Doria

Connor Doria Professor Padgett 3/18/2013 English 1102 Interpretive Essay, Gladwells Consequential Effect on the World

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a novel that attempts to convince readers that the rich and successful are not all there cracked up to be. Through luck and opportunity, a lot of these self made, rags to riches stories came about. The book is giving an excuse to all of its readers not to work hard because even if you do, without the right connections and experiences you will never be successful. Outliers left me with a pessimistic view convincing me of its argument and although an interesting read, it is not helpful to the reader and or to a greater extent society. Personal experience is the main reason I disagree with Gladwell. Growing up, I was fortunate to have great people around me: my parents, grandparents, friends. They always said, Connor you can make yourself into whatever you want to be, as long as you set your mind to it. They try to inspire greatness, giving me hope for success in all my endeavors. Up until I read this book, I believed strongly in this set of ideals. After reading Outliers, my mind began questioning itself. I was left pondering the passages about Bill Gates and Bill Joy. Gladwell says things like Ideally you want to be 20 or 21 which is to say born in 1954 or 1955(65). Both Bills were born in 1955(65, 68). It's hard to believe that arbitrary dates put them ahead of anyone else in this field, resulting in their billionaire status. Also, when Gladwell is talking about the Canadian hockey players: 40% born between January and March, 30% between April and June, 20% July and September and 10% for the last

Doria

months(23). All because the Canadian decided that the cut off dates were January 1 st. for the deciding factor in what year you play in, the year before or after (24). Believing that hard work and perseverance were the keys to success before reading this book, even though it may be thought naive from Gladwells standpoint, I was better off. Though his claims are not false, success can come from personal achievement but I think this will just make people not even try to strive for even this kind of success because they are demolished by Gladwells claims. AfThis was a easy paper to write because I enjoyed this book and had strong feelings about what I was writing. I got the best grade of all of my papers on this paper too. I took that ideas from workshop and edited my grammar as best I could and that worked for me. I also read Outliers from start to finish which I haven't done for a book since Harry Potter in beginning of high school ter giving example after example all of this research I am afraid that I have changed my beliefs on success and prosperity. Outliers has made me think and question all success stories I hear from now on. Gladwell makes the point that success cannot always be determined by hard work but by age and time of birth. A certain birth month or year can give you a leg up on your competitors, creating a natural selection effect. If it changed my mind, who's to say it could not change others? Personally, I guess I just have to keep working hard and hope that one day I will get a grand opportunity such as some of the greats from the book. Resulting in my success from opportunity.

Doria

// I did take into account that you said this was the wrong font but I use Microsoft Symphony and for some strange reason it does not have Times New Roman. I was unsure what would be a good substitute so I kept the font I had.