Game

Let’s talk about failure today. The fear of failure has so much opportunity cost that people don’t even try to attempt the challenge. Making mistakes are considered taboo in our society, let alone talking about it is a shame. There is so much fog and mystery of being right all the time that you miss playing the game. Yes, your work is nothing but a game. You are in business or at a job you play this game of work to collect some coins. It’s called your profits or paycheck. You play it like once you reach a certain level you don’t want to earn less by doing something you love or stopping something you hate to do.

You often become a Yes Women or Ye Man waiting for instructions from your clients to bosses. You are so afraid that you forget there is some safe bet called a calculated risk. You are so cosy in your comfort zone that you justify every reason to stay in there. You also complain about not getting more profit or a good hike in spite of working so hard. Your vocabulary is full of reasons, excuses, justification, ignorance and protecting yourself.

The simplest calculated risk to test by asking the question (It’s been taken from a sales coaching book named Test Close) A Test close is an opinion-asking question. It includes words like, “In your opinion” and “Do you feel.” Test Closing gets the “no”s out early.

When you play the Infinite Game of Business (in your job you are playing for someone) you need existential flexibility. It is the capacity to initiate an extreme disruption to a business model or strategic course in order to more effectively advance a Just Cause. It’s an infinite minded player’s appreciation for the unpredictable that allows them to make these kinds of changes. (from the book The Infinite Game)

Let me share 5 fears with you that I witness yesterday:

1. A student is afraid of giving interviews because of being underprepared
2. A Senior Developer is afraid that her time in design and planning would be seen as waste
3. A Manager is afraid that she is not able to control the revenue because she don’t know how we are charging the client
4. A Business leader is afriad to accept the fact that one part of his business model is faulty and it cannot be fixed
5. I am afriad that I won’t be a succesful business man.

The reason we play any game is to play as long as we can, wins and losses only to keep the game interesting. They are not the goal.