I was going to be a corporate lawyer.

Honestly. I had taken the LSATs, was all set for law school and was about to get my business degree. It was go time. But then I bought a book.

Specifically, I bought Small is the New Big, by Seth Godin. If you haven’t read it (you really should), SITNB is basically collected posts from Seth’s blog, but printed and bound. For me though, it was the entryway into the world of blogging, social media, and everything digital.

Once I realized that you could get the same kind of stuff out of Seth for free on his blog, I was hooked. I started to realize the business possibilities of social media (this was almost 4 years ago) so I started my own blog and started reading others with that level of excitement that’s always present when you find something you truly are into.

Over the years, my interest in purely talking about social media has waned. However, this hasn’t diminished my interest in digital, just shifted it’s focus. I began to realize that solely focusing on “social media” as a thing existing distinct and separate in behaviors and interactions, both on and offline, was myopic. Just as I was going through this shift in thinking, I somehow stumbled upon the blog of (brilliant and super nice, as well) Faris Yakob. Over the course of a few days I must have read more than half of his entire catalog of posts. I began to realize that strategy/planning was where more of my interests lied now. I found more blogs from strategists and have been voraciously consuming that type of content for months now.

These two events, purchasing Small Is The New Big by Seth Godin, and chancing upon Faris’ blog were my pivot points. They essentially changed my life by opening up entire areas of interest to me. In my instance, this happened to be via a few smart people, but I realized that brands and events can have the same effect.

Brands like Harley-Davidson, Apple, Fender, and Ford do this to people. Things like Halo, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and LOST do it too. So does getting a set of chef’s knives, your first lacrosse stick, or a book on how to code HTML.

Pivot points change us, move us in a new direction. It doesn’t matter if it’s a book, brand, or friend, we need to realize that simple things can have profound effects on our lives.