The Matthew Effect: How It Affects Our Success

In Malcolm Gladwell’s novel, Outliers, readers are able to comprehend and understand the fundamental reasons to why a person may have success. Many associate success with one’s talent, ability to surpass others, and intelligence. However, what many fail to realize is that one’s success does not merely prosper from their own will and power, but by the influences that have made an impact on them and the opportunities given to them. In the first chapter of the novel, Gladwell explains how Roger Barnsley, a Canadian psychologist, realized, as he observed the player roster of the 2007 Medicine Hat Tigers, that hockey players are usually born within the first three months of the year. Seeing that this is applied to many hockey teams, he came to the conclusion that the reason for this was because the “eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1st” (24). Therefore, for a child who turns ten on January 2nd and another child who doesn’t turn ten until the end of the year, it makes a huge difference in strength and ability. For those who have the advantage, they are the ones who receive better coaching and attention, thus making them more likely to make it to the Major Junior A league, which further leads them to the bigger leagues. This is called the Matthew Effect. Because they have more practice and time to progress, this is why children born from January to March have the advantage and have more success. As stated by Gladwell, “we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung,” because we have these cutoff dates (32). We could change it by setting up different hockey leagues and letting players develop at the same speed. The same could even be applied to schools, all people would have to do is divide students by the months they were born in and then they’ll be able to learn at the same rate. However, we won’t change this because we believe that success is based off “individual merit.” The reason to why I chose this piece to discuss about is because the idea of others being able to have an advantage is unfair because everyone should have an equal chance to go after the same goals as someone else. We don’t get to choose which month we’re born in so how would this be our fault?