Malcolm Gladwell Disadvantages

While on a road of life’s lessons the one’s who suffer a disorder can find their calling in life along the way. Not everyone gets this opportunity to find success while suffering from a disadvantage. Journalist Malcolm Gladwell states, “The second, more intriguing, possibility is that they succeeded in part, because of their disorder -- that they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage.” The irony that a disadvantage can bring about a successful advantage that is discovered while working through challenges. The degree of a trauma suffered will determine how they will allow this to affect them personally. Either they will be able to come out with a positive outlook which is a remote miss, or those who are
As Gladwell argues why society needs people who have endured a traumatic experience, “For every remote miss who becomes stronger, there are countless near misses who are crushed by what they have been through”. Not everyone will have the same outcome from the disadvantage they went through at an early age. For instance, John Wayne Gacy, he grew up with an abusive and alcoholic father. After years of physical abuse and a head injury at the age of 11, Gacy questioned his sexuality. He entertained the idea to be sexually active with a young man he lured into his home. Then he snapped, killing the man and becoming a serial killer to thirty-three victims. Gacy’s childhood trauma led him on a path to destruction and a danger to society. Eventually, sentenced to death by lethal injection in the year of 1994. Even though the society will endure people like this, it will not always be the same outcome for an
Some will fail to overcome those unfortunate events, while others will be highly beneficial to our society. A near miss will be a life-long road to healing as if a remote miss will bring your self-confidence to be courageous. If our society was filled with the pessimist, our society would suffer. If allowing a patient who is terminally ill to turn to hospice, instead of treatment we are failing our society as a whole, by allowing them to subdue to their illness. One must resolve a negative thought with positive actions. When Gladwell spoke with Freireich he said, “there’s no possibility of being pessimistic when people are dependent on you for their only optimism.” There is zero tolerance for negative feedback when there is a chance to resolve the problem with a solution. Freireich gave hope to the hopeless during their near miss, contributing to society to the best of his ability. A disadvantage can become an advantage at the will of the one who chooses to be a near miss, not a remote