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Essay On Human Destiny

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Some people may believe that we have the ability to create our own successful destiny through hard work and practice, while others may believe that our genetic abilities predetermine our road to success. Two authors, David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell discuss whether a person's destiny can be determined by their decisions through hard work or innate talent. "The Sports Gene" written by, David Epstein tells the reader that we can control our destiny through innate talent, or talent without experience or practice. On the other hand, Malcolm Gladwell makes a compelling argument for the idea that our destiny revolves around the choices we make through hard work and dedication to achieving our goals, rather than our genes determining the success …show more content…

Gladwell provides solid evidence to support his claim that we can control our destiny to success to a certain limit. Practice plays more of a role in order to become successful rather than a person's genetic abilities. Gladwell proves this in the following quote," The closer the 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."(Page 11, paragraph 1) Gladwell uses many musicians for his study which proves a more accurate claim, because his study is not based of the abilities of just one person, like Epstein's study. In the quote, " The emerging picture from such studies is that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert"(Page 12, paragraph 3), it shows that innate talent does exist, but this opposes what is being stated in, "The Sports Gene." Gladwell proves that after much research has been done, none of the musicians were naturals just by their genetic abilities in the following quote, "The striking thing about Gladwell's study was that him and his colleagues couldn’t find any "naturals" or musicians who were naturally good without practice."(Page 12, paragraph 5) This proves that it takes practice for any person to get at such an advanced level in whatever sport or skill they are

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