The 10,000 Hour Rule in Outliers Nicole Krasnov College

In today’s day and age, it is said that a persons’ economic background, perseverance and innate talents determine how successful they will be in life. It is believed that the “American Dream” can only be achieved by those privileged few who were born talented or those who can afford to become talented. Those who have not grown up so fortunately are stuck believing that prosperity is not available for them. They grew up thinking that they shouldn’t be practicing for something they weren’t initially good at, assuming that successful people did not have to practice because they were born with natural talent and everything came fairly easy to them. Malcolm Gladwell‘s Outliers challenges that belief by claiming that the people that became successful were those who were born during the right time and were given a special opportunity to master their skills. In the context of publication - the economic downfall in 2008 - the genre and audience of Gladwell’s pieces play an important role in making his argument effective. Gladwell wrote an informative book to an audience troubled by the recession, claiming that 10,000 hours was the defining line to master a skill. With his claim, he...