Domino has long been a popular game where players set up dominoes in a line and then knock over them all at once. But the real fun is in how one domino impacts the others—in a way that’s both rhythmic and unpredictable. It’s the same when you write your book: think of every plot beat as a single domino. It may be a car crash or a trip to the zoo, but its impact will ripple throughout your whole story.
Lily Hevesh started playing with dominoes when she was nine years old. Her grandparents had a basic 28-piece set, and she loved putting them up in straight or curved lines and flicking the first one ever-so-slightly to watch the rest cascade down in a beautiful chain reaction.
Hevesh, now 20, has turned her passion for dominoes into a career as a domino artist. She has thousands of followers on her YouTube channel and has worked with movies, TV shows, and events, including the album launch for Katy Perry. Her most elaborate designs include a 15-color rainbow spiral made with 12,000 dominoes.
She says that when she’s creating an intricate design, “the first domino has to have a bit of inertia so it resists motion until you give it a little push.” When you do, the energy stored in the piece is released and can be used to hit on the next one. And that can push it over, triggering its own inertia until it finally falls.”
It’s the same when you write your own book: if a scene doesn’t have enough momentum to start a chain reaction, then it won’t capture readers’ attention. But if it does have that momentum, then the audience will be drawn in and want to follow your hero through the story’s end.
In business, this concept is called the Domino Effect: one change causes a shift in other related behaviors. It’s why reducing sedentary leisure time in your company might cause workers to eat healthier or exercise more. It’s the same principle behind the theory that if you put a man on the moon, it might lead to more women astronauts.
Domino’s has been able to capitalize on this phenomenon by focusing on their strengths and positioning themselves for success. They have spent the past several years deploying cutting-edge technology and are now poised to scale as they continue to focus on their strategy of 25,000 global locations by 2025. This strategy has paid off with record-breaking profits and 30 consecutive quarters of positive US sales. But they’re not stopping there—they’re investing even more in their future by empowering employees with innovative tools to support their goals.