The Small Differences Between Top Producers And Everyone Else Part 3

October 26, 2009

In this article I’ll illustrate how someone who was a connector and a salesperson was instrumental in causing a global epidemic.

The HIV virus has been known to have been present in the US since 1959.  The first confirmed death from AIDS in the US occurred in May 1969.  For many years HIV remained an unusual disease in North America, affecting few.  Not many had even heard of it.

All of that changed dramatically in the early 1980’s.  Many of us well remember the fear that gripped the world in the 1980’s and early 1990’s with the rapid spread of the HIV virus in the gay community and eventual widespread infection amongst heterosexual people.

Strong evidence soon arose on the tipping point for HIV: what caused it to go from being a small phenomenon with few cases in past decades to break out on a massive scale internationally within just a few years.  A gay man named Gaëtan Dugas was identified as the “Patient Zero” of AIDS.  He was linked directly or indirectly with 40 of the first 248 reported cases of AIDS in the U.S.  Even after Dugas was told he was infecting others, he continued to have lots of unprotected sex with many partners.

Dugas’ bio reveals he was very much a connector and a salesperson.  He was known as a charming, handsome sexual athlete (salesperson) who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners a year (connector). He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America (weak tie relationships) since becoming sexually active in 1972. As a flight attendant, Dugas was able to travel the globe, at little cost, to such early HIV epicenters as Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, and San Francisco (connector). Being diagnosed with Kaposi’s Sarcoma in June 1980 (an AIDS symptom), and after being warned that this could be caused and spread by a sexually transmitted virus, Dugas refused to stop having unprotected sex. He was also a bit of a maven since he allegedly informed some of his sex partners that he had the “gay cancer” and perhaps they would get it too.  Dugas died in 1984.

Let’s boil down these three aspects of the law of the few:

Connector
-    bring people and things together – they connect disparate things
-    great ability for making friends and acquaintances – highly social

Maven
-    love teaching and helping others with their extensive knowledge in specific areas

Salesperson
-    Charismatic persuaders
-    Great negotiators

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Tags: Agent Office, branding, contact management, follow up, following up, hundred monkey theory, Malcolm Gladwell, marketing, networking, prospect, prospecting, real estate course, real estate education, real estate educators, realtor education, systems, Tipping Point, Top Producer, what the bleep do we know?