Why Are Do Underdogs Win in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, a novel depicting success, provides different examples of how an individual can achieve success in every chapter of his book to show his audience that success, despite a variety of barriers, is in fact in our control. A very important chapter titled, “Marita's Bargain”, explains the flaws in today’s public school systems. He shows the problems with the solutions to fix them while showing the alternatives to the regular system such as the KIPP Program in New York. The KIPP Program (Knowledge is Power Program) is a new kind of middle school that selects students from less fortunate locations and uses unique teaching strategies to turn them around into fantastic learners. In the chapter, Gladwell is extremely descriptive by using visual words to paint the picture of the South Bronx in New York City. He describes the buildings that were built in the 1960’s as squat and bleak looking. Gladwell had an interest in this subject as it involves success, however he had no prior experiences to produce the piece. Gladwell establishes personal credibility through the use of knowledge, reason, and facts and figures. He comes across very knowledgeable on the subject presenting great data with excellent vocabulary. He is able to do this with no obvious bias as well. Gladwell shows authority because he is well known for writing novels that involve success. His intention is to teach and explain how schools need to change the length of vacation breaks

The power of opportunity is emitted through the dark clouds of unique mystery that surrounds every successful individual. In the novel Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses subjects pertaining to opportunity and legacy through the use of stories and analytical statistics. Consequently, he achieves credibility and support for his message, while simultaneously providing a more insightful approach to mysterious correlations that commonly occur. Within these correlations, the author implements an unusual predicament, then derives a powerful theme. For example, when discussing the birthdays of successful hockey players, Gladwell explains the significance behind the notion of seizing the day. He articulates the value found in people who are able to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities they are blessed to have as a result of circumstances; thus, disproving the popular idea that successful people are purely self-made. Gladwell closes out the section by discussing one’s opportunity. He states, “Their world- their culture and generation and family history- gave them the greatest of opportunities”(Gladwell 158). Furthermore, he bridges the novel together by

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy is what really

By definition, success is a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. How an individual reaches the point of 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” (285). Throughout the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the pieces of the secret to success are put together. Three parts of success include pure luck, the amount of time and effort put into working to achieve your goal and where you come from.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book “David and Goliath” describe the stories of underdogs. In the chapter 2, he explains the story about Vivek Ranadivé who decided to coach his daughter’s no experienced basketball team. Malcolm told a fantastic story about how a father who has no basketball experience helped her daughter’s basketball won the game. The points somehow convinced me because the father really changed their team’s weakness to the advantage. This shows that sometimes have resources or preponderances are not good things. Try everything and don't give up easily, because the results are unpredictable. Notwithstanding, the story is really convincing but there are some points in the book let me feel skeptical to the book. The girls won the game use

Underdog, a term that we are all too familiar with, has classified disadvantages in life for centuries. Little do we know that there is no such thing as being an underdog, it is simply just a myth. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of David and Goliath, explains through a series of real life stories how some of the biggest disadvantages can really be an advantage. The three-sectioned book goes into explicit detail on the advantages of disadvantages (Gladwell pg.18), theory of desirable difficulty (Gladwell pg. 97), and the limit of power (Gladwell pg. 195). Along with the book David and goliath is the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Jamal, the main character in Slumdog Millionaire, along with the people in the book, are the epitome of an underdog. This

Prompt: Write an essay that defends or challenges or qualifies Gladwell’s assertion that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and you use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151).

To be successful has many interpretations, whether it be your own, from the dictionary or societies’ definition. Within Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell explains that being successful has nothing to do with what kind of person you are, so whether you’re intelligent and hardworking or lazy and aloof, it depends on your circumstances growing up. Whether your parents happen to be immigrants, you’re one of the smartest men in the country or you practice like there’s no tomorrow, your own personal success, according to Gladwell is defined by the conditions you grew up in; the idea of being successful varies from culture to culture and because of that there is no definite meaning of successful other than one’s interpretation.

In chapter six of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell persuades that cultural legacies remain for generations and ought to affect how one behaves in certain circumstances. To validate his statement, Gladwell began telling a story of Harlan, Kentucky, a town in a mountainous region where there resides two bickering families; Howard and Turner. The “county was in an uproar” (pg.164) and the families were finishing each other off. Gladwell then began claiming the factor that drove the uproar was the “culture of honor” (pg.166), meaning the culture around highlands are aggressive due to the need to protect their livelihoods. This reveals that future generation in the highlands will be trained similar to their ancestors in order to maintain survival. Also,

There are always issues, in every country, continent, and place throughout the world. An issue can range from something small, like losing a sports game to a much larger scale, for example, the next World War. The novel Outliers:The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell inhibits many issues, specifically it discusses the Matthew Effect which demonstrates how the successful get more successful while the latter get left behind, comparing this to hockey players in Canada. Also, it demonstrates the differing opportunities given to religious minorities in New York City, explicitly Jewish lawyers. Furthermore, aggression in the southern parts of the United States is explored, which relates to the treacherous riots because of police brutality towards racial minorities.

Malcolm Gladwell points out that being considered an outlier is a matter of opportunities. He states that to be a great achiever, one must have been born into the right home, at the right time; and in the right place. Provided, money does not necessarily signify future success, nor does intelligence. Hard work can only take one so far, while the rest is already set in motion. Here’s how Gladwell portrays this in his book Outliers: The Story of Success.

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

Journalism exposed him to new people of different backgrounds and his interest in research allowed for him to dig deeper into why things happen the way that they do. For example, his first assignment required him to cover fashion, instead of attending a high-end fashion show he opted to write a story about a man who sold $8 t-shirts. This shows his interest to research why certain people chose different paths in life. Gladwell could have written about high-end fashion and the people behind it but he chose to write about the man who sold cheap t-shirts in order to find out why he also didn’t pursue a career in high fashion.

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

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