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  • Essay / The Factors That Make Individuals Opportunistic in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

    In the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell focuses on a person's ability to influence change in society. This book discusses the cultural and social forces that give rise to opportunistic individuals. Early in the book, Gladwell says that an outlier is someone "who doesn't fit our normal understanding of success." Gladwell says that “people are not born from nothing” and that “we owe something to descent and patronage.” He's right. We owe something to filiation and favoritism. We also owe something to all the opportunities we have had throughout our lives. In Outliers, the lives of people who have achieved something exceptional in our world today are told, while discovering the steps that made them different from others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first part of Outliers is about opportunities. Gladwell's main statements are that the results of success come from many different types of things. He wants to show us, the readers, that these kinds of "personal explanations of success don't work", or prove that a person's success is not limited to their talent. At the beginning of the book, Gladwell talks about the date of birth of the Canadian hockey player. He tells us, the readers, that 40% of the best players “will be born between January and March.” Players who were born in these months get "better training, play the majority of matches, practice twice as much" and also have better teammates. It provides facts and evidence to prove that random factors, like date of birth, may be necessary for success in the Czech and Canadian national sports teams. No one born after September 1 was on the team. Since the “late born prodigy” is not chosen, he does not benefit from additional practice. Without this additional training, "he has no chance of reaching ten thousand hours by the time professional hockey teams start looking for players." Without the 10,000 hour rule, no one would be able to master the skills they want to learn. Gladwell says you can't meet the 10,000 hour rule alone. This is where parentage comes in. A person benefits from “parents who encourage and support you.” Gladwell then gives readers an example of the Beatles to show that the 10,000 hour rule is a success story. By the time they had their first success, “they had played live about twelve thousand times.” The “Hamburg Crucible” is what sets the Beatles apart from everyone else. Without the Hamburg crucible, they would not have learned “endurance.” The band was not “disciplined” on stage before. The Hamburg Crucible helped steer the group down a path of change. This gave them multiple opportunities. In part two of Outliers, Gladwell talks about legacy and heritage. Gladwell explains that the "culture of honor" says that where a person comes from is important, as he puts it: "where your great-grandparents grew up...". He also asserts that “cultural legacies” turn out to be more different and more powerful than what is expected of professionals. Two psychologists, Dov Choen and Richard Nisbett, decided to conduct an experiment on the “culture of honor”. They wanted to see if it was possible to find "remnants" of the culture of honor in the modern linguistic era..