In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell seeks to uncover what makes the ‘outliers’ of society so successful. He believes there is a stronger pattern in their success stories than the prevailing thought today. Gladwell stresses the importance of the “world that surrounds the successful,” by focusing on the family someone is born into, the culture they are born into, and the time period they were born in. Malcolm Gladwell begins his novel with the chapter titled “The Mathew Effect.” Referencing the Bible quote: “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.” The Mathew Effect essentially means ‘the rich get richer and the
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Gladwell points to the example of Bill Gates. Gates is obviously enormously successful today and a hard worker, but the most important part of his success story is he was lucky enough to attend a high school with a computer club. This was uncommon for the time and Bill Gates’ head start put him in a great position to form a new software company when dropped out of Harvard. Gladwell goes on to show that fourteen of the richest seventy-five people in history happened to be Americans born within nine years of one another. He spots another golden age to be born around 1955, with many of Silicon Valley’s pioneers born within a few years of one another. Gladwell’s next chapter highlights how intelligence is not necessarily the best indicator of future …show more content…
Many of America’s family feuds took place near the same time in the Appalachian region. Researchers found that even suburban Atlanta kids occasionally reacted to situations like they “were living in nineteenth-century Harlan, Kentucky.” Gladwell points out in chapter seven that culture has a tremendous impact on pilot safety. A clear pattern has emerged that pilots from low power-distance countries, meaning how likely they are to respect authority, were much less likely to crash their planes. Pilots from countries like South Korea, which respect hierarchies, were less likely to speak up when something was
Gladwell points to the example of Bill Gates. Gates is obviously enormously successful today and a hard worker, but the most important part of his success story is he was lucky enough to attend a high school with a computer club. This was uncommon for the time and Bill Gates’ head start put him in a great position to form a new software company when dropped out of Harvard. Gladwell goes on to show that fourteen of the richest seventy-five people in history happened to be Americans born within nine years of one another. He spots another golden age to be born around 1955, with many of Silicon Valley’s pioneers born within a few years of one another. Gladwell’s next chapter highlights how intelligence is not necessarily the best indicator of future …show more content…
Many of America’s family feuds took place near the same time in the Appalachian region. Researchers found that even suburban Atlanta kids occasionally reacted to situations like they “were living in nineteenth-century Harlan, Kentucky.” Gladwell points out in chapter seven that culture has a tremendous impact on pilot safety. A clear pattern has emerged that pilots from low power-distance countries, meaning how likely they are to respect authority, were much less likely to crash their planes. Pilots from countries like South Korea, which respect hierarchies, were less likely to speak up when something was