Success In George Gladwell's The Outliers

Success presents itself as the individual ability a person holds, but those who are successful follow similar patterns that are greatly affected by opportunities, parentage, and cultural heritage. Gladwell explains that we owe our accomplishments in life to the

Passion, talent, and hard work are important to create a successful life, but with that the need for a spontaneous opportunity allows for an extreme head start. In the Outliers, Gladwell showcases an opportunity that gave hockey players an advantage that could potentially lead to a major career. He states, “ Hockey players who make it to the professional level are more talented than you or me. But they also got a big head start, an opportunity that they neither deserved or earned

Lower-class families frequently do not have the educational background to equip their children with the needed social skills to pursue success. He states, “his mother permits that casual incivility because she wants him to learn to assert himself with people in positions of authority… this kind of interaction simply doesn’t happen with lower class children (106-107)”. Wealthy and middle class parents are more often able to introduce social and analytical skills into their child’s life, which cannot be learned in a classroom. This enables the skill to interact with authority figure capable of making unintended opportunities occur. In the school environment social classes are irrelevant because they are all presented with the same education that allows them to learn at the same pace. Gladwell comments that when the educational environments change, “virtually all of the advantages that wealthy students have over poor students are the result of differences in the way privileged kids learn while they are not in school (258)”. The wealthy students are able to indulge in extra curricular activities, books, programs that enable them to advance their knowledge. This opportunity and support is rarely presented to the lower-class families, because parents have a harder time paying for programs and activities, providing educational support, as well as providing time while they are