Many of my friends and business associates have heard me discuss the concept of the “Three Great Acts of the American Drama” as taught to me by Brandon Tartikoff. Brandon was a friend and mentor. He was head of NBC and was truly a unique mind and had an original take on consumer tastes. He passed away a few years ago and he is missed.

In his opinion, all of American drama was based on:

• Act 1 - New kid - an unknown, an underdog - comes out of nowhere and becomes very popular. He is a big winner who surprises and delights the populace and becomes everyone’s darling.
• Act 2 - New kid gets too big for britches – or because of fate or evil doings by competitors - has a public fall from grace. The public delights in the fall. Kid is kicked while he is down. Media drags kid through the mud. Jealousy and anger emerge from populace. Success is written off as luck, lots of “I told you so.” People revel in the “Fall”.
• Act 3 - The comeback. A wiser, tougher, humbled but unbowed character is developed more fully with an ultimate long term win. America loves a comeback!

Brandon was a genius.

I feel in life and in business, we are always firmly positioned in one of these acts. It is why I believe you should never get too high with the highs or too low with the lows.

For about a year and a half, we as a team were firmly in Act 1. After one loss in our first playoff game, several fans and many members of the media have already placed us squarely into Act 2.

We have destiny in our hands. The only way to get out of Act 2 is to win. If we win, we are back in Act 1. If we lose, we will get big splash back in Act 2 because we became such a media darling and we wouldn’t have met expectations. This comes with the territory. We are where we deserve to be.

But we understand the drama and our place in it.