Outliers Argumentative Essay

Bailey Edmonds

Ms. Sullivan

English 11 AP

Outliers

18 August 2015

Outliers: The Key to Success

        In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the author presents a series of arguments backing up his idea that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151). Based on the evidence that was provided in the book, I somewhat believe in Gladwell’s argument. In the first chapter he discusses why luck and opportunities play a part in becoming successful, however later in the book he states that success comes from hard work alone. I believe that it is a combination of both. In an article review over Outliers by The Investors Podcast, the author comes to the conclusion that “…it is safe to say that success is a combination of hard work, opportunities, and talent”. This quote supports my argument because it suggests that success doesn't come from one single component, but instead a mixture of a few. I believe that in some specific instances, Malcolm Gladwell’s claim about hard work and success is true, but not all, so I will be qualifying his claim. For example, Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of 10,000 hours displays a variance of circumstances in which people become successful from a combination of hard work, opportunities, and talent. This theory claims that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at any kind of activity. I believe that this theory contributes to the rule of success along with hard work, talent and opportunities.

        While it is possible to achieve success with just hard work, the possibility becomes greater with opportunities and talent. Someone can work very hard at something but if, for instance, they were born in an unlucky time period, their lack of opportunities could make the difference between becoming successful and not. One example of someone who was given countless opportunities to work hard and achieve something is Bill Gates. He was born in 1955 which was at just the right time for him to be exposed to the new computer system in the 1960’. He first discovered computer programming when he was in eighth grade and his school opened up a new computer lab with the newest system for time programming in the country. After he became interested in it, he began spending all of his time in the computer lab doing programming. Because of this unique program, Gates was able to spend 20-30 hours a week using the programming system and became more and more familiar with it. All of these chances gave him more time to practice which eventually added up to way over 10,000 hours. So by the time Bill Gates wanted to pursue a career in programming he had already accumulated 10,000 plus hours in the area, making him an expert on it. Bill Gates said, “I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time, and all because of an incredibly lucky series of events” (Gladwell 55). From this quote we can see that Gates is not taking all the credit for his success, but instead he acknowledges that he was lucky. Although he did have to work hard to achieve his goal, the possibility wouldn't have been there if he wouldn't have had so many opportunities. Because of his opportunities combined with the hard work he put in, he got the chance to practice over 10,000 hours which led to his success.