What makes a person successful? Is it the amount of money have or how smart they are? Is it about how good they are in sports or how lucky they are? In the story, Malcolm Gladwell explains how success and failure are based on many things like privilege, work, luck, and many other ideas. Success is influenced by their opportunities and the legacy that their ancestors have passed down to them.
Opportunity is something that's given to you through your background or by chance which leads to a person's success.“Michigan was one of the first universities in the world to switch over to time-sharing,”(Gladwell 44) Joy had gone to one of the only schools that got this type of programming. He stumbled onto this programming and got into it. Then later he found a hack to get unlimited hours on this computer and with this opportunity that he took, he became better and better at the programming passing the 10000 hours, in turn, lead to his great success with programming. Without opportunities though people would not be able to thrive and get that great success. “He’d had to make his way alone, and no one- not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses- ever makes it alone”(Gladwell 115). In this Malcolm tells that throughout Langan’s life he had not been given any opportunities and had a poor status. With all his brilliance he was not able to thrive in the world because of that. The well-known band The Beatles had the opportunity to perform hour after hour in increasing their skills in the club in Hamburg. Professional hockey players in Canada which start off a little bit better than everyone else was given an opportunity to grow immensely compared to the other players. Bill Gates had the opportunity to his frequent exposure to computing technology when computers were still rare. Mozart had the opportunity to take his natural ability and have the time to practice and create music for thousands of hours. It comes to show that without the opportunities, people wouldn’t be as successful as they are today. Opportunities showed up for very successful people.
Legacy leads to success in life because it initiates the way you act, work, and get around in the world due to your forebears. “ That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children” (Gladwell 229). The language was given to them and part of them makes it much quicker and easier for Asian children to count. This leads to a quicker grasp two things like basic functions and fractions. With their language, it makes math easier and makes Asian children better at math than other people. WIth language being a legacy from their family being better at a certain thing helps them get ahead of other people. “ It's that they had a skill that they had been working on for years that was suddenly very valuable,” (Gladwell 129). As a part of Jewish society they were given the unwanted work. This unwanted work that he had years of practice was needed in the world and the Jewish lawyers were prepared for it, unlike the other law firms. What was a disadvantage to them later became a greater advantage to get ahead in the law world. The ways people are able to get ahead in the world or have some sort of advantage is because of your background, heritage, and legacy.
After reading this text, the best definition of success is someone who thrives in the world due to the choices in life or the background doing hard work to get them there. “The As overwhelmingly came from the middle and the upper class”(Gladwell l11). When it came to a major difference it was the family background. The reason this quote is shown in my life because I have this opportunity. Thanks to my parents live in a good district with little crime, giving me the opportunity to have a greater chance in future life than other people. I have privileges because of this and am able to have a more likely chance to become successful. Privileges that I had like examples in the story compared to people with higher status. For example, Oppenheimer growing up in a better place than Langan was able to talk his way through situations. Growing up in his better life got him farther in life.“ Through history, not surprisingly, the people who grow rice have always worked harder than almost any other kind of farmer”(Gladwell 233). Although I live in a middle-class status my parents had to work harder to get here. My parents came from a poorer country and started from scratch here in the United States. They would get any job to provide for themselves and work hard to get a good job. My mom continued school again to get a better job and she did. They found any job they could to survive just like the farmers with the rice paddy fields did. These values of working hard that my parents have shown me will carry through in my career. These values of hard and meaningful work will help lead me into my success because it teaches me how hard work can get you somewhere. My parents got somewhere by working hard back then and still now to this point. The Jewish ancestors of people work hard to survive in the new world the crossed over to. What these have in common is that the Jewish ancestors got their family ahead in the world, and my parents will help me to be successful in life too.
In conclusion, success is influenced by the opportunities and the legacy that their ancestors have passed down to them. Throughout life, these choices appear. Only to have these chances help to get themselves there. Without the support, it is hard to get there. Life and the people and environment around a person affects how successful in life a person can be.