The Three Tenets of Success

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In today’s society, people are obsessed with the notion of success and how to achieve it. Many people wonder if there really is a secret to success. According to Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.” Throughout the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proves Colin Powell’s quote to be true. There are no secrets one can use to become successful. Success truly is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. Preparation is a key component of success. Gladwell states, “Achievement is talent plus preparation” (38). While Gladwell’s statement is generally true, psychologists argue that preparation plays a bigger role in achievement than just mere talent (38). According to Outliers, “Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness” (41). Gladwell explains that the minimum requirement for mastering a skill is ten thousand hours. Computer scientist Bill Joy and Attorney Joe Flom are no exceptions to this rule. Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, became an expert in computer science in the 1970s well before the personal computer revolution. Bill Joy devoted ten thousand hours to computer programming before rewriting UNIX, an operating system that is still used today. Gladwell quoted David Gelernter stating “Bill Joy is one of the most influential people in the modern history of computing” (37). Joe Flom perfected himself with proxy fights at law firm Skadden, Arps for more than twenty years although they were not norm in the field at the time. By the time corporate takeovers became the standard, Flom was an expert, with over ten thousand hours of preparation (128). Joe Flom is the only surviving partner of Sk... ... middle of paper ... ... aviation English’ (218). By changing the language Korean Air pilots spoke, Greenberg was able to eliminate the different forms of addressing someone and allowed pilots to communicate effectively in plain English. Because Korean Air was able to learn from its failure, Air Transport world awarded it the Phoenix Award (182). Malcolm Gladwell and Colin Powell would both agree, ““There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.” The book Outliers gives several examples that support this idea. Although the idea that success comes as a result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure, Gladwell also argues that there are other contributing factors. However, three common factors exist in examining successful people. These individuals prepared vigorously, worked hard, and were able to learn from their mistakes.

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