The Rule of Three – It Works Everywhere
- Brainz Magazine
- Oct 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 16
Written by Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller
Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field.
Goro Gupta from Ethical Property Investments is well known for his entrepreneurial success. He’s pioneered some of the most powerful changes in the SDA investing game and improved the lives of NDIS participants by listening to the needs of tenants and not just chasing profits.
He’s an outspoken voice who bridges the gap between ethical investors and government policymakers. His work creates ripples across the industry that will continue for generations.
While he’s out there doing the hard work and earning a name for himself as an innovator, few people realise the depth of his wisdom, his insights. Recently, I had a conversation with him, and I felt compelled to share it. We spoke about the power of three, the trifecta.
Three little pigs. Three musketeers. Gold, silver, bronze. Past, present, future. Mind, body, spirit.
Have you noticed how the number three keeps showing up? Goro pointed out that once you start paying attention, it’s impossible to unsee. It’s almost as if three is the minimum number we need to feel complete. One is a dot. Two is a line. Three creates a shape, a pattern, and edges. It’s in the way we tell stories, the way we measure success, and the way we make sense of life.
It shows up in every corner of human culture. Almost every religion has some form of trinity. Nature is full of threes, solid, liquid, gas, birth, life, death, past, present, future. The way we tell stories is built on threes, setup, conflict, resolution. Three is enough to give perspective. More than three, and people get lost. Less than three, and it doesn’t feel like you’ve got the full picture.
Goro explained that it’s not a woo-woo principle, there’s science behind why three feels so powerful.
Memory: Psychologists call it chunking. Our brains process and remember information better in groups of three.
Perception: Gestalt theory shows that three points are the first number the brain recognises as a complete shape. One feels incomplete, two feels like a standoff, but three creates wholeness.
Communication: Rhetoric and linguistics research prove that three-part structures are more persuasive and memorable. Think life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or blood, sweat, and tears, or veni, vidi, vici.
Without realising it, Goro told me how he’d been fighting against the Rule of Three in his business. He had one way of doing things. It was a bit of a take-it-or-leave-it situation. If you fit, great. If you didn’t, too bad. It worked to a point, but something always felt off.
At Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery earlier this year, it finally clicked for him. The problem wasn’t that people didn’t believe in what he did. The problem was that he’d made it too hard for them to step in by putting unnecessary friction in the way. The process was complex, and the options were too narrow. He thought he was protecting the integrity of what his team offered. What he was really doing was shutting the door on people who wanted to be part of it.
It was Goro’s lightbulb moment. His team didn’t need to water things down or add more layers. They needed to simplify and give people clarity and choice, without the overwhelm.
They rebuilt the model around the Rule of Three. Enough choices to give people clarity, but not so many that they freeze like a deer in headlights. The impact was immediate. Clients now self-select and see themselves on the pathway before the Ethical Property Investments team has even finished the conversation. It’s easier for them to commit, and easier for the team to deliver.
Choice matters, but too many choices paralyse people. That’s why Netflix scroll fatigue is a thing, and why menus with fifteen pages never get read. EPI needed to simplify and create options. The answer was staring Goro in the face, three pathways. When I asked, Goro shared how they reframed their business:
Ethical essentials: The starting point. Clear, simple, accessible. For people who believe in what we’re doing but need an entry that doesn’t overwhelm them.
Ethical bespoke: The tailored path. For investors who’ve been around the block, know what they want, and need us to customise it.
Ethical elite: The top tier. This is where the big, sophisticated investors play, building Specialist Disability Accommodation at the highest standards.”
“I’ve thought a lot about why the Rule of Three works so well. It comes back to something deeper than sales strategy. Humans trust threes.
If someone gives you one option, you feel boxed in. Two options, you’re weighing one against the other, and there’s always the nagging feeling you’re missing something. Three gives you a middle ground. It feels like you’ve explored the spectrum. The way we communicate has three showing up everywhere. We talk about good, better, best. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Blood, sweat, and tears. Three is rhythm, balance, and trust,” he explained.
Embracing the Rule of Three hasn’t just been about restructuring the options Goro’s team gives their clients, it’s become a guiding philosophy. Whenever they get stuck now, Goro asks, “What are the three things that matter here?”
It works in strategy, in storytelling, and in life.
Don’t underestimate simplicity. People don’t buy complexity. They buy clarity, certainty, and trust. The Rule of Three gives them all three.
Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field. She has shared her insights into storytelling, media, and business across Australia, UK, and the US speaking for Professional Speakers Association, Stevie Awards, Queensland Government, and many more. Three times winner of the Grand Stevie Award for Women in Business, gold Stevie International Business Award, and a finalist in Australian Small Business Champion awards, Annette audaciously challenges anyone in small business to cast aside modesty, embrace their genius and share their stories.
