Barack Hussein Obama Junior was born on 4th August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Senior. His mother grew up in Wichita, Kansas. His father, however, was a Kenyan from the Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province. Barack’s parents officially divorced in March, 1964 when he was only two years of age. His mother then re-married another foreign student named Soetoro.
Obama lived with his mother and step mother in Indonesia where he attended multi-religious schools. His mother wanted him to get good education and therefore sent him back to Hawaiian Punahou School. While in Hawaii, he lived with his grandparents Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. His mother divorced his step father and returned to Hawaii to pursue cultural anthropology. She later returned to Indonesia for field research. While living with his grandparents, Obama excelled in varsity basketball. He was raised up in a non-religious family of his grandparents. He graduated in from the academy in 1979 with academic honors.
He then joined Occidental college in Los Angeles and later to Columbia University. While here, he read extensively on political and international affairs. He graduated in 1983 with a major in Political Science. From there, he joined Business International Group in New York as a global business researcher where he worked for a year.
His understanding of the African- American community was boosted when he started engaging himself in the community work in Chicago. From this platform, he initiated community based church funded projects to alleviate poverty. This also helped the residents to pressurize for the improvement of their poorly maintained houses. He realized that he could not excel in this work without knowledge in law and politics. This prompted him to join Harvard Law School in 1988 where he graduated with highest distinction. During his studies in this school, he contested and won the presidency of the esteemed Harvard Law Review for the 1990/1991 academic year. He later doubled up as a civil rights advocate, a lecturer and later a professor at the University of Chicago School of Law between 1992 and 2004. (Lou, 5)
In 1995, Barack Obama published an autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance which was highly praised key literature writers such as Toni Morrison. The autobook version of the autobiography earned him a Grammy Award 2006-the best spoken word album. His advocacy for the civil rights made him clinch the Illinois Senate seat on a Democratic Party ticket in 1996. While a senator, he chaired the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee and together with law officers, introduced the video recording of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases in the U.S.
In the November 2004 U.S. senate elections, Obama recorded the largest electoral victory in Illinois history by receiving 70 percent of the total votes making him the third African-American elected to the Senate since the Reconstruction of the U.S. while a senator, he cooperated with Republicans to pushed for the bills to expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia as well as to create a website to track all federal spending. In the historic 2008 general elections, Barack Obama beat the Republican’s John McCain to become the forty-fourth and the first African-American president of the United States. While in white house, president Obama approved the 2011 covert military operation in Pakistan, which saw the killing of the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who had terrorized the U.S. for decades. This is one of his major achievements besides the health scheme for the American people. Obama won a re-election to the white house in the 2012 general elections by beating his opponent Mitt Romney. It is, thus, worth noting that despite the challenges he faced, Barack Obama defied all odds to excel academically, politically and late clinching the most powerful seat in the world- the presidency of America. (Lou, 100)
Malcolm Gladwell is a renowned author and a former writer for The New Yorker. He also doubled as a reporter with the Washington post. Some of his bestselling books include The Tipping Point and Blink which give alternative points of view of life that human beings live in this world. Malcolm explained the reasons underlying every successful person. In his book the Outliers, he explores factors such as the Mathew effect, opportunity, 10,000 hours of work, culture among others.
The Mathew effect is derived from the holy Bible. It states that those who have shall be added more while those do not have, even the little they already have will be taken away. This is found in the book of Matthew chapter 25 verses 29. This verse emphasizes that those who have shall be added more and more but those who don’t, even the little they have shall be taken away. Even though he received good schooling, the Matthew effect does not apply to Barack Obama’s success. Barack grew up from a single parent-the mother- after his parents officially separated and there are not details of him having lived a posh life. He grew up with the pain of being away from his father and more so to the fact that his dad died. This indicates that he did not enjoy much of inheritance from his parents. Throughout his journey to fame, he worked hard to realize his own self, abilities and capabilities. For instance, he was a civil rights lawyer, a lecturer, a writer, a professor and finally joined politics which saw him rise to the presidency of the U.S. (Gladwell, 15)
The account of 10,000 hours of work is quite evident in Obama’s journey to success. As a teenager, he kept on working hard and even incorporated academics with co-curriculum activities such as basket ball. His ability to multitask is further seen when he started to pursue his career in advocacy. He worked as a civil rights lawyer, a lecturer, an editor with the Harvard Law Review, a writer and finally a very successful politician. This indicates his devotion towards his work that must have registered this great success. Thorough practice must have propelled him to excelling in basketball and advocacy in civil rights. Above all, politics is about dedication and hard work and without this, one can never be successful.
President Barack Obama’s intelligent Quotient must be so very high. He successfully went through academic trainings and graduates. He went to Harvard and University of Chicago Law Schools. Having a diversified ethnic and cultural background, his genetic inheritance is, thus, unique. During the 2008 general elections, Obama gave very powerful speeches that even triggered emotions among his supporters. (Lou, pg 116)
Opportunity availed itself to Obama when the senate seat in Illinois remained vacant. He, therefore, capitalized on this precious moment by trying his luck which eventually saw him win the seat. From this single opportunity, Barack got the master key to many political doors including the presidency. On the same way, the fact that he is an African-American also boosted his success as he won the support of many black Americans from both the Diaspora and the U.S. herself. It is worth noting that what seemed to be a disadvantage turned out to be a building block to his success. However, it is worth noting that throughout his campaigns he avoided using the race issue the gun votes,
Obama’s ability to express himself eloquently is another factor that propelled him to success. He has with time given some of the best presidential speeches in the U.S. and across the world in general. As Malcolm observes, the ability of a person to someone what one wants can lead into his/her success. During the 2008 presidential campaigns, he gave speeches that emotionally touched his supporters and some of them shed tears.
Barack Obama’s success is therefore a result of both external and inherent factors. He is a man endowed with a lot of wisdom and the power to lead. He has a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Furthermore, he used his personality to overcome all the cultural and racial obstacles to ascend to the pick of his success. Externally, he was brought up with high morals and integrity. He went through good schooling and pursued his career up to professorship. His good work and determination made him gain more ground in politics. This has made him stand the political wave in the U.S. and even overwhelmingly got a re-election in the 2012 presidential elections.
Works Cited
Mary, Lou Decosterd. Right Brain/Left Brain President: Barack Obama's Uncommon
Leadership Ability and How We Can Each Develop It. ABC- CLIO California , pg 5-200. 2010.
Malcolm, Gladwell. Outliers. New York. Little Brownan Company. 2008.
