Page 21 - The Power to Change Anything

10 INFLUENCER

turn planes faster at the gates. They treat customers better. And
they get a higher percentage of bags and passengers to arrive
at the same location. In other words, they’ve perfected an influ-
ence strategy that produces the behaviors that drive stellar
results across their entire company.
While this has been going on in the business world, an-
other influence genius in Dhaka, Bangladesh, helped over
4 million of the Developing World’s poor to emerge from
poverty.
Likewise, thousands of previously overweight Americans
declared victory in the battle of their bulges by developing
sustainable influence strategies over their own unhealthy
behaviors.
And finally, in Thailand alone, over 5 million people
avoided contracting HIV because of a remarkably effective
influence strategy developed by a quiet but enormously effec-
tive influence genius who has a lot to teach us all.
So there is hope. In a world filled with those content with
seeking serenity, there are people who know exactly what it
takes to exert influence over human behavior—and change the
world in a good way. We (the authors) know because we’ve
tracked them down. We’ve traveled to Addis Ababa, Mexico
City, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Boston, Burkina Faso, Denver,
Dhaka, and other rather exotic-sounding places, and we’ve
studied what they’ve done.
And what has this rather comprehensive search revealed?
Every time we interview these influencers, we’re both awed and
humbled. Carefully, systematically, and with no fanfare what-
soever, a small group of tenacious gurus has been able to
achieve everything from eradicating diseases to eliminating
gender discrimination to turning around companies. One of
the wizards we discovered influences hardened criminals and
drug addicts to eventually become productive citizens—every
single day.