Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, defines an outlier as "something that is located far away from or classified differently from a main or related body" (3). Although he provides this definition, he never clarifies what he defines as success. Using his many examples of what Gladwell considers a successful person to be, it is safe to conclude that his definition would be: Success is a mixture of opportunity, intelligence, and hard work. When these three characteristics are combined, it equates to great success, and cannot be achieved with just one or two of these things, all three must be present. Gladwell presents many cases where these three qualities contribute to an individual's success. The first group of people Gladwell talks about are professional hockey players. He specifies that “seventeen of the twenty-five players on the team were born in January, February, March and April” (23). These months offer great opportunities for players since the deadline for hockey as a child is January 1st; While children born in other months are smaller and less coordinated, other children are taller and have about nine months of growth, giving them the advantage. Gladwell also examines the time and work it takes to become a professional. Note that it takes 10,000 hours to reach this professional status. The rule follows for hockey players. “This late-born prodigy is not chosen for the all-star team at eight years old because he is too small... And without this extra training, he has no chance of reaching ten thousand hours... without ten thousand hours…he has no way of mastering these skills” (41). He describes this since players born between ...... middle of paper ...... thirteen. Almost no child had this opportunity at his age and so he was able to quickly acquire his 10,000 hours of practice with software and computers. “What truly distinguishes their story is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities” (55). Both men were very intelligent, although not as intelligent as Langan, but their combination of opportunity, intelligence, and hard work led them to be much more successful than Langan. Malcolm Gladwell is an extremely successful man himself, although he never directly states his definition. of success, it is heavily implied that he believes it to be a combination of opportunity, intelligence, and hard work. Without these three qualities, a person has extremely little chance of success. Its definition is found in professional hockey players, Bill Joy, Bill Gates and many others..