Do you enjoy playing games?
I’m sure that everyone, from the time that they are kids right through as they grow up, enjoys playing any game of any sort. I love playing board games and I’m competitive as well. Board games and games in general are not only fun, they’re also educational. Why am I talking about games and board games today? Well, there are so many lessons that we can learn as business leaders, entrepreneurs or business owners from games that we can then apply to our businesses. There are tonnes and tonnes of lessons.
They’ve created games now that can help entrepreneurs. I’m thinking about Robert Kiyosaki from Rich Dad Poor Dad. He’s got a game called Cashflow 101 and that’s all about teaching you how to play the money game, investing in properties and buying companies and shares. Take Monopoly, a classic game, there are so many lessons that we can learn from it. There are a few lessons that I want to share with you that I’ve picked up about how board games, in particular, can help you as an entrepreneur, business leader or business owner.
Lesson #1
One of the first things that you will learn about when you play board games is a person’s true nature and character. When people play board games, their competitive sides come out, the sides that you sometimes have never seen. You’ll see some people cheating, lying and doing everything that they can to win the game. That’s one very important thing that you can learn from playing board games. You can learn about someone’s true nature, their true character. So, sometimes, if you are intending to bring on a partner in your business, maybe bring out the board game first and play with them and see how that goes.
Lesson #2
The second thing that you can learn by playing board games is that strategy wins over power. You’ve got to have a strategy when you’re playing a game. Even when you’re playing games like Monopoly, you’ve got to have a strategy of what properties you want to buy, what houses go on each property, and then how do those houses then become hotels. Having a strategy and then also having a plan in place on how you’re going to play the game very important. Yes, there’s going to be times when you play just for fun, but there’s no fun in it when you don’t win, right?
Lesson #3
Another thing that you can learn is patience and how important it is to have patience within a game. You’ve got to wait for your turn sometimes. You’ve got to be patient when someone else is counting and exchanging or trading properties or money, depending on what type of game you’re playing. So, there’s this crucial lesson of learning to become patient.
Lesson #4
One of the basic things that you learn is how to manage money and form an understanding of buying and selling properties or assets. If you’re playing Cashflow from Robert Kiyosaki, you actually have a little profit and loss and balance sheet that you’ve got to work with and do your calculations to make sure that your passive income is greater than your expenses. With this, you’re learning the fundamentals of accounting and money management as well as how passive income can then generate and replace your income from employed sources. This is a great skill to learn.
My two boys enjoy playing Cashflow because they’re into business. They mix around me when I’m doing my business and when I’m talking with my dad as well. We talk a lot about business, and then when we start playing Cashflow, we let them take control and manage everything. So, it’s also a great skill for kids to learn.
Lesson #5
Another valuable lesson you can learn is staying humble. When you play, there are times you could be on a roll, you could be winning and having things go really well in your favour, and then all of a sudden, you could lose or land on the wrong properties in Monopoly, or you could hit a doodad in the Cashflow game, losing all the money that you have in the game or some of your properties.
Games teach you that in good times, you also have to be humble. You’ve got to take the good times with the bad times because they go together. And, in business, we learn that you’re never always on the top. There are times when things are lean and things aren’t going in your favour. You will need to be able to manage that.
At the end of the day, games teach us great lessons and provide us with some experience and knowledge that we can then apply in our businesses. If you lose in a game, it’s just a game, but you can then take those lessons and apply it in your business or in your career, and then, obviously, try not to make those mistakes because in the real world, losing has a much bigger effect on your finances and everything else.
These are just a few key things that I think you can learn from playing board games. Apart from them stimulating your mind, giving you ideas, creating some fun with those around you, think about the lessons that you can extract from playing those games. These are just some that I shared with you. You may have had others, so if you have, feel free to reach out to me and share some of the lessons that you’ve had playing various different games.
