140 - The instructions are not the game
Why I hated business, and now I don't.
548 words / Reading time: Aprox. 2 mins.
“The only purpose of the game is to prevent it from coming to an end, to keep everyone in play” - James Carse
I don’t want to watch Netflix tonight. Let’s play something!
My wife agreed. We had just acquired a new board game and it looked cool.
We opened the box, took out a set of multiple pieces we had to disarm, dozens of pieces, and cards, and tokens, and a booklet with instructions, and… I looked at my watch.
I love board games. I don’t like spending 2 hours reading instructions, learning about the game before doing anything.
The point of a game is to play it!
Same with business.
The rules are simple
We don’t like playing games we don’t understand. But even if the game looks appealing, sitting through a lesson before moving a piece is no fun at all.
This is, in my opinion, why most people avoid learning about business. I have no data on this, but you tell me if it rings true: we about learning the rules because the instruction manual seems too long.
The good news is: the rules are simple. I promise you, everything else you can learn on the go.
These are the rules of business, as I understand it:
Create value: Create something that makes people’s lives better.
Communicate: Tell as many people as you can about what you offer (and more importantly, focus on what you solve)
Make Profit: Make sure that you make more money than you spend.
Scale: Avoid becoming a slave of your job, delegate most of what you do and focus on your strengths.
Be generous: Don’t hoard everything. Put your resources back into causes that make the world better.
That’s it. If you play by those rules you’ll be fine.
Redefine win
The first rule of business is creating value. Because of this, the concept of retirement doesn’t resonate with me. It implies that you stop creating value.
I don’t want to ever stop adding value. It’s too much fun.
Instead, I love the idea of “The Infinite Game” coined by James Carse.
Finite games have an end, and have winners and losers.
But in Infinite games the goal is to continue playing… forever.
It’s a game so engaging, enjoyable, and purposeful that you don’t see your life any other way.
There aren’t winners or losers, just players.
Or maybe, winning means that you just keep playing.
Bring it home
Perhaps the reason you don’t enjoy business is because you lack understanding of some of the rules. That can be frustrating.
The good news: the rules are simple, and you can learn them as you play.
Or perhaps you don’t enjoy business so much because you are playing it as a finite game.
Your goal is to make seven figures, work by big brands, then retire and go sip margaritas in the Caribbean.
You do you. But maybe the goal isn’t to accomplish big things, but to become a little better each day. Enough to keep you interested, engaged, and with purpose.
Maybe winning is to never stop learning.
And the best way to learn is not to try read all the instructions first, but to play the freaking game and figure out on the go.
Fresh Idea for the Week
Business is not about instructions, is about action.
Choose one of the 5 rules of business and take action on it today.
Pura vida!
✏️Alejo P.
Click bait: “Never ever take your eye off the ball” - An example of the infinite game
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I have in the last year started to really wrap my head around the idea of the infinite game. I don’t want to stop drawing. But there are some ways of doing that which make me feel anxious (it’s more an AuDHD thing …. Staring at a computer screen illustrating, even on an iPad, makes me become aware of tensions). So I’m finding the game I love to play most, and how to play it. And then building systems around those things so I can keep playing the game.
The game is to keep playing the game.
My second thing about games, since I’m a game freak in general, is whilst some games are ok solo, the best games are played with others. It’s why I started up north (England) a pop up Boardgame cafe which still runs to this day even without me. It’s why I learnt how to raise funds for it through Amazon. It’s why I ended up through it supporting a community of neurodivergent folks as part of my church ministry. It’s why I started a uk network of other ministers and community workers who loved gaming and saw how it could be used to support and build community.
And all that was why I ended up talking about it on uk BBC TV.
So what I love to do is involve others in the games. And since that is true, as soon as I properly embraced abundance mindset I realised I could give away all my ideas, and get more people involved in my illustration games. And it’s all good!
So I’ve found the thing that gives