“The Tipping Point”, by Malcom Gladwell, could have easily been titled, Socializing and Success for Dummies. The Tipping Point explains the correlation between ones personality, and the success or failure of a number of different things. Gladwell describes how different personality traits affect the market, epidemics and trends in society. "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social skills.” said Gladwell. He calls these traits, “The Law of Few: Connector, Mavens and Salesmen.”
When considering myself and my place in “The Law of Few”, I would love to say that I am a connector. Gladwell says, “We rely on them to give us access to opportunities and access to worlds to which we don’t belong.” Although, I have many friends from different circles, I’m still particular to my personal circle. I rarely utilize my strong ties, let along my weak ones so I know that I am not a connector. With that said, my personality most resembles tha of the maven. Gladwell describes a maven as “A person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places.” I always have remembered the strangest facts, and love to help people, but “What sets mavens apart, though is not so much what they know, but how they pass it along.” The salesmen are equipped “with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.” Oh how I wouldn’t mind being the salesmen.
Before reading the Tipping Point, I never considered what exactly makes something go from regular to extraordinary, or as Gladwell refers to it, when something “Tips”. It’s the transformation that takes place when something catches on and becomes an epidemic or a sucess. To make the Georgia College & State University Athletic Auction tip, we need to enlist the help of good salesmen. In the current economy, it will take more than an empathetic giver to support ones cause. We not only need someone to convince our audiences to patronize, but we need people to donate to the auction and that will take quite a bit of convincing as well. We need to emphasize our theme “Thunder Rolls” and make sure that it “Sticks”. Gladwell refers to this as “The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Content.” With this being the 11th annual auction; we must continue to brand it, so that people will remember it and always want to come back.
Looking forward, I am going to work on my connector skills. On
Twitter.com, I have some powerful friends. CEOs of companies, recruiters and Bears Oh My! Twitter has tipped in social media, but not for me personally. I haven’t used it to my advantage, I currently have friends, but I don’t talk to most of them. So I guess my personal Twitter account will tip when I begin to get replies from the people that I don’t already know. I wil make that my small attempt towards becoming a better connector.
