I Want To Be A Maven

So my cousin loaned me the book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m not done reading it, but it’s definitely some interesting reading so far. Basically, he talks about what triggers an epidemic, be it a virus (like syphilis in Baltimore), a restaurant making it big, a sudden decrease in crime in a particular neighborhood, or even the popularity of Hush Puppies. What makes certain trends take off and others not?

Well, as I said, I haven’t finished reading it, but one of the chapters discusses three types of people: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.

Connectors are those people who know everyone (Alok), who manage to remember everyone’s birthdays (and send email reminders – Alok), and manage to stay in touch with everyone. These are the people you would turn to if, say, you were heading to a strange city and needed a contact there. Connectors know people everywhere, and know the people to know. Paul Revere was a connector. When he rode from town to town, he knew whose door to knock in the middle of the night to get word out that the British were coming. The other guy who rode out in the opposite direction was not a connector, and thus nobody remembers his name.

Nobody, that is, except perhaps a maven. A maven is a person who knows things (Ketan). A lot of things. A lot of different things. He may subscribe to lots of different magazines, and he’s always sharing tidbits of information with you. He does this not to be annoying, or to be a know-it-all, but to be helpful. If you need to know where to go, say, to watch the shooting of Spiderman 3 in downtown Cleveland, a maven is who you would call. And if a maven tells you something, you believe him.

The final person, a salesman, is someone who can convince you of anything. A maven may have the information, but he won’t necessarily try to convince you to use the information if you don’t want to. A salesman can bring you to his side without even trying.

These three people – someone who knows lots of people, someone who knows lots of things, and someone who can convince people – are necessary elements in spreading an epidemic. And I, I have realized, am none of them. I know a lot of people, but I am not a connector. I am not very good at staying in touch. I am certainly not a salesman. This blog is not likely to change anyone’s behavior; how many of you even remember that August 19th is National Potato Day? And even if you remember, are you going to celebrate it? I think not.

That, incidentally, is discussed in the chapter I’m reading right now. The message has to be important; it has to have a certain “stickiness factor.” National Potato Day (sorry to all those potato farmers out there) – is not important. There will not be an epidemic of potato-eaters out there. Hot sandwiches are not likely to become the next trendy food. There will be no Chole Cookoff this summer or next. I know this, and I accept this. I mean heck, if I can’t even convince myself to implement a Chole Cookoff, what kind of salesman am I?

But maybe, just maybe, I had dreams of changing the world one blog entry at a time, but I know better now. I am not a person likely to start an epidemic. But, suppose that I came up with that great idea. I do know people. Maybe if I happen to pass on the word to the right people, I actually can start the epidemic. Word-of-mouth epidemics are, after all, the most powerful.

So evidently, I don’t want to be a maven. I just want to be a mastermind. Cue evil laugh… BWA HA HA HA! Okay, not quite a mastermind (though that would be cool too), but even just a mild trendsetter. Well, I guess I don’t have that coolness factor to set the trends, so I have to be more inconspicuous in suggesting the trends to those people who “have it.” In tenth grade, my spiked hair and Coca-Cola tie-wearing trend didn’t catch on. And even though Close Up toothpaste did turn out to be an excellent hair styling product (after countless experiments with other products), it’s just not done.

Think about it: it’s good for your hair (at least, I don’t think it’s particularly bad for your hair); it’s relatively cheap; you carry around a small travel-size tube in your purse (or man-purse, I suppose – or kept one in your locker or desk drawer), and you can have fresh breath all day; and if after half a day the hold lets up a little, you just reinforce it by adding a little bit of water (moisten hands then style – don’t add so much that it foams). Unlike other toothpastes, it won’t flake off and make you look like you have dandruff. I’m telling you, it’s the styling product to use. I mean, you gotta buy toothpaste anyhow, but you don’t need to drop $15 to $20 at a salon for styling products, except that the cheaper stuff doesn’t work as well. But now, here I am, telling you that cheaper stuff does work, but you’re looking in the wrong place.

Try it. Trust me. Go out there, buy a travel size tube of Close Up, and use it for one day. If it doesn’t work, stick the toothpaste in your travel case or in the guest bathroom. No harm, no foul. It’s not like you’re going to have to put it with all those other half-used bottles of gel and mousse or other products that take up half the available shelf space in your house because you’re too stubborn to admit you were wrong to even buy the cheap products, yet you’re too cheap to simply throw them away, thinking maybe, just maybe, you’ll get around to trying it again and it’ll work for you because your hair will somehow be “different” or, you’ll need to give your hair a break from the usual products.

C’mon, isn’t there a maven out there who could back me up on this?