Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story Of Success

“The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.”
Malcolm Gladwell’s, Outliers: The Story of Success, provokes reconsideration of the meaning of intelligence and success by challenging the traditional definition and concept of each word. Gladwell’s extensive research within the fields of sociology, psychology, and social psychology display his credibility regarding his critical analysis on success and its causes. In Outliers, Gladwell examines individuals who have reached high levels of success and emphasizes the importance of the contributions from environmental and cultural factors that have led to their success. Throughout the novel, the reader’s knowledge and intellect is tested through persuasive cases and illustrations that support
the argument that outliers owe their success to lucky advantages that are out of their control. Interestingly, the book discusses these case studies allowing the reader to draw conclusions that coincide with Gladwell’s findings.
The most renowned, successful individuals in the world have had extreme circumstances to thank, along with their dedication and natural intelligence. On several accounts, the observation and exploration of different success stories throughout history have reinforced Gladwell’s conclusion that hidden advantages directly correlate with their exceptional achievements. Each chapter of the book introduces a new characteristic that justifies and confirms Gladwell’s claims with undisputable examples. The ideas that birthdate, 10,000 hour theory, social class, personal backgrounds, particular advantages, demographic, economic and historical factors all contribute to the victories of Bill Joy, the Beatles, Bill Gates, Robert Oppenheimer, Joe Flom, Alexander Bickel, and the Janklow and Borgenicht families are each clearly examined to reiterate Gladwell’s stance of favorable environmental and cultural factors leading to success.
Part one of the novel reveals that Canadian professional ice hockey players, Bill Gates, and the Beatles are a result of chance and conditions.
Beginning with the town of Roseto in Pennsylvania, Gladwell introduces the idea and society’s association with outliers and stresses the importance of environmental and cultural factors to physical health. Stewart Wolf, a physician, closely studies the town of Roseto and concludes that the people mentality’s and surroundings were associated with their low rates of heart disease compared to the rates in the rest of the country. This case foreshadows the rest of the book because it uses the townspeople of Roseto as the model of success and then explains that it is only due to outside factors, the location of the town in Pennsylvania and the fact that everyone was from the same town in Italy, therefore sharing the same environmental and cultural factors.
The latter portion of the novel focuses on legacies and cultural legacies and their impact on success. The cases of family feuds in Harlan, Kentucky, Korean Air plane crash rates, and the connection between work and schooling ethics in Asia each display the notion that cultural legacies parallel with their level of success. Gladwell concludes, “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities -- and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (Gladwell, 2008, p. 267), indicating that a person’s surroundings and how they make use of them impacts their future and their
triumphs.
These ideas can be applied to my personal life in that it has allowed me to reflect the successes of my own family and loved ones. My father, Roger, was born March 1956, which explains and contributes to his success as a software engineer who never attended college, but went on to be one of the founding fathers of Digital. Not only that, but as I look back and reflect the instances of my own personal success, it is clear that with the influence of my parents, and where I came from, I was given the resources to become successful. One point crucial in understanding Gladwell’s principles is that there may be underlying factors that contribute to the success of an individual, but recognizing that if they take advantage of the resources and opportunities around them, that is what makes them successful. Case in point is that my brother, Ben, is a very smart and intelligent person but he did not take advantage of his surroundings as much as he could have, leaving him with a dead-end job and living at home. Gladwell’s stories of success have allowed me to review my own path and with each case presented, showed me that it is a case-by-case basis.
Outliers is a very interesting read and is highly recommended for anyone regardless of their on opinions on success stories. This novel has sparked intellectual consideration and changed the way success is defined as an everyday term. It will induce critical thinking and analysis not only on success, but also, on topics that have been imparted on individuals through sheltered environmental and cultural influences. Personally, the novel has allowed me to reflect on my personal life and success, in turn realizing that Gladwell’s research is explicit and accurate regarding the success of individuals. As a bestseller, any individual should strongly consider picking up Outliers to read and educate themselves on alternate views of success and the meaning of outliers.