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The definition of success
Personal definition of success
The definition of success
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Success is a unique characteristic that almost everybody has strived for since the beginning of time. There are many different ways to define and explain success, and in Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell sets out to rationalize it and explain the circumstantial happenings that lead people to the success they have acquired. Success is about becoming an outlier; someone who has completely mastered their craft and is an expert in their field that few other people would be able to match. No matter your stance on Obama’s success as a president, it is fact that to win the election in the first place Obama already had to be a major success. Gladwell argues many claims that strive to help his audience understand the factors that come together to create success. Some claims he argues revolve around how success is determined by someone’s childhood and the way they were raised. He also states how time period and work ethic play major roles in the quest for success. One person who fits almost any definition of success is United States President Barack Obama. Becoming the leader of the free world is a position that …show more content…
Obama’s environment and work ethic completely coincide with Malcolm Gladwell’s reasons behind success. Gladwell claims that determination, parenting, childhood, and a person’s time period all play crucial roles in their success; and in the case of President Obama, Gladwell is completely correct in his claims. President Obama is a success for multiple reasons, some due to his own motivation and some from external forces. In the end, they all played a role to create an individual that despite adversity was able to overcome and prosper. No matter how you define success, Obama is a clear picture of it, and Gladwell’s claims easily explain how Obama managed to grow into this
Throughout the book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell focuses on using the rhetorical technique of pathos to aid his readers in understanding the formula for success. In one particular part of the book, Gladwell uses experiences and human problems as examples to support his idea that plane crashes and ethnicty are related and the greater idea that success is based on opportunity.
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.
There are few words in the English language that are difficult to define. Successful is one of those words considering everyone has their own definition of what it truly means to be successful in life. The word successful becomes even harder to define when paired with the word President. Every President had different qualities that made them successful during their terms. These qualities would be necessary in both times of peril and in times of peace. Americans tend to have a hard time trying to find the few genuinely successful presidents among the masses. Two Presidents that were truly successful were Thomas Jefferson and Harry S. Truman. These men had such an impact on politics on both the national and global levels. Jefferson and Truman
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
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
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 article “How to Be a Success” by Malcom Gladwell speaks about how success is something that can be achieved if you put the time and work into it, and how success is not achieved overnight but rather through long hours of constant practice. His article is targeted to more than one group of individuals. The groups of individuals that his article targets are teenage students, young adults, adults, people who want to become an expert, or want to succeed in something they have an interest in and in general society. Another article also related to the success of an individual “An A+ Student Regrets His Grades” by Afraj Gill describes how in society many schools focus more on students’ grades, rather than their learning, and how a student is
The Beatles, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, professional hockey players, and solo violinists all have one thing in common. Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Outliers”, is able to effectively link these different parties together though his “10,000 Hour Rule”. Gladwell states that, “practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing that makes you good” (42). Using rhetorical devices, Gladwell effectively conveys how overall success can be spotted by historical, recurring patterns or events. Malcolm Gladwell has supported himself as a reputable author as well. Using supported statistics, easily illustrated patterns, and well known examples, Gladwell fulfills the logos appeal. Also, due to his very successful works “The Boiling Point” and “Blink”, Gladwell shows his credibility as an author. Gladwell’s main purpose is to teach his audience the pattern of success, and why some people did or did not succeed. This audience is consisted of those who want to succeed, and want to create as many possibilities to reach their goal. Their main values are gaining success for themselves. Another possible audience is a group who enjoys statistics and patterns. These patterns show that around 10,000 of practice in an activity, the person becomes very proficient in that activity. Citing the Beatles, Bill Joy, and Bill Gates as his examples, Gladwell shows that practice can make perfect. Malcolm Gladwell states that to reach a level of expertise, one must practice that activity for 10,000 hours. Using rhetorical devices, tone, and logos, Gladwell efficiently supports his claim of the 10,000 hour rule.
The decision for success, for Trump, is work hard and be determined and you can achieve your goals. He has shown this hard working mentality as he was a businessman. He acquired many profitable properties and made smart decisions to eventually gain over a billion dollars. He also showed this determination as he was running for president. Although he was called an "unfit" president he still campaigned and won over the votes of many citizens. In the end, Trump won and his determination to succeed brought him to the White House. All people can learn from Trump because of his hard work and
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.
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.
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.
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.
In Chapter 8 and 9 of Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell exams some of the ways that Asian and American students learn math, arguing that some of the principles in the US education system should be reconsidered. I generally agree with Gladwell’s point of view. I believe in two ways, students ' principal spirit and the length of students’ studying, the US education system leaves much to be desired, though an overhaul is in progress.