People

There are three kind of people all around us. We often fail to give proper credit to the role they play in our lives.I call them Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.

Most of us dont have particularly broad and diverse groups of friends.Everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps.It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, andthe rest of us are liked to the world through those special few. People we rely on more heavily than we realize are Connectors, people with special gift of bringing the world together.These are people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintaces.

The word Maven comes from the Yiddish, and it means the one who accumulates knowledge.A Maven is a person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places.This is the person who connect people to the market place and inside scoop on the marketplace. They know where the bathroom is in retail stores. That's the kind of information they have. They are more than experts.A maven is more socially motivated.Mavens want to help for no other reason that they like to help, turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting someones attention.The one thing a Maven is not is a persuader.

There is also a select group of people Salesmen with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.

Excerpts from The Tipping Point by Macolm Gladwell