Outliers Gladwell Analysis

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

This seemingly small advantage in most cases tends to give the older kids an advantage over the younger players because they get more playing time, get placed on better teams, receive better coaching, and in turn become more skilled hockey players. Obviously those who go on to succeed must have innate talent, but that is not the primary factor deciding whether they succeed or fail at the sport. The primary factor in how good they become at hockey is the better opportunities they received because of their age. When applying Gladwell’s Outlier theory “The outliers in a particular field reached their lofty status through a combination of ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage” (37) the birth date of the hockey players serves a crucial role and is just an arbitrary advantage. The coaches should not place the same expectations on the younger players or the younger players should be put in a younger league more suitable for them so they too can be given a chance to become great like those born in the earlier months. Since this doesn’t happen though those born earlier are much more likely to become great, which provides a solid backing of Gladwell’s Outlier theory.

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:

Firstly, Gladwell quickly jumps into an example of someone considered to be an outlier. This example surrounds hockey players and their success. From this, Gladwell points out a shocking reality surrounding how a person’s birthday can affect their entire life. The players are not given the same opportunities based on their birthdays, in fact those born after certain dates do not receive nearly the same amount of chances for playing and increasing their skill. This is a reality that many people would be unaware of if it were not for the expertise of Psychologist Roger Barnsely.This is even evident in the

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

Gladwell’s overall writing style in Outliers managed to convey his message using formal yet simple diction and mostly uncomplicated syntax. His writing was symbolic at times, but also quite literal at others. The book was relatable, memorable, and easy to understand. He uses some rhetorical devices, such as this polysyndeton: “he’s tall and gawky and sixteen years old” (Gladwell 42). He also used other literary devices, such as dialogue: “‘it came out of the blue’” (Gladwell 248). These devices added complexity and depth and also caught my attention. They are key to writing a book that keeps the reader interested and helps them pay attention to and remember key details. The impact of organizing the book into “Part 1: Opportunity” and “Part 2: Legacy” was that it showed there was a clear division between the two parts of achieving success. Having this distinction helps the reader to learn each concept and in the end, be able to understand the overall theme. For opportunity, he describes how opportunities need to emerge in order for success to be reached, such as how “[t]heir world—their culture and generation and family history—gave them the greatest of opportunities” (Gladwell 158) in the case of many people. Gladwell distinguishes the two parts of the book in part two, saying that so far, we have seen that “success arises out of the steady accumulation of advantages… [that] all make a significant difference in how well you do in the world. The question for the second part

Malcolm Gladwell defines an outlier as an individual who has accomplished so much in extraordinary circumstances compared to people with normal circumstance. Outliers are individuals that succeed in life despite the odds that are placed against them. However, Gladwell states in his nonfiction book Outliers: The Story of Success that the success of an outlier “is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier in the end is not an outlier at all,” (299).

The question Gladwell asks seems so simple, but it gets the reader to pause and think. People can relate to it in many situations, so it is personal for each person. Gladwell also uses analogies to make his points come across. For example, when relating successful people to growing trees, “The tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds.

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, his central premise is that success is not obtained the way most people think it is. We are often told that success come from sheer luck, or a triumphant rags-to-riches story. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of many successful outliers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, and many more. He breaks down each story and points out what actually made that persona successful. While breaking down the story her also introduces the reader to what he believe are the actual keys to success. In the book he talks about The Matthew Theory, The 10,000 hour Rule, Practical Intelligence vs Analytical Intelligence, and Demographic Luck.

Part One examines opportunity as a function of timing. Canadian hockey players born closer to the magic birthday of January 1 have advantages that compound over

Gladwell states, “ Gladwell states, “ Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are."(pg. 285) This quote from Outliers shows how Gladwell almost undermines certain people’s success. No matter who the person is, in order to have a virtuous life full of fortune you need to put in an ample amount of time and effort. David K. Lee is a philanthropist and owner of Hing Wa Lee jewelers. Lee inherited the jewelry business when he was a young man and he is now a part of the billionaires club. Gladwell would argue that David Lee got his fortune from opportunity because he inherited his dad’s jewelry company. This logic is interminably flawed. Inheriting the jewelry company could have helped him reach his success, but Lee’s personal merit is what helped him make his way to the top. If lee just ran the jewelry shop like it was being run when his father gave it up, he would have never been as financially sound as he is now. Instead, Lee ventured out and broadened the businesses horizons and made it a major brand selling business, selling huge names such as Rolex, Audemars and peu, and Hublot. Lee’s ambition to make his dad’s jewelry company something much better is what made him make millions of dollar. It wasn’t the opportunity. Even if David K. Lee didn’t inherit Hing Wa Lee Jewelers, he would have found another way to put his innovative mind to work in order to create a

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.

To begin this section of his explanation he often says things such as, “I hope by now that you are skeptical of this kind of story” (Gladwell 119). By speaking directly to readers he is able to make them rethink the story they just read and look for anomalies. During this second part of discussing a particular event or person Malcolm Gladwell begins to argue his point. These stories seem like a typical story of success or disaster on the surface, but he picks them apart and identifies how factors such as background, birthdate, culture, time period, and hard work influenced the outcome. For example, in his story about Jewish immigrant lawyers he begins to discuss the importance of a person’s background after telling Joe Flom’s success story. After drawing readers into the topic, he describes a second time the story and points where Joe Flom’s Jewish immigrant background impacts his success. He argues that the main reason Jewish lawyers were able to become successful was because the large law firms wouldn 't hire them and this caused them to create their own business where they would take on the cases that the larger law firms weren 't willing to deal with such as takeover disputes. When the times changes and these types of issues gained popularity, the Jewish law firms had a head start and this allowed them to become extremely successful. Jewish lawyers who lived in the perfect time period were given the opportunity to succeed because of their immigrant

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

In addition, throughout “Outliers” it becomes apparent that the circumstances people have been born into assists them to surpass any competition. For example, technology legends such as Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Vinod Khosla, and Steve Jobs were all born in a one year time span. What a crazy coincidence that four of the most successful men in technology were all born so close to one another. The truth is that certain opportunities arose for all of them in college: easy access to computers. If they had been any older or younger, they would have missed on the opportunities to use the new technology due to being stuck