The Hollywood Executive Character Analysis

Gladwell refers several times throughout David and Goliath to an unnamed Hollywood executive who grew up in a working-class family. As a boy, the Hollywood executive worked hard to earn money by assembling a group of his friends to shovel his neighbors’ driveways when it snowed, contracting out the workers to efficiently cover the entire neighborhood. Later, he worked in his father’s factory and decided he didn’t want to become a manual laborer, so he continued to work with an entrepreneurial spirit through college and graduate school. He’s now extremely wealthy and owns a mansion, fancy cars, and a private jet. And though the executive is happy about this, he thinks his wealth has made it difficult for him to raise his children, since he doesn’t know how to instill in them the same work ethic that he himself had no choice but to cultivate. Gladwell uses this story to outline the idea of diminishing returns, suggesting that more money doesn’t always make people happier or make their lives easier. Although people often assume that certain advantages area always advantageous, Gladwell argues, the Hollywood executive’s parenting dilemma demonstrates that there can sometimes be too much of a good thing. Furthermore, his success indicates that certain challenges can benefit a person, since his working-class upbringing inspired him to do whatever it took to prosper.