The Story of Success Malcom Gladwell, Essay Example

According to the Story of Success in the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the theory that people achieve success primarily as a result of personal effort and talent is disputed. Rather, he arguesfactors and circumstances around a person that place them in the right place at the right time with the right people heavily influence or even determine a person’s ability to succeed. Gladwell seems to suggest that much of success is a matter of luck, the roll of the die – success depends on timing, birth, and opportunities (Gladwell VII–IX).

According to Gladwell’s argument, people who are successful in life may not necessarily be smart and hardworking. Gladwell advocates the aspects of idiosyncratic experience in the upbringing of an individual, generation, geographical birth location, culture and family. Opportunity along with time spent on a particular task is attributed to the success of an individual by Gladwell and justifies the initial failures encountered by an individual in mastering an art or science. Gladwell also suggests that if ten thousand hours are invested in mastering a practice, then it is possible to master any field that seems to be cognitively demanding (Gladwell VII–IX).

The innate qualities including ambition and raw talent have no role to play in the success of an individual. Although many people have disputed the theory, majority of the scholars have embraced it such as Morzat who argued that the quintessential prodigy of a child is not attributed to genetics but to a larger extent by practice. According to this argument therefore, it appears that Gladwell’s argument correct. These sentiments have been supported by a writer from New York who claims that, the people who are successful in life are never “self made”, but rather, they customarily benefit from latent advantages as well as extraordinary opportunities together with cultural legacies which facilitates their learning as well as working in a manner that they derive benefits in a manner that is impossible to others. This argument gives no room for the innate qualities such as ambition and raw talent in controlling the success of a person (Gathman 102 and Cowley, 145).

Gladwell quotes the success story of Bill Gates who was sent to a private school by his wealthy parents which was equipped with a computer club having a teletype terminal of time sharing and directly connected to the mainframe computer at Seattle and this was considered to be an unusual happening. For Gates to have been born in the middle of 1950’s, this was a positive fortune because his of age era coincided with a time that the computer industry needed his experience to initiate the software company. This is a prodigy and genius that are attributed to products of history together with community of legacy and opportunity. Similarly, there is no mention of the innate qualities such as ambition and raw talent in controlling the success of Bill Gates. This type of success is not mysterious and exceptional but it is founded on a connection of inheritance issues and advantages which are critical in shaping his life (Jackson 97).

According to Frank Sulloway who authored the complete study of success in Born to Rebel (Pantheon, 1996), people who are creative in life never idle as they wait for opportunity to come easily their way but they strive in creation of these opportunities. Bill Gates for example had a creative mind and this mind would still be in him even in the absence of a computer terminal in the school. It was therefore potentially applicable that he would identify alternative approaches of accessing the programming tools (Gladwell VII–IX).

The role played by innate qualities including ambition and raw talent are underestimated by Glawell. However, Morzat has a controversial opinion on the innate qualities as he tends to exaggerate the role in the success of an individual (Pinker 171). Gladwell continuously reemphasizes the theme in his book that being a genius is not the most important determinant factor of success of a person. This point is driven home by the illustration of Christopher Langan who had an IQ of 195 but was successful to own a horse farm in the rural areas of Missouri. According to Gladwell, the successful achievements of Langan were not attributed to the environment of his upbringing. Langan had no person to support him and no bright background that aided him in embracing the opportunities presented by his unusual gifts but he struggled alone to achieve success (Pinker 171).

A similar scenario was evident in the success story of Oppenheimer who founded the atomic bomb. He too lacked any innate natural qualification that positively aided his ascendance to success. Accoirding to the opinion of Gladwell, the upbringing of Oppenheimer was associated with a pivotal difference in as far as his life was concerned. The neighborhood of the early childhood of Oppenheimer at Manhattan was among the wealthiest and his father was a painter as well as a successful businessman and enjoyed a concerted cultivation childhood. These were very important opportunities at the disposal of Oppenheimer that facilitated him in the development of the practical skills that were outright fundamental in the achievement of his success.

Gladwell also argues that students from diverse cultures and socio economic backgrounds achieve their success as a result of the time that they spend in their school and in environments that are educationally rich. Gladwell illustrates the case of students in the “Knowledge is Power Program”, KIPP in the united states which plays a vital role assisting the students in the inner city schools and they become successful. These students gain their success as a result of the extended time they take in school over the academic year along with the summer. He also argues about the detrimental effects associated with summer holidays for the students whose background is disadvantaged (Cowley, 145).

From the experiences learnt from most of the success stories behind different people, it is undoubted that practice is a very significant ingredient in success and perfecting of skills. However, the contribution of the innate land latent talents also plays a vital role in aiding the achievement of mastery skills. This is clearly evident in the talented individual as compared to the less gifted individuals. Therefore, the role of innate talents cannot be completely downplayed in their contribution in the achievement of success of an individual. The manifestation of the talents is almost immediate in an individual, long before the onset of any undertaking (Gathman 102).

It is an established fact that geniuses are born in all social classes. However, for the case of people from the lower classes, brightness, hard work and high degree of creativity are required if the person has to gain entry in to a portal where just a little effort is needed for the average person from the privileged social class to set foot. The role of mentors and individuals with potentials of recognizing subject prodigality to facilitate access to knowledge, information as well as guiding towards the realization of the talents finds their application in these situations. In a nutshell however, the achievement of success is determined by performing what an individual is in love with in a smart, efficient as well as effective manner. The evaluation of success will most likely differ between the success of a person and the success of the public (Gathman 102).

All illustrations by Gladwell do not elevate or despise the contribution of genetically acquired abilities of the person. However, much emphasis is put on their greater efforts they make to place them in the class of extraordinary achievers. The arguments of Gladwell therefore present applicable answers to the questions of talent and luck in the life of a person. An individual should therefore embrace the moral obligation of minimizing the contribution of chance in the achievement of success in life. It is therefore imperative that much of the individual’s will power, creativity and brainpower are put in practice to ascend to the required heights in the success ladder. Leaving much of the human life to chances is a precursor for an outright downfall and engaging high echelons of compassion reduces the opportunities of chance deciding the fate of an individual. Hard work, creativity and determination are vital components in the success of an individual.

Works cited

Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers. Little, Brown and Company. pp. VII–IX. ISBN 978-0-316-01792-3.

Gathman, Roger (2008-11-16). “Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’: well-written, thinly argued”. Austin American-Statesman.

Cowley, Jason (2008-11-23). “Stating the obvious, but oh so cleverly”. The Guardian. Retrieved 09 December 2013.

Jackson, Kevin (2008-11-23). “Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell”. The Times. Retrieved 09 December 2013.

Pinker, Steven (2009-11-07). “Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective”. The New York Times. 09 December 2013.