Dr. Denis Waitley, author of “The Psychology of Winning and The Seeds of Greatness,” says “the secret behind the successes of famous names such as Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, and even William Shakespeare is passion.” The essence of Dr. Denis Waitley argument is that, you must have a passion for what you do. The words “the secret behind” insist that passion is the fire that ignites the desire passion to succeed. Throughout the fabric of time obtaining success has been defined many ways. Hard work, dedication, drive, luck and sheer determination, which are just a few that come to mind. So, In the Discussion of success, one controversial issue has been how to achieve success. On the one hand, journalist and author of the book “Outliers”, Malcom …show more content…
Gladwell argues that cultural legacy and opportunity are the foundations of one’s success. Meaning that our success is determined by outside factors beyond our control. On the other hand, Harriet Tubman like Dr. Whitley contends that success relies on the dreamer knowing that the strength, patience, and the passion to reach for the stars comes from within all of us. By saying this, she claims that success relies on the determination of the dreamer. In my own view, passion is the driving force to achieve and maintain one’s success. Malcom Gladwell states “the culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievements in ways we cannot begin to imagine.” In other words, Gladwell believes that things done in a time before us can ultimately determines our place in society. While making this comment, Gladwell leaves out the opportunist in this statement. Proposing that “cultural legacy” can shape our future, may deny some the opportunity to prosper. Angela Duckworth, professor and author of “Grit: the power of passion and perseverance,” states “The secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a passionate persistence. In other words, grit.” Professor Duckworth claims, our natural born talent alone is not the main character in our story of success. While talent can add substantial value, she believes that passion and persistence to one’s endeavors ultimately formulates success. Her notion like Dr. Whitley’s is that “the secret to outstanding achievement,” is not understood by many, hence the word secret. I believe many of our desires, talents and future opportunities lay dormant within us waiting to be woke. So, I propose that we should not rely solely on the foundation which was set before us as a construct to our success. Meaning that our past is not always connected to the road that lies ahead. Nonetheless, Malcom Gladwell insist that success is not solely the product of a hardworking, dedicated individual who beat the odds.
Gladwell believes that success also includes a string of fortunate events, uncontrolled outside variables in other words luck. In his book “The Outliers” Gladwell references a group of hockey players from Toronto, Canada and. points out. “Scott Wasden was born January 4th, within 3 days of the absolute perfect birthday for an elite hockey player. He was one of the lucky ones.” (pg.34) This goes to show that without much effort, sometimes success is inevitable due to luck of the draw. Although this may be true, this fluke is a rarity that most individuals will not experience. In my opinion you can have all the luck of the Irish, yet without passion that keeps that fire going I believe that sooner than later your luck dies out. I say that for this reason, not everyone has the advantage of being a first round pick. Some may be luckier, richer and more intelligent than others. As a result, most must rely on super natural source, …show more content…
passion. Be that as it may, Gladwell goes on to say “It's not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words.
It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.” to put it another way, your upbringing, neighborhood and surroundings will determine your success. Continuing the course of cultural legacy, Gladwell narrows it down to beyond lineage to a street name and home address. As a result, we can arrive to a false conclusion. Restricting one’s mind to an invisible cage. On the other hand, an award-winning educator, spoken word poet, and public speaker Donovan Livingston once said, “But I’ve always been a thorn in the side of injustice. Disruptive. Talkative. A distraction. With a passion that transcends the confines of my consciousness.” Meaning, you can never judge a book by its cover. We are only limited to by what we allow to limit us but we have the power to control who and what we allow around
us. All things considered, in my opinion, passion is one of the driving forces behind every success. There is an old saying “If you love what you do, you will never work another day.” To have passion means to have love for it, and unexplainable desire to thrive within. To push the boundaries, exceed limitations, to create a mark on the world that someone will never forget. Harriet Tubman once said, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” How to obtain success can be defined in many ways, that’s true; but the desire that we must have to become successful must be bigger than us. In a word we must be passionate.
Malcolm Gladwell once said, “...people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.” The author, Wes Moore, of the book, The Other Wes Moore, is considered an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens based off of Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Wes’s story demonstrates objectives that define him as an outlier with the contributions of where he’s from, his advantages, and also his attitude over his ability. These contributions therefore define him as an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens.
“There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs,” was said by motivational speaker and American author Zig Ziglar. This relates to Carol S. Dweck’s article “Brainology” and Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me.” Ziglar, Dweck, and Alexie all feel that it isn’t easy for someone to become successful. It takes hard work, perseverance, and the want to learn and grow. In Dweck’s article, she stated that someone with a growth mindset would become more successful and knowledgeable than someone with a fixed mindset, which was demonstrated by Alexie in his essay, and by a personal experience of my own.
Imagine growing up in a society where a person is restricted to learn because of his or her ethnicity? This experience would be awful and very emotional for one to go through. Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglas are examples of prodigies who grew up in a less fortunate community. Both men experienced complications in similar and different ways; these experiences shaped them into men who wanted equal education for all. To begin, one should understand the writers background. Sherman Alexie wrote about his life as a young Spokane Indian boy and the life he experienced (page 15). He wrote to encourage people to step outside their comfort zone and be herd throughout education. Similar to Alexie’s life experience, Fredrick
In the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” authored by Malcolm Gladwell, he explains what an outlier is and what it means to be “successful”. Throughout the novel, Gladwell provides examples by writing different stories in nine various chapters to support his claim. Gladwell believes that success isn’t gained by natural talent, but by the effects of other circumstances and that these people are called outliers. It’s the argument of nature vs. nurture that Gladwell wants to address in his book. Many people in society would think that a particular person is successful due to the individual’s natural talents, although that can be true to a certain extent, Gladwell wants to disapprove that idea in people’s mind and wants the public to look at
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. Although the author, Malcolm Gladwell did not major in sociology or psychology in college, his credibility for Outliers comes from his background in journalism.
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
Competition with others can cause us as individuals to want to better ourselves and make us strive to improve positively. It allows us to assess what we can change and develop in education and or experience. My colleague Hailey La Fave comments, “ I’m constantly trying to better others and their venues trying to get people to come to mine. This to me, is positive, because everyday I'm trying to better myself with my promoting and helping the venue grow. So my competition results in better sales and bigger shows.” In making this comment, Hailey points out that the competition she feels within her job positively affects her and gives her the drive to improve business for herself and her co-workers. Therefore, because she feels compelled to help draw in more business and make more profit she feels self satisfaction within herself when the company does well. Not only does Hailey’s personal experience illustrate the improvement that can occur within ourselves from competition, so does this quote from Empowher magazine, the journalist Darlene Oakley states, “Wayne Gretzky, Steve Jobs, and Nelson Mandela didn’t become the best at what they did or achieve what they did by staying the same. They worked, and strove, and experienced failure and setbacks many times before becoming the people we now revere them for being.” Darlene is saying here, that empowering people of our nation haven’t made self progress by allowing their faults to stop them but in fact allowing it to help them become the people they are recognized as today and will be for the rest of time. Because of their struggles and feats with competition they have found ways to improve themselves and make contributions to the world. In conclusion, by the motivation from competitors both Hailey, and the influential men have made personal accomplishments and strive to
Hofstede’s theory can be related to Chapter 7 of The Outliers. In the text, Hofstede has six value dimensions: individualism/collectivism/ uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity/femininity, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint. According to Hofstede, these dimensions are influenced and changed by culture. Chapter 7 in The Outliers is called the ethnic theory of plane crashes. This was a both interesting and frustrating read as the plane crash could have been avoided if communication had been better.
Most people throughout the world strive for success in each task they take on, and along with this, many reasons contribute to why they succeed or not. If a person does not succeed, they may automatically blame themselves because of their level of strength. Others may blame themselves for not having enough knowledge about what they are trying to succeed at. The real reason that people may not succeed, however, is their lack of determination and happiness throughout his/her journey that is demonstrated in the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.
Success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose (Macmillan), Ben Carson was successful, but how? It would seem prosperity just requires academic success, and a good career choice, but in reality being triumphant requires certain attributes. Talent, Time, Hope, Honesty, Insight,to be Nice, Knowledge, In-Depth-Learning, and God are all of the aspects Dr. Carson thinks we need in order to be successful. . Not only are these traits essential for success, they can build your character as well. Although all of these traits are crucial, but a few of them are of more significance than the rest. One example is Time, Time is an indefinite during which events, conditions, and actions occur and exist, or continue with uninterrupted succession (Macmillan).
This can be deduced by his claims that “people don’t rise from nothing” and that they were the product of “ . . . hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies . . . where and when [they] grew up . . .” He provides these claims in a quick summary of the overall purpose of the book in order to alert his readers of what is going to be covered and how it is going to be covered. As a result of the bluntness of those claims, his readers have a clear understanding of what is to be expected when analyzing the information presented to them and feel no need to worry about hidden bias being present. (Gladwell 19)
How does a person’s culture or the stereotypes they face during their lifetime impact their future dreams or desires? Through the writings of Sherman Alexie and Bobbie Ann Mason, the influences their cultures impressed upon them are observed. Author, poet, and screenwriter Alexie writes in his essay from 1997 “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” of life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and describes how he used his love of books to not only escape the biases of his own race but to succeed in the non-Indian world (47). In her 1999 excerpt “Being Country” from her book Clear Springs: A Memoir, author and essayist Mason explores life on her family’s farm in rural Kentucky. She writes of a lifestyle that revolved around the food they grew but was also dependent upon the vagaries of nature for their existence. Moreover, she explains how this way of life caused her to dream of a different life. (106-107). Even though Alexie and Mason came from diverse cultures, they both grew up in stereotypical societies and shared an exposure to similar outside influences that further shaped their personal identities throughout their young lives. As a result, they both envisioned futures that aspired to be different from the customs and beliefs found in their everyday lives.
Each and every person has their own thoughts and opinions throughout life, no matter how alike or different two individuals can be. In this generation, anyone can speak freely and debate as they please. Two very important individuals Carol Dweck whom is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and Malcolm Gladwell whom is a Canadian journalist and speaker created two inciting pieces. “Mind-Sets and Equitable Education” by Dweck, and “The Matthew Effect” by Gladwell, are very similar as well as different pieces of writing. Dweck and Gladwell’s arguments appear different’ in reality due to education and sports, mindsets, and achieving success.
Have you ever wondered how some people have come from nothing, a dark past that will surely set them up for failure, to live a remarkably successful life that they built on their own, while others are born privileged but fall far short of reaching their full potential? Many people believe that the answer to success is simply hard work. In Outliers, Malcom Gladwell believes that success is not achieved by the smartest or the hardest working but is simply a gift. He argues that although hard work and determination are necessary for success, social standing and certain advantages are the true aspects that create an outlier. This nonfiction book examines the many factors that influence whether an individual will find success or failure and uncovers certain explanations and patterns behind these everyday
Alhanati, J. (2012, 7 20). Follow Your Passions And Success Will Follow. Retrieved 3 9, 2014, from Investopedia.com: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/12/passion-success.asp