What defines success? Have you ever wondered what does it take to become successful? After reading and researching through many resources, I have concluded that success is defined as being able to achieve your goals and what you aim for. In other words success is being able to accomplish what you aim for through extreme hard work and dedication. Not everybody has the ability and skills to become successful in life. It really takes a person with courage and will to reach out and work hard enough for what they want. Throughout my paper I will be talking about 3 major successful people that I chose to research about and how they somehow relate to the book named Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. The three successful people I will be discussing about are Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Sigmund Freud, and last but not least Howard Schultz. There is one major reason that I chose to write about these three people in particular and that is because I personally admire all of their personal accomplishments throughout their lives, despite the challenges they have had to face. Williams, Freud, and Schultz might have three totally …show more content…
Culture and how people re being raised plays a significant role in the outcome of becoming successful or not. Malcolm mentioned in the book a story about a mother who because of her ignorance she did not take the necessary time to fill out and complete school related paper work for her child to continue his education and because of this matter the child ended up not being able to continue his education. Sometimes we do become victims of our own culture. Because of the lack of information among cultures parents tend to be less encouraging to their kids and don’t motivate them enough to obtain a further education and become successful persons. Instead they decide not to take an initiative and comfort themselves with what they
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a self-made man, and that success is only the result of a person’s circumstances. However, throughout the novel Gladwell points out that your circumstances and opportunities only help you become successful if you are willing to take advantage of them and work hard. From a twelve year old living in the Bronx, to those who were born at just the right time to become millionaires, one thing is the same throughout; these people because successful because they seized the opportunities they were given. The advantages and opportunities that came from their circumstances would not be important if they had not grasped them. Every successful man is self made, because he has seized the
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers includes a section based on the Bible's “Matthew Effect” and a self-fulfilling prophecy. This chapter elaborates on“the Matthew Effect” and how if anyone gives certain opportunities at the right time, their experiences will be furthered than others through training and more opportunities being opened to them. Gladwell touches on this using the example of hockey players given the advancement of only being born in the early months of the year and then those kids get trained exceptionally better than others for this simple reason of them being born in these months. It shows how society is simple-minded and always set to have an outcome, it’s not only random at this point, it’s always decided upon and furthered. Kids
People may argue that Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is all about family background and family legacies. Others may say that what mattered most is the way someone are brought up and how much time and dedication they put into a skill or goal. People may also say that all of these factors are what the book focuses on in order to be successful. The book is not about family background, the “10,000 Hour-Rule”, or “Rice Paddies”. All of those encompass something very important, opportunity to actually apply those theories. The most important theory Gladwell presents is that opportunities are the key to become successful more so than the other theories.
Gladwell further supports that both genes and upbringing create success through his example of IQ scores. In the example of Nobel Prize winners, Gladwell states that “Intelligence has a threshold,” (p. 80) past which environmental variables are more important. People with low intelligence are not likely to win a Nobel Prize, despite the opportunities their life may provide. However, people with high intelligence have a much greater chance than someone of similar intelligence if they are provided the right upbringing and opportunities compared to their compatriots. Simply having the genes or the upbringing does not result
In Malcom Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell investigates the paradigm of success by taking the reader on a journey into the lives of several extremely successful people – outliers. Paradigm is a term used to explain a pattern of something, and in Outliers, Gladwell uses the term to describe different changes in peoples’ mind-sets throughout history. In the carefully chosen case studies, Gladwell breaks down the typical understanding of success by not just looking at factors like innate talents, characteristics, and habits but by digging deeper into social classes, cultures, communities, and generational effects of the successfully elite. Outliers is a true story of success that motivates readers to ponder their world
The US education system doesn’t have: follow-through. According to Chapter 8 of Outliers, “Rice Paddies and Math Tests,” the research of rice paddies has created a cultural legacy among Asian cultures that leads to more relative success for people from those cultures. Malcolm Galdwell argues “That lesson has
In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes numerous success stories in an attempt to understand the circumstances that make certain individuals particularly exceptional. Through his analysis, Gladwell strives to find an explanation for why some people succeed, while others, despite their persistent efforts, do not. He questions the validity of conventional attitudes towards accomplished figures—that these figures simply rise to fame as a result of sheer talent and ambition—and points out that the superficial summaries leave out crucial details. As Gladwell studies the lives of these “outliers,” from piano virtuosos to software moguls, he indicates that their success stemmed from a variety of components, including fortunate
In the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, he answers the question: what makes high-achievers different? Gladwell is a world renown author for the New Yorker and he believes there is an answer to why people become famous and successful. The extremely successful people that Gladwell talks about in his book are called outliers, people who stand out from others as being extraordinary for what they have accomplished in society. This book was written very well, yet as a personal fan of malcolm gladwell’s books, which makes me partial to his style of writing. I thought it was very educational and intriguing to read because of the real life examples Gladwell brings to the table and
Many people that came from a poor family are successful now. For example, Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty. Her mother was a single mother as well. Today she is worth $2.9 billion. Although Oprah Winfrey succeeded, that does not mean that other people will be able to persevere through hardships. There are people that will give up during those obstacles. Another way that this is proven is when people choose who will work for them. What this means is that if two people apply for the same job, the person who’s family is more known is more likely to be hired even if they are less qualified for the
Talent is overrated, no one who is successful did it overnight, that is fact, however, the discrepancies begin on the why. Many claims were made and thoroughly supported by Malcolm Gladwell in “Outliers: The Story Of Success” and “The Struggle to Be First: First-Gen Students May Be Torn Between College and Home” by Alina Tugend. The factors that are believed to be attribute to success are social class standards, the educational level of a family, and practical intelligence.
“Outliers: The Story of Success” is one of the non-fiction books written by Malcolm Gladwell. In the book, the author examines the factors that contribute to the high levels of success. The author adds that success is combined with a number of key factors such as hard work, opportunity and other factors like when and where the person was born. The books gives an insight into various un-answered questions such as why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year or how The Beatles became one of the most successful musical band in the world. According to Gladwell, success is not only about innate talent but depends on various external factors and situations.
“Success is a function of persistence and determination and the willingness to work hard to make sense of something others may give up on” (Malcolm Gladwell Outliers). In the book of Outliers, The Stories of Success Malcolm Gladwell presents an idea of what is success and how it can be achieved. The book poses interesting view on how success is granted by opportunity, skills, social responsibility and creativity. The term outliers stand for something that is “1. Situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body, 2. A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample” (Gladwell, p. 6). The books represent an idea that, opportunity comes to those that are looking for it. So, what set
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (2008) tells a series of stories of success and concludes his discoveries of underlying secrets in success. Gladwell divides his book into two parts: opportunity and legacy. For the first part “opportunity,” Gladwell explains that individual talent is necessary but not sufficient to achieve success because accessible opportunities matter a lot to one’s success. As to the second part “legacy,” Gladwell emphasizes the significance of cultural legacy and the historical advantages that can’t be ignored when considering the factors of success. Although some critics argue that Gladwell uses stereotypical examples, Outliers is a convincing book because its merits outweigh the defects.
Success is within the mind of the individual. A large portion of ones life is spent working to become successful. People are told throughout childhood to work hard so they can grow up and make lots of money. But success takes many different forms. Different people have different interpretations of what success means to them. For some, success is measured by social status and wealth; for others success is determined only by the amount of happiness one feels.
The true definition of success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Although, many people have different perceptions of success. Success is judged by the individuals themselves. Success can be defined in many ways including: wealth, happiness, fame, etc. Success can be anything from material goods to concepts. It all depends on your concept and how you achieve your goals. You have to have persistence within yourself. Varying on your profession, you will need a certain skill level. Your definition of success can be suitable best for you, but not for others. It is about truly not giving up, reaching your full potential, and self-fulfillment.