Darian Kovacs Interviews Malcom Gladwell on his Thinking Behind The Tipping Point

Darian Kovacs reminisces about his unexpected and intimate 1-on-1 interview session with Malcom Gladwell, the well-known Canadian author of The Tipping Point among other works, and shares with us the iPhone recordings of their chat from a few years back. Here are the fruits of his unprecedented interview:

Darian: How do you feel about others using your book, The Tipping Point, as a textbook of sorts for teaching marketing?

Malcolm: It makes me very happy. I had that thing in the book on John Westly, you know because I did think it was such a beautiful example of the same principles in operation and even going back to the bible the notion of a core of disciples around Jesus who then fan out around the world taking their expertise. That's what I'm talking about! That's what the book is, the same principle that people have credibility, knowledge, trust, and authority and then to have a disproportionate backing on the world when they go out and spread their message.

Darian: Do you think that people can take your book and kind of add to it in that way?

Malcolm: That's what I want them to do. I think of all books as being invitations for people to kind elaborate on, to kind of change them, combine them with your own thinking. I mean, a book is just a conversion starter.

Darian: Were the kingdom principles and the life of Jesus may be a part of your inspiration for the Tipping Point?

Malcolm: Well as someone who grew up in the church, so those ideas and principles of evangelism are part of the way you think about the world. And so, the Tipping Point is a kind of secular version of a lot of the evangelical ideas that are with me from as far as I can remember.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is the debut book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little, Brown in 2000. Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."

You can learn more about The Tipping Point here.

Written by Juliana Bermudez