George Washington Carver is well known for his success despite many obstacles. He was a successful chemist, botanist, and inventor, amongst many other titles, he created hundreds of products. He is influential to virtually all Americans, especially African-Americans. In Malcolm Gladwells’ book Outliers: The Story of Success he covers many key points and hidden advantages in the lives of successful people. Gladwells’ points can be found all throughout Carver’s life, such as the theory of relative age and the 10,000 hour rule. George had many odds up against him since the day he was born, yet he overcame many obstacles in order to become successful, along with opportunities and hidden advantages (Outliers 1).

George was born a slave in Diamond, Missouri, but no one knows for sure if he was born in 1863 or 1864. He had many siblings enslaved by Moses Carver. Unfortunately at one week old, he along with his sister and mother were kidnapped, sold, and George was returned to Moses (Kremer 29). Carver and his brother were raised by the Carvers, Mrs. Carver homeschooled the boys since no schools in Diamond would accept African-American students. He …show more content…
With hardly any actual family, he turned to friends and those who raised him for help. In the biography George Washington Carver In His Own Words it includes many letters of encouragement to all his old friends. He believed in addressing people by their proper prefixes, some people close to him include: Mr. and Mrs. Milholland, Mrs. Goodwin, Mr. Hardwick, and Miss. Crisp to name a few. His letters show encouragement to have them continue their passions when they were down, informing them of his well-being, and just a friendly hello considering it had been a while. His writing style shows how caring he was along with how he wasn’t the greatest at spelling. George’s relationships with these people had a huge impact on his successfulness (Kremer