He Said, She Said...

            Success: what is it? What makes one successful? There is not a clear-cut answer to this question, but many people have done their best to interpret and answer it as best they can; two such people are Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, and Mindset: The New Psychology of Success author, Carol S. Dweck. Gladwell and Dweck set out on the same mission—to determine what makes someone successful—but wind up at two very different conclusions.

            Chapter One of Outliers lays the ground for what Gladwell attributes success to: Opportunity (Gladwell, 2008). “People don’t rise from nothing,” says Gladwell, “We do owe something to parentage and patronage,” meaning that we don’t just become successful on our own, it’s making use of opportunities presented and luck-of-the-draw that ultimately deserve our gratitude (Gladwell, 2008, p.19). The entire book adheres to this theory, and Gladwell provides many examples to support it. He talks about hockey and the birthdays of the great players; he mentions Bill Joy and his luck with computer availability; he brings up the KIPP lottery system for accepting applicants (Gladwell, 2008).  For Gladwell’s personal success, it, too, was about opportunity.

            Carol S. Dweck believes in the “power of people’s beliefs” (Dweck, 2006, p. IX). In her book, Mindset, she focuses on the internal motivation of the person’s desire to be successful rather than the circumstances. Dweck establishes two mindsets, the fixed and the growth, and says that success is up to the person and their mindset (Dweck, 2006). As the name probably implies, people with the growth mindset are the successful ones. They push themselves to expand their horizons and don’t let something get them down. The fixed mindsets tend to create fences that they approach, but never motivate themselves to jump across. Success for Dweck is achieved by hard work and dedication. Dweck also mentions the negative aspects of success, quoting Pat Riley, former NBA coach, as saying, “success is the disease of me,” (Dweck, 2006, p. 210). Gladwell does not really mention any negative aspects of success, rather puts on that we should all be thankful and appreciative for any opportunity to be successful we are given.

            While Gladwell tends to take the extrinsic view of success and base it, for the most part, on outward influences, and Dweck likes the intrinsic view point that it is all up to each person, they can agree on some things. Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule and Dweck’s disbelief in “naturals” go hand in hand. Gladwell claims that anyone who has success in doing something has practiced at the task for upwards of 10,000 hours, going back to the old saying, “practice makes perfect” (Gladwell, 2008).  Dweck has similar thoughts, saying that “naturals” are only the products of tons and tons of practice more than innate ability (Dweck, 2006).

            I can see aspects of both their ideas in my “little successes” I’ve come across. Had I not lived in the same small town for the better part of my entire life, I may not have walked in to the local grocery store, talked to the manager I’ve known for 15 years, and gotten a job on the spot, which then led to me having the money to attend the community college in Ashland throughout high school, which gave me a bit of a head start when I got to Marshall. My living here and knowing people would be where opportunity comes in; my determination to get a job before I left the store that day would be where my mindset played a role. Not until you appreciate both these aspects and use them to their greatest potential, can you be completely successful.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York:
          Ballantine Books.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers. New York City: Little, Brown and Company.