The Tipping Point and Success

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I'm a person who through my short life transits from reading voraciously to only reading what I'm browsing online. During last summer, I read a host of business-related books (many of which came from the 100 Best Business Books list); most dealt with strategy, leadership, and management -- directed toward upper management, executives, and entrepreneurs. I did, however, read a book suggested from a book of mine entitled, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The thesis of the book is that small changed can facilitate great changed; such as the "broken glass paradigm" that if one fixes broken glass and graffiti the inner-cities, violent crime rates can tremendously drop because of the illustration that there is an authority figure there, that the neighborhoods are forgotten because of the destruction.

In any event, I took from that book that a critical mass can be reached. I believe the question is when one is willing to work toward it. Business is littered with people too stubborn to give up and eventually start succeeding. And they hit it hard. Really hard. And become more successful than they can ever believe.


I'm a person who's become extremely intrigued by entrepreneurship. I'm an engineer at heart, and that's exactly what I believe entrepreneurship is: business engineering.



Have I made it in internet marketing? No, but I'm a stubborn person and I'll stay at it until I make it somehow. And if I don't, I'll find a different route toward entrepreneurship. I have a liberal arts BA, but I don't know what else I'd do with myself. I can't imagine myself working for the man for my life, or working a 9-5 job as I'd get bored doing that for decades. I need something unusual and expansive and I'll toward it until I hit my tipping point.
#mind warriors #point #success #tipping
  • Hi Christian, I think you have a lot of potential to become one of the greats someday... On your way to success you will meet many failures (learning opportunities), but the secret is to keep moving... As Les Brown said it --"That which cannot kill you, will make you strong..."
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    • Christian mate, totally agree with you.

      Adding to that soup broth you already got cooking is the ingredient of change, tweaking and testing. You can be one stubborn, persistent mo-fo but if you keep failing you need to change your approach.

      Like Einstein said "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
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    • Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words.
      LOL. I graduated with a BA in political science and history, but started my college career as an aeronautical and astronautical (aerospace) for seven weeks before I decided I didn't want to be an aerospace lab rat. Or as I refer to it, I used to be a rocket scientist.

      I also built a photo website for myself (no, not with Wordpress, actually built the darn thing with HTML and CSS, Dreamweaver and Lightroom assisted).
      Yeah. Or in The Lost World, John Hammond mentioned he's not making the "same old mistakes"; to which Ian Malcolm retorted, "no ... no, you're making all new ones." Well, I suppose no mistakes are better than any mistakes, but at least least from them.
      That may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.
  • I support you Christian

    And you know what, as far as my observation goes. People who have degrees from economic universities won't go the path of entrepreneurs (only a small number), they choose to become a self-employed workers instead.

    On the other hand, students graduated from technical universities tend to embrace the business and entrepreneur route more lol!
  • Yeah, not a whole lot of liberal arts graduates actually have careers in their respective fields (seriously, do you know what the market is like for history-related careers? Not good). I've heard, actually, that employed, in theory, like LA grads because of their attributes. Now, because of this economy employers shy away from that, but LA grads are definitely malleable in many arenas.
  • I read Seth Godin's "The Dip" and it was helpful at showing how most people quit RIGHT BEFORE the tipping point or upswing, so you've got to hit it hard until and beyond that point. The other thing he said was learn WHEN to quit and not keep doing strategies that need changing.

    I'm a communication major and the job market is pathetic even for someone who could add value to almost any business. However, I have found an anthropology major to do most of my research and editing of ebooks and she says there are TONS of other students who would do great work helping me produce content for $10/hour.

    Now I feel like setting up a team of academic ninjas who want some part-time cashola
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    • Yeah, I've heard before about quitting just before making. I'd rather try and fail over and over, then to completely give up and wonder "what if?". Kind of like apply to Harvard even if it's a long shot; at the end of the day it's a little money and time wasted to attend the most prestigious university in at least the US -- I'd apply if I was within its "acceptance range".
  • If you have not, consider reading Malcolm Gladwell's other great book the Outliers.


    And speaking of the tipping point, most people's careers/businesses are like the Chinese bamboo tree.
    It is planted and watered for four agonizing years. However, in the 5th year alone it grows 80 feet in just about 6 weeks.


    So become relentless. When you don't give up, there is only one thing that can happen and that is success.
  • Great thoughts. The tipping point really is right there. You can't know how close you are until you actually reach it.
  • Great quote there, and though I'm no engineer, I agree. It's all about identifying opportunities and then building the bridges to them.
  • I agree. You just have to keep working hard and good things will come.
  • Well, being into teaming and partnering, it is all good and well to be go at it and be stubborn, but my suggestion is that you hook up with a good partner. Think about it. Microsoft, Apple, Google, and even Facebook were all partnering deals. That is not random.

    JimMN
    ----------

    Ask me about Power Partnering
  • Mmm.

    I started my company 9 months ago. Got funded, didn't hit my milestones, business model we were following was failing - FAIL

    4 months later, change plan, started doing SEO as the number 1 tactic. Decided to target some high competition short tail keywords. Got to 5th for a 1m broad match, which was good, but 30 hits a day - FAIL again.

    ran out of funds - FAIL

    2 weeks ago, traffic increase 1,000 visitors a day, mostly from a madlib page generator we created that targeted various long tail related to our niche - WIN, not epic win, but i'll see how I go.

    Keep at it mate.
  • great share
  • Me too. I love the idea of a 'tipping point', most never persist until that point arrives which is sad, I'm determined to however. I noticed a logo on my music mixer the other day that represents the tipping point & 80/20 principle perfectly and have been thinking about getting a small tattoo of it somewhere to keep a constant reminder of what's to come if I 'keep going'...
  • i think i should read that book, sound really inspiring
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    The Tipping Point and Success

    I'm a person who through my short life transits from reading voraciously to only reading what I'm browsing online. During last summer, I read a host of business-related books (many of which came from the 100 Best Business Books list); most dealt with strategy, leadership, and management -- directed toward upper management, executives, and entrepreneurs. I did, however, read a book suggested from a book of mine entitled, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The thesis of the book is that small changed can facilitate great changed; such as the "broken glass paradigm" that if one fixes broken glass and graffiti the inner-cities, violent crime rates can tremendously drop because of the illustration that there is an authority figure there, that the neighborhoods are forgotten because of the destruction. In any event, I took from that book that a critical mass can be reached. I believe the question is when one is willing to work toward it. Business is littered with people too stubborn to give up and eventually start succeeding. And they hit it hard. Really hard. And become more successful than they can ever believe.