We observed that pluripotent stem cells, those that can make any cell type of the body, can be derived from a small subset of cells that are found in normal skin biopsies (skin cells). Previous studies suggested that the major reason for low efficiency in making reprogrammed pluripotent stem cell lines was that the genes used to induce pluripotency might not be highly expressed, the cell timing might be important and not often in the right part of the cycle, or that human cell reprogramming was stochastic with a random cause for low efficiency. This study suggests that it is a subset of cell types that is reprogrammed and thus, this small set of cells is efficiently reprogrammed while others are not reprogrammed at all or at very, very low levels. Results have implications for reprogramming of adult skin cells to pluripotent stem cells and for applications of those cells in regenerative medicine.