You’re right to want the car
More specifically, you’re right to want the car, not a car. And why certain headlines never deliver.
“You don’t want a car. You want the car,” said an attempting-to-be-cool male voice on my TV.
“Actually, I don’t want any car, thanks,” I responded as I wiped down my kitchen counter.
He continued, talking about the vacation rather than a vacation (which I wasn’t interested in either). But his inflection caused me to stop wiping. Something clicked.
I’ve wanted to write about “One Thing” articles for a while. You’ve seen these gangrenous posts in your feed. They tempt you with headlines like, “The one thing you need to do to increase your social media followers.” Or worse, “The only thing you need to know about leading effective one-on-ones.”1
They shut down thinking. We slow our scroll. We click the article. We need to know what’s inside.
My lengthy Google search would lead one to believe we're tremendously lazy as a species. But I don’t think that’s the whole story. These headlines draw us in like flies to a warm light because we crave anything that will shelter us from the deluge of options that exist in our reality.
As a living organism, we’re wired to conserve our energy lest we spend precious resources unnecessarily. This wiring extends to the way our brains work. We don’t deal with information we don’t need at that moment. We rely on wisdom passed down over generations. We do many things out of habit, whether we’re doing so consciously or not.
It’s not surprising that a post serving up a singular solution on a silver platter appeals to our instincts; it’s called clickbait for a reason. Because we often seek simplistic solutions to complex problems, we know that adopting one solution as if it were a silver bullet typically has disappointing to disastrous consequences.
Businesses in the value economy can either wreak havoc by making their one thing a panacea or deliver a great deal of value by being specific. It all comes down to how you understand the word “the.”
When you say “the one thing,” you’re essentially writing a redundant statement. “The” means the noun that follows it is definite or not one among many.
Many businesses try to make whatever they sell the solution to all problems, like Gus from My Big Fat Greek Wedding peddling for Windex. Need to clean the window? Windex. Have a scrape? Windex. Got a zit? You guessed it: “Put some Windex on it.”
Windex as The One Solution is easier for people to remember. It’s easier to message. And it means that in our endless pursuit of more, everyone is Gus’s customer.
In reality, it’s improbable that one solution works for everybody everywhere for all the things, all the time. It simply goes against what we understand about people and what we understand about value. Forcing your Thneed2 onto everyone — or everyone into your Thneed — dilutes your business and can harm society, depending on your scale.3
Our friends at Sixt, the rental car company whose ad sparked this post, understand that “the” is a powerful word when you’re using it to be specific. We don’t want a car, one bland, generalized (and apparently boring) car among many. We want the car that’s right for us.
That’s what makes these “one thing” claims so infectious. They not only tap into our human instincts to seek simplicity, but they also serve as a beacon in a sea of options. “The” is a decision; “a” is a choice I need to make.
While it’s understandable that you’re exhausted by all the options you have as a business, those options are an opportunity. You can design every action your business takes and how you take them so everything you do drives toward delivering the value you exist to deliver and speaks to the people you serve. It takes time. It takes thought. It takes discipline.
It’s worth it.
“One Thing” headlines are designed to manipulate the part of us that craves simplicity. We can tap into that same need by being specific.
With so many options out there, being specific — being the car for the people you serve and only the people you serve — makes their choice not only easier but actually gets them where they need or want to go.
Yes, from The Lorax by Dr. Suess. A Thneed is a thing that can do anything for everybody. Perfect for biggering because “everyone needs a Thneed.” Or not as I wrote about here.
A study by Philip Tetlock showed that experts who base predictions on sweeping, general ideas, such as political ideologies, are usually the best known, most influential, and most widely trusted; they are also the ones who are most often wrong.