In a world where we think only the successful will succeed, that worship those who stand above the rest, and the concept of success that shouldn’t be hard to grasp. The first chapter called “Matthews Effect” is referencing to the biblical verse, “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” Basically saying those who have much will get even more, while those who have little will lose even that small amount. As the story progresses on Gladwell goes in to the theory of what produces successful individuals and he uses Canadian soccer players to express that. Everybody has a successful role model that they look up to. We look up to them because they give us hope for success and an image of excellence. When you see someone else that is successful, shouldn’t it push you to want to be successful?
Gladwell expresses the complex system of the hockey leagues that spread across Canada. Children that begin playing hockey at a young age have a better opportunity to be selected for elite teams as they grow up. He examines why majority of successful Canadian hockey players are mainly born in January. The explanation for this is that the cutoff date is on January 1st, so being born before the cutoff date makes you play against someone who is