Book Review Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days year fails to make his family rich”(Gladwell 249). In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell shows that many factors come into play when looking at successful people. He shows that a series of luck, work ethic, and persistence can lead to success. When looking at people like Bill Gates and Bill Joy, Gladwell shows how these factors came into play in their early lives and allowed them to build their opportunity to become successful. Gates and Joy worked hard at what they were passionate about and ended up creating two major technological companies. Gladwell’s assertion that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world

Louis and Regina Borgenicht seized an opportunity to create a clothes manufacturing business that would use their own hard work and labor. They quickly began to buy fabric, sew it into dresses, and sell all of them the next day. They did this for months and kept growing their business. They also began hiring other Jewish employees to assist in the work and further expand their business. They did all of this while taking care of two children, teaching them that they can become successful with hard work and determination. Their luck in timing greatly assisted in their path to success. They established their garment business when demand for clothing was on the rise and supplies were cheap. They also had incredible work ethic and persistence where they would work long hours everyday in order to make the clothes that they would sell the next day. The quote, “The longer he and Regina stayed up at night sewing aprons, the more money they made the next day on the streets.”(Gladwell 149), shows the fact that the longer they worked, the more money they made. Louis and Regina Borgenicht used their skills, timing, and determination to build a successful business in order to shape the world to their

Sure, these people may work hard enough and assert themselves, but in order to shape the world to their desires, they must be presented the opportunity which is where the third aspect of success, luck, comes in. When the opportunity presents itself, nearly every hard-working, strong-minded person would seize the chance to become successful or powerful. This is the case with most people mentioned by Gladwell. People like Bill Gates, Bill Joy, The Borgenichts, Korean Air pilots, and the kids that attend KIPP Academy. Bill Gates and Bill Joy both worked on computers for years, oftentimes after hours, because they were passionate and hardworking. When luck was added into the mix, both Gates and Joy went on to establish the successful, worldwide software companies, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Louis and Regina Borgenicht, two Jewish-American immigrants, grew up in Europe where they learned and became accustomed to sewing clothing. When they emigrated to America, the opportunity to establish a clothing business presented itself, but only through their hard work and dedication. It’s the same story for Korean Air pilots and KIPP Academy students. They work hard for much of their