Although Gladwell’s point is true that how kids who are born early in the year are given better opportunities and have better chance accelerating their abilities in anything they do, I believe that there are bigger external factors that plays into becoming successful such as passion, love, environment that kids grow up in and competitive attitude. For example, I grew up in a house where my neighbor was a soccer player who was the same age which allowed me to play soccer with him almost anytime I wanted. My friend Naoto and I were always the best players in our grade ever since we joined soccer team together on the same day. Even though we were both born later year in Japan, February and March, we were moved up to a team with kids who were a grade older than us because I believe that the love and passion for our sport never held us back from accelerating and mastering our skills. Recently I reaffirmed my view on being born earlier in the year in the United States is an advantage because the soccer team I play for allowed me to play another year after graduating high school because the league’s age group is separated by years that kids are born. This allowed me to play at a high level of coaching and practices to prepare myself better in college soccer where other players in my grade have to jump into a new team or in