Could I have a summary of Chapter 1 of "Outliers: The Story of Success"? Chapter 1 summary of the book outlier

Chapter
1 of 's Outliers opens with a discussion of a Canadian hockey game, a game
for the Memorial Cup championships.  Gladwell describes then the Canadian hockey system,
explaining that it is a meritocracy, meaning those who show talent and promise are rewarded for
their efforts by moving up in the system and becoming part of "an elite league"
(16).

In the second section of the Chapter, Gladwell previews for the reader
the nature of his inquiry: What is it about strikingly successful people that makes them so
successful?  Gladwell questions the conventional wisdom that says people rise from
"nothing" to become successful.  He states his central thesis, which is that
"hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies" (19) are
responsible for the success of the "outliers." He characterizes this as the
"ecology of the organism" (19), in this case, the human being.

In
the third section, Gladwell provides us with information about the birthdates of successful
Canadian hockey players and invites us to see a pattern or trend in the information.  In the
fourth section, he provides us with the key to the pattern, which is that the most successful
players were born early in the year.  The implication he points out is that because of the
cutoff date for entry into the hockey system, players who have birthdays early in the year are
older, stronger, and more skilled than the rest of their cohort, thus leading them to
excel.

Gladwell then connects his ideas in the fifth section, presenting us
with the "Matthew Effect" (30), which comes from the Gospel of Matthew.  That book of
the New Testament has a verse that promises abundance to those who already "have"
abundance.  Gladwell provides other examples of this effect, including the effect upon students
who are older than their peers because of their earlier birthdays.  He characterizes the
advantage conferred as an "accumulative advantage" (30.)  Every year, the successful
are groomed a bit more, nurtured a bit more, and eventually this advantage accumulates into the
creation of an outlier.

In the final section, Gladwell returns to the
Canadian hockey players, and a particularly successful player, Gord Waden, who was born early in
January.

This is a fascinating book, and I hope my summary persuades you to
read and summarize the rest of the story.  Gladwell makes it easy to summarize his writing
because each chapter is divided into sections and he is good at creating transitions and making
connections between his ideas.