Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point follows trends from their beginning to their end and tries to discover why some ideas "tip" and others do not. First, Gladwell gives the three rules for the tipping point: contagiousness; the fact that little causes can have big effects; and change happens in one moment. Two main examples of changes that are explained were the sales of Hush Puppies shoes and the sudden Crime rate drop in NYC during the 1990’s. “The tipping point is that magical moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
Gladwell opens his book with an introduction and explains the sales of Hush Puppies shoes and how the tipping point came for this shoe brand. Gladwell says that the tipping point for Hush Puppies came somewhere between the late 1994 and early 1995. He explains that the brand was basically dead and sales where low. Without trying to push the trend some kids in the East Village and Soho were wearing the shoes in clubs and bars and suddenly Hush Puppies made a comeback.
The crime rate in NYC during the 1990’s is another example. Gladwell says there was a time in Brownsville, New York, when the streets would turn into ghost towns and people would be to scared to walk on the sidewalks of the streets. He says that the drug trade ran rampant and that gang warfare was abundant. Focus was placed on minor problems within the city that slowly but surely led to the crime rate declining. What do these two examples have in common? They both were affected by small changes that had big effects and both occurred rapidly.
Earlier I wrote about the three rules of the tipping point. Malcolm Gladwell says that the third characteristic, that change happens in one moment, is the most important, because it is the most important principle that permits to the first two and why modern change happens the way it does. That right there is the Tipping Point.
In Gladwells second chapter he explains the Law of the Few. He uses an example of Paul Revere who, by word of mouth, warned and got the people ready that the British was coming in the age of the American Revolution. He also talks about William Dawes who had the same message as Paul Revere but didn’t have the tipping point that Revere had. Why is that? He says the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with particular and rare set of social gifts. Gladwell says that this chapter is about the people critical to social epidemics and what is the difference between Paul Revere and William Dawes. He says that these people are all around us, yet we fail to give them proper credit for the role they play. He calls them Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman.
Who are the connectors? Gladwell says they know everyone. He gives us a little test to see how many people you know of a list of last names he gave us. I found this very interesting. He said from your twenties to your forties the list should double. The people that have an extraordinary knack of making friends and getting to now people are the connectors. My dad always told me this saying and I feel like it is relevant to this part, “it’s not about who you are, it’s about who you know”, somehow that saying connects to this part of the chapter for me.
He explains Mavens to be the people who know things that he rest of us don’t. They read more magazines, more newspapers, and even junk mail. He explains that Mavens are the people who have the social skills and the knowledge to start a word-of-mouth epidemic. The way the pass there knowledge along, that is what set Mavens apart.
Gladwell explains; “Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people –Salesman.” Salesman are the people with the skill to persuade the ones that are unconvinced of what they are hearing, and they are just as crucial to the tipping point as the other two sorts of people.
Gladwell's next law in chapter 3, the stickiness factor, discusses how small elements can make or break a new idea. The children's television program Sesame Street serves as the central example for this section. The show lasted an hour and ran five days a week, hopefully sticking and causing a tipping point, an education tipping point for the children.
The last chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s book gives case studies, which incorporates the Tipping Point. An example in this chapter is the subject of teen smoking. Not that the cigarettes themselves draw the teens in but that being “cool” and being a part of the in crew is what draw the teens in to smoke. He ends his book by saying that readers who use the book will hopefully find the Mavens and get the inspiration to come up with a way. “In a world dominated by isolation and immunity, understanding these principles of word of mouth is more important than ever.”
The Tipping Point is a book with a lot of insightful knowledge through a simple idea. The points Gladwell made in his book will help me spread products, behaviors and ideas in the future and will give me inspiration to find the Mavens, be a connector and even a salesman. I really enjoyed reading this book and the examples that Malcolm Gladwell used in his book. This book was very insightful and I can take away a lot from it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone whom would like to see the little things make a difference in life, and for anyone who wants to make a difference and create a Tipping Point.
Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage,
Ricardo Lategan
Gladwell opens his book with an introduction and explains the sales of Hush Puppies shoes and how the tipping point came for this shoe brand. Gladwell says that the tipping point for Hush Puppies came somewhere between the late 1994 and early 1995. He explains that the brand was basically dead and sales where low. Without trying to push the trend some kids in the East Village and Soho were wearing the shoes in clubs and bars and suddenly Hush Puppies made a comeback.
The crime rate in NYC during the 1990’s is another example. Gladwell says there was a time in Brownsville, New York, when the streets would turn into ghost towns and people would be to scared to walk on the sidewalks of the streets. He says that the drug trade ran rampant and that gang warfare was abundant. Focus was placed on minor problems within the city that slowly but surely led to the crime rate declining. What do these two examples have in common? They both were affected by small changes that had big effects and both occurred rapidly.
Earlier I wrote about the three rules of the tipping point. Malcolm Gladwell says that the third characteristic, that change happens in one moment, is the most important, because it is the most important principle that permits to the first two and why modern change happens the way it does. That right there is the Tipping Point.
In Gladwells second chapter he explains the Law of the Few. He uses an example of Paul Revere who, by word of mouth, warned and got the people ready that the British was coming in the age of the American Revolution. He also talks about William Dawes who had the same message as Paul Revere but didn’t have the tipping point that Revere had. Why is that? He says the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with particular and rare set of social gifts. Gladwell says that this chapter is about the people critical to social epidemics and what is the difference between Paul Revere and William Dawes. He says that these people are all around us, yet we fail to give them proper credit for the role they play. He calls them Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman.
Who are the connectors? Gladwell says they know everyone. He gives us a little test to see how many people you know of a list of last names he gave us. I found this very interesting. He said from your twenties to your forties the list should double. The people that have an extraordinary knack of making friends and getting to now people are the connectors. My dad always told me this saying and I feel like it is relevant to this part, “it’s not about who you are, it’s about who you know”, somehow that saying connects to this part of the chapter for me.
He explains Mavens to be the people who know things that he rest of us don’t. They read more magazines, more newspapers, and even junk mail. He explains that Mavens are the people who have the social skills and the knowledge to start a word-of-mouth epidemic. The way the pass there knowledge along, that is what set Mavens apart.
Gladwell explains; “Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people –Salesman.” Salesman are the people with the skill to persuade the ones that are unconvinced of what they are hearing, and they are just as crucial to the tipping point as the other two sorts of people.
Gladwell's next law in chapter 3, the stickiness factor, discusses how small elements can make or break a new idea. The children's television program Sesame Street serves as the central example for this section. The show lasted an hour and ran five days a week, hopefully sticking and causing a tipping point, an education tipping point for the children.
The last chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s book gives case studies, which incorporates the Tipping Point. An example in this chapter is the subject of teen smoking. Not that the cigarettes themselves draw the teens in but that being “cool” and being a part of the in crew is what draw the teens in to smoke. He ends his book by saying that readers who use the book will hopefully find the Mavens and get the inspiration to come up with a way. “In a world dominated by isolation and immunity, understanding these principles of word of mouth is more important than ever.”
The Tipping Point is a book with a lot of insightful knowledge through a simple idea. The points Gladwell made in his book will help me spread products, behaviors and ideas in the future and will give me inspiration to find the Mavens, be a connector and even a salesman. I really enjoyed reading this book and the examples that Malcolm Gladwell used in his book. This book was very insightful and I can take away a lot from it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone whom would like to see the little things make a difference in life, and for anyone who wants to make a difference and create a Tipping Point.
Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage,
Ricardo Lategan