Your Perception Of Success In Outliers, By Malcolm Gladwell

Jack Decuir

Mrs. Howell

English III

1 December 2017

Your Perception of Success

Outliers is a nonfiction text written by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell came from a successful family, which was advantageous during his childhood however, he struggled during college, which led up to him getting rejected from a graduate school. Gladwell then pursued a job in advertising, while being rejected by almost every advertising agency. Gladwell eventually accepted a job in journalism, which eventually would begin Gladwell’s success in writing books. Gladwell endured failure early on in his career; eventually the hard work you put in pays off. In Outliers, Gladwell wants to describe a different way of success to his readers. He attempts to convince the readers that they can shape the world by working hard for the things that they set out to accomplish on a daily base. Even with the advantages and disadvantages that come along with it. Gladwell’s purpose throughout Outliers is to change the way that Americans today view success. Gladwell makes many claims throughout the book. The claims help Gladwell unfold his argument by describing the way success is viewed. Gladwell mentions how some things in life do matter like when you’re born and your home life. Those are the advantages and disadvantages that contribute to your

Gladwell makes his assertion by saying, “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and you use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151). Gladwell’s theory that you can shape the world through your hard work is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of achieving success. I defend Gladwell’s argument that you can shape the world through your hard work because if you set your mind to something and put in the work to achieve it, then you will come out with some