Can Your Business Be A Trilogy?

trilogy

Can Your Business Be A Trilogy?

trilogyI remember how surprised I was when I heard that young people were gobbling up a new book about wizards.

It wasn’t the wizard part that surprised me, it was that kids were apparently reading! Wizards are great. I adored The Sword and the Stone. So although I was surprised kids were reading, I presumed it was just an oddity that finally someone had written something really compelling.

But not too, too long after Harry made magic with kids, the teenage girls started reading a trilogy about vampires, along with their college and 20-something sisters.

And then everyone read about Lisbeth in her tattooed trilogies. And the warrior in the Hunger Games.

And sure they made movies about these, but it was the books, the books, the books.

And then the naughty ones were reading three gray books in the shade.

What is it about trilogies? And why in the world is everyone suddenly reading trilogies?

Well, for one thing, more people are reading. A great blog about this notes that first off, people are statistically reading more than they have lately. As the blog notes, it isn’t necessarily that it’s all high-brow stuff, but it’s not necessarily not high-brow.

People are just reading more – both paper and virtual.

But why read series or trilogies?

I’d like to hazard a theory that may just spark a freshly minted business idea for you:

Perhaps people are enjoying reading more, and reading trilogies, because it does take time. Maybe in today’s hysteria to absorb and move, absorb and move, it’s completely refreshing to linger over a longer book, or several books.

Perhaps lingering over words and the stories those words tell has become a true relief from the rest of the pace of our lives.

Think about it. On television, part of the normal habit is to flip between at least two shows at once when it’s live, or be on the button the second a commercial hits so you can speed through them and rush through an hour show in under 45 minutes.

During concerts, it’s not enough to just enjoy the music. You need to be tweeting and Instagramming the whole show. You have to rush to get the right angle for your phone video. And lord help you if you don’t have your phone pointed at the stage when the band looks out into the crowd for approval. With your flashlight app shining at them.

I haven’t been to Disneyland recently enough, but isn’t the idea still to see how fast you can run between lines and how many rides you can jam into each hour?

Working out as a recreation is always at a hurried pace, whether it’s a marathon, a spin class, or even trying to get your hair dried afterward to be at your first meeting on time.

And then there’s reading a trilogy. Not only is it okay to linger, you roll those last few pages around slowly in your mouth, trying to savor each word, not wanting it to end. And with a trilogy, it doesn’t have to end, or at least not as soon. You can console yourself knowing that in a while, you can enjoy another one that allows you back into that world and that story.

How can this spark a Freshly Minted Business idea?

Well, what is it you can offer with your product or service that’s so incredibly good that your customers will want to linger over it, keep some for later, know they can come back. And what will make them stand in line the night before just to get the next one?

I’d like to tell you this is just part one of a three-blog trilogy, but I need to think about this for a bit before we solve this thriller for ourselves.

— Judith Brower Fancher