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Haley Dwyer Professor Padgett Writing and Inquiry 10/14/13 Success in Gladwells Eyes
In Outliers Malcolm Gladwells objective is to explain success in multiple ways using example stories just to prove his theories on the subject. Success can be achieved by anyone it doesnt change if you are a different race, ethnicity, have a high or low economic status, or have a successful family background. You earn your success with hardwork and dedication. The Story of Success states arguments such as everyone being prisoners of their ethnic history, economic status while using over- generalizations to give the audience a perspective on different ways success is achieved but may be faulty. According to Gladwell we are all prisoners to our ethnic histories. From my perspective this could be accurate and inaccurate. Depending on what specific ethnicity you are, your history definitely can play a huge role on your life. For example, African Americans could feel like prisoners to their ethnic history due to slavery and segregation. On the other hand immigrants in the early 20th century could feel like prisoners to their heritage because they were judged on their appearances and accents which businesses thought would affect their work ethic. Just because of their background, different

cultures would cause conflict in honor of their heritage. Gladwell provides an argument with this example because he explains to his audience that Jewish immigrants working on rice paddy farms felt it was a meaningful job. There is a clear relationship in rice farming between effort and reward to these workers. The farmers do not simply just plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. These farmers ran their small businesses with having to focus on juggling family, workforce, seed selection, irrigation and harvesting. Gladwell uses Japan and China of the fourteenth and fifteenth century to describe why this job is so meaningful to these immigrants. Essentially the peasants of Europe worked as low- paid slaves of an aristocratic landlord with little control over their destinies. Although in Japan and China they never developed that kind of oppressive feudal system. Farming was handed off from the landlords to the immigrants allowing them to go about their business and have their rent collected. Meaningful in this part of the chapter is linked to success because these immigrants were progressing with their own business of farming and not being ordered what to do like slaves or peasants. They knew that their future would be successful with making their own money as they harvested the crops for each season. As I stated before Gladwell poses this argument as people being slaves to their ethnic history but the majority of people do not think of themselves as having problems due to their past, it just depends of who they are and what exactly their background is. Rhetorically speaking, over-generalizations can cause an argument to be faulty because it doesnt provide every variable to the discussion and uses hasty comments to prove their opinion. Gladwell provides points and background stories to his arguments thoroughly in this book. Some chapters may have an exaggerated theory but

Gladwell does not suffer from making too many over-generalizations but I have noted some examples from his book that in my opinion have seemed like an overgeneralization. In the opening of the book it is stated that the majority of great hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year. In my own opinion he may be jumping the gun here and looking to into why someone is so successful. I dont think what month they are in has any indication of what someone will be great at. Gladwell correlates our ability to be successful with where we come from by using economic status and ethnic background. Although he wants to convince his readers that there is parentage and patronage involved that shapes an individual, a persons culture, when and where they grew up are all background qualities that could be the reason for someones success. In the stories of the young Jewish men who overcame their poverty back ground through working and paying for college on their own, this example shows that although they came from nothing, they built up their own life because they wanted to break through the barrier of being known as poor immigrants. Their family had no status and nothing to offer their sons like other Firm partners and because of that, it motivated them to become better than they were. A persons background and life experiences have everything to do with striving to become someone in a profitable world. Being brought up in certain households can change someones point of view on controversial topics shaping them to be independent or dependent on the way their parents think. He explains that it does not matter where you come from but the hard work that you put into what you want that will define your success. I believe that if someone has a successful or unsuccessful background it doesnt define their future. Many families who are well off could provide for their children because they are already successful with

businesses but their children may want to have something on their own to be called successful for and not rely on their family name. I think its a fair correlation to say someones economic status is the result to their success because they may want to have a name for themselves and not be defined but their background. The book is about success and all the ways it can be achieved. Each story is different yet with the same outcome. Success is earned not given and I am a firm believer in that. Gladwell produced a helpful tool in this book and Im sure it provided people a great use when wanting to know if success is even possible for someone like themselves.