What Makes a Person Successful?

To be honest, I was pretty disappointed that I needed to read a non-fiction book. I’ve always found them boring but it may have been because I haven’t found any good ones. When I was searching for one that could possibly change my opinion, the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell caught my eye. I thought that maybe this book could give me some insight on how to be successful in my own life. The book is very interesting and I’m actually surprised how mesmerized I am when I read it. So far, it seems the author’s main purpose in his book is to show the reader that successful people do not appear out of thin air. He emphasizes that people shouldn’t study a successful person’s actually character but their origins. I’m not really sure if I agree with this statement because there is a certain kind of passion and drive that a person needs to succeed. In my eyes, a lot of successful people make their own success out of nothing, but Malcolm Gladwell states that there is always something to separate them from the rest. As I started to read on, I could see some of the points he was making. He threw in a bible verse, Matthew 25:29 that states, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” I think this verse is true because I have seen it all the time in the world. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Gladwell is saying that people with privileges will continue to get privileges and leave nothing for everyone else. These privileges are also not earned. He brought up sports as an example of his opinion. This part made me agree with his claims because it was eye opening. Gladwell noticed that a lot of teenage hockey players that play in the elite leagues have similar birthdays. Most of their birthdays are in January, February, and March. He displayed a couple of rosters and it was true. Gladwell then explained that the cutoff date for the hockey age groups was January 2. This meant that the kids born in these early months are many months older than the other kids. They are more developed and the coaches notice them easier. They get more attention and as a result they actually do become better. Once I read this, I googled Wayne Gretsky and I was shocked to see that his birthday was in January. Gladwell is bringing up some pretty interesting arguments and I’m hooked so far.