Outliers | EssayIvy.com

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Outliers: The story of success by Gladwell Malcolm.

Being successful is everyone’s desire, however, those who become it are few. The journeys to

success have always been shared by those who are called successful. There are yet different ways

that people view success. Gladwell is one author whose book has widely been sold owing to his

way of view of the determinants of success.

While many people are concerned about their personality and character building for success,

Malcom Gladwell contends in his book Outliers: the story of success that success is determined

by the external forces whereby some individuals are get opportunities by fate. Gladwell dwells

on things such as one lucky opportunities, and family background and the age of an individual,

the author does not intentionally or unintentionally talk about the value of one’s hard work and

determination to be successful. As much as his sentiments have some validity as he has shown

examples of people who have become successful by the virtue of their family background as well

as the time at which they were born. He however should not dodge the fact that a personal effort

is essential to one’s success because hard work and success go hand in hand. Unlike Gladwell, I

think that success lies within an individual’s perseverance and experiencing difficulties

numerous times and not merely on external forces.

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Gladwell talks about how birth dates determine the Canadian hokey players’ success. He asserts

that more than 50 percent of Canadian hockey players are born in January between 1

and 24

He therefore comes to an assumption that the first advantage of physical growth makes children

to be separated in two groupings as in younger or older players. The more former division is

advantaged in the sense that they get more time to train, coaching in their athletic endeavors.

While the arguments presented by Gladwell are logical, he ignores those people purposely create

opportunities due to their tenacious persistent personality.

In chapter two, Gladwell uses examples of the world’s well established people such as Bill

Gates, The Beatles and Bill joy to justify the 100,000 Hour Rule. In his Rule, the author insists

on the amount of time in ascertaining the difference between professionals and amateurs. His

arguments are logical in the sense that consistency in one’s determination leads to success as the

three business people dedicated such long periods of determination until they climbed the ladder

of success in various capacities. This owes to the fact that extended practice leads to efficacy of

any skill

He contends that The Beatles the likelihood of turning into a successful band, and in this way

exceptionally fruitful in their career in music. In spite of the fact that the Hamburg opportunity

gave The Beatles a phenomenal measure of time to build up their aptitudes, Gladwell presents

this information in a way that impedes the essentialness of individuals who shape their success.

The virtuosic guitarist Steve Vai substantiates this subject of determination without the

requirement for "a perfect opportunity." One may contend that he had a chance to wind up an

exceptional artist since his folks got him his first guitar and bolstered his energy. However the

pivotal contrast is that a great many people are favored with occurrences of opportunities that

others may never experience, yet the rule is that some surpassed ordinariness in light of their

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ambitious personality, in this manner extending their window of opportunity through cognizant

exertion. Mr. Vai emerges among the rest; he earned a Ph.D in music from the esteemed Berklee

College of Music and is viewed as a performer that changed the style of playing guitar. To put it

plainly, Mr. Vai is confirmation of not just accomplishing your fantasies and prospering with

progress, yet he represents the way towards authority through strength of character.

The geniuses of the modern era chapter discusses children with different Intelligence quotient. In

this chapter, Gladwell asserts that children who are born with high IQ are successful. He

assumes however, that such children with high IQ and grow in middle case or wealthy families

have the tendency to be remarkably successful. He further argues that those with innate

intelligence but grow in less privileged families end up nowhere and that average families raise

their children with social savvy. The author contradicts himself because social savvy is learned

knowledge as they are skills that have to be learned and acquired from the environment in which

children lives. There are numerous successful people who grew up in impoverished family

conditions but overcame all odds by the virtue of their high intelligence quotient that permits

them not to perceive the status quo but the ability their innate ability to make things happen and

happen exemplarily. Also, such successful people are a perfect example of how individual

personality can lead to one’s success. The external forces in this case contrary to Gladwell act as

motivators to those who have the determination to make it regardless of the external factors.

The author puts forth arguments that ought to be recognized, he does it in a way that convinces

the audience to believe that success is dependent on the external factors whereby he asserts that

some are more advantaged than others. Gladwell’s argument begs the question about those who

have had to beat all odds to make in life. Gladwell believes that the opportunities and advantages

present themselves randomly hence the failure and success of people in the society. The reality

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that Gladwell presents is the randomness of the success opportunity determinants. Such

determinants have been termed outliers by Gladwell, however, I think that each passing

movement, one’s choice, and the power to pursue the choice is the ultimate determinant of one’s

destiny. To me, those who fail to get the opportunities make the true outliers.

The interesting it of the book by Gladwell lies in the way he uses his examples to justifies his

arguments. While he agrees that ability is vital, he insists on how paramount opportunity is for ne

to succeed. Gladwell seem to see unfairness in everything including education. He fails to realize

that the 10,000 hours of performing time is in itself self-sacrifice and determination and not

opportunity as he insists. When he uses one’s family background to justify their success, he

misses to acknowledge that family background represents a group success but not an individual

success. I think outliers are external forces which ought to be accidents but not to be the sole

excuse or justification for success and failure. Also, I fail to understand how talented people get

to success, with some not even having to get through the Gladwell’s already criticized education

system, or without wealthy family backgrounds.

The book by Gladwell gives hope to those who feel that life has been unfair to them. On the

contrary, I think that self-determination cannot be under dispute at all for as long as success is

involved. Even those with high intelligence quotient and talents do not automatically become

successful; luck plays a very key role for many even to people like Bill Gates. There many

people in society that have become successful based on luck as they did not even expect it come.

As much as the book is fascinating about the things that influences a person’s success, I find it

limited with information in the sense that the author did not explore other successful groups of

individuals in the society that have not been exposed to the same kind of advantages.

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Being a sociologist I am convinced that Gladwell is justified to use anecdotal evidence as many

of the critics may dispute for its lack of empirical evidence. I think the book is well written and

the author has broken monotony of his usual way of writing to write about success that many

readers think they only to find out something different. I think he present a new idea at looking at

things, hence a thought-provoking kind of book. I would recommend anyone to read it as well

are desire to be successful. Education unfairness has been emphasized yet many of the world

successful people are not well educated as they many come from impoverished backgrounds. His

ideas sound a consolation for those who have not made it life and point a blaming finger on the

systems that exist in society. He also discourages people to make them that their success is solely

dependent on their opportunities and family backgrounds.

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