Entrepreneur and the art of identifying "Tipping Point'

Last week, I chanced upon Graham's essay on "what start-ups are really like". A lot of it holds true even in early growth companies (including investors are clueless !). The one thing that stuck me is every single business I have seen seems to go through that one single "Tipping point' or 'Inflexion Point' from which it emerges much stronger or much weaker (hence, takes on a different trajectory post that).


I am not necessarily talking about topline or bottomline (often they could be misnomers for the amount of confidence and dynamism you see in the Management team). It is just that one single event/incident/spark that changes the entrepreneur's outlook towards the meaning of his business and life. It ironically always comes from outside and from the most unexpected quarters - like a peer outside telling you what a great business this is or one of your suppliers telling you that you are his "fastest growing customer". Case in point being A.R. Rahman's music - if the Slumdog Millionaire recognition had not happened, he probably would have coasted along as yet another great Indian music director, only to be relegated to oblivion by the succeeding generation.


It seems it is one such small spark that turbocharges the small motor that is the human mind and makes it spin faster, harder and bigger. To quote from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, it seems like one needs a connector (who are social trend setters) to make one realize his own potential (Johari Window, anyone ?).

As for my tipping point, I do not think I am there as yet...!


~Varadha (varadha.r1@gmail.com)