"The Accidental Guru" by Danielle Sacks

If you look up the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction in paperback, you'll discover, if you look at all 35 books on the list, that all of Malcolm Gladwell's books are on the list.

Outliers is number 3 on the list; The Tipping Point is number 9 on the list; Blink, which I thought was a delightful book, was number 16; What the Dog Saw is number 34 (I find that especially amazing; it's a collection of articles and I think that might be less accessible to many people than a "book length" idea although I like short stories and articles, too).

I found a book at the library called Fast Company's Greatest Hits: Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business because it had an profile of Malcolm Gladwell, by Danielle Sacks, called The Accidental Guru.

Sacks reports that since The Tipping Point made the bestseller lists in 2000, Malcolm Gladwell "has made the leap to marketing god." I find that remarkable because, after all, Gladwell is not trained in business, is not a marketer or a businessman. Yet, I think it must be true and that that's why his books continue to sit on the bestseller list.

The reason for it must be his skill as a writer. He says in this article that he strives to find phrases that are memorable and will give his readers a handle on a concept -- help them to understand and to remember it. One example is the phrase, "momentary autism" (from Blink), which he coined to express the failure of the cops in the Amadou Diallou case to read his facial expressions and body language correctly -- something that we do do most, but not all, of the time -- and led to a tragically unnecessary shooting.

Today's marketers face challenges their predecessors did not. It's simply not possible to advertise the heck out of something and by doing so, successfully create brand awareness and loyalty. It seems natural to me, therefore, that marketers and salespeople are interested in learning about the "mavens" and "connectors" that can launch a new product or service. Gladwell's discussions of these concepts from The Tipping Point and the impact of first impressions and "thin-slicing" would be of great interest to businesspeople.

Gladwell has been criticized by some for failing to communicate some of the aspects of the research findings he presents, and even his Wikipedia entry contains the criticism that his desire to show that those who are successful benefit from a great deal of luck of various kinds was motivated by guilt he feels about his own success.

To me, the lesson of this story is that Gladwell sells his ideas with his skill as a storyteller and that the persuasion of the well-told story is more important than any credential.