Bacon!?

After typing yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but segue to today’s post.  The connection is definitive and it is bacon!  Huh, Bacon?  Yes, Kevin Bacon to be exact.  And what does Kevin Bacon have to do with any of this?  Specifically, the parlor game known as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

For those of you familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, he illustrates this concept in his chapter called The Law of the Few.  He believes that word of mouth epidemics are the product of connectors, mavens and salesmen.  I want to focus specifically on connectors.  Connectors represent the people you know in your life that seem to know everyone.  They have acquaintances that span socio-economic classes, professions, and age groups.  I consider my wife a connector.  It seems each time we go out to a dinner, or a picnic, or any other social event; she spends the majority of her time mingling. (Probably one of the reasons she is one of the top sales reps in the nation for her company) These are the people who get you into the black tie gala, the front row seats to the game, reservations at the hip new restaurant, or opening night tickets to the show.

According to Gladwell, an equally important function of connectors lies within the kinds of people they know.  We all can think of people in our daily lives that function as connectors.  But there are a rare few that seem to connect with endless numbers of groups.   They even connect the connectors. They are the people who make the leaps that allow the six degrees to work.

As I ponder how to make this idea a reality, I wonder who the connectors are in our life.  Who are the people who could make this a reality?  I actually have a few acquaintances who are multi-millionaires.  Not close friends, but friends of friends.  The question is, how to get them, or someone like them interested in this.  The answer is obvious…..connectors!

If this idea is to ever take flight via an individual donor, connectors will likely be the key.  Unlike corporate America, there is no ad campaign to bank on.  But it could be one heck of a story.  With me and you, we are only four steps away!