2023-07-03 04:27:51
Malcom Gladwell is a famous American writer who addressed a topic that is much talked regarding in today’s world: success. Why do some make it and others don’t? Let’s see what this interesting author tells us.
Malcom Gladwell is the author of one of the most famous books of the last decades: Out of series. This English journalist, sociologist and writer analyzed in detail why some people are very successful, while others are not, even apart from their great abilities and enough good attitude.
Gladwell’s approaches go beyond a simple “exitology” manual. In his first observations on the subject, in his book The Tipping Point, he pointed out that many valuable people remain anonymous or unsuccessful, due to the narcissism of others and the imperfect systems of promotion and evaluation prevailing in organizations.
Thus, the writer works around a thesis that many people intuit from their own observations: the best are not always the ones who are successful, nor are the successful ones always the best. What then determines extraordinary success in some people and not in others? The following are some of the answers that this sociologist gives us.
“Our ability to be successful at what we do is strongly tied to where we come from, and being a good driver and coming from a high power distance culture is a tough combination.” Malcolm Gladwell.
opportunity and talent
One of Malcom Gladwell’s lapidary phrases says the following: “Extraordinary achievement has less to do with talent than with opportunity.” He means that, as he also states, talent is only half the story. The other half is given by the opportunities for that talent, to express itself and be captured.
To illustrate this idea, Gladwell uses the example of the hockey league in Canada. Athletes are selected on January 1 of each year and most of them become very successful.
Now, suppose the league is going to recruit eight-year-old athletes. In general, those who are eight years and 11 months will also have better coordination and more complete development than those who are eight years and two weeks. Statistically, this leads us to the fact that if the selection is always made on the same date, those born at a certain time will have a greater advantage.
This is just a small example of the basic idea: it is not just talent, but the fertile ground for it to germinate: opportunity. In an ideal world, we should all have equal opportunities, but in practice this is not the case, as chance plays a big role. However, if you have talent, you must also identify opportunities strategically, so that it is seen and appreciated.
Favorable circumstances, according to Malcom Gladwell
Another of Malcolm Gladwell’s baffling statements states: “The plain truth of the study of [Lewis]Terman, however, is that, in the end, almost none of the genius children of the lowest social and economic class ended up making a name for themselves. In this case, he alludes to the fact that the socioeconomic context is decisive in success.
Children of wealthy parents have access to better education and have more opportunities, since they are closer to influential and power figures. However, low-income people often develop cultural practices that sometimes hinder their progress.
Among these practices are aggressive behaviors and lack of interest in intellectual activity. Both factors reduce the chances of success.
An interesting response to this reality is the Knowledge Is Power Program (Kipp) or “Knowledge is Power”, implemented in several schools in the United States. It encourages young people to become the best students and acquire more self-control.
genius and determination
In this case, Gladwell also uses an example. He talks regarding Christopher Langan, who scored 20/20 on traditional IQ tests. Some consider him the smartest man in the world. But he was a total unknown with no direction, until he participated in a game show called 1 vs 100.
Langan learned to speak at six months and at three years old he was already reading. It was brilliant, but it became almost a circus diversion. He came from a family with major relationship problems and he classified himself as a “misfit.” After winning the contest, his life took a turn, in Gladwell’s opinion, not so big.
That is why Malcom Gladwell points out that another of the success factors is having a “practical intelligence”. In other words, it is not enough to have exceptional qualities, it is also necessary to know what to do with them. The same goes for knowledge: it’s not so much what you know, but what you do with what you know.
Gladwell’s keys to success
These are some of the approaches of this interesting writer and that constitute just an appetizer of his work. However, they are enough to make one thing clear: success is the result of the interaction between many variables and not just a matter of decision or ability.
Of course, this is not to say that if the circumstances are adverse, you might not be as successful as you wish. Being aware of these realities will allow you to work to change the scenario in your favor and achieve extraordinary results.
Source: The Mind is Wonderful
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