...Malcolm Gladwell, in his nonfiction book Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), asserts that although success is somewhat related to innate talent and ambition, the ones who are truly successful have the ability to recognize and seize opportunities as well. Gladwell also states that seemingly unrelated external factors such as birth dates, culture, and environment are a crucial part of becoming a success. Throughout the book, the author strives to thoroughly explore the mystery of success. He reinforces his main idea through a multitude of stories pertaining to success and failure; the book includes stories of the Beatles, Bill Gates, and Korean Air. In the first chapter, Gladwell proves to us that the the birthdates of junior hockey players...
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...In Outliers: The Story of Success, the book is made up entirely of a series of studies done to make connections to theories that have are well-known. Malcolm Gladwell’s style for writing Outliers includes having many examples to originally pinpoint the theory he has tested out. Malcolm Gladwell has his own theory of Success in the novel. He believes success is made up of many key points such as, personal opportunity, class background, what parenting styles you’ve been exposed to, and working habits. All in all, he believes an individual's success can be determined by a few key things. Chapter One of Outliers is titled “The Matthew Effect”. This chapter begins by accessing the place where the theory first came to exist. The chapter opens...
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...Haitham Mishal Engl 1A 0013 Prof. Nathan Connolly 28 November 2017 Outliers Homework #5 In Outliers, Gladwell conjectures why a few people have achievement path outside of measurable standards. These factual exceptions, accomplish at levels considerably higher than ordinary effective people do. One could state that Gladwell really alludes to his contention in the subtitle of his book. As indicated by his hypothesis of progress, it is the story encompassing a person that decides achievement considerably more so than a person's drive, knowledge or other individual attributes over which he states and explains in his book. In Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, as most well-known books managing examples of overcoming adversity,...
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...Practice makes perfect. In Outliers: Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell shows you what you must do to reach that level of greatness and achievement. Gladwell discusses some very good points into this research discussing him claim for the research, his reasoning behind or for the research and his evidence for the research of perfection. There is a reason why there is so much greatness in this world. For Gladwell, this pathway to perfection is through practice. Practice makes perfect this is the idea of Gladwell. “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum practice surfaces again and again in the studies of expertise.” This shows that it don't matter how much evidence is shown towards the practice makes perfect situation there is always an outside source saying that you naturally can do outstanding task. That in fact is not so, Gladwell's claim towards the idea of more practice to get to the place of achievement that the person needs. “”The emerging picture from the studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert--in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin.” Gladwell pulls this but of information to use in his...
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...Success Summary Success is something we as individuals strive for. There are numerous amounts of interpretations of success depending on who you ask, what they do, where they come from, their family background, their intelligence and much more. Malcolm Gladwell examines several scenarios of individuals whose environment, along with their ambition and motivation affects their ability to succeed in his third book Outliers: The Story of Success. The extraordinary individuals that triumph throughout Outliers range from hockey players born on the “perfect date,” to rock stars putting in 10,000 hours of work. From geniuses with exceptional IQ’s who do not succeed, to a Jewish immigrant in America who went from rags to riches, Gladwell tells their...
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...April drew in another deep breath and began to scroll through the empty pages of her application essay. Exhaling once more, she opened the novel, Outliers: The Story Of Success, and flipped through the pages while searching for nothing specific. Malcolm Gladwell wrote on page 79 that, “To get into and succeed in a reasonably competitive graduate program, meanwhile, you probably need an IQ of at least 115.” This concept awakened a thought, hidden until now, that transported her six years back to Manchester Middle, New Hampshire. Her teacher, while not a particularly kind woman, was returning the sixth graders’ essays with a smile and a positive comment for each student. Overall, the class had done marvelous, with the exception of the continuously...
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...Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers: The story of success writes about the various direct and indirect factors that lead towards mastery and renown. This book structure as a series of case studies that reach different cultures and different time periods which are related to some theories. According to Gladwell, success does not come simply with the talent, high IQ or personality. Successful individuals often are grateful to the right combination of hard work, community support, and meaningful opportunity. Under the Matthew Effects, Gladwell states that an individual’s success depends heavily on external factors. In the case of the hockey players, he says that the timing of person birth plays a significant role to the success in their life. For...
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...Katie Yang Outliers Book Review Honors Psych - Galovich 10/20/14 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Gladwell often discusses a common topic in respect to sociology and psychology: the unusual applications of research in social phenomena. Since a young age, Gladwell has been an ambitious person. His childhood spent wandering around the university where his father taught sparked Gladwell’s passion for reading and discovery. After graduating from college, Gladwell desired to become a journalist or writer, stating that he wanted to “mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration.” Up until now, Gladwell has authored five books. The reason for his writing is due to his two interests: his enthusiasm for collecting...
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...This may have been the earliest reason to why Gladwell wrote Outliers. Since he couldn’t continue to graduate school, Gladwell must have wondered about where he had gone wrong and why he couldn’t continue his education. He may have asked himself about his classmates, and how they were able to be successful in moving on to graduate school when he couldn’t. Another question he may have thought about was: why were some people so smart while others weren’t? Gladwell must have wondered whether or not he would be successful with just a bachelor’s degree in history. This whole incident must have started Gladwell’s train of thought. Soon after his graduation, all of Gladwell’s job applications to advertising agencies were rejected. This factor contributes to the making of Outliers, like Gladwell’s inability to continue on to graduate school. Just like before, this incident must have gotten Gladwell to think about the reason behind people’s successes. He may have thought about why he couldn’t get the job while others could. Gladwell must have thought of many questions such as: what was missing in him that was present...
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...there are not any successful self-made people, which is contrary to popular beliefs. The theory is presented in the book, Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), authored by Malcolm Gladwell. The theory is further defined by the premise that holds that success is enabled by a person’s culture, environment, when and where they were born, and a strong work ethic. These theories and examples of success are analyzed using the textbook, Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (2013) by Andrew DuBrin. Several examples are provided in this paper that illustrate and support Gladwell’s thoughts on opportunity and cultural legacy. Keywords: cultural legacy, success, leadership, Leader Member Exchange Model, in-group, out-group, cognitive factors, behaviors, task-related attitudesAn Analysis of Outliers: The Story of Success The author of the book Outliers: The Story of Success, (2008) Malcolm Gladwell, leads us through several compelling chapters of discussion regarding selected individuals who are extremely intelligent, driven, some famous and ambitious. These are the characteristics of individuals that are perceived as being the highly successful members of our society. Successful individuals are termed as “outliers”, people who fall outside the normal acumen of human experience. Gladwell (2008) maintains that the way in which success is measured is wrong. Further, he argues that people are more a product of their environment, culture, life experiences...
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...In the novel Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell discusses several key aspects throughout the book that contribute to people becoming successful. Mostly, Gladwell argues that "hidden advantages", "extraordinary opportunities", and "cultural legacies" are the main factors that play a part in a person's level of success. So, due to these particular aspects that help make a person a success, not everyone is capable of becoming an outlier. People must have certain things working for them in order to become successful. A person must have "hidden advantages" working for them. They must have "extraordinary opportunities" that they are able to take. Furthermore, certain cultures have traits that are important in becoming successful, so a person's "cultural legacies" play a large part in the journey to success. In Outliers, Gladwell provides numerous examples of these key aspects being a part of a successful person's life, but are they actually true for every person that is an outlier?...
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...Malcom Gladwell’s main argumentative claim is that all successful people made it to success with the help of hidden and unhidden advantages. He backs this point up by giving evidence of advantages such as birthday, family background, and small windows of opportunity. Malcolm Gladwell's first advantage successful people have could be their birthday. This fact is obvious when comparing professional athletes. The most obvious example is in Canadian hockey Malcolm Gladwell's first advantage successful people have could be their birthday. This fact is obvious when comparing professional athletes. The most obvious example is in Canadian hockey where some children are pushed above others unfairly with their hidden advantage that is their birthday. This correlates with success because it sets where they will be in terms of their team and the sports cut off dates. Malcolm Gladwell's second advantage successful people have is their family background. In the epilogue of outliers, Gladwell describes his ancestors lives and all of the advantages brought to him by those successes. He also points out that in New York many years ago, Italian people had an ancestral advantage of sewing skills that help them thrive in their new country. Gladwell will states, " Who we are cannot be separated from where we are from." This is very true also in terms of culture...
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... even extreme intelligence, has a threshold. Having a high IQ is an advantage, but being smarter than others does not automatically make one more successful. “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point” (79). A person not only has to be smart enough but when you factor in opportunities that are taken full advantage of, that person’s success greatly increases. Gladwell further proves his point in these chapters when he explains a study done by Lewis Terman. Terman performed standardized IQ testing for geniuses and attempted to demonstrate that a person who showed a genius IQ rating would clearly determine the success of that individual. Terman’s results between Group’s A, B, and C reemphasized Gladwell’s point that mere intelligence is not the sole identifier that leads to a person’s success. Terman concluded, with more than a touch of disappointment, “that intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated” (90). Factors such as economic and social background are huge contributing factors to a person’s success. While reading, I couldn't help but feel that Gladwell’s target audience and approach to understanding his view is directed toward people of the working class. We, as society, are constantly reminded through the media and social networking of the success of people...
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...Liliana Tenorio Sherry AP Psychology - 3 27 August 2015 Book Review: Outliers Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers explores the societal forces that give opportunity to individuals willing to put in the effort to become successful. Through the events and experiments he has researched, Gladwell has come to the conclusion that to become a successful person you must be given a specific and miraculous string of opportunities that pave the way for you, insisting that there is no such creature as a “self-made man”. He argues that they “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.” In scientific terms an...
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...Elda Espinoza May 9, 2016 Sociology 101 Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell The Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell attempts to explain the reasons why people become successful in both controlled and uncontrolled environment. He uses different stories and studies to explain what makes a person who there are. For example, in chapter one Gladwell says that successful hockey players if born early in the calendar year this will make them stand out physically among other boys who are several months younger than they are. Gladwell says that over time, the opportunities that these players have has help them build up to make them better players. So, Gladwell uses a sociological perspective to try to explain the reasons for people's success. Gladwell’s primary objective in Outliers is to show that assumptions like these are often wrong. Gladwell argues that achievement and expertise don’t just happen, but rather they result from a combination of various things and sometimes seemingly superficial factors. For instance, he points out those athletes born in certain months, is older and bigger, receive more attention as kids, and therefore tend to achieve more success in sports. So if their born in January or July it can dramatically impact the chances of going on to play professional hockey, be a professional baseball, or a successful soccer player any where in the world. This can also be seen in a classroom setting, where the older kids in the class often test better than younger students....
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