Infinite Game is a highly popular book by the author Simon Sinek who discusses the importance of proper leadership in business and life. Infinite Game is filled with lessons on how to think with infinite mindset and take decisions that supports your vision instead of going for short term temporary benefits.
In this post, we are going to discuss 6 powerful lessons from Infinite Game book which allows you to think with infinite mindset.
Let’s assume you are a producer of a TV channel and currently parts your country is flooded with heavy rains. If you are a finite minded person, you will send a team to areas with less water, easier to travel and record the footage. You might use equipment such as drones to get the footage of areas where the flooding is considerably high. Then, you will prepare the news in a persuasive way that taps the emotions of the people watching. So, the viewership of the channel will rapidly increase. Therefore, the popularity of you and your channel will increase, regardless of what happens to the people in flooded areas.
If you are an infinite minded person, you will give first preference to report what’s most important to help the people in need, rather than increase your viewership. Such person will send a team to worst affected areas, communicate with people in those areas and find what they need. Also, you will let the others know about the ways to help people in these areas, making it an infinite cause.
The infinite minded person may not generate the same popularity as the finite minded person. But, you have made a meaningful contribution, which will be more profitable in long term, when people start identifying what you are doing different to all others.
Let’s assume you are a coach of a national football team. Your vision is to win the next World cup for your country. The vision here is a very good one. But, you are playing a finite game in this case. In order to win the world cup, you have to start by playing the first match. You have to play within the general rules for football as well as the rules specially defined for the world cup. Then, you have to compete against other teams and beat them in the final match to win the world cup. Your vision ends by winning the world cup.
If you were playing infinite game as a coach, you won’t think too much about winning the world cup. Instead, you will focus on coaching the existing players in a way that improves their skills every day. You will identify new talents and help them get into the existing team. Your game is to train set of players and improve their skills everyday. Now, their are no opponents, no rules, no competition and no end to the game. You will coach as long as you feel that you are improving the skills of players.
Life is an infinite game. Many people try to play it as a finite game and hence doesn’t achieve the desired outcome from the life. So, try to play life as an infinite game.
Assume that you are an owner of a courier service. Your vision is to provide same day package delivery to everyone at lowest cost. You have all the processes and staff to maintain the operations based on your vision. Now, assume that you look into the future to see the challenges and improvements needed for your company. There is lot of discussion about drone based parcel delivery in the near future. That’s the perfect solution to achieve your vision, as drone based delivery is quicker and less expensive solution.
If you are an infinite minded person, you will see this as a great opportunity. You will start preparing for the future by learning how drone based delivery will work. You will also prepare your systems and staff to handle drone based delivery once it’s available.
On the other hand, if you are finite minded person, you won’t like the change and adapting to new technology, systems and processes. So, you will try to remove the problem by preventing drone companies from getting into the market or finding potential problems of drone based delivery and exposing them to public.
So, always be infinite minded person and try to flex when you find new challenges that aligns with your vision.
Assume you are the only second hand book seller in your area, and you have a large user base. Second hand books are popular in many countries, as people can’t afford the price of brand new books. So, they come to you as you are the only option. The problem with second hand book buying is that a customer can only buy what’s available in your collection. You may only have one copy from most of the second hand books. On the other hand, when buying brand new books, they can buy the titles they want instead of selecting from the titles you have in the collection.
Now, assume another second hand seller is starting business in your area. If you are a finite minded person, you will try to get the other seller out of the game by giving discounts or more benefits than the other person. However, infinite minded person understands that keeping the game in play is the best option. So, he will welcome the other seller into the market. The availability of two sellers means there is more chance of customers finding the books they need from one of the two sellers. Which means they will keep using second hand books without going to brand new books. Also, many people read for entertainment. If the books they want are hard to find, they will easily switch to different entertainment mediums such as television or games, which are cheaper options than reading.
As you can see, the finite minded person puts the business at risk by throwing the competitor out of the game. The infinite minded person reduces the risk to the business by using the competitor to keep the game in play, and keep customers without letting them switch.
Assume that you have a Youtube channel and you are teaching people about public speaking. If you are a finite minded person, your goal will be to become the best youtube channel for public speaking. So, you will create videos that will get most users, most views and most subscribers without thinking about the quality of content. Once your channel becomes the channel with largest user base, you may feel you have achieved the goal. But it only takes few good videos from other channels to beat you. So, you will have to continuously put up videos that will get most views and keep chasing the other channels to become the best.
On the other hand, infinite minded person will not be worried about the temporary achievements such as numbers of views, subscribers and becoming the top channel. Their focus will be on improving the quality of their content while continuously improving the speaking ability of their viewers.
So, don’t work to be the best. Instead, work to be better everyday.
Assume that you work for a courier company that guarantees same day delivery. Your company receives delivery requests through phone as well as website. You have to do same day delivery regardless of the number of packages and your boss is very strict on that. Let’s say your area is having heavy rains in an unexpected time.
Now, people are starting to send more packages through courier as they can’t go out due to bad weather. So, you get more packages than you normally handle. Also due to bad weather, it takes more time to deliver each package to the client. You have multiple problems now.
Now, you are feared that your boss might fire you for not being able to handle all the deliveries on same day. So, you choose a finite option by switching off the phone time to time or making it hard for customers to reach you through phone. Since customers can’t reach you easily, they choose other courier services for delivery. So, you only get limited number of packages that you can handle within the day and hence you don’t have to worry about getting fired.
As you can see, due to the fear, you choose the finite option and caused infinite damage to your company by loosing many potential long term customers. If you were an infinite minded person, you would have discussed the issues with your boss and find a feasible solution as well as inform the customers about potential delays due to weather.
So, always go for the infinite option without creating infinite damage through finite choices.
These lessons are from the book Infinite Game by Simon Sinek and the explanations are our own opinions based on the lessons. The book contains more information about how to think with infinite mindset in life as well as business. We recommend the book to everyone who wants to be successful in life and work towards a great cause than just personal gains.
