January 28, 2010
Posted by Kelly Rusk
The Tipping Point Experiment
Cory Darby pinged me on Google Chat last week & told me about this little experiment based on Gladwell’s Tipping Point. A cute and interesting, not to mention inspiring, story I thought I just had to share…
In Cory’s words:
Recently while sitting in a local Tim Horton’s coffee shop, I started reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. The style of the book was very interesting, but as it was applying the principle of small things leading to epidemic changes, I was a little skeptical. Particularly with examples used–that were not focused on internet successes I could relate to, but more on real life examples of how STDs can spread, crime rates, etc.?
In other words, a more direct impression of what I thought of the book eight pages into it was, ‘This book is full of bullshit.’ I was determined and now I had a mission to prove this theory of small things can lead to an epidemic wrong. I decided to put the very foundation of what the book was backing to the test. I noticed the Haiti donation box at the store’s front where the cash register was, I had intended to donate to the cause but hadn’t done so yet…
I called over the store manager and asked if I could pre-pay the coffee for the next few customers. The manager was fine with the idea and I agreed to donate $110, or 82 medium coffees. My mindset was, ‘If the book is correct than my small good deeds to others should lead to a widespread of good deeds and specifically, I had figured the likely outcome is they’d donate to the box at the cash register.
I had predicted that a handful of people would donate when they found out their coffee was free, I mean, they had the money already in hand when and the box was directly in front of them…
What happened next was mind blowing and honestly, caught me entirely off-guard. The book’s principle of small things leading to epidemic change was proven because of the 82 people who got a free medium coffee 65 of them ended up donating.
I estimate it was roughly equal (if not greater than) myself directly donating the $110 to the box but the key thing is now 82 people have a story. The experiment allowed me to ‘double dip’ because I was able to donate indirectly exactly what I could have directly donated, provided 82 people with coffee, potentially changed 82 Canadian lives and gave those 82 people a story that I hope spreads the good will to others.
Special thanks to:
Bill Liao, for getting me into business and his life changing book ‘Stone Soup’.
Brett Wilson , for being such an amazing role model for me.
Malcom Gladwell, author of ‘The Tipping Point’, the book that changed my life in eight pages.”
