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What is the main argument that Gladwell is making in his book Outliers: The Story of Success?

In Outliers, Gladwell theorizes why some people have success way outside of statistical norms. These statistical outliers, achieve at levels much higher than normal successful individuals do.


One could say that Gladwell actually refers to his argument in the subtitle of his book. According to his theory of success, it is the story surrounding an individual that determines success much more so than an individual's drive, intelligence or other personal traits over which he has control.


According to Gladwell, one is not highly successful in a vacuum of elements that he controls. He theorizes that for every highly successful individual, there was a recipe of experiences, culture, family and generation that boosted his success beyond societal norms. According to Gladwell, without these elements, individual efforts will only take a person to a normally successful level. His main argument then is that it is the elements in one's life that help most to make one highly successful. Gladwell does not however imply that individuals never have influence over success. Several different elements Gladwell discusses are ones an individual might be able to incorporate into life in order to be highly successful.

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