“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.” 
― Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference  

Tipping point is such a fun concept, the thing, event or circumstance that causes a product, business or pandemic to scale. I’m a big fan of pretty much all of Gladwell’s books. He gets beat up by lots of folks for having much less than empirical evidence, but I think the dismissal is cloaked envy of his success. His anecdotal style is compelling, and hey, I’m fine wearing a simpleton t-shirt. Plus, even the best empirical evidence is doused with some pixie dust. In other words, no one can nail down the exact formula of what makes something go bananas in sales. Check out Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational as a good read on how kooky we are.

My question: who’s ultimately responsible for the tipping?

In Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale, he interviews Tory Burch, and they discuss several things including company culture, and when to scale fast, and when to be patient. In all his interviews, there’s an inherent seeking of the special sauce that guarantees magic. Masters of Scale is always compelling, produced at a high level, and Hoffman has a fantastic voice, capturing hunger and passion. Plus, as a gazillionaire (co-founder of LinkedIn and venture capital firm Greylock Partners), he understands the entrepreneurial personality and still speaks “startup.” In the podcast, Burch mentions her tipping point of success: what’s known as the Oprah moment.Oprah’s producers invited her on the show after a PR friend of Burch’s sent Oprah some of her clothing line for Christmas, unplanned by Burch. While this was a strategic move, trust me, Oprah probably had multiple warehouses of products from hopeful entrepreneurs wanting her audience surprised with coffee mugs that double as salt & pepper shakers.

On the other side of the pendulum swing is one of the highest selling devotionals of all time, Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest. I’ve mentioned it in the past, and it’s been one of my go-to devotionals for twenty years as a Christ follower. Why is he on the opposite swing of the pendulum? For several fascinating reasons that lead to my main point. Oswald died at 43 in 1917, well before we had coolio ad spends and viral marketing campaigns. In addition, he didn’t publish the devotional, his widow did after his death, cobbling together his notes and sermons. Estimates are sales of 13 million, and the paperback has never been out of print since she first self-published it in 1927.

One of my personal peccadilloes is when successful people paint a grandiose image of their workman tenacity and ability to see around corners as the variables that drove their meteoric accomplishment. Please hear me, yes-yes-yes, any triumph must have stains of blood and sweat, plus a gifted intellectual arsenal. However, there’s a Herculean amount of mystery to what catapults a TV show like Seinfeld, or four lads from Liverpool, or a social network like Facebook. Ever heard of Friendster, Ringo, Google’s Orkut, or Tribe?

One option for tipping is to assume sheer force of personality. But that falls flat with Oswald’s widow. I’ve found no account of her as a Molly Brown-esque hurricane. How in the hell could she orchestrate such scale over decades? Another choice for the mystery is an ambiguous “universe” dispersing planets, Martians and good luck charms. A third choice is to look to the Lord as the chessmaster of all things large and small. While that is my default position, I wrestle often with the idea that God is the construct of all the machinations. I also have to remember I am the ant in this equation, and look past my pride of perceived intellect.

The beauty of scripture is it speaks to His unfathomable expanse, and His intimate involvement in the details. Check out the verses below alluding to His enormity and finesse. Here’s what I love about the complexity of the Bible. Work, commerce and business are not excluded from the narrative. The Proverbs and Matthew verses below are directly applicable to the twists, setbacks and pivots of Tory Burch and Oswald Chambers. In other words, God does open the door to Oprah, or keep a book in publication for 90+ years, or 2,000 years.

1 Chronicles 29:11

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom,
O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 

Proverbs 16:9
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Matthew 10:29-30
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Cool, do we all join hands and close in prayer? On some days, yes, I can hold the tension with a monster dose of ambiguity glue. Other days, the mystery is overwhelming, particularly when disruptive tragedy strikes. I throw up my hands and think, “For f*&%’s sake, how do you expect me to trust there’s any level of clarity here? You allow genocide, yet also keep up with my shaved head?” I again have to lean into scripture and find verses like Romans 11:36 “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” I then have to meet other Christ followers here and around the world, all in agreement that within the mystery of tipping points and tragedy, we can find trust.

See ya next time. ML