“Kitne aadmi the” is one of the most memorable lines of the Indian movie industry. Gabbar Singh, the evil villain from the classic movie Sholay, rolls it off his tongue when his 3 men return empty handed from a loot campaign.
Let’s take another one – Veni, Vidi, Vici or I came, I saw, I conquered. I am quite sure that you have come across this one too. This was Julius Caesar.
Do you see anything common in the two statements? I dropped a hint very early, if you noticed.
Well, both are ‘memorable‘ and both have ‘3 words‘. Isn’t that interesting?
Can you recall any other which has a structure of ‘three‘ – 3 words, 3 parts, 3 rules?
It’s not difficult. I would say, it’s as simple as ABC or 123.
You get the direction, right? See, if you can think of a couple of them.
What power does 3 have?
Somehow 3 is that magic number that our brain can focus attention on and absorb in. Not 2, not 4 but 3.
Come to think of it, it’s been there, forever. The most memorable and actionable ideas are no more than 3 words long. I would say 3 is the ultimate brain hack. And we will know why?
Our stories – cartoons, movies – have used the power of 3 to create super recall – many of them even have 3 characters.
It is important to note that all great stories have 3 important parts – setup, struggle and climax.
The 3 Musketeers – a political thriller written by Alexandre Dumas, also a movie;
Donald Duck’s 3 nephews – Louie, Huey, Dewey.
In movies – ‘3 Idiots’, ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’.
There are several others, I know, you will recall.
If you realise, some of the most powerful verbal messages come in packs of 3.
For instance, to ensure environment sustainability, as powerful and actionable message is – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Yet another one to the credit of Julius Caesar is, “Friends, Romans and Countrymen“.
In your startup’s next board meeting, try “My fellow Shareholders, Board Members, Friends“.
And one of our ex – Prime Minister’s famous 3 part lines – dekhte the, dekhte hai aur dekhte rahenge; karte the, karte hai aur karte rahenge. (See, I still recall them)
There are several other examples from diverse fields
Democracy
- Democracy is of the people, for the people and by the people
- The 3 pillars of democracy are Legislative (Parliament), Executive (Government) and Judiciary (Courts)
Religion
- Hindu Trinity of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver) and Mahesh (destroyer)
- Christian Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
Business
- The trinity is – Planning, Management and Control.
- Innovation leads to a result that is faster, better, cheaper. Startups, are you listening?
- There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
- In Accounting, there are 3 core and basic rules that drive all journal entries.
- Debit what comes in, credit what goes out.
- Debit the receiver, credit the giver.
- Debit all expenses and losses, credit all gains and income.
My Chartered Accountant friends would vouch for it. 🙂
- Ready, Fire, Aim
Look at most bylines that come with business names and use of 3 words is all too popular. Can you think of a few? “Just do it.”
Career and Learning
- The literate of the 21st century is the one who can Learn, Unlearn and Relearn
- When I seek feedback, I usually end up asking about the – Good, Bad and Ugly.
- Warren Buffett looks for 3 things when hiring people – Integrity, Intelligence and Energy.
- A famous email writing hack mentions 3 rules for them to be read: Write email, Delete most of it and Send.
- Daily productivity hack – Your ‘top 3 priorities‘ should get the most of your time. Do them first.
- Alternatively, the first 3 hours of your day should be spent on the most important thing.
- My personal career hack is – Challenge. Discover. Grow.
Investing and money
- The 3 key pillars of you should build your money management practices are Save, Spend, Invest.
- The 3 stages of financial planning to focus on are accumulation (build wealth), preservation (preserve wealth) and distribution (spend or transfer wealth).
- There are 3 bedrock principles of value investing.
- Mr. Market is your servant and not your master
- Keep a Margin of Safety to allow for your mistakes
- A stock is an ownership interest in an actual business
- Choose financial products for one of their 3 functions – Insurance, Investment and Annuity. Don’t mix them. (Source: Bose Committee Report on Incentive Structure, 2015)
So, why are we talking about the power of 3 here?
The truth is that to achieve anything in life – a great career, better health and financial freedom – you need to take action. Small and big steps that enable you to make progress towards your goal.
The constraint is that we have super busy lives. Nothing seems to stay on top of our minds for more than a few minutes. And if it is not ‘top of the mind‘, we are unlikely to act on it. Without action, there is no progress.
What I am saying is that you can use this simple but powerful idea of 3 to drive action and results.
As we have seen in several examples, the number 3 seems to stick to our minds. It has great recall and quite possibly, it can ease you into action too.
Let the power of 3 work for you, now
3 questions for you to think about – of course in the 3s format.
- What are your top 3 priorities in life?
- What are the 3 ways in which you will further your career?
- What are the 3 things you will do to ensure your financial freedom?
Make them interesting and recallable. I am sure action will follow sooner.
Get, Set, Go!
Between you and me: How will you apply the power of 3 to drive action and get more results? Can you think of more examples? Have you been using them personally? Do share your notes and feedback in the comments.