In what ways does Gladwell's examination of hockey challenge traditional notions of success as merely the result of hard work and talent?

Gladwell makes extremely legitimate points and arguments when it comes to the idea of where success comes from in the world of sports and in the classroom. He supports all of his arguments with clear data, and explains how he came to his conclusions clearly. He has clear evidence that success is not only based on how hard one works to get to the top, but in fact can have a lot to deal with issues out of one’s hand, such as their birth date. One cannot do anything to change the day that they were born no matter how hard they can try. A birth date is always set in stone. Gladwell has clear data showing that children born at the start of the cutoff date for school are way more privileged in opportunities than children born at the end of the cutoff date. He shows this to be true in not only sports, but in the classroom as well. Students born at the start of the cutoff date have a much higher chance of being put into difficult learning groups due to the amount of higher intelligence they are presumed to have. This is because the children at the start of the cutoff dates seem to be better in many different areas because of their difference in age.

Gladwell makes one question if success is really determined by hard work and talent or if in fact it is due to some higher notion that is out of one’s control. If all of Gladwell’s data is in fact correct, as it clearly seems to be, then it would be hard for someone who has read this to say that success is in fact only due to hard work and success because in fact there are other outliers that have been playing an important role in the idea of success. He also brings up the idea that one cannot truly get to the top from nothing, but has factors around them that help them get to where they are today. The idea that Gladwell paints in the readers mind about the acorn turning into a tree I found extremely eye opening. The idea that the tallest tree could not be what it is today if it weren’t for the perfect conditions surrounding it made complete sense to me.  People in the entertainment industry today who have come from “rags to riches” have not truly experienced this in most cases due to the many outside effects that have influenced them to get to where they are today. Many of the people who are famous in the media industry today are only there because they had connections, were in the right place at the right time, or had some out of the ordinary experience that made it possible from them to become the success they are today. Many people say that Madonna got to where she is today based on pure talent and hard work, but in reality, she was found by a producing agent which has led her successful path to be the face for woman talent today.