Changing My Outlook on Success

1113 Name: Professor’s name: Course: Date: Changing My Outlook on Success The measure of a person’s success is often subjective to various and often overlooked factors or circumstances that played a significant role in their development towards the attained goals and objectives in life. In essence, success is an end whose means towards its achievement is characteristic of distinct variables to every individual. The underlying factors influencing a person’s success in life are unique to all individuals irrespective of intellectual differences. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers refutes the common misconception about success and highlights some of the essential factors contributing to a person’s success and their equally distinct influences. The guidelines provided by the author offer new insights into how to measure both my success and that of others while also creating a more intricate understanding of how to become successful. More often than not my head tends to dive into an unhealthy game of comparing my life’s achievement to those of my peers with whom we schooled together from elementary school up to college. Some of these friends with whom I make these frequent comparisons dropped out of school and seem to be doing better in life. Such comparisons may end up being depressing and at times making me question the direction my life is taking. Gladwell’s Outlier was a great revelation to my life as it brought about a new angle from which I could perceive the real meaning of success. It became clear that my peers and I have several differences ranging from diverse cultural backgrounds, individual abilities and skills, available opportunities, and work ethics. The outlined differential features play a significant role in a person’s success as their availability or lack thereof may play at either an advantage or a disadvantage towards being successful. The factors further determine the rate of being successful in a person’s endeavor, and thus one should not waste too much time in making comparisons. Instead, I decided to analyze my surrounding circumstances and make do with whatever advantage I have at my disposal to succeed in achieving my career and life’s objectives. It came to my realization from reading the Outlier that all successful individuals put a lot of working hours to their endeavors in life. Success comes from a good working ethic of hard work, dedication, and discipline in whatever one is pursuing in life. I have decided that the only way to become successful at what I do is to put in more work as I am already passionate about the art of massage therapy. Enhancing myself thus requires standing out of the crowd and putting in more work not only in providing the best massage therapist but also through researching how to grow and develop in the business. My passion for massage therapy should, therefore, act as the circumstantial advantage for becoming the best in the industry. However, achieving the grand fete requires persistence in working hard, starving my reservations or distractions, while feeding my fo...