Denotation Of Success In Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print

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).

While movies and books provide society with examples of heroes rising from nothing, Malcolm Gladwell argues that heroes in the real world are successful because of their circumstances, their families, and their appetite for hard work, and through an analysis of his book Outliers and various other sources, it is made clear that this is correct. Gladwell starts his book by introducing how an individual’s appetite for hard work is influential to their success. In an article for the New Yorkers, Gladwell states that “the psychologist John Hayes looked at seventy-six famous classical composers and found that, in almost every case, those composers did not create their greatest work until they had been composing for at least ten years” (Gladwell). In his book, Gladwell explains that ten years of hard practice equals about 10,000

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

Malcom Gladwell's book, "Outliers, The Story of Success", depicts what he believes to be the key to a true success in any field, opportunity. He refers to opportunity as being the one thing that differentiates between the people who make it in this world and those who don't. In the first two chapters, Gladwell refers to specific people who have been extremely successful in their fields of expertise: The Beatles, Bill Gates, and Bill Joy. Each of these people are very well known because of what they have contributed to society.

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

The author explains exactly what the professional asserts and how particular pieces of evidence relate to Gladwell’s unconventional idea of success.

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

Success. It is one of the top life ambitions for many. It is the reason people go to college, strive to get good marks and work hard at their jobs as an attempt to leave a mark on the world and be known as someone who has achieved. Today, it is mostly held that in order to be successful, one must have some initial talent or intelligence and then work, work and work in order to succeed. This concept is brought up in Gladwell’s Outliers as the 10000 hour rule. However, we see that Gladwell brings up again and again the notion that opportunities are a key element to success. In Chapters 3 and 4, Gladwell shows that this also applies to those who, by sheer talent and intelligence, are already outliers: geniuses.

Additionally, Gladwell says that the conditions and circumstances surrounding our lives are significant, influential factors that determine our success, neither our inner ability or talent. In Outliers, Gladwell states: “Successful people don’t do it alone. Where they come from matters. They’re products of particular places and environments.” (Gladwell 179). This alludes to the whole idea that success varies from

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.

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

“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.

In “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell an interesting point is made, this point is “if you work hard and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to you desires” (Gladwell 151).This is true in many of the stories told in the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell several famous people are talked about such as, The Beatles, Bill Gates. But in this book several studies on education, parenting, and psychology are cited. We also learn that there are many differences between what others may consider to be success, and what Malcolm Gladwell considers success.

A great deal of effort to meet success is highly significant. Malcolm Gladwell defines the story of success in Outliers, which goes into depth on how success is attained, by looking into the abilities greeted by opportunities and advantages successful people have. The section in Outliers, The 10,000-Hour Rule elaborates on the magic number to greatness, below the surface of every great achievers includes talent plus training, distinguishes one performer from another, by how hard she or he works. “We