What Is The Theme Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

According to Gladwell, “The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all” (Gladwell 285). Successful people such as Bill Gates, the Beatles, and Joe Flom are considered Outliers because they have achieved outstanding prosperity and fame. According to the traditional concept of success, they rose to the top against all odds because they were more talented than their competitors. The notion that innate talent is the root of success, however, is a fallacy. All outliers have had help getting to the top.

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.

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

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

“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

Malcolm Gladwell introduces his readers to his story by discussing an advantage several hockey players possess that cannot be controlled by the individual. In a roster that was provided with birth months, Barnsley, a Canadian psychologist, identified that, “in any elite group of hockey players—the very best of the best—40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March” (qtd. in Gladwell 22), and the percentages decreased as the months reached the end of the year. What

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

Teens today could improve upon so much to get a better chance to become more successful in life. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that a child’s performance level for anything has to do with their culture. He says that people of Asian descent will focus more and try harder when they do not understand something. He also talks about how constantly practicing can make you master a skill. If teens can use ideas that Gladwell talks about they can become more successful.

People may argue that Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is all about family background and family legacies. Others may say that what mattered most is the way someone are brought up and how much time and dedication they put into a skill or goal. People may also say that all of these factors are what the book focuses on in order to be successful. The book is not about family background, the “10,000 Hour-Rule”, or “Rice Paddies”. All of those encompass something very important, opportunity to actually apply those theories. The most important theory Gladwell presents is that opportunities are the key to become successful more so than the other theories.

One such story that Gladwell (2008) presents where that person’s birthdate plays a role in their success is that of hockey player, Scott Wasden (page 34). Scott’s father talks about Scott, saying that he always had a passion for the game and that he was always “…a bigger kid for his age