Times are a changin’ – In Search of Moments of Change

A convert of the “tipping point” concept, I am most interested in the exact elements that bring about change in a person’s personality or career. In particular, I think of how certain people in my circle have gone from “super popular” to super drop-out, or from super nerd to super successful, etc. But, there are less obvious evolutions in which the paradigm shift is more in the nuance and, yet, just as powerful. In one case that I don’t want to mention explicitly, I found an entrepreneur who, one day, decided to go from a small time operator to an industry leading, national icon. The character traits seemed to involve discipline, vision (clear objectives) and a winning concept (client-centric…really). So how does one literally and explicitly seek out these moments of change? In a world when there are so many who want to succeed–it would seem only natural to pursue these moments of change (reference to Carlzon’s book, Moments of Truth). Anyone have any insights or other interesting examples?