Outliers

Writing Assignment I Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit communicates how habits can transform our lives and change failure to success. In the chapter “Keystone Habits, or The Ballad of Paul O’Neill, ” Duhigg emphasizes the importance of incorporating keystone habits in the everyday routine. The chapter discusses small wins and identifying the difference between a keystone habit and a good habit. A keystone habit tends to cause a chain reaction; in other words, it triggers personal growth in a positive way. An example of a keystone habit was when Paul O’Neill stepped in as CEO of Alcoa and as a result of trying to prevent accidents, due to his value of workers, he created a mental process in which workers started to care more about work and therefore it brought a widespread adjustment that brought the people and the company together. O’Neill’s strategy in Alcoa made an impact on profits and also in work productivity; unlike other companies that only cared about profits, Alcoa began to focus on institutional habits and created a widespread swift that encouraged better work performance. Duhigg emphasizes the importance of creating the right habits to decode keystone habits, create widespread shifts and as a result accomplish small wins to convince themselves that bigger accomplishments are possible.
Duhigg focuses on the importance of willpower in chapter “Starbucks and the Habit of Success.” Willpower is the strength within the person that will help them carry out decisions, goals, wishes or plans. The chapter introduces Travis Leach, a current Starbucks manager, and Howard Schultz, Owner and founder of Starbucks; both set an example of people who go through a lot of hardships since childhood and developing willpower through different types of tools that taught them how to succeed in life despite all they went through. Duhigg takes a look at what is willpower and how to strengthen it; he looks at experiments like Munraven’s experiment in which he concluded