An outlier is defined as something observed as significantly different (above or below) or lying outside the sample set or an average. With this paper, I intend to summarize Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, as well as use it in describing why I think Lionel Messi is an outlier.
In outliers, Gladwell (2008) examines what makes some people remarkably more successful than others. It is commonly thought that talent, intelligence, and hard work, far above average, is all that is needed to gain great success. Gladwell challenges this belief through thorough background research on some distinguished outliers. I intend to summarize his key points, necessary for an outlier, and apply them to my chosen outlier, Lionel Messi. In a world where success is said to be achieved through talent and hard work, it seems to have a lot more to do with unfair advantages and opportunities. The key aspects Gladwell (2008) relates to an outlier include innate talent, opportunities, practice, upbringing and family influence, cultural legacy, and the relevance or importance of one’s work. I will now go on to further explain and expand on these characteristics individually.
The first characteristic needed to excel as an outlier is innate talent. In order to truly excel in anything, one must have the talent to foster success. Gladwell concedes that talent and hard work are factors in success. Human achievements, he argues, demand ability and talent, disciplined by at least 10,000 hours of practice. Having talent alone does not make one successful. Having the fortitude to take advantage of opportunities afforded to you, and the determination to practice for as long as it takes to master your craft is what leads to true success.
Next, let’s take a look at opportuni...
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...t success through opportunities and hard work. Having the fortitude to seize all the opportunities at hand and the resolve to work hard, even early on in life, through his medical problems, Lionel Messi has been able to outshine all others and make a name for himself as one of the best to ever play the game of football.
Having opportunities and advantages not readily available to others, being born at a time that enables you to take advantage of opportunities unavailable to those born before or after you, having parents engaged and involved in your effort to success, and the endurance to practice day in and day out makes an outlier. Innate talent is the cornerstone of any success story. But to truly understand one’s journey to success, you need to delve deeper to uncover the true aspects of their success. And in the process, maybe make a case for them as an outlier.
Outlier. An outlier is someone who is not considered to be a normal person within society. They have qualities that most people do not obtain. They are the most successful of individuals and many aspire to be them. Michael Jackson is the epitome of what I believe is a true outlier. In his best-selling novel, Malcolm Gladwell stated that we tend to spend more time looking at individuals success rather than looking at things that ultimately contributed to that success, such as their family, birthplace, and even birth date.
In the second chapter of his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” Malcolm Gladwell introduces what he believes to be a key ingredient in the recipe for success: practice. The number of hours he says one must practice to obtain expert-level proficiency in a particular skill is ten thousand hours. He goes on to list several examples of successful individuals and makes the correlation between the amount of hours they practiced their skill and when they achieved expert-level proficiency (almost always around ten thousand hours of practice). While the magic number appears to be the main focus of the chapter when it comes to success, Gladwell seems to put more emphasis on the advantage and opportunities each individual experienced. However, I believe the determining factor that distinguished their successful careers was their drive, passion and dedication to put in the hours necessary to turn those unique opportunities into success.
Malcolm Gladwell, in the nonfiction book Outliers, claims that success stems from where you come from, and to find that you must look beyond the individual. Malcolm Gladwell develops and supports his claim by defining an outlier, then providing an example of how Stewart Wolf looked beyond the individual, and finally by giving the purpose of the book Outliers as a whole. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain the extenuating circumstances that allowed one group of people to become outliers in order to inform readers on how to be successful. The author writes in a serious and factual tone for the average person in society of both genders and all ethnicities who wants to become successful in life.
We see that in the reading “Mundanity of Excellence,” by Daniel F Chambliss, the focus is on nature of excellence as it pertains to Olympic swimming. Mr. Chambliss supplies the reader with his experience and sociological approach to his theory that “talent is useless.” I will now provide you with a brief commentary on how sociology relates to developing human talent. It is perceived that one’s natural goal is to accomplish perfection in a “talent” or gift. This ranges from numerous types of talents whether it is sports, entertainment, acting, or even a technical skill. In a sociologist way of thinking we realize that excellence is not only achieved by quantitative or qualitative improvements, it encompasses several factors. I want to
An essay “Man and Superman: In athletic competitions, what qualifies as a sporting chance?” by Malcolm Gladwell is attempted to answer an issue “Do genetic advantages make sports unfair?” The essay contains two arguments: human biological diversity makes sports unfair, and, consequently, as human attempts to equalise all the players as considered a moral obligation, the sports industry has no problem with athletes’ self-transformation while doping athletes is prohibited which, in his opinion, they should be justified just like those self-transformations. Gladwell also criticises the sports industry who is actually a culprit of this fairness, they try to level the playing by measuring that no one has an advantage over others but the consequence is a catalyst of science intervention.
The popular saying “practice makes perfect” has been used for many years encouraging younger generations to strive for success in whatever area they wish to excel in. Success is something everybody in society strides for but some do not know how it is achieved. However, there are many people throughout history who are known for achieving success in many areas. Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author and speaker, identifies these people as being outliers. Gladwell identifies the word “outlier” in his story Outliers as “a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.” Although Malcolm Gladwell does not establish credibility for himself in his novel, his targeted audience of a younger inexperienced generation feel the need to be informed by his detailed theories about becoming successful and eventually becoming an outlier. Although the reality of becoming successful can depend on instances one can not control, Gladwell tells his readers there is a great portion they can control through his theory, the 10,000 hour rule. He does this by using well presented logical persuasive appeals and interesting rhetorical devices such as: onomatopeias, exposition, and argumentation.
Natural talent doesn’t lead the person to success, but it’s the combination of nurturing and favorable events that will make the him/her “successful”.
Malcolm Gladwell’s overall purpose of Outliers: The Story of Success is that success is largely determined by an individual’s socioeconomic and sociocultural environment, and individual ambition, effort, or talent, are less significant, contrary to the societal notions associated with success. In other words, success is not something that someone randomly gained; success is earned through opportunities that develop dedication, interest, and skill over time. By doing this, will one become an outlier, or “something that is situated away or classed differently from a main or related body,” (Gladwell 3) that distinguishes great from good and best from great, as exemplified by “The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that the and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals”, musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did.” (Gladwell 39) Gladwell also acknowledges societal norms such that “All of the fourteen men and woman on the list above had vision and talent,” (Gladwell 62-63) to assert hard work, ability, et cetera can lead to success, but a social environment that offers such opportunities immensely increases the likelihood of success.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is an extremely informative read about success and the different aspects that attribute to it. Gladwell is able to use many studies and sources that back up his theories of how success is achieved. Although he is biased towards his theories, the only real argument that can be made in opposition to his theories would be a debate over exceptions to the 10,000 Hour Rule. Outliers ultimately has a positive effect on the audience by making them more aware of their own chances at success and how if they may be lacking in one area (education, opportunity, creativity) all hope is not lost. Gladwell’s piece is essentially timeless and will be able to be applied to future generations because he used examples from a few different eras that still make sense to today.
Outliers-The Story of Success is a sociological, and psychological non-fiction book, which discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. Malcolm Gladwell 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 of one’s upbringing, race, and ethnicity can be a factor behind their success. And lastly, pursuing meaningful work will cause one to continue working with their skill and not give up. Legacy is a collection of examples that support the idea: values are passed down from generation to generation, which may cause a certain group of people to be more persistent in a skill, or occupation.
If people work hard, focus, and are disciplined, they will succeed in the future. This has become a universal idea taught by parents, teachers, and peers. People have passed down this idea to the younger generations and they chose to live by this moral that makes sense. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell debunks the universal idea that working hard will allow people to play hard and get further in life. Gladwell eliminates the traditional ideas of success by showing that opportunities, family background, and being born at the “right” time are actually what lead to success.
Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of football. Dispute it all you want, but there is magic in the feet of the little Argentinian genius that no other has ever had. Talent alone isn’t enough to become the world’s best though, and Messi’s career has been full of sacrifice and hard work. The accompanying is a massive rundown of numerous things you may not think about Lionel Messi, and a ton you as of now do. Lionel Messi had a hard time back in days with family, playing soccer, and having problem being sick when he was little boy.
“ They tell me that all men are created equal in the eyes of god but this man seriously makes you think about those words,” is how an entertaining soccer commentator, Ray Hudson described Lionel Messi’s outstanding performance on the pitch. In the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell demonstrates that there are extraordinary circumstances and external factors that allows a person to become successful in life as an outlier. Despite Messi’s contradicting physical appearance, standing 5 foot and 7 inches tall as a record breaking soccer phenomenal, he is most definitely an outlier who shook the history of soccer. Many Believe that Lionel Messi was not a natural born talented player but external factors and the opportunities he was given allowed him to become a player who is arguably the best player to every play in history of soccer.
People all over the world have accomplished things that made them who they are today. Overcoming shyness was a huge accomplishment and something that was very significant to me that marked my transition from childhood to adulthood.
When people ask what my favorite sport is, I quickly reply soccer. I never really gave much thought to who my favorite soccer player is until I saw Lionel Messi for the first time. I saw him play for Argentina and he showed me how great soccer really is. He has a great style of both teamwork and individual skill. The ability he has to keep control of the ball is what made me interested in soccer. Without him, who knows if I would even begin to enjoy soccer. He shows both individual skill and the importance of teamwork. He does not only score a ton of goals, but also gives many assists. Lionel Messi, in my opinion, is one of the greatest soccer players in history. Lionel Messi is most definitely one of my role models. Messi doesn’t only teach me how to improve on individual skill but also can show me the importance of not showing off. The soccer skill that this man has is unbelievable. Lionel Messi is a great role model.