Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Is it coincidental that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and a myriad of other multi-millionaires were all born within a span of 3 years? Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, suspects that there is more behind this occurrence than just a simple coincidence. He asserts that there is no such thing as a self-made man and that 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 all because of themselves, However, Malcolm Gladwell recognizes that success is intangible without ardor and hard work. He synthesizes a coherent set of logical arguments, by discussing the advantages of birth dates, stating the

In the book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell“It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy… it’s whether our work fulfills us” People say money can’t buy happinesses, while some base what they decided to do in life off high pay. Interior Designers create and decorate a comfortable, safe and aesthetically pleasing interior (The Art Career Project). The occupation keeps growing four percent from 2014 to 2024 which is slower than average but is expected to be in demand articulated in The Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also asserts one in four are self-employed. Not only do you need a bachelor's degree but also traits such as communication skills (All Art Schools). Its average pay is within the range of $40000 to $60000.

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.

How many hours of someone’s life are necessary to perfect a skill? 300? 5000? Perhaps try 10,000 hours. In this chapter from Outliers, “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell argues that talent isn’t innate, but takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill based on opportunity, talent, and practice. Throughout the chapter “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell effectively relies on logos--evidence from well-known figures and charts that show age similarities--to support his theory that it takes a particular window of time to offer someone the opportunity to practice for 10,000 hours to succeed at a skill. However, Gladwell ineffectively relies on repetition of evidence and failure to

Success, whether you achieve it by getting a perfect ACT score, becoming a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, or through a sticker for getting all your spelling words correct, achieving success can be accomplished in any way. The meaning of success to me is when one ambitiously works hard and takes the utmost advantages to a certain extent. This past summer I was given a great opportunity to read a story by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success in which Gladwell refutes the standard argument that successful people are so simply because they put in a whole lot of hard work and effort. Alternatively, Gladwell offers the thesis that "people don't rise from nothing"; instead, successful people are "beneficiaries of hidden

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).

Cultural legacies are inherited from one generation to another and they execute a role of directing attitudes and demeanor that we are so habitual to them, that the world doesn't make sense without them. Growing up in a culture and its legacies affect an individual morally. He explains the importance of cultural legacies by giving an example of Asian math students and how good they are in Calculus and Algebra. “We assume that being good at calculus and algebra is a simple function of how smart someone is. But the difference between the number systems in the east and the west suggest something very different-that being good at math may also be rooted in a group’s culture” (Gladwell 231). He point out the difference between the number systems, which helps students to learn number and to do math at faster rate. The cultural practice shapes individual's thoughts and learning habits in such a way that method of learning are deeply rooted into their minds. Stanislas Dehaene writes, “Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be uttered in less than one quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 is “qi”). Their equivalents are-“four”, “seven”-are longer” (qtd. in Gladwell 228). He explain about the time taken to pronounce the numbers, it is comparatively longer in English then Chinese. This is one of the reason Asian students can remember larger amount of number and can do faster calculation even without a calculator. Gladwell made a correct point here, When I used to live in India, we were not allowed to use calculators which helped us to do arithmetic very quickly in our heads. Gladwell adds that "Cultural legacies matter" (231). Although he focused on Asian math practice, his main point is to state that cultural legacies matters in every filed of

Success is a very sought after aspect in our society. Everyone strives for the nicest car, the largest home, or the most exciting job. However, Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, discusses how the path to success is not simple and it has a lot of factors that play into it. Being on a sports team throughout school or being a “student-athlete” may be one of them. Student athletes learn concepts like teamwork, hard work, and persistence—all of which are critical parts of the average adult career. The sports that these children and teens participate in fuel their competitive drive that can only help them in the workplace.

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

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

When I think of wildly successful people, people like Michelle Obama and Steve Jobs come to mind; my name usually does not appear on the list. Granted, I have not invented anything of use to the general public, or dedicated my life to any worthy cause, nor am I making oodles of money by anyone’s standards. But in other ways, am I not as successful as them? I have (generally) earned good grades, I have great friends, I am hardworking and independent, and I have skills that many people do not have. However, in the same vein, how much of my success can I really claim as my own? Just like Malcolm Gladwell observed in his book Outliers, there is always a lot more to success than there appears to be—and as I found out in the course of analyzing

n this psychological non-fiction book, Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, he explains several different strategies and methods to achieve success. He is a firm believer in potential and opportunities; and that making the most of those opportunities is what ensures results. He focuses on time and opportunity as being significant in realizing potential, and believes in the motto “practice makes perfect” and refers to the “10,000-Hr Rule," in ensuring mastery of a skill. Gladwell discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. He also explains this by dividing the book into two parts, opportunity and legacy. Opportunity discusses how select people are fortunate enough to be born between the months of January through March, and also includes the idea that those who are already successful will have more opportunities to improve and become even more successful. The 10,000-hour rule proves the idea that in order to become successful in a certain skill, one must have practiced that skill for at least 10,000 hours. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule, timing is also a major component that implies being in the right place at the right time, which brings the author to discuss Bill Gates who was born during the time where programming and computer technology was emerging, therefore sparking his interest in computers, later bringing him to create Microsoft. Another point Gladwell brings forth is the notion

I am a very determined person and I am so competitive it's almost unhealthy. I have always been determined to be the strongest, be the best, be someone people won’t forget. I haven’t ever been the best until I was determined to be better than everyone else. Everything to be in a competition, I try to lift more than people, be faster than people, get better test scores than people; no matter what it is, I want to be the best. According to the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell, “it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field”

He discusses factors that contribute to extraordinary success. The aspects of success are timing, upbringing, cultural legacy, lucky opportunities, and 10,000 hours of practice. Rhetorical Analysis: • Exigency: Malcolm Gladwell is usually always inspired by something small. He turns it into a big idea. Gladwell was trying to

An example of one of these persons is Chris Langan, he grew up in a home that was constantly in poverty and had no good role models in his family to look up to and learn from. Nevertheless, he had a very high IQ that would make others consider him to be a genius. Compared to him in Gladwell’s book is Robert Oppenheimer, who had a similar IQ to Chris but was raised in a better household where he learned many social skills, to the point where could talk himself out of almost poisoning his tutor. This difference in childhood's’ is the deciding factor for one to become successful and the other to be considered a nobody, as Gladwell writes about his analysis of Chris’ life, he pulls research from a social experiment conducted by Annette Lareau. As a sociologist, she decided to research how the parenting styles in twelve different families of varying social classes could affect the children they raised. During the tests, she notes, “The heavily scheduled middle-class child is exposed to a constantly shifting set of