two texts, in their writings, both authors show how individuals can step away from the rest of society and become outliers.

In the number one national bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell presents what he considers to be “the formula to success.” In contrast to his theories of success, Ms. Michiko Kakutani calls his book clumsy and weak and claims it doesn’t present an idea of success that appeals to everyone. I agree with Michiko Kakutani; her statements seemed very accurate, strong, and detailed. Malcolm Gladwell’s book was chock-full of generalizations that were made based on one particular group or person. She points out all the flaws and poorly reasoned anecdotes that were in Gladwell’s “Story of Success.”

An Outlier is someone who stands out in a group due to their mastery of a certain skill and because of that they are successful. According to Gladwell not anyone can become successful; it takes the right circumstances and opportunities. Human’s capability seems limitless, and if we put in the time and hard work we can achieve our goals. We as a society love to think that a person may become successful and that we all have the same opportunities and chance of succeeding if we just work hard enough. According to Malcom Gladwell, the author of the book Outlier’s these common beliefs are incorrect and are not the means of a person becoming successful. The main theme throughout Gladwell’s Outlier’s is that successful

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.

Lastly, Gladwell incorporates the audience’s interests to appeal to them in an emotional and engaging method in the subject of the argument, success. The goal for many is to be successful in their specific craft, and even from the title Outliers: The Story of Success Gladwell advertises his own story of success, and the audience believes if they follow the methods that successful people use then they will be successful too. Gladwell gives testimonies of people that would be predictably successful but never made it far due to not having a community to support them to open opportunities. He describes Chris Langan’s lack of credibility and success despite having a higher IQ than Albert Einstein and before he lets Langan describe a typical day

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

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.

Outliers is Malcolm Gladwell 's examination of what makes some people excessively more successful than others. These "outliers," as he calls them, are commonly thought to possess talent and intelligence far above that of the average person, but he challenges this popular belief by looking at the background of some notable outliers.

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).

If an appraisal was to be completed to determine the general definition of success in society, it would most likely refer to merit, resembling, an individual’s positive characteristics, their level of intelligence, or perhaps the resilient nature of their personality. In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, he challenges this everyday assumption of success and shows that there is a pattern to it. Along with this pattern he describes, Mr. Gladwell believes that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151). However, according to the entire conceptual notion of this book, it is quite the opposite of Mr. Gladwell’s

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

Most people normally bring about personal qualities when they think for the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts the assumption of people through the book, Outliers. Gladwell insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the personal qualities. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion about hard working “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires”. Although people should work hard to seize the opportunity for success, success actually came from extrinsic factors because opportunity of relative age gives physical and emotional advantages through appropriate timing for birth, opportunity to raise under the concerted cultivation increases one’s practical intelligence, and opportunity to fulfill 10,000 hours of practice guarantees time to achieve success at every field.

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

Malcolm Gladwell’s perception of people’s pathways to success is biased, because he implied that success is based off of the advantages they’re given. For instance, the examples he gave in this chapter were all of people who had talent, but were also afforded huge opportunities that directly aligned them on the path to succeed. He did not, however, acknowledge those who became successful based on their individuality. Success based on individuality is far more meaningful and valued than success based on handouts.