Tipping Point ...

I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Gladwell, Malcolm, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

--courtesy of goodreads.com

It opens up my mind about how little things can make a big difference. The book spent a great deal of time defining the type of people that could potentially cause a tipping point. The author mentioned that there are three types of people in the world that are capable of starting epidemic. Connectors are people who know whole bunch of people and have huge connection.  Mavens are people who are the early adapter of any new technology.. People who are optimistic and genuinely care about their customers (people,) the Salesman.

The author gave an example of the infamous Children shows, Sesame Street, and how it has captured the young and adult audiences for ages. He mentioned how the creator of Sesame Street has discovered the second rule to the tipping point, the Stickiness factor. He wrote in the book, "They discovered that by making small but critical adjustments in how they presented ideas to preschoolers, they could overcome television's weakness as a teaching tool and make what they had to say memorable. Sesame Street succeeded because it learned how to make television sticky/"

The last one is the power of the context, where the ideas have to be memorable and move us to action. In here he talked about what causes certain individuals to commit certain crimes. He described how being in certain environment could tip a trouble person into committing crimes, like in the neighborhood where graffiti are everywhere.

The author reminds me of companies where the turn-over rate were high. Usually it started with a certain well-known figure. It could be the Connectors, the popular person in the company who knows whole bunch of people. It could be someone quite important, like the Mavens, the founder. It could be someone that work close to you or your friends, like the Salesman.  Somehow the exits of those people have created an epidemic. Somehow their exits of the company have given an approval for those who were not happy with the company, who have been itched to leave the company. Somehow those actions have served as a tipping point for people to leave the company in a massive scale.  

When facing with those conditions, companies tend to want to solve the problem in grander scale. But, what the book is saying is we need to look at the fundamental issues that have caused the tipping point. If we can find it, most likely we can solve the problem. 

My blog,  Perfect to me,  where I have given an example that one teenage girl had came home from her college with an earring on her nose then later with an earring in her tongue after receiving criticism from her parents. Her parents claimed that it was so unlike her. What was the cause of the tipping point for this teenage girl? Could it be the trend in the college? Could it be the power of context, where something small but memorable had triggered her to adopt to this style or could it be her statement to her parents? At the end, It is up to her parents to search for the ultimate answer as what has caused the tipping point for this teenage girl. 

My blog, Motivation and us, mentioned how my younger girl has inconsistently doing poorly at school but yet she is a gifted child until I discovered her tipping point, motivation.

This is what the author has to say at his conclusion, “. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped.”

Hope this blog has inspired you someway to find the tipping point of your life or your loved ones. Identifying those little things could make a big difference.

Until next stop,
Journey of Life