The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell

After reading The Tipping Point, I have learned many important “tips” in marketing. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, identifies three important concepts based on his deep studies throughout his life: “the Law of the Few”, “the Stickiness Factor”, and “the Power of Context”. These factors play essential roles in deciding if a particular trend will work in widespread popularity. He makes these concepts interesting and understandable.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it

As Gladwell conducts his argument, he writes with confidence and authority, which expresses his passion and knowledge about the subject. Gladwell’s poise throughout the essay, combined with his resume, establishes his credibility and constructs a rhetorically effective argument. Being a best-selling author as well as a professional

In this Chapter Gladwell highlights how the common picture of success is achieved is not the one which many individuals think of when they consider the cause of success and shows this with evidence from very successful people. Gladwell employs logos in order to create a logical as well as the factual base for the story. This use is extremely obvious as almost the entire chapter is made up of example that supports his theory on the 10'000 hour rule. In order to concrete his argument, he uses Ethos by constantly employing well-known names in order to build a sense of credibility and citing people who have authority on the scene. He does a good job of using this for its desired purpose. Gladwell redirects his argument with phrases like "Let's

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Gladwell uses 3 techniques given in Blink and he made use of some important strategies, the

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Gladwell wants to convince readers that different kinds of explanations of success don 't work, people rise from nothing. It really makes a difference where and when people grew up. He says, "it 's not enough to ask

In the book he tells readers the lives of other people and incidents in their lives. The first person we hear about is Bill Joy. Gladwell tells how Joy was a smart kid who ended up getting into a the University of Michigan in 1971, the same year the university opened its computer center. Joy became very interested in programming computers and got a job in the summer where he could program. Joy learned that you could enter t equals k and they wouldn’t charge you (46). By finding this Joy could program all day every day which allowed Joy to gain 10,000 hours of practice. Afterwards Joy was able to develop programs still used today. Gladwell uses this anecdote to back up the theory that 10,000 hours of practice leads to perfection which leads to success. The next person is Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist. He “headed the American effort to develop the nuclear bomb during World War II” (97). While Oppenheimer was in college he was depressed and had a tutor who made him attend the minutiae of experimental physics which he hated. He grew more and more unstable until he tried to poison his tutor. Oppenheimer met the general behind the Manhattan Project and was able to charm the general into letting him work on the project. Even though he had a history of being unstable and trying to poison his tutor Oppenheimer was charming and had social savvy which he used in order to get what he wants. He was from a middle class family where he was taught to speak up for himself and to take control of a conversation even if it is with an older person. His background as a child who grew up in middle class house helped him to work on the project. Gladwell provided many anecdotes in his book to help show that people could not control success. He shows that success can be gained by ethnic background, opportunities they are giving, and how much the worked. Many of the anecdotes show that people were giving good opportunities that were not

To begin this section of his explanation he often says things such as, “I hope by now that you are skeptical of this kind of story” (Gladwell 119). By speaking directly to readers he is able to make them rethink the story they just read and look for anomalies. During this second part of discussing a particular event or person Malcolm Gladwell begins to argue his point. These stories seem like a typical story of success or disaster on the surface, but he picks them apart and identifies how factors such as background, birthdate, culture, time period, and hard work influenced the outcome. For example, in his story about Jewish immigrant lawyers he begins to discuss the importance of a person’s background after telling Joe Flom’s success story. After drawing readers into the topic, he describes a second time the story and points where Joe Flom’s Jewish immigrant background impacts his success. He argues that the main reason Jewish lawyers were able to become successful was because the large law firms wouldn 't hire them and this caused them to create their own business where they would take on the cases that the larger law firms weren 't willing to deal with such as takeover disputes. When the times changes and these types of issues gained popularity, the Jewish law firms had a head start and this allowed them to become extremely successful. Jewish lawyers who lived in the perfect time period were given the opportunity to succeed because of their immigrant

Gladwell began the book by describing a “thin-slice”, and then refers to that definition after each example. For instance, when Gladwell describes the “Warren Harding error” -- or the phenomenon where people are selected for jobs simply because they look like they are qualified – he says,

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell uses the first and third point of view. The first person allows Gladwell to share his own personal stories, which contributes to his key points. Gladwell utilizes the third person in order to describe specific facts and events, which further influences the reader. Throughout the story, the point of view shifts from first person to third person when Gladwell talks about a new topic, and then he makes the shift when he shares an experience relating to the subject. The shift is important because it supplements the subject with a real-life application. If told from a different point of view other than first or third person, then Gladwell would lose the synergy between his first person key points and third person experiences.

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Malcolm Gladwell”s main purpose of this piece of writing is to list reasons to why some people are able to achieve success while others can not achieve it. The intended audience for Gladwell’s writing is mainly aimed to those who are looking for that pathway to success, whether it’s a teen or an adult. He mentions how success is worked for and not just given to you in your hand. He is able to talk briefly about KIPP, KIPP is a school that mainly focuses on motivating and keeping kids in school, teaching the kids how to be polite and not give up. KIPP wanted to strive to help these kids get out of poverty and reach that line of success that KIPP intended to reach with its kids. Kids are