“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.”

Malcolm Gladwell

Chapter Two in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, “The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen” describes the types of people necessary for what Gladwell calls, “social epidemics.” Gladwell’s “Law of the Few” asserts that social epidemics start not because of large numbers of people, but because of the actions of a few specific types of people – Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors, as Gladwell describes, are people who connect people with one another. Mavens are “information brokers” who are skilled at information gathering and sharing. Salesman are expert communicators and persuaders.

The Law of the Few relates to wide-awakeness in several key ways. In terms of sparking social-epidemics, it can be argued that Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman are, almost by definition, wide-awake people. Wide-awakeness, for them, manifests in a palpable desire and extraordinary capacity to connect, share, and/or communicate. Also, wide-awakeness is a practice – a habitual or customary or way of doing something – much like connection, information sharing, and persuasion. Finally, the Law of Few speaks to what I know for sure about wide-awakeness as fire. Our fires start, and the fires we can start in others, when we live from an authentic, true, and wide-awake place.