Malcolm Gladwell has a long history as a news reporter, but in his book, “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” Gladwell helps readers understand something most of us have only felt was true – life has a tipping point. In virtually every aspect of our lives there is a point when something either very good or very bad happens. The choices we make will ultimately lead us to that tipping point. A long series of bad choices will lead to a tipping point that can cause long-term problems for us and, potentially, for others. On the other hand good choices or even a series of positive, yet unexplained events can be a tipping point that will lead us to a point of one or more successes. There’s a lot to be said for active marketing, but sometimes we must anticipate and identify a tipping point to help us determine if we will actually make it in our business pursuits. Marketing can certainly help move your business to a tipping point, but the truth is many people with really good ideas don’t recognize them as such until they pass beyond an invisible, yet highly identifiable (in retrospect) tipping point. This whole notion that there is an almost imperceptible movement that results in the tipping of the scales is reason enough to believe in the financial success of your online company. You need to conduct research and set aside funds to give you a positive start. Consistently market your idea and watch for indicators of a tipping point. It will happen and you will need to recognize when to stop moving forward and when your business is moving beyond the startup phase to something more established – or even trendy. The truth is a positive tipping point can be made possible be a relatively small number of people. A small, but motivated contingent of satisfied customers can do much more for your proverbial tipping point that a larger number of passive consumers. Passion isn’t just something that is an asset in business; it is also an asset in satisfied customers. There are many online businesses that simply exist on the hope that something good might happen today, but the owners often are afraid to admit they don’t actually believe the hope they cling to. The ones who understand the idea of the tipping point also understand that they need to consistently look for opportunities to direct people to their product. These individuals further recognize there are very few insignificant opportunities. The very thing that may seem insignificant to you at this moment may well be the very thing that provides a significant boost to your business. Be careful when turning down opportunities. It can be hard when you are busy doing the business of business to recognize opportunity (it’s often disguised as something else). While this is true it may also be incredibly difficult to recognize negative tipping points. In the end you may not be able to determine how it happened, but in virtually every aspect of life you will ultimately discover a tipping point.