Malcolm Gladwell” Outlier”

Malcolm Gladwell wrote the book Outlier. The book talks about the nature of success and uses many examples through the text to demonstrate this.  The author, in his book, looks at what people view as success. He also gives what we think as successful people in society. He gives an example of Nobel prize winners or famous athletes. He further explains that the perception of society is based on individual achievement. He states this by saying that as a society, we believe that people must have an exceptional gift to be successful. This exceptional is what gets a person noticed and got rewarded.

In his book, Gladwell disapproves the myths that society has about society. He states that being successful is not an innate thing that one is born with but happen through the influence of certain factors. To explain this, he uses the example of an athlete. Suppose an athlete was born getting the right conditions that make the baby older and bigger, and as a result of these conditions, they achieve a thriving sports career. Also gives an instance of a school where the older kid dominates with better results than younger kids.  As a result of this kid gets more praise for the brains however, this approval can only be derived from the fact that the kid is older. Therefore, it is these defining factors that can have an impact on the progress any person makes in life.

Gladwell broadens on this subject further by giving the other two factors. They include practice time and social skills. He explains that success only happens through practice. He says that no amount of talent can outshine perfection as a result of practice. A person with innate talent but without the resources to make it possible then, there is no possibility of it happening. Gladwell suggested that our backgrounds and circumstances have a chance of creating our potential success.

As seen, Gladwell looks at factors that are often overlooked by society and have a contributing effect on society. He gives strong opinions that success is not an innate thing, and that is influenced by factors such as our background, age, our birth and also our race. However, l find his ideas about most things in this book to be true. I do not quite agree with most of them. The books seem to suggest that we are simply victims of circumstances. This means that we have no control over our destiny. To further my point on this, l would say that this would mean that we are just a reaction to reality and not a creator of them. For example, the author uses the example of an older kid who by default, takes the win simply since he is old.

I quite agree with the author’s idea that practice cannot be weighed with a person’s innate ability. I support that practice is superior. However, there are scenarios where, despite the odds of people who have succeeded. Whatever the situation a person is in, it only becomes more challenging for one to achieve success. For example, a race may be a factor that hinders success. This determines success to a certain level. However, this does not mean that the possibility of success is entirely impossible. The author should have mentioned in this book that these are the factors that hinder success. However, this book focuses on these factors completely eclipsing the chances of one being successful. This is, however, should not be true. A human being should not be limited to a situation or circumstances of events. They should transcend above everything.