Ashley Kelley
Jeannie Isern
English 102
23 April 2015
Disadvantages and Difficulties can be Desirable
Disadvantages or misconceptions can be better prophets for success than what we might consider to be the obvious advantage. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell describes that bigger is not necessarily better. Malcolm Gladwell applies this principle among other extensive situations, such as the battlegrounds of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, successful and unsuccessful classrooms, cancer scientists and civil rights leaders. Were as many misconceptions and disadvantages strike young Jamal Malik in the film Slumdog Millionaire. Eighteen year old Jamal answers questions on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and flashbacks …show more content…

The loss of a parent, and a challenging childhood, is a desirable difficulty that Emil Jay Freireich, Jamal and Salim have in common. It pushed Freireich in his research. He developed a treatment of childhood leukemia resulting in a cure rate of more than 90 percent. “The number of children whose lives have been saved by the efforts of Freireich and Frei and the researchers who followed in their footsteps is in the many many thousands” (Gladwell 160-161). Jamal and Salim were born into a life of religious war and poverty. Jamal and Salim, now orphans are forced to survive on the streets with Latika. It is love that separates Jamal from Salim into different life styles. Jamal, works petty jobs and is persistent in finding his love Latika (Slumdog Millionaire). Emil and Jamal had the persistence and passion to move forward. However, Salim chooses a life of crime.
Though many people can find their difficulties desirable or advantages in their disadvantages, there is a limit that they need to address to their power. Take for example the Inverted U curve. “The man from Hollywood was not the parent he wanted to be, because he was too rich. Hotchkiss is not the school it wants to be, because its classes are too small. We all assume that being bigger and stronger and richer is always in our best interest” (Gladwell 62). Wilma Derksen could have become the next Mike Reynolds, and could of used powerful resources that in return only made things