Trying to "Win" in Business | Simon Sinek

In the mid-1980s, a philosopher and theologian by the name of James Karst defined these two kinds of games. Finite games and infinite games. A finite game is defined as known players, fixed rules, and an agreed upon objective. Football, baseball, there's always a beginning, middle and an end. And if there's a winner, then necessarily there has to be a loser. Then you have infinite games. Infinite games are defined as known and unknown players, which means anyone can join the game at any time, and you don't necessarily know who all the other players are. The rules are changeable, which means every player can play however they want, and the objective is to perpetuate the game, to stay in the game as long as possible. Turns out we are players in infinite games every day of our lives, whether we know it or not. There's no such thing as winning health care. There's no such thing as winning education. You can come in first for the finite amount of time you're at school, win where we agree upon the timeframe and the metrics, grades. But nobody wins education or nobody wins learning.

You can't be number one in your marriage. You can be number two, but you can't be number one.

Well, maybe the first time, but exactly, exactly. But then it's finite and you have to try again. Exactly. The goal is to perpetuate, remember?

And there's definitely no such thing as winning business. But if you listen to the language of so many people, it becomes abundantly clear they don't actually know the game they're playing in. You know, I hear people all the time in business talk about we're number one, or I'm the best, you know, or I want to beat my competition based on what? Based on what agreed upon metrics, objectives, or time frames. And this is a problem because when we play with a finite mindset in an infinite game, when we play to win in a game that has no finish line, then there are some consistent and predictable outcomes. The big ones are the decline of trust, the decline of cooperation, and the decline of innovation. And if you think about it, everything that I just described, like, you don't know who all the other agents are. You don't. You know, anybody can become an agent at any time they want. Anybody can do their run their business however they want, and nobody wins. You can, you know, selling a property is finite. There's a beginning, middle and end. Okay, that's what I was going to ask you, but then it just repeats and repeats and a series of repeating infinite finite games doesn't make an infinite game. Just makes you exhausted.