A Special Group of People With Powerful Social Networks Embody Your Best Ideas Forward
The most obvious — Connectors — are those who know a lot of people.
In a recent article, Michael Thompson shared with us his way of picking ideas outside his brain by suggesting 5 Phone Calls You Should Make Every Week to Get Ahead in Your Career.
I reserve at least an hour a day to take calls while going for a walk — it’s my all-in-one networking, ideation, and Vitamin D solution. I like to choose a mix of people to call every week: folks who challenge me, see things differently than me, and can fill in the blind spots in my career.- Michael Thompson
It reminded me of one of the most exciting stories Malcolm Gladwell shares in his book “The Tipping point.” In his unique way of looking at the world, Gladwell describes familiar occurrences in the everyday world, where social dynamics take place, causing quick changes.
The Tipping Point concept is a magic moment when ideas and social behavior cross a threshold, tip, and roll out like wildfire. Basically, it praises the idea that individuals play a full role in spreading ideas, information, and trends.
At some point, Gladwell starts to talk about that particular group of people that most of us, writers, had identified as people that can offer us new windows to new worlds of ideas. Those “characters” have specific characteristics, distinctive attributes that make them unique and somehow almost magical in the world of creativity.
Connectors are essential for more than simply the number of people they know.
In our endless world of ideas, we writers sometimes get lost in the immensity of the universe.
I don’t believe a writer can survive too much time without having external help. Even Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the most tempestuous Thomas Wolfe had the enormous support of Max Perkins, often referred to as the most famous literary editor of all time.
We all, writers, need outside support to empower the architecture necessary to build our writing process, which is always complex, dense, and often deviant.
Connectors are not just people who met many people. Their value is also a consequence of the kinds of people they know.
Gladwell shared an interesting study from a computer scientist at the University of Virginia by Brett Tjaden, who sat down and figured out anyone who has ever acted with Kevin Bacon that could be linked in an average of three steps. He also extended his study, performing an impressive calculation, figuring out the average degree of connectedness for everyone who had ever acted in Hollywood.
For example, how many steps on average does it takes to link everyone in Hollywood to Robert DeNiro or Shirley Temple, or Adam Sandler? Tjaden found that when he listed all Hollywood actors to their “connectedness,” Bacon ranked only 669th. (…) Among the top fifteen are people like Robert Mitchum and Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland and Shelly Winters, and Burgess Meredith. The best-connected actor of all time? Rob Steiger. (…) Rob Steiger is the best-connected actor in history because he has managed to move up and down and back and forth among all the different worlds and subcultures and niches and levels that the acting profession offers.- Malcolm Gradwell in The Tipping Point
Somehow, we writers are all connectors but with an inferior average. We lay down at our desk, away from all civilization, living inside our gigantic brains, struggling for words to come out, vomiting ideas at the speed of light, like squeezing the dishwashing mop after washing all the dishes in the sink.
Yet, Michael Thompson had a great idea. And also, Gladwell knows the fundamental importance of connectors. In this complex world of information, they can open endless windows to those who desperately need new places to discover.
Robust connectors have another essential tool that we, weak connectors, don’t have. They know where the value is. They see the weight of each of the people with whom they communicate. They know perfectly well the degree of influence that the established contacts have, their weight, their degree of flexibility, and the usefulness they can have.
Connectors are accidental opportunists who, due to their degree of knowledge, often created by the power of communication and the lack of shame, turn them into crucial pieces to develop trends, influences, and even myths.
And we, creator of some sort, need them like bread for the mouth.
I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.
If you ever worked in sales, you know what’s a hotlist. This list is a list of popular, fashionable, or influential people or things.
We all can look at our phone list and select those we think may be strong connectors.
I will tell you a secret. After reading Michael Thompson’s article, I started to test this theory. So, I picked up the phone and called some of my hotlist contacts, and something unique happened.
Most of them were very curious about my full-time writing journey, and we managed to drink a coffee and have a conversation. These people have thousands of contacts, live very intense lives, and work in artistic industries.
My first two encounters gave me ideas to write 10 books and start 100 new articles. I was astonished by the power of strong connectors. I can’t abuse them now because they gave me more ideas than the time I have to write about them.
You don’t have to have many connectors- that was my conclusion- you may only take one. This kind of person has nitroglycerin in their brains. Their thoughts fly at the speed of light. Sometimes you have to slow down your mental pace to stop the tsunami of new ideas they provide you, because a priori, you are also creative.
Selecting the perfect number of strong connectors seems to be the best strategy for you, as a writer or creator, to build the ideal architectural environment around your creative framework.
Final Thoughts
Nobody can thrive on their own, without linking to the outside world. We all need a good conversation because we humans are social beasts.
Yet, strong connectors are rare species. They have unique human attributes that put them at the superhero level in matters of social connectivity.
Connectors are the globetrotters of our social network because they have the power to influence people. Most of them are right behind famous actors, popular artists, and even powerful politicians.
Trying to find in our hotlist one or two strong connectors is like open up a gigantic door to the underground. It’s like entering an entirely new space, where these people see and talk in a completely different frame.
For us, writers, strong connectors are gold.
Those who live in the world of creation urge for new perspectives, different angles, radical truths, so we can innovate over the status quo. We creators are also innovators. Like the connectors, creators also promote new trends, new ideas, new perspectives.
Joining connectors with creators makes the impossible possible.
This innovative idea about connectors is one way creators have to push themselves to another level.
Have you picked up your phone to find connectors on your hotlist yet?
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