The 10,000-Rule Philosophy - Personal Views

Self Reflection Essay

Andrea K. Williams

Charter Oak State College

When using the APA guidelines, include a page break here so that the title page is separate from the rest of the document.

Abstract

Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Outliers is a collection of non fiction stories that talk about success and ways many individuals have obtained success.  Chapter One discusses the Matthew Effect.  The Matthew Effect is the belief that the more advantages you have in life, the better your chances are at success.  It also is the belief that the less advantages you have in life, your chances of success are low.  Chapter Two discusses the 10,000-Hour Rule.  The 10,000 hour rule is the belief that it take a minimum of 10,000 hours for a person to master a skill and become great, which leads to great success.  Within the first two chapters, Gladwell presents his arguments in regards to the Matthew Effect theory and the 10,000-Hour Rule theory. He gives examples of individuals who meet the criteria to support the theories with evidence of success.

You will only be writing one abstract for this course, and that will be Week 7 when you summarize the findings of your research.  One hint is to include key words at the bottom.

General Information About Me

I am Andrea Williams, a 32 year-old mother of one.  I am from New Haven, CT, born and raised. I've attended some of the better schools growing up in the New Haven County area.  The schools I attended include Sacred Heart Elementary(public school), Wightwood School (Independent School), Save parenthesis for citations. and Hill Regional Career Magnet High School.  Although my schools were not elite, on a scale of one to ten, each could easily rate a seven and above.  For college[,] I attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts for two years.  In Boston[,]  I was an Engineering Major, but the course load deemed to be too demanding which led me to come back to New Haven and attend Beauty School.  It seems as though the schools I attended gave me greater advantages academically which was evident when I left my independent school and moved on to high school.  There was further ahead academically than everyone in my classes.  This is easily proven by me graduating top 10 percent in my class, and I hardly applied myself.  Things we We and you are examples of informal pronouns that are not needed in course essays. were learning in class, I had already learned years ahead, Delete the comma because the underlined portion falls at the end of the sentence.  in middle school.  I was put in classes with upperclassmen because I already knew the freshman material. And in senior year, I was taking all AP courses.  I came from more economically advantaged family compared to my fellow high schoolmates which allowed me better schooling in my younger years.. This proved to be a wonderful advantage! When I went to college, I fell lower on the scale. I was in classes with individuals who came from schools that rated 15 on my previously mentioned scale.   The Matthew Effect and the 10-Hour ? Rule helped me understand what I thought was me being a smarty pants in High School, Only formal names should be capitalized. then a failure in college.  

My Thoughts on The 10,000-Rule Philosophy

After reading the 10,000-Rule, I was amazed at how what seemed so coincidental, actually made perfect sense.  Gladwell argues that to be successful, one needs at least 10,000 hours to master a "craft". Save quotes for when three or more words are borrowed from a source.  Also, when adding quotes, a citation is needed. Gladwell did an excellent job with presenting his argument, then backing it up with credible facts.  He did not generalize his reasoning, but gave very specific examples that helped persuade me to believe in the 10,000 hour rule.  When Gladwell spoke about Bill Gates and his success, he explained how both opportunity and time programming led to the success of Gates and his company, Microsoft.  I am definitely for Gladwell's 10,000 rule.  I believe that practicing and repeating something can only make one better.  I personally am a jack of all trades, master of none. I can do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but I've never focused enough on one thing to master it.  I also do feel like the things I do the most of, I am better at.   You have a good understanding of the chapter.  Now, take a closer look at where citations would be included, and examples of this can be found at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/