Malcolm Gladwell's Book Outliers Description On Causes Of Success Essay Examples

The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that outlines all about success and what causes the impact called success in the most successful individuals we see .A story or stories tell that success is because of focus, intelligence and ambition. If not that, then success or the given talent is innate and one is born with it. However, according to the book outliers, this is different. Gladwell explains the causes of success in what we would see as ridiculous but in turn gives practical examples to support his factors. In his book, he terms success is as a result of family influence, where an individual was born, the time he or she was born, opportunities, practice, legacy and meaningful work. This indicates the reasons behind success as seen in most successful people in the world.
The Canadian hockey team is known to be the best in the world. Their practice starts right from the kindergarten trying to identify the best from the others. This may seem to indentify the innate talent in hockey among the kids, as they have done no practice. In his book, gladwell argues in a very different manner. He out rules the point of innate talent among the kids, instead, he brings another factor which is time of birth. One of the requirements among the hockey players is January 1 birth date. For the reason he terms the birth date to be the reason behind their success. The same case applies among the most successful personnel in the information technology. He writes that the best years of birth for them were between 1954 and 1956.
It takes practice for one to perfect him or herself in a certain field. Having argued that success does not mainly depend on the innate ability, Gladwell brought up an argument about 10000 hours of practiced to perfect on the area one is in need to pursue. It takes commitment and resources for this tom happen successfully. Look at the hockey team for example. After selecting the potential players, the team starts practicing at a very young stage. This allows ample time for preparation. In other examples, Gladwell in his book the outliers explains the cases of individuals like Bill Gates, Bill Joy and the Beatles. Something common in the three cases is occurrence of an opportunity to practice for 10000 hours. Bill gates a key success in the technology industry lived in a location where he accessed computers for free. He therefore practiced programming for more that even the 10000 hours thus the reason for success.
Success is more than being a genius in a certain field. It needs opportunities to utilize for one to succeed in life. Being a genius means that the IQ or the thinking capacity is very high such that the individuals can formulate and solve many problems. However, there is more than that in success. An averagely intelligent person with opportunities has a bigger chance top succeed than a genius without opportunities.this is according to gladwells book the outliers. In his book, he has outlined two practical examples for this situation. A genius by the name Christopher Langan tested an IQ of thirty percent more than Einstein did. This proves that this person was extremely clever and brilliant in his activities. On the other side, Landan had minimal opportunities if no to take. For this reason, he ended up in factory jobs and finally as a bouncer. Being a genius this would not be counted as succession the other hand, an individual by the name Robert Oppenheimer was in a way a genius. In his case, he had opportunities to utilize. He was brought up in a rich environment thus ended up being successful through his science projects.
Cultural legacy according to gladwell is one of the factors, which affect how successful one can be. This means that what the person found his or her society doing affects success in the individuals life. This to some point is very true, as a child will grow into behaviors and practices as the environment is. In his analysis, Gladwell analyzed the two Asian societies: China and Russia. In the analysis, China who grows rice were seen to be more hardworking and successful than Russian. Rice growers in the ancient time were hardworking considering the fact that rice needs a lot of care before it bore fruits. In the analysis, Gladwell differentiates the cultures by their altitude based on the proverbs they used. For instance, in Russia common proverbs included “if god does not bring anything, then the world cannot provide it. On the other hand, Chinese proverbs were based on hard work. For example one common one is, “No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”The different between the two proverbs is evident and indicates how culture builds onto success for an individual.
Malcolm Gladwell has taken his time to analyses and look into the successful individuals and cultures. In his book, he has also observed the other side of the less successful individuals and cultures thus deducing the difference between them. It is in this analysis that he comes up with this conclusion of what results into success.