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Essay on success story
Essay on success story
Essay on success story
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Success: A Collaboration of Various Elements Is there a recipe for success? A list of perfect ingredients that when combined in precisely the right way, unfailingly produces success for the chef? The simple answer is no; success stories vary from person to person. Certainly, without a strong work ethic and drive even the most lucky of the successful would have never gotten where they are now. However, success is due to plenty of factors besides an individual’s motivation, without which their success would look very different, or perhaps be nonexistent. Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” is contradicted repeatedly in Outliers: …show more content…
Often, success is rooted in factors beyond an individual’s knowledge or control. These exterior forces may vary greatly in all aspects except one: the successful individual has no power over them. Society likes to paint famed success as the result of years of arduous work in which an individual seizes every opportunity and eventually sees all of his struggles pay off as his goals are achieved. Sure, success would have been a distant dream if not for the seizure of opportunities and all that hard work, “but in fact [people who stand before kings] are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot” (Gladwell 19). Take, for example, the story of a successful career man who made his living for 39 years thanks to a conversation behind closed doors of which he was not aware until he inquired about it years later. Greg Counts spent all but the first few years of his career in transportation and logistics because of a job he took in the first few years of his life after college. The …show more content…
Without those specific circumstances or connections, success would not be the reality many know today. Malala Yousafzai is a 20 year old woman who is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize due to her work in the fight for women’s education and against the Taliban. “In October 2012, Malala was targeted by the Taliban and shot in the head as she was returning from school on a bus. She miraculously survived and continues her campaign for education” (Yousafzai Third Cover). Malala would certainly be standing up for what she believed in and fighting for the educational rights of women today, even if she had never been shot that day on the bus. However, it is undoubtedly that specific circumstance which earned her her world fame and rocketed her forward in her campaign against such forces as the Taliban. It could thus be argued that Malala’s success in her field is due, in large part, by the extremely unfortunate circumstances of an October afternoon in 2012. This is not uncommon in the realm of success. Many successful people owe their achievements to specific events or people in their lives who, sometimes unbenounced to them, changed the course of their success from that point onward. “No one- not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses-ever makes it alone” (Gladwell 115) Self-advocacy and drive can only take an
Examples of this are people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who were the perfect age during the computer revolution in 1975, when the personal computer was invented and made widely available. However, not every person born in the same year as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates became a multimillionaire. Why? The ones who became successful were those who took a risk, and were willing to work hard to make something out of the computer revolution. When looking at people who gained their success from the invention of personal computers, Gladwell points out that “These are stories… about people who were given a special opportunity to work really hard and seized it” (67). One of Bill Gates’ advantages was that he went to Lakeside High School, which had a computer lab in a time when most schools did not. Everyone at Lakeside had access to that computer lab, but only a few students grew up to be the creators of the world’s best computer companies. Those who became successful were the students like Bill Gates, who worked hard in that computer lab and grew up to be world-class programmers. If someone is given unique opportunities but is not willing to seize them, they will not gain any success from those opportunities. Success is self made because in order to be successful, one must take advantage of the unique chances they are
I agree with Gladwell that hard work can lead to success. Too often we think success happens because someone has money or gets lucky. This is wrong. Success takes hard work, imagination, and motivation. “Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.” (Gladwell 52) If you assert yourself and use your mind and imagination, you can create those
Everyone has their own vision of success. For some,it is being rich and famous and for others it is to have a great impact on the world. In the first chapter of outliers Gladwell claims that success is something you need to work for in some ways, he fails to come up with a solution for people that became successful without working for it.
We all understand what success is, but what allows for a person to become successful? Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book Outliers to study this topic and settle once and for all why some people are more successful than others. Gladwell uses the success stories of people throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to discover just exactly what it is that allows for one to be successful. He explains that there is much more to becoming successful than just natural talent and skill. Gladwell states in Outliers that success is the product of the time we were born, our dedication, and most of all where we come from.
The definition of success varies around the world, but according to Malcolm Gladwell its achievement can be broken down into a few components. Although Gladwell never truly establishes credibility in his book Outliers, he still backs up his proposed theories with reputable studies and sources which intrigue the audience to keep reading.The purpose of Outliers was to enlighten people about the different elements of success while also informing them of real life situations where seemingly less than likely people beat the odds and became the powerful figures that they are today. The intended audience is anyone who is looking to become successful or who is perhaps interested in the idea of success itself and wishes to learn more about it. Understandably, a secondary audience could be high school students who are about to venture out into the world on their own because with this book they will hopefully start paying attention to different factors of their lives and seizing opportunities that they may have otherwise passed up. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule and also how I.Q. does not amount to much without creativity. He also speaks of how chance opportunity comes into play and that the distant background of a person still reflects how they handle situations in their present day life. Gladwell’s Outliers successfully informs the reader about the different components that add up to success with probable theories and credible studies to make for an interesting and motivational read.
It seems our definition of success is related to our own individuality. Our view of success is rooted in the outcome of competition among individuals. Americans seem quick to claim that we have each succeeded through their o...
Nearly everyone has the desire to be successful in their lives, whether it be measured in the amount of wealth a man owns or the accomplishments he has made in his life. Therein lies the most common, the success in a man's profession. There are multiple approaches to this connotation of success where a wide range of techniques can be applied. One might think that the only way to reach a particular level of success is to take on a competitive nature and achieve that coveted position of number 1. However, being competitive does not necessarily insure that a person is ‘successful.’ They must be competent in their field to reach the top spot. An example of these two sides can be found within Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman using the characters Willy and Bernard.
Another piece of evidence that supports my claim is in the epilogue on page two hundred-eighty-five with Gladwell’s second to the last conclusion paragraph of “[The successful] are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy . . . grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are.” Of course, his word alone is not enough to support his purpose, so he included studies from researchers such as Lewis Terman Richard A. Easterlin as well as the dissection of success stories of successful people and geniuses such as Bill Joy, The Beatles, and Christopher Langan (288-291). By including these elements in his book, Gladwell is able to persuade his audience into thinking that the opportunity is all one needs to be successful. With this in mind, his readers, including myself, are almost compelled to connect the pieces of the puzzle and figure out for themselves that Gladwell’s purpose for writing the book is
Success is a quality everyone wants to achieve. In the United Sates people are very familiar and hopeful of the American dream. This is a concept which promotes that hard work and dedication creates endless possibilities. However in the book Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell allows us to question whether or not those factors are solely responsible for one to achieve success. According to Gladwell opportunity and legacy are the most important factors of contingency or luck. If success is dependent on luck then no one is worthy of its attainment.
Malcolm Gladwell argues that the “Story of Success” is how a person comes to success. However, contrary to popular belief that someone’s success is determined based on merit and a stunning personality, Gladwell believes that an individual's background and opportunities give them an edge in the pursuit of success. When explaining the common misconceptions of success he says, “We want to know what they’re like....and we assume that it is those personal qualities that explain how the individual reached the top”(Gladwell 18). He then introduces his argument, saying, “We do owe something to parentage and patronage”(Gladwell 19). Throughout the course of the novel he folds many cases in to support his argument that successful people are
Success can mean many different things to different people. Some believe that success is when one is famous and very wealthy. Others think that it is when a person has achieved their life goals. According to critically acclaimed and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, though, the argument is not what success is; it is how it is achieved. Gladwell is the author of the novel Outliers, which describes his many theories and ideas of how people have and can become successful. Gladwell wrote his book for all to read because he wanted to disprove the popular belief that people become successful all by themselves; that is, without help from others or outside factors. Gladwell’s effective use of stories of the lives of famous and successful people in Outliers, coupled with his prolific use of logical appeals, or facts and statistics, enables him to easily explain his opinions while convincing his audience that success is attributed to many different factors in one’s life.
Moreover, this concept of free will and becoming financially self-reliant is still prevalent in modern society. The mid-twentieth (20th) to the early twenty-first (21st) century has become the age of entrepreneurship, where peoples from all nations no longer desire to work “for the man” but create their own legacy of prosperity. Likewise, it is a period in time that has redefined the way in which those from all walks of life can obtain success and wealth. Hence, the evolution of reality TV stars, YouTube sensations and rappers from being ordinary individuals to becoming fashion designers, actors and CEOs. However, our definition of success is not only defined by wealth it also includes having a life of meaning that is similar to that of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. and Malcolm X. Certainly, I am speaking of a life that encompasses the ability to change our world for the better.
Many people have heroes that they look up to. From celebrity popstars to one’s own parents, there are many people in our lives that we idolize and adore. Even though all heroes are different in their own way, they all share some of the same characteristics such as being kind, generous, giving, and more. Malala represents the core concepts of being a hero in her journey for girls’ education in her homeland of Swat. In her book, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, she willingly puts her life in danger everyday so girls all over Pakistan could have education. She recognizes the oppression by the Taliban and the sexism of her culture and knew that “if people were silent nothing would change.” (pg. 140) Through the help of a supportive family, she began her campaign for girls’ education. Even as her homeland of Pakistan grew into a dictatorship with the Taliban in control, she refused to back down. Instead, she continued her fight for education, expanding her campaign to include girls all over the world. Her deep rooted passion and love for her homeland and its people have driven her to be the kind, generous, and loving person she is today.
There are several qualities to have to be successful in college. These qualities can range from attending class to going above and beyond what’s expected. Success comes from the journey taken or the path chosen. Success also comes from being prepared. As a student, I must step up to the challenge and find the path to success along the way. Several ways I define success is to uphold academic integrity, have the ability to prioritize, and to motivate myself to stay on top of what needs to be accomplished.
In 2008 Malcolm Gladwell published his well acclaimed novel Outliers, which told in his view of “the story of success.” Being a best selling author and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell wrote Outliers in attempt to teach his audience, especially those who are about to start careers, that success is attainable though many factors and that one cannot be successful without the help of others. He theorizes that there are factors in and out of one’s control that would lead to their success, such as the 10,000 rule, luck, hard work, intelligence and where one came from. Gladwell uses stories of various people who have successful lives and provides numerous examples of factors that contribute to one’s success to effectively defend his opinion that success cannot be achieved by oneself alone.