The video that will not save the shop

In Hail, a young man sells phone cases he paints by hand. His plan for the year is one video.

He has watched it happen to other people. Someone films themselves at a kitchen table, the clip travels to a million screens overnight, and the orders never stop. So every evening he posts, and every morning he checks, and the rest of the business waits for the morning when it finally works.

It might. Somebody's clip will travel this week. Somebody will wake up to an audience they did not earn and cannot explain. The odds say it will be somebody. The odds also say it will almost certainly not be him, and it will almost certainly not be me or you.

There is nothing wrong with posting. It costs little and it can be fun. The trouble starts when the posting becomes the strategy, when everything else is on hold until the draw.

The work that does build is less exciting. Writing back to the people who already bought. Asking them what they would want next. Making a case that arrives in better shape than the photo promised, so that one of them shows a friend. None of this travels overnight. All of it is still there next month.

A ticket is a fine thing to hold for the thrill of it. It is a poor thing to build a shop on.