Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell: Happiness Is The Key To Success
1374 Words6 Pages
Albert Schweitzer once said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”. An immense amount of people have written and spoke about how success is attained. But a few have really looked deep into it and exposed the true keys to success. Dr. Chong Woo along with writers Paul Tough and Malcolm Gladwell has contributed to discovering the secrets. Paul Tough is writer for the New York Times Magazine and his writings have appeared in many other reputable news sources. Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996 and has written books that have been on The New York Times bestseller list. Dr. Chong Woo is a medical doctor who specializes…show more content… Throughout the chapter, he explains how his ancestors in Jamaica had critical advantages for more opportunities over other people because of their skin tone. At the time, lighter skinned people were given more benefits than darker skinned people. Gladwell explains how cultural differences created opportunities that ultimately lead to success. Around 1940 in the Caribbean, education was a big conflict and because of it, riots occurred. The British government wanted to prevent further chaos so they gave out exams for scholarships. Gladwell’s mother was able to create a path to success by eventually going to school. But if she was “born two or three or four years earlier, they might have never have gotten a full education. [His] mother owes the course her life took to the time of her birth, to the rioters of 1937 and to W.M. MacMillan” (273). If Gladwell’s mother was born a couple years earlier, then she wouldn't have been able to take apart of the full high school experience. The opportunity for education only presented itself because of the series of events created by cultural problems. When Gladwell’s mother and aunt got the results from the scholarship exam, his aunt got a scholarship but his mother didn’t. There was no way his mother’s parents could afford this fees but fortunately, another girl “had won two scholarships, so…show more content… Chong Woo, MD, specializes in obstetrics/gynecology and he works at the University Women’s Health Clinic in Ashtabula, OH. Not only has he helped impecunious people who are in desperate need of help, but he has also been prosperous in the wealth aspect of success making roughly $200,000 a year. Dr. Woo’s view on what leads to success is that “you need to love some part of what you want to do” and further explained that it’s doesn’t necessarily mean to love the job you hold, just some aspect of it. In fact, Dr. Woo said he would rather be a dentist, the only reason he became a gynecologist was because his father was one. The reason he pursued to stay in the specific specialization was because of the gratitude he receives from patients. He states that there is “no better feeling than helping those who are struggling”. Dr. Woo shared a story where “In late 1960’s University Hospitals was in need of doctors who specialized in obstetrics/gynecology and because they weren’t able to find enough in America, they looked at other countries like South Korea”. Since Dr. Woo was from South Korea and was qualified, he was asked to come work in America. This ties to Malcolm Gladwell’s theory about success and how cultural differences create opportunities that lead to success. If Dr. Woo was from a different country, studied a different subject, or was born ten years later, then he would have never been given the chance to come to America, and work for University