On July 13, 1977, New York City sat in the middle of an abnormal heat wave.

Millions of air conditioners were cranked to the max, causing the already shaky electric grid to strain like the legs of a folding chair holding up a 300-pound man.

The New York City power grid in the 70s famously held on for life just to keep the lights on...

...But the load of millions of air conditioners left the people of the city in for a rude awakening. Because at 8:34pm a lightning bolt struck the Buchanan South substation on the Hudson River.

Tripping 2 circuit breakers.

Usually, this wouldn't be a big deal.

But on this fateful July night, it was a death sentence for the power grid that millions relied on. One loose locking nut prevented the main breaker from resetting...

One tiny locking nut the size of your pinky nail stopped an entire city from power restoration.

Con Edison, the utility company, tried to remote start backup generators, only to fail. And because of lack of manpower, there was no one at the station to physically fire up the generators.

This caused a massive surge of electricity with nowhere to go...

...Slamming a surge of high voltage into the next substation. The breakers inside this substation couldn't handle the immense load of electricity, tripping the breakers, and causing more power outages.

But the situation only got worse...

The chain reaction started slamming into substations across New York, wreaking havoc like a computer virus attacking a network.

At 9:28 PM, Big Allis...

...The massive 990-megawatt generator in Queens, and the single biggest power source in the entire city, was the last line of defense. But when Con Ed started cutting power to entire neighborhoods, the buried cables under the city kicked stored energy back into the generators.

Big Allis read that kickback as a dead short and its protective relays pulled the plug.

In English?

The biggest freaking generator in New York decided to take a catnap, by trying to protect itself from a problem that didn't exist

By 9:37 PM, the greatest city in the world was completely dark.

Chaos reared its ugly head.

On Broadway in Brooklyn, two entire blocks caught on fire at the same time. Kids were backing cars up to storefronts, tying ropes to the security grates, and ripping them off the brick.

Thieves stole 50 brand new Pontiacs right off a dealership lot in the Bronx.

• 25 hours to get the power restored
• $300 million in damages (which would equate to billions in today's costs)
• All because the grid couldn't handle this surge of energy.

But if you think this story is about electricity, then you're wrong.

Because the same chain reaction that destroyed New York's grid in 1977 is the same force that can build your entire business.

Now before you call me crazy, let me explain...

Your business is a power grid that's all linked by infrastructure. Your website, your emails, your social media, ads cannot be treated like separate entities. When energy (traffic) hits your funnel, it needs to flow into sales.

This concept sounds simple.

But then again maybe it's not.

Because thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people, buy cold traffic from ads, only to see their grid go up in flames. The same goes for organic content as well. Millions chase virality on social media, only to have nowhere to channel the surge of attention and traffic.

Here's my point:

The famous 1977 blackout happened because the grid was too weak.

Every dollar you spend on ads, every piece of content that goes viral, every ounce of attention you earn is lightning. The only question is whether you've built a grid that turns that strike into a city full of lights... or a city full of fires.

The best place build your marketing infrastructure in 48-72 hours that can turn traffic surges into sales?

​Here​

Catch ya soon,

-Parker
​