Outliers: The Story of Success Book Analysis

Ever wondered why successful people seem to have never had to work for what they have? Probably not. However, if you look at it, you will see much evidence proving that it did not work for `everything they got. In Malcolm Gladwell's nonfiction book Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell unlocks the mystery behind why some people are successful, and others are not. He ultimately concludes that while talent and dedicated practice are necessary for success, early advantages and privileged social standing truly make the outlier. In the book Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell uses three main types of evidence to argue with claims that support it. Malcolm Gladwell uses multiple types of evidence in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. The types of evidence he uses are examples, statistics, and expert testimony. He uses these types of evidence because they support his claims and will make his argument coherent. 

Gladwell begins his discussion by talking about the examples in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. The tone of Malcolm Gladwell whenever he uses evidence is factual, and he tries to make the reader think more about the claim he is stating. Malcolm Gladwell's tone for his piece of evidence in chapter one, paragraph thirteen-page eight, is deliberate and makes people see his claim is not thereby chance and is applied. "In Outliers, I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage". (chapter one paragraph thirteen-page eight). This evidence is essential to help form the claim that people don't have to work as hard as they say they did because they all got something from someone. This quote strengthens his argument by giving the reader a look at why other people do not always try to get where they are. In chapter two, paragraph nine, page fifteen, Malcolm Gladwell uses a negative tone because innate talent is not as immense as it should be. "Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play". (paragraph nine-page fifteen). This quote helps support the claim that people did not work for all of their success because they had help from other sources that gave them an advantage in their craft. If you look at the quote above, people's innate talent aspect in today's world is not there; most people will rely on moms and dads or have more time than, let us say, the kid who has other things in their life. The next evidence will focus on the math or statistical side of evidence. 

In this second paragraph, statistical evidence is vital in giving the reader a sense of what the number means. As they say, the number never lies. In the introduction of Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell uses statistical evidence to show that Roseto's people were not dying under fifty-five. "In Roseto, virtually no one under fifty-five had died of a heart attack or showed any signs of heart disease. For men over sixty-five, the death rate from heart disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the United States as a whole. The death rate from all causes in Roseto was 30 to 35 percent lower than expected". (introduction paragraph nine-page three). With the death rate so low in Roseto, you come to question how people were able to live so long. It does not make much sense seeing that people should die earlier than they are in Roseto. In the following evidence, hockey is the main focus and how the time you were born affected how good you were at hockey when you got the next level. "in any elite group of hockey players the very best of the best 40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March, 30 percent between April and June, 20 percent between July and September, and 10 percent between October and December". (chapter one paragraph twenty-three page nine). By saying that 40 percent of the people born in January and March make the fact that people born in these two months will have a better hockey sports career. While the other three will have a more challenging time competing against the kids born in January and March. The final and most crucial piece of evidence that Malcolm Gladwell uses in Outliers: The Story of Success is expert testimony. The expert testimony will give insight into what other experts think about the claims that Malcolm Gladwell states.

The final and most crucial piece of evidence that Malcolm Gladwell uses in Outliers: The Story of Success is expert testimony. The expert testimony will give insight into what other experts think about the claims that Malcolm Gladwell states. Paragraph ten brings to light the fact that people in the small town of Roseto weren't dying under the age of fifty-five. "There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didn't have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didn't have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. That's it." (introduction paragraph ten-page four). No suicide, no alcoholics, no drug addicts, and almost no crime; this does not often happen in any place. Most of the time, you will always get one or at least a lot of two of them but not here. Pretty much, this is what happens when you get lucky. Bill Gates pretty much states how he is one of the luckiest people in the world for how he grew up. "How many teenagers in the world had the kind of experience Gates had" If there were fifty in the world, I'd be stunned," he says. "There was C-Cubed and the payroll stuff we did, then TRWall those things came together. I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time, and all because of an incredibly lucky series of events." (chapter two paragraph sixty-four page twenty-three). Lucky doesn't even begin to describe how lucky Bill Gates was. 

When Malcolm Gladwell uses his pieces of evidence to light the fact that some people don't have to work for their success, this is done using evidence, statistics, and expert testimony. These three things all give credibility to his claim. Let us summarize the main point now; if you take evidence from other areas, it could make the writing clearer and give the reader a better sense of the claim. If you give statistics, you might not have been able to see things that other people can't see in that scenario. with the use of expert testimonies, you will be able to make statements that give more reason to them. Why is this so important that some people didn't have to work for their success? Well, they end up saying stuff like, "I did this all by myself, and there is no one person who helped me get here." By saying this, it gives them a look at life that they are the best and no one can beat them. This look on life can be devastating and harmful later in life for themselves and their people. Evidence shows this; people who have had this mindset ended crashing and burning and losing everything they had earned.