What defines an individual's success? In most cases, a person's IQ, their personality, or the kind of special talents they have been gifted with since birth are looked at as factors that influence their success. However, this is exactly the process analyzed by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestseller The Outlier's. Gladwell examined case studies that demonstrated that individuals' opportunities and cultural heritage were actually the determining factors in their success. In the case of Jonas Salk, no one would have suspected that a son of a poor Jewish immigrant family was the first scientist to successfully formulate a polio vaccine in 1944. In fact, other people in the scientific community such as Albert Sabin believed that Salk “did not have an original idea” in his life. However, surprisingly, regardless of his IQ or genetic predispositions, Jonas Salk's path to success follows Gladwell's theory as his life validates the importance of the moment of his birth, cultural inheritance and the 10,000 hour rule . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Jonas Salk's great success in discovering the first polio vaccine is framed by the era in which he was born, which Gladwell believes to be almost one of the most essential components to his own success. For Gladwell, even being born early in the year proves to offer opportunities invisible to those born at any other time of the year. Jonas Salk was the first born to Jewish immigrants in early 1914, a time of tremendous conflict and struggle for the entire Jewish community, yet he was able to develop the ability that Gladwell coined as "practical intelligence." Salk's parents were part of the tremendous wave of Jewish immigrants who fled their country due to religious perjury in the early 20th century. Many Jewish immigrant families, like Salk's family, settled along the East Coast, doing the only trade they knew: working in sweatshops and textile mills. No matter how daunting the task of watching their parents work, children of immigrant parents have thrived through this humbling experience. According to Gladwell, “it was the practical intelligence and common sense you get from watching your father sell aprons on Hester Street” (153). Salk, with his parents working in the textile industry in New York, grew up in a family exposed to grueling tasks, learning and inheriting the complex relationship between effort and reward. of practical intelligence, this skill proved useful as Salk climbed toward his discovery. According to Gladwell, these individuals learn “teamwork and how to deal with highly structured contexts…they are taught how to interact comfortably with adults and how to speak up when necessary” (103). At a young age, Salk showed signs of practical intelligence, when he constantly questioned known facts and "often changed the way he was told to perform something, reversing its sequence or modifying a step" (Kluger 26). Learning the lessons of arrogance and curiosity manifested as a crucial part of his personality that led him to success. During his years at the New York School of Medicine, his scientific investigation into the influence of live vaccines versus heat-killed vaccines afforded him a notable research opportunity with Dr. Francis who not only taught him the rudiments of virology, but it has themalso provided another valuable opportunity that Gladwell coined as the 10,000 Rule. According to Gladwell, the Rule of 10,000 is an important opportunity that defines the individual's success. Gladwell states that individuals like Bill Gates and the other The Beatles were not only successful because they were born into a successful life, but it was because they spent countless hours honing their skills, which would define their success. In Salk's case, if it were not for Dr. Francis' research opportunity, Salk would not have had the opportunity to explore his scientific curiosities in science and would not have been able to acquire the necessary laboratory skills that would have proved useful through his work. career. Luckily, during his senior year at the New York School of Medicine, Dr. Francis was impressed by Salk's scientific investigation and offered Salk an internship at the University of Michigan where he could not only teach a course in epidemiology to incoming students, but he could also help assist Francis with the task of finding a flu vaccine. Tasked with choosing between a military doctor or working on the vaccine, Salk was convinced to work on the vaccine because it could help save millions of lives rather than treating individual patients in the military. That decision to stay and work on the vaccine The vaccine came as a turning point in Salk's research career. During the 4 years he worked on the vaccine, he discovered that his heat-killed virus vaccine hypothesis actually worked, a crucial component of the flu vaccine's success. Such results obtained from this successful influenza vaccine became a fundamental difference that distinguished Salk from all other scientists in the research field. Since most vaccines of the time were live virus cultures, the possibility of infection outweighed the benefits of treatment, derailing many scientists. Therefore, Salk, with the knowledge and techniques gained from his internship that a heat-killed virus was effective enough to trick the body into producing the antibodies needed to ward off the virus, represented an invaluable and unprecedented advantage. This discovery in virology was essential because it reduced the risks of infecting the patient and could be produced quickly. The experience he gained working with Dr. Francis allowed him to hone his skills as a scientist, however his analytical skills alone could not do so. Do not attribute to his success in the field of research. According to Gladwell, regardless of the individual's IQ and critical thinking skills, the ability to know what to do and say and use it to maximum effect, which he believes is practical intelligence, is a quality that separates successful individuals from geniuses. Since Salk's parents were textile workers in New York, Salk learned the valuable lessons of practical intelligence. At a young age, his mother wanted Salk to pursue the life of a rabbi, however, Salk with such a strong sense of entitlement knew he wanted to pursue a career where he could be widely heard. Being able to influence his mother to support his career was the origin of the development of his practical intelligence which proved very useful in his research endeavors. Salk's remarkable persuasive ability surpasses analytical skills in his field of research because it earned him financial support to support his polio research project. Unlike other scientists who toiled on polio vaccines for many years, Salk had a financial advantage thanks to support from the National Infantile Paralysis Foundation. Thehead of this foundation was a dogmatic and profit-seeking businessman, Daniel Basil O'Connor. Feeling pressure to find a research group to head the Foundation, O'Connor immediately favored the Salk Polio Research Group. Salk sent O'Conner a letter requesting financial assistance for the new polio vaccine project he was trying to develop. O'Conner was immediately attracted to Salk as a researcher and to the goals and risks he was willing to take. Both men had the same goal in mind, namely the importance of time: Salk wanted to find the safest and fastest vaccine against polio before it could claim more lives, while O'Conner wanted to reap the benefits.profits of this vaccine. Therefore, satisfied with what he saw, O'Conner agreed to support Salk financially, providing all the resources necessary for the project. Salk's financial support, earned through his practical intelligence, allowed him to develop a vaccine in a timely manner, beating all other scientists in the field, and that vaccine was the first step in eradicating the polio virus from the nation. Thanks to the intelligence he acquired from his parents, Jonas Salk grew up in a Jewish family, which provided strong cultural influences for his success. In Outliers, Gladwell openly states the importance of cultural heritage. He believes that this “culture of honor” hypothesis is one that says “it matters where you come from…in terms of where your great-grandparents grew up” (Gladwell, 170). Examining a cultural experiment conducted by Cohen and Nisbett, psychologists at the University of Michigan, he discovers that there is a high correlation between the behaviors of the individual and those of his ancestors. Their experiment consisted of testing their theory of violence in Harlem, Kentucky, a likely product of claim-making habits dating back to their English ancestors. From such an experiment, Gladwell concludes that cultural legacies have deep roots because they “persist… virtually intact, even if economic, social, and demographic conditions… have disappeared, and play a fundamental role in directing attitudes and behaviors…” (175). . These persistent behaviors of the Jewish community during the early times are qualities of esteem that were prevalent throughout Jonas Salk's life. Although Jonas Salk was born in a time of tremendous conflict, his Jewish cultural background proved helpful in developing an ambitious goal toward higher education. . Salk was born into a Russian-Jewish immigrant family in 1914, raised strictly in Jewish traditions. Embedded in their cultural history, those who studied Torah became rabbis, considered intellectuals with privileges to enhance their socio-economic status. It was this ideal of the importance of education that would permeate all of Jewish culture, which was also prevalent in Salk's development. As a child, her mother Dora Salk was a firm believer in Jewish culture and the pursuit of higher education, making it clear that she expected great things from all of her children. As a result, at a young age, his mother constantly tested his abilities and facilitated his mental growth, as she wanted her son to also enter a rabbinical school. However, Salk thought otherwise. According to Jefferey Kluger's Splendid Solution, Salk felt as if his voice would be lost in that arena, because he "wanted his work to be widely heard and needed something of greater reach that would allow him to make the most of his greater capabilities." Although he rejected the path of rabbi, his thoughts on serving his community stemmed from his Jewish roots. According to Abraham Fox, the community.