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    Outliers Argument Essay

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    Isabella
    The document discusses the argument that success comes from hard work and perseverance rather than mere talent or chance. It provides the example of Marita, a student who attended KIPP Academy, a public middle school that chooses students by lottery. Despite coming from a low-income single parent household, Marita's dedication to long hours of school and homework led her to become a successful accountant. The document also references research showing that grit, not talent alone, is more important for success. In conclusion, true success arises from passion and determination in those who start from humble beginnings, not just privileged individuals.

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    Outliers Argument Essay

    Uploaded by

    Isabella
    85 views2 pages
    The document discusses the argument that success comes from hard work and perseverance rather than mere talent or chance. It provides the example of Marita, a student who attended KIPP Academy, a public middle school that chooses students by lottery. Despite coming from a low-income single parent household, Marita's dedication to long hours of school and homework led her to become a successful accountant. The document also references research showing that grit, not talent alone, is more important for success. In conclusion, true success arises from passion and determination in those who start from humble beginnings, not just privileged individuals.

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    The document discusses the argument that success comes from hard work and perseverance rather than mere talent or chance. It provides the example of Marita, a student who attended KIPP Academy, a public middle school that chooses students by lottery. Despite coming from a low-income single parent household, Marita's dedication to long hours of school and homework led her to become a successful accountant. The document also references research showing that grit, not talent alone, is more important for success. In conclusion, true success arises from passion and determination in those who start from humble beginnings, not just privileged individuals.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    85 views2 pages

    Outliers Argument Essay

    Uploaded by

    Isabella
    The document discusses the argument that success comes from hard work and perseverance rather than mere talent or chance. It provides the example of Marita, a student who attended KIPP Academy, a public middle school that chooses students by lottery. Despite coming from a low-income single parent household, Marita's dedication to long hours of school and homework led her to become a successful accountant. The document also references research showing that grit, not talent alone, is more important for success. In conclusion, true success arises from passion and determination in those who start from humble beginnings, not just privileged individuals.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Ellis 1

    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
    Ellis 2

    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.

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