Finding Dory. What’s Upstream is Unforgettable!

As the closing credits envelope the screen, the song Unforgettable plays in the background, emphasizing how you’ve just swam with the school of other movie goers through a waterworks journey that tugs at your heart strings – bonds of fish, family, and friends.

The vibrant script and kaleidoscope colors that mesmerized audiences from Finding Nemo are deeply enhanced to such a degree that you really feel as if you’re in any and all of the bodies of waters featured, from the real life ocean to the Marine Life Institute to a blue bucket that serves as a temporary holder for Marlin and Nemo – and more! You’ll keep on swimming throughout the movie, eyes glued to the sea creatures surrounding you, transfixed on what you think Dory will do and how she, despite her memory loss, will find her way home.

What Would Dory Do?

Dory’s resourcefulness is a testimony to the need for creativity that we may find ourselves immersed in throughout our business. Rather than bemoaning her disability in not being able to remember, forgetful Dory soon asks herself in the third person, “What would Dory do?” At this critical juncture, she has embraced her forgetfulness as a catalyst for spontaneity. Without the benefit of the long-term planning acumen that her buddies Nemo, Marlin, Destiny, and Hank possess, Dory utilizes her own unique strengths to conquer her goals.

Putting your own fins together and identifying your uniqueness, may take a new perspective, as Dory so swimmingly demonstrated. An out-of-the fish world stance is often required to swim upstream through the pipes when others are not, to create anew what has not been tried, and to do so quickly and decisively.

Follow Your Shells

Utilizing the small traces of family memories to help guide her home, Dory also held on to her faith and desire to not give up. The purplish luminescent shells she gravitated toward as a youngster were the ones she followed to her path home. Although business paths are often murky and those brightly shining shells may not be clearly marked, what often exists is a memory or a new spark that will generate the lane to swim through to your desired result.

Swimming to the Reef’s Edge

A cautionary tale bubbles up to the water’s surface throughout Dory’s quest. Originally flushed out of her home, Dory is cognizant of what may happen if she encountered the same circumstance again. However, what was once the impetus to becoming lost was a catalyst to becoming found. Toward the closing, Dory dashes off to the reef’s edge. Marlin, not surprising, cannot believe Dory will be so careless, as this is the very spot of Nemo’s disappearance. Marlin, however, finds Dory admiring the water rather than competing in an Olympic race to the other side of the ocean.

Marketers may also find that the journey is not only through deep waters, but through shallow streams, that the familiar and unfamiliar both have a place in your business home. Whether fins, tentacles or arms and legs, keep on swimming through the unpredictable business currents.

Find other business parallels in Finding Dory? Tweet me @circledotmktg.