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Outliers Malcolm Gladwell

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Practice makes Perfect What is the perfect balance of practice and luck needed to be successful? Bill Joy an extremely smart kid who was lucky enough to attend the University of Michigan in 1971, when they had one of the most advanced computer science programs in the world. If Bill Joy had gone to a different college would he have became the computer genius he is today. Bill Joy had the right balance of working really hard and being at the right place at the right time. In chapter two, of the novel Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the author is correct in arguing that success is determined by the ten thousand hour rule. Gladwell’s argument he is trying to make in chapter two is that a person need to practice something for the ten thousand …show more content…
Gladwell is on the side that one needs tons of practice as well as extraordinary opportunity to become a super successful person. The Beatles, one the most successful music groups of all time started working together many years before they made it big. The group’s opportunity is to play at night club in Hamburg. The beatles make five trips to Hamburg during which the perform two hundred and seventy times. Gladwell says “By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, in fact, they had performed live an estimated 1200 times”(50). After performing more than 1200 times the Beatles have master their craft of creating and performing music. With all of the time the group has practiced and performed they are well past the ten thousand hour threshold Gladwell says is necessary to become great at something. Gladwell’s principle holds true again this time with one of the richest men of all time, Bill Gates. Bill Gates is a software genius. He was going to be successful even if he …show more content…
Bobby Fischer a chess grandmaster took under ten thousand hours to reach his elite level. Gladwell says “Only the legendary Bobby Fischer got to the elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years”(41) It takes ten years to reach the ten thousand hour rule so for Bobby Fischer to do become a master at his craft in only nine years is an extraordinary feat. There will always be outliers to every rule of man but the ten thousand hour rule has much stronger evidence for it than against it. One of the most successful bands, and one of the richest men of all time both follow this ten thousand hour rule. It is not possible to get to ten thousand hours of practice without getting extremely lucky. The cards fell into place for both the Beatles and Bill Gates. These people took their opportunities and made the best of them to become uber successful at their craft. Talent and luck are both essential pieces needed in order to achieve greatness. Gladwell’s work proves that one needs talent and opportunity to reach the ultimate level. People can achieve with either talent or luck but both is needed to be great. Bill Gates could have made millions if he did not end up at Lakeside high but he would not have became the billionaire we know today without those experiences. All of the people mentioned in chapter two were both super talented as well as extraordinarily blessed with opportunities

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