In his book “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell mentions: “The outlier, finally, is not an outlier at all.” (285). That particular statement assumes those who achieve success have no evident differences compared with the ordinary people in the sense of being more intelligent and wisdom. In other words, the author tries to convince readers persevering and creating opportunities to be the most important ways to succeed. If a person relies on intelligence and wisdom only, they can’t climb higher than pyramid first level.
In my opinion talent or fortune cannot predestinate your success. People have to progress continually and keep striving to be successful during the whole life. Success is the outcome of persevering; however, persevering is not the only way to gain your goals and become a successful person. People make steps towards their success day by day, no matter how hard it is. From my point of view, personal efforts and creating opportunities for yourself are all equally important to succeed.
In his writing Malcolm Gladwell gives a lot of examples in order to demonstrate keeping going as a crucial way to success. One of typical examples is an investigation, showing success does not depend on the talent but on your personal productivity and ability to keep moving. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and his two colleagues conducted a test study at Berlin’s University of the Arts. They have divided the students from violin group into three separate ones. The first’ group representatives had the potential to become world-class violinists. Students from the second were only "comparably good". The last group could not correspond with the levels of professional standards, and their goals were limited to simple becoming the music teachers during the nearest future. All the students were asked the same one question: “In your life, from the moment of picking up the violin, how many hours you have you practiced?” Students in every group told that most of them have started playing approximately at the age of five. In the beginning, during the first few years, most of them were spending 2-3 hours per week. However, starting from 8 years old, the difference began to vary. The “top” students increased their practice time as they grow up. In fact, being 20 years old, those most outstanding performers practiced for 10 000 hours in their life in average. If we compare these results with others’ people, the “middle-skilled” students’ practice time was around 8 000 hours, and the future music teachers’ – only 4 000 hours. Through this investigation, the author shows us that diligence is extremely important part of a general success.
In fact, from my own experience, I also have an important thing that pushed me to realize: if we work hard and never give up, we will definitely reach our goals and become successful. When I was 13, my father gave me a Rubik's Cube as my birthday present. At first, I was interested in this new toy, however, after a while, I still could not make the same color on each side. So, I just gave up. However, my father told I should not become a quitter. He told me if I give up this time I will just waste all the time I have spent before. Meanwhile, my father suggested me to work together and cope with it. After getting that offer, I have refused from help and told him I will do it by myself. Finally, I made the same color on each side although we spent more than two hours on that. After that experience I’ve learned the lesson for myself: we don’t need to ask which result you would get because no one can answer you. Although I completed it during a very long time frame, I have got assurance that once we start doing something in order to reach our goal, we will never easily give it up. After all, we will find a key to access the success. I do believe that if we work hard and never stop, we will be successful at the end of that hard way.
On the other hand, I think that seizing the opportunity is also an important condition for people’ success because the opportunity flies nearby just like a gentle butterfly and we can miss it easily, at once. Therefore, to seize the opportunity, we must be perceptive and notice what is happening around, to be attentive and concentrated as well.
In the book ‘Outlier’, the author gives a specific example to explain the significance of the opportunity. Before the 1970-s, everyone thought that only serious legal issues with bonds and taxes considered to be important in the big law office. So the lawyers who couldn’t find a “good job” just had a chance deal with contentious cases on behalf of some inglorious law firm. At that time, a lawyer Joseph H. Flom has joined the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &Flom LLP and Affiliates and processed the contentious case. Nevertheless, after 1970-s, along with development of the society, hostile has started seriously growing up and litigation cases suddenly became hot and lots of contentious cases have appeared. They already knew Joseph H. Flom could perfectly handle such cases. In result their company developed better and better. Flom did not overstep adversity, but adversity suddenly turned into plenty of great opportunities. Because of perceptible changes in the world they have succeeded greatly. This all came from the opportunities.
The opportunities always have a serious influence upon us. Before I have moved to the United States, I was studying in China. During that period I had good grades on my main subjects. However, during the graduation year, I have choked up and showed not a best result during the final examination. I felt very upset about my future and I knew that I couldn’t enter the university by any chance. However, my parents brought me another great opportunity they have decided to immigrate to the United States. I have suddenly felt the bright light of the future because I could get one more chance to go to the college and get a possibility to enter the university. Also, my parents pay all the expenses for me and I suppose not everyone can have this chance because the majority of students need to pay their school expenses by themselves. Conversely, I can focus on my study: if I catch the opportunity and try my best to study I will still have chance to get a better education here. From this experience, I know that the opportunity always around us, the important thing is that how to catch it.
In conclusion it is important to say both opportunity and struggle are the necessary ingredients for success. I think those are two different concepts and they cannot be compared in importance sense. Maybe, we cannot find the same point between that, but there is one thing in common is that they are both complementary. As proverb says: “God will help those who help themselves”
The people who can obtain the opportunity should always be ready for that. Struggle is a process and it is an indispensable key to achieving our goal. Moreover, the opportunity is the thing that we need to catch. Both of these are life-important. We are the Lords of our life, so being a successful Ruler and a wisdom King will help you a lot. But every person should also realize clearly – you cannot catch a fish if you do not use the spinning even. There is no way you can become a successful person just by sitting on a comfortable chair and watching TV ,as, besides, lots of people all around the world do. Create yourself, as every day is special, every minute is extraordinary, every second you have consisted of so many amazing and inspiring things around you.
The Ways Leading People To Prosperity Essay Example
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WowEssays. (2020, March, 29) The Ways Leading People To Prosperity Essay Example. Retrieved November 19, 2024, from https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/the-ways-leading-people-to-prosperity-essay-example/
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