outliers the story of success essay

by Malcolm Gladwell

• Outliers Summary

In Outliers: The Story of Success , Malcolm Gladwell sets out to explain the various factors that lead to mastery and renown. The book itself is structured as a series of case studies that span different cultures and different time periods, but that all relate to a few central theses and theories. For Gladwell, success is not simply the product of a powerful personality or a high IQ. Instead, successful individuals often thrive thanks to the right combination of hard work, community support, and meaningful opportunity.

Outliers begins by considering the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, a small community with remarkably low incidence of health problems such as heart disease. After this brief introductory section, Gladwell considers the first of the major factors--personal opportunity--behind his theory of success. He shows that completely arbitrary factors, such as day and year of birth, can determine opportunities to practice and achieve excellence . However, he also argues that expected measures of brilliance (such as IQ) are less important than influences such as class background, parenting styles, and work habits in determining an individual's future.

Where Gladwell's "Opportunity" section considers remarkable individuals such as programmer Bill Joy , software mogul Bill Gates , physicist Robert Oppenheimer , and unsung intellectual Chris Langan, Gladwell's next section shifts emphasis: in "Legacy," Gladwell argues that one's culture of origin--and some of the completely random circumstances that it presents--can determine success or failure. The discussion that takes place in "Legacy" addresses the cultural, social, and psychological roots of family feuds, airplane crashes, and mathematical aptitude. For Gladwell, the society of one's ancestors--whether those ancestors herded sheep in rural England or worked a rice paddy in rural China--can determine one's practices and preferences even in the present day.

To support his theses in the most personal manner possible, Gladwell uses the final section of Outliers , "A Jamaican Story," to show that the forces of culture and chance that have been analyzed throughout his book shaped the lives of his grandmother, his mother, and himself.

Outliers Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Outliers is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Outliers Questions

Yes, I believe that certain people are born with certain talents.

Gladwell says that in the end, preparation becomes plays a bigger role than talent. The "best" practice more than anyone else. Thus, someone with innate talent must still prepare or...

What is accumulative advantage?

All the advantages that one gets in life leading to success like family wealth, opportunity, race........All of these advantages accumulate.

What is the magic number for mastering a specific skill?

That would be 10000 hours.

Study Guide for Outliers

Outliers study guide contains a biography of Malcolm Gladwell, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Outliers
• Character List

Essays for Outliers

Outliers essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

• The 10,000 Hour Rule in Outliers
• Malcolm Gladwell's "Small Change": A Rhetorical Analysis

Lesson Plan for Outliers

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Outliers
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Outliers Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Outliers

• Introduction

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Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

• Categories: Malcolm Gladwell Outliers Success

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Published: Apr 11, 2019

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Outliers: The Story of Success, Essay Example

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Chapter 01 of the book written by Malcolm Gladwell, “ Outliers: The Story of Success” involves a perfect illustration of the contribution of the combination of social advantages and favorable opportunities in determining the success of people. A success at one level in life consequently generates even further successes that make the individual to ascend to even greater levels in life. Malcolm Gladwell has perfectly illustrated the concept of Mathew Effect by the use of the success achieved in playing hockey by a junior hockey league from Canada. This essay posits to critically explore the Gladwell’s interpretation of the Matthew Effect as an opportunity that plays a critical role in an individual’s success. The essay shall also look into the areas of life where the Matthew Effect commonly occur including education, socio-economic and sports and the practical implications of this concept in terms of the benefits that are attributed to a given opportunity or advantage that has led to successful.

The people who are exposed to opportunities of success have higher chances of being accorded further chances for the same and the ones deprived of these opportunities continues to miss the same. The rich people can easily access huge tax breaks while conducting voluminous business while the poor continue to hustle in an endless cycle of poverty. In education, the students whose performance is outstanding can easily access the highest attention and best coaching. Success is therefore attributed to accumulative advantage according to the argument of sociologists (Gladwell, 2008)

The starting point of the successful hockey player was marked by outstanding performance relative to the performance of his peers. The initial difference, though not very significant at first, offers the best opportunity for accessing more opportunities and this is the basis of the great difference that at the later stages in the life of the hockey player. The hockey player consequently becomes a genuine outlier though he never started as an outlier but the starting point was only slightly better.

The foundation of the concept as the name suggest is the Bible. In the Biblical book of Matthew 25:29, it is vividly suggested that, “ For unto every man who posses shall be accorded, and he shall accumulate plenty of that: but from him that posses not shall be deprived and denied even the little that he hath ”. Therefore, according to the Biblical Mathew and the writer of this book, accumulated advantage and Mathew effect leads to richer people becoming extremely richer day in day out and the poor people on the other hand continues to becomes poorer overtime. The concept therefore plays a fundamental responsibility in intensifying the gap that prevail between those who have and those who are unlucky to have or the have-mores and the have-less up to a point of encountering limits and encumbrances.

According to Malcolm Gladwell therefore, Matthew Effect relates to accumulated advantage that make most people to be as successful as they are due to the favor that they derive from social advantage coupled with favorable opportunities. Access to a favorable opportunity at the initial stages serves as a key to further favorable opportunities, which in turn opens the way for sequential success. Malcolm Gladwell’s Matthew Effect of accumulative advantage is for that reason apparent in almost all institution in life, the ultimate destiny being amplification of inequalities in terms of education, skills, political power, economic power, prestige and knowledge.

Areas of life that can best illustrate the practical application of Matthew Effect

Business, education, sports, the arts, the workplace and the family are the most common areas that can best illustrate the practical application of Matthew Effect of accumulative advantage. In Business for example, companies that undertake huge volumes of business transaction are likely to earn a competitive advantage which may arise from economies of scale, access to business permits, easy access to technology advancement and easy access to raw materials. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the rich people undertaking massive businesses are most likely given huge tax breaks by relevant institutions.

In education, the students whose performance is outstanding can easily access the highest attention and best coaching. As a consequence, Mathew effect with respect to academia may help in the explanation of initial skills acquisition as having significant implications in the future opportunities of success. On the contrary, the students who are unlucky to start with significant degrees of failure in reading for example are most likely to sink along this line by ignoring reading less as compared to the students who start with successful reading skills. The challenges that are encountered during the first stages have significant implications on the performance in other subjects thus ragging behind in their entire school life.

In politics also, the Gladwell’s Matthew Effect is applicable in a variety of manifestation. For example, any candidates who are associated with a renowned status in any political system have higher chances of accessing media coverage for free which is a promoter of favorable opportunity that makes the career of such a person to shine more and more. Such preferential treatments offer an easy time and task for such politician to be elected and re-elected in the position so desired.

Gladwell’s Matthew Effect mixed experience

My understanding of the Gladwell’s Matthew Effect warrants my reservations for mixed experience and reaction, that implies that my reaction lies between positive and negative. The concept of accumulative advantage as presented by Gladwell’s Matthew is characterized by the occurrence of a social advantage that subsequently generate supplementary advantage in a system called feedback overtime. The result of this development is amplification of a gap between people in the society who own particular resources and who face inaccessibility of these resources that can be perceived as social-cultural compound interest.

It is prudent to note that, some of the people are lucky to enjoy primary advantages but the source of these primary advantages could be illegitimate, thus bringing curse instead of blessings in their lives. It is also notable that, some people are in the position that they are because the earned their position through hard work, however, other people usually acquire their possession inheritance or ill means. The acumen of working harder to make sure that they grow their wealth may be unachievable. However, origin of these initial advantages notwithstanding, the effectiveness of accumulative advantage associated with Gladwell’s Matthew Effect will only be applicable on condition of wise investments of resources that are associated with initial advantages. This means that it is also practical for sequential accumulation of advantages to becomes less automatic for those individuals.

Works cited

Gladwell, Malcolm Outliers: The Story of Success 1 st Ed. Little, Brown and Company, 2008-11-18).

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Outliers: The Story of Success Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

Essay Topic 1

Gladwell opens his book with a dictionary definition of the word "outlier." It is "something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body," and also "a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from others of the sample." His first example of an outlier is the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania in the first half of the 20th century.

1. In your own words, give a definition of an outlier. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Discuss the reasons you think outliers are valuable for research purposes. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Explain, in your own words, why the town of Roseto, Pa. is an outlier and make-up another example of a town that would be an outlier. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Wolf concludes that there is something about the...

(read more Essay Topics)

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Origins of Success in Outliers Essay

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Introduction

There are many ways that authors use in their works to convince a reader of their purpose and stance. According to Aristotle, a speaker’s capacity to persuade an audience depends on how well they talk to them in the three different domains of pathos, ethos, and logos (Goldin). These invocations constitute what later rhetoricians have referred to as the rhetorical triangle when combined. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers , which was later retitled Success Stories , makes an effort to explain why some individuals might be more successful than others. Gladwell’s argument about the origins of success is not persuasive, because his argumentation is vague, and the supportive literature is simplified for the author’s goals.

Malcolm Gladwell explores several noticeable facets of the lives of the most successful, famous, and smart people. Gladwell’s argument about the role of opportunity and legacy in success is that a person’s ability differs depending on the parents and the level of education (Gladwell). The same argument applies to legacy, which, according to the author, plays one of the decisive roles in the formation of success (Gladwell). Although one person may be wiser than another, opportunity and legacy play a decisive role in whether a person achieves success in life. Gladwell’s argument is not persuasive, despite the examples of people whose chances of success were justified by legacy and opportunity, because he is claiming that the combination of the two factors is sufficient for success.

The ability of Gladwell to engage the reader by making challenging concepts more understandable is the book’s most amazing feature. According to Aristotle, a speaker’s capacity to persuade an audience depends on how effectively they address that audience (Goldin). An example of using ethos is the coverage of a variety of sociology study articles. The author’s ethos also emphasizes the important topic of equality, which is covered to address the mass audience (Gladwell). The popularity of the concepts in the book and the strong sales demonstrated the persuasiveness of his writing to a sizable audience, many of whom frequently choose to disregard criticism of the book from outside sources.

Gladwell examines the social and cultural difficulties in which he disregarded those who were more evolved than others throughout the whole book. Using logos, Gladwell attempts to bring his argument to a certain logical flow and build a foundation for further development. The example of logos in the book suggests that success is a quality that is more influenced by outside forces than by internal qualities (Gladwell). The author uses an example of logos in providing a story of a successful individual like Bill Gates to illustrate how success may be influenced by things like a person’s date of birth (Gladwell). This book also makes an effort to provide answers to a variety of queries, such as why Asians are excellent mathematicians and why the most intelligent person in the world would be the one with the least accomplishment (Gladwell). This becomes a logical basis for Gladwell and his position on success.

This book asserts that persons who have achieved outstanding outcomes typically live lives based on particular patterns. An example of using logos to convince the audience is in contending that every true story of success is unique, and if someone is curious about what a particular person has achieved, they should consider their location of birth, and the time of day they were born (Gladwell). He also presents an intriguing and confronting method to maximize the potential of the individual to unearth the hidden significance. To address the topic of what may lead to success, Gladwell examined scientific data together with anecdotal evidence from personal success tales. This becomes another example of employing logos in building the argument of the author.

The central topic in Outliers is what constitutes success, which is a great subject, and the book does a good job of addressing it. It is disappointing, nevertheless, that the book does not go into further detail on what success entails and what must be done to obtain it. The author’s main pathetic point is that while many people have achieved success, there are still many more who have not. Outliers, according to Gladwell, are outstanding people who are intelligent, affluent, and successful yet do not fit into our conventional definitions of success (Gladwell). This is another example of the usage of pathos to convince the audience of people who may decide to read the book to find the explanation for their unsuccess. While the pathos of the author’s statement is convincing to the reader, there is a clear lack of substantial evidence to prove his point.

The author has made an effort to categorize his assertions that success may be attained via predetermined factors. According to Gladwell, opportunity, the appropriate moment, upbringing, effort, meaningful work, and legacy are the primary aspects that define a person’s success (Gladwell). Such an explanation is also aimed at the mass audience, the author is trying to convey his pathetic message. Another example of pathos is his argument about the fact that being born at the proper moment is undoubtedly a factor that can contribute to a person’s success. Gladwell contends that basic characteristics like a person’s birth month might determine his level of success in life (Gladwell). Thus, the author asserts that success is based on established variables that can be determined by categorization.

In the book, Gladwell makes a case for the 10,000-hour rule. Although 10,000 hours may seem like a long time to realize a person’s potential, perseverance will eventually pay off (Gladwell). While persuading the readers, Gladwell uses logos again to convey his message. Gladwell came up with the 10,000-hour rule by comparing and contrasting the historical eras and periods that were typical of certain lucky people, which is an example of logical proving. Another example of using logos is the conclusion that notable individuals born in the middle of the 19th century made great contributions since the period of active industrialization and invention provided numerous possibilities for personal growth (Gladwell). Moreover, Gladwell claims that this amount of time can be enough to become successful if properly used. Hence, a person would undoubtedly have a greater chance of success if they had the opportunity to implement the 10,000-hour rule from a young age.

The author’s usage of the ethos, logos, and pathos principles from Aristotle was highly compelling and engaging. Gladwell succeeds in persuading the reader that there is a certain moment in birth that determines whether or not a person will be successful. Nonetheless, the argument is highly lacking in any particular factors, despite the intriguing notion and the sensible use of ethos, pathos, and logos. Its applicability to all people raises doubts about its validity. For example, the author claims that success would undoubtedly depend in part on chance, but there is no way to prove that luck favors certain possibilities in a given month or season of the year. In this regard, it is crucial to take into account additional factors like having the chance, to work hard and never giving up on everything one accomplishes. Another unconvincing example is underlying the particular time framework of 10,000 hours (Gladwell). This brings attention to the lack of clear argumentation within the author’s ideas.

The possibilities are one of the key topics discussed in Outliers that contributed to the success. It is likely true that chances were offered to different people from case studies that helped them succeed. However, possibilities must be taken advantage of, which includes taking a calculated risk. Within this context, the impact of connections on achievement is briefly mentioned in the book. For example, the book pays little attention to relationships, while people and relationships are really important constituents of real success (Gladwell). Another example of vague argumentation is the oversimplified and generalized research that the book is based on. When one approaches it with a critical eye, many logical issues stand out. The number of research included in the book is relatively unsubstantial to draw firm conclusions, and the authors of the studies have acknowledged that the author misconstrued their work to support his viewpoint. Gladwell frequently concludes with little or no supporting evidence because of circumstantial and anecdotal information that gives the impression that it is more substantial than it is.

It is impossible to understate the Outliers’ appeal upon the time it was published. Gladwell’s writing style and the intriguing concepts he explored captured the attention of his readers. The majority of Gladwell’s views are well-backed by examples from everyday life, making the book a strong argument for the readers. The examples Gladwell provides of excellent people with undeniable success, like Bill Gates, show how successful people can be. The book’s credibility is damaged by the lack of appropriate supporting data and the oversimplification of its arguments. Gladwell’s claim on the causes of success is intriguing and alluring but unpersuasive.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The story of success . Little, Brown, 2008.

Goldin, Owen. “Pistis, Persuasion, and Logos in Aristotle.” Elenchos , vol. 41, no.1, 2020, pp. 49-70.

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IvyPanda. (2024, March 3). Origins of Success in Outliers. https://ivypanda.com/essays/origins-of-success-in-outliers/

"Origins of Success in Outliers." IvyPanda , 3 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/origins-of-success-in-outliers/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Origins of Success in Outliers'. 3 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Origins of Success in Outliers." March 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/origins-of-success-in-outliers/.

1. IvyPanda . "Origins of Success in Outliers." March 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/origins-of-success-in-outliers/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Origins of Success in Outliers." March 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/origins-of-success-in-outliers/.