No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.
Malcolm GladwellRead
It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success often breeds more success through advantages and opportunities.
In this quote, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the concept of 'accumulative advantage,' suggesting that individuals who achieve success are more likely to receive additional opportunities that further enhance their success. This creates a cycle where those already successful gain more resources, support, and advantages, while those who are less successful have fewer opportunities to advance, highlighting the social dynamics that contribute to inequality.
Themes
SuccessOpportunityAdvantageInequalityEducation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a panel discussion about educational inequality and the importance of providing equal opportunities for all students.
More from Malcolm Gladwell
All quotes →People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. It’s like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s just in a crummy mood.’ Or they can be in negative sentiment override, so that even a relatively neutral thing that a partner says gets perceived as negative.
Malcolm GladwellRead
The people at the top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.
Malcolm GladwellRead
When I go to my health club, and it's in the basement, you have to take the elevator down. And this drives me crazy. Why can't there be a stairway? At least make it as easy to exercise as it is to not exercise. It's in society's interest for me to take the stairs.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Similar quotes
We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.
Earl NightingaleRead
I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.
Warren BuffettRead
Service to many leads to greatness- great respect, great satisfaction.
Jim RohnRead
There is no pressure at the top. The pressure is being second or third.
Jose MourinhoRead
Start-up success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.
Eric RiesRead
There is no evidence that success in business will make us happy people or allow us to have happy families.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead