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Isabella Ellis

Ms. Myers

AP Seminar

21 August 2019

Outliers Argument Essay

Success is often a goal that many people strive to achieve in their lifetime. Many people

are still troubled on where to even begin their path to success. It is often believed that success is

merely a product of talent and chance. The “survival of the fittest” attitude towards success hints

at the notion that you either end up in the perfect circumstances to succeed or you are a failure.

Fortunately, recently the idea that the greatest triumphs can come from the humblest beginnings

is slowly becoming reality for many more people than previously thought. Success is the result

of passionate perseverance and a determined spirit to succeed that is by years of strenuous hard

work, rather than mere chance and talent alone.

It’s hard sometimes for adults and adolescents a like that you can build something

successful out of nothing. The reality of it seems to be that you don’t need to be rich or the

smartest person in the room, you merely have to have the drive to push yourself harder than

anybody else and enough stubbornness to reject failure. In the book Outliers, author Malcom

Gladwell talks about an instance of this underdog success through the eyes of Marita, a twelve-

year-old girl who went to KIPP Academy. It has produced test scores that are way, way above

average and “has become one of the most desirable public schools in New York City” (Gladwell

251). This middle school chooses its students by lottery, so any child of any income and

intelligence an attend. This school has instilled an idea of perseverance and grit like no other has
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done before. Marita is the only child of a mother who never went to college and lives in a one-

bedroom apartment in the Bronx. Her day starts at 5:45 am and her day ends at around 11:15 pm

after a long day of school and homework, with small breaks to eat dinner and tell her mom about

her day. Today, as a result of her hard work Marita is holding her own as a successful

accountant.

Critics like Gladwell comment how “Personal explanations of success don’t work. People

don’t rise from nothing” (Gladwell). This is true in many cases of successful people, but Marita

is a clear example of the opposite. Her time spent at KIPP would have been worth nothing if it

weren’t for the sacrifices she had to make and the determination to get out of her difficult

circumstances. Marita in fact did come from something, and the responsibility she took on did in

fact make her something. Angela Lee Duckworth, a former middle school math teacher, can

contest this that this hard work indeed does work as opposed to raw talent. In a Ted Talk she

gave, she states that “What I do know is that talent doesn't make you gritty. Our data show very

clearly that there are many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their

commitments. In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated or even inversely related to measures

of talent” (Duckworth). This goes to show that someone doesn’t need to have the random chance

of just being talented and getting a random opportunity. All you need is passion and a drive.

Overall, society today still regards success as something sacred for people who are only

privileged and have a certain developed set of skills that put them above anyone else. However,

it is clear to see that hard work from those of the humblest beginnings truly make for success that

is worthwhile. Success comes from that grit and determination, not simply a basic raw talent

with little drive behind it.