Preparing for the breakthrough/calamity

Seth Godin says to stop Preparing for the breakthrough/calamity which never occurs, only that:

Products and services succeed one person at a time, as the word slowly spreads. Customers defect one person at a time, as hearts are broken and people are disappointed. Doors open, sure, but not all at once. One at a time.

Leon Trotsky writes, in his History of the Russian Revolution, that, during the build-up to the October Revolution:

At the same time, in the most faraway garrisons and the most remote parts of the front, the soldiers were speaking more and more boldly in the language of Bolshevikism, often enough never guessing it. The Bolsheviks in the regiments were only single individuals, but the Bolshevik slogans were penetrating deeper and deeper. They seemed to be coming up spontaneously in all parts of the country. (p.307)

Emphasis Mine