Essay On Outliers The Story Of Success

Many people, like me, believe success generally presents itself in one of two ways, luck or hard work. Some of us get lucky and are born into a family of wealth and that pushes us ahead of our peers on the success rate while others spend hours of continuous practice to excel them beyond the average. Up until now I always believed success was what people made of their own situations. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell argues that this belief is only partially true. Many factors contribute to making a person an outlier through success, such as, uncontrollable opportunities or factors, hard work, community ties, practice, patronage and parentage. From my experience, I found that true success lies within the midst of all these

contributions, it just takes the right person to find the perfect combination of them.
Just like in Gladwell’s book, a big part of success comes from uncontrollable opportunities, luck and favor.

Gladwell uses the example of hockey players birthdays to show how the more successful players birthdays fell in the month of January, February, and March. They could not control the day or month they were born, but it gave them a slight advantages and better opportunities, just like my coach gave me an uncontrollable opportunity. Attending a small school made it difficult for me to make my own name, especially since I have older siblings that graduated a few years before me. My brothers set high expectations for me with school and sports. My brother balanced playing football and soccer along with his schoolwork and I was determined to walk in his footsteps. I planned my freshman schedule out to play soccer, the sport I grew up playing, and remain as a stellar student. However, my intentions were quickly altered when I was told I was becoming the kicker on the high school football team. This uncontrollable opportunity was unheard of in my tight knit town. Females were not allowed or accepted in the football realm, but I was an exception. My coach saw potential and made the decision to step outside the norms and ask me to be a part of an opportunity that most females will never get the chance to

experience.
Another way to be successful is putting in hard work. Gladwell discusses the studies done that show that practice is what it takes to become an expert. According in Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of diligent practice to become an expert. Although I never reached the expert level of being a kicker, I did learn that hard work and practice truly do set the mediocre apart from the excellent. Walking onto a team with forty-five guys who grew up playing one of the toughest sports in our area was very intimidating. Truthfully, I was unaware of the common mechanics and fundamentals of football and learned after the first day of practice, it was going to be a difficult season. I spent the first week kicking two hours each night and rarely ever making an extra point. As much as I was hoping that I would be a natural gifted kicker, that was not the case. I realized in order to be able to compete with other kickers around my area, I had to be fully devoted to practice. My mornings before school consisted of going to the weight room to build more muscle, watching film on how to improve accuracy and distance, and stretching to increase my flexibility. The two-hour practices ended each night for everyone on the team, but mine lasted until the field darkened and I could not see the uprights any longer. Eventually my coaches noticed my hard work and started truly wanting me to excel. My countless hours inspired my coaches to find different ways for me to become a better football player. They spent hours with me after practice teaching me proper formation and the ideal way to find the sweet spot of the ball. I went to camps designed to engage beginners on the fundamentals of being a kicker. Many times, while my muscles ached and I felt fatigued from not resting, I thought about quitting. However, despite the hardships and the soreness I continued because the number of hours I practiced and the uncontrollable opportunity to play was more beneficial than quitting.
One of the first contributors that Gladwell lists in the book is the connection of community. He among others, find the little town of Roseto to be thriving in their health while everyone else is dying years before the residents of Roseto. After studies, it is acknowledged the reason they continue to be healthy is because their strong reliance on community. Everyone is thriving together. In a sense, my little small town reminds me of Roseto. We believe there is no such thing as a stranger in our community, we watch out for one another and spend hours on end talking to each other. Having such a strong community who support one another made my decision to pursue the kicking position easier. From the very start I had a group of people who supported me. Often at my games, opposing players or fans have rude comments about me being a female playing football because they have not accepted the fact that more females are making their way into a “males” sport. Even though I have tough skin, it still hurt to listen to all the hateful remarks. However, my community stood up for me, and reminded me of all the accomplishments and stereotype barriers I was breaking. They encouraged me to keep pursuing football even if other teams did not like me playing. Sometimes when comments from ignorant opponents arose, I became physically, mentally, and emotionally shaken but I continued to remind myself that my community helped me be successful and I owe it to them to continue being the best football kicker I can be.
Another example used throughout the book is the idea of parentage and patronage support which ties directly into support from the community.

Gladwell refers to major successful figures that we can recognize, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and shows how their family and friends supported them during or even before they became successful. Similar to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, I was surrounded by family and friends who set me up for success. My parents went out of their way to make sure I would be successful. They were always buying me new cleats and hiring personal trainers to come in and show me exercises to make me a better a kicker. I was very fortunate to have parents who wanted me to be successful almost as much I was wanted to be. In contribution, I surrounded myself with a great group of teammates and coaches who thrived on watching me become the best kicker I could be. Many nights my placement holder would spend hours working with me after practice until we got the perfect hold and kick multiple times in a row. My teammates and coaches cheered me on even when I disappointed myself. Occasionally, I would miss an extra point and come off the field upset, angry, or disappointed, but my team was there to support me. They told me what happened, how to fix it, and encouraged that I do not give up. Without my parentage and patronage my football career would not be as successful as it was

today.
Unfortunately, we are taught from a young age that football is for boys and girls should be on the sideline cheering them on. However, that is not how my success story goes. I was sculpted to be unique, rare, the outlier. My success as a football player supports Gladwell’s claim that success comes from opportunities, community ties, practice, patronage and parentage. I discovered a factor on success that Gladwell fails to mention, gender. During my years of playing football I faced discrimination, sexism and misogyny. Our country is ingrained with the idea that women are less than men but slowly women are integrating themselves into traditionally male roles. I am a small part of the female population making the equality revolution happen. However, without my coach expecting me to become the kicker, spending all my time practicing to better myself, my community cheering me on or my family and friends supporting me, I would not have been a successful kicker. These contributions led me to be awarded athlete of the year within our county, earn state titles such as the first female to score within playoffs week and offered many prestigious scholarships. Although I decided not to further pursue football at a collegiate level, I walked away with a unique story of how an average girl became an outlier through a football story when she found the perfect combination to become successful.