In the book Outliers, Joe Flom faced discrimination because of his faith and as a result, was not able to get a job at law firms. Instead, he was forced to take the “petty” cases involving money. However, after the 1970s, there was a boom in the number of company mergers and takeovers, and companies needed to hire lawyers who knew how to handle the cases involving money. Flom’s experience, the product of adversity became an advantage. He later used this advantage to create a new law firm and became very successful.

After reading the chapter about Flom, I was able to connect with him because of an experience of mine, where adversity turned into an opportunity. Recently, my local library hosted a party for students to celebrate the end of the school year. Elated that school was over, my friend and I were in a mood for a party, so when we saw the advertisement for the party online, we immediately trekked to the library to celebrate. When we arrived at the party, we were surprised to see a room full of kids around the middle school elementary school age. The adult hosting the party refused to admit my friend and I in, after she claimed that we were “too old for these things”. She was stubbornly resolute on her decision to prevent us from entering, despite our profuse explanations that we were also students, and there is no age limit on candy, music and tote bags. …show more content…
To our surprise, there was another event earlier that day in the room next to where the party took place. The host of the other event saw our depressed state and asked if we wanted some ice cream; she had ordered too much for her