than every single company on the planet
today and it will outlast every single
coming up company on the planet today
you are just getting started in industry
I think you can actually make faster
progress if you start by playing the
finite game instead of the infinite game
whose something you’re very passionate
about and don’t try to chase what is
kind of the hot passion of the day rise
and shine it’s expresso time what’s up
believe nation it’s Evan my one word is
believe and I believe in you I believe
you have an amazing gift inside you that
I want to see exploded onto the world so
let’s start your day off right together
grab your cup of coffee and sip on
today’s message play the infinite game
over to you Simon signing the game of
business is an infinite game right it
pays all the rules there are known and
unknown players you don’t know all the
competitors necessarily in one industry
to another the rules are changeable we
haven’t all agreed what the rules are
and there is no winning the game of
business right the game just perpetuates
in fact the game of business has existed
longer than every single company on the
planet today and it will outlast every
single coming up company on the planet
today if you look at the Dow index of 30
something odd companies that make up the
down decks something like 70 or 80% of
those companies are 35 years or younger
right so it gets me thinking if you
listen to the language that companies
use they don’t know what game they’re in
they talk about being number one talk
about beating their competition based on
what agreed upon criteria
based on what agreed-upon timeframe is
that market share is a profits is it
revenues square footage number of
employees over what one month five
months six months
a year five years ten years the life of
the company I haven’t agreed to those
rules and so companies can arbitrarily
declare themselves number one and
anything they want if they set the
standards in the time frames and the
only reason we do these things on
annualized basis we tell you we tend to
compare ourselves to other organizations
annually
there’s only because we pay taxes
annually if we pay taxes every 18 months
that would be sort of the standard but
again we still haven’t agreed what the
metrics are to be number one that means
the companies that are playing the
infinite game are playing against most
of the others were playing the finite
game means those finite companies find
themselves and Quagmire almost every
single bankruptcy not almost every every
single bankruptcy is a company that’s
run out of the will or the resources to
play they drop out of the game the game
will persist another company will fill
their space it’s not like it’s not like
the business stops of the industry ends
and the companies that are playing the
infinite game will frustrate those
finite players which I absolutely adore
so I spoke at an education summit for
Microsoft I also spoke in an education
summit for Apple now I would say about
70 to 80 percent of the executives at
Microsoft spent about 70 to 80 percent
of their powerpoints talking about how
to beat Apple at the Apple Summit a
hundred percent of the executives spent
a hundred percent of their presentations
talking about how to help teachers teach
and how to help students learn one was
obsessed with their journey with their
vision with their cause the other one
was obsessed with their competition
guess who’s stuck in quagmire guess
who’s frustrated by their competition so
I agree that playing the infinite game
is ultimately where you want to be as an
entrepreneur if you want to be a
game-changing entrepreneur you have to
change the rules you have to set new
standards what I would say though that
if you are just getting started in
industry I think you can actually make
faster progress if you start by playing
the finite game instead of the infinite
game let me explain I think when you’re
first getting started you can learn so
much from the people who are already
ahead of you you can
learn about how they made their success
how they got to where they were what
specific strategies what motivated them
you can learn a ton that can really
shortcut your path but if all you do is
copy the people who’ve come before you
then the best you’re gonna be is a
junior version of them you’re just gonna
be mini me up whoever that person is
that you’re looking up to and hey for
you that may be enough but if you are a
game-changing entrepreneur your ultimate
success will be by you being that best
version of yourself but I just think
that if you’re at the very beginning of
your business or of your path it’s
actually faster to play the finite game
and learn from the people who’ve come
before you this is what almost sunk my
first business I was in biotech I had a
software company 19 years old turned
down high-paying jobs to be an
entrepreneur and live the dream and I
thought I had to come up with every
genius idea myself and I I almost lost
the business I told my business partner
that I quit now I was at the end of my
rope I felt worthless valueless I felt
like I wasn’t making a contribution
wasn’t making a difference it wasn’t
till I asked myself who has done this
before like I can’t be the first person
to try to figure this out somebody has
done this before and if I can model
their success then I can have some
similar success to what they did or at
least be further ahead than I am right
now and that’s when I learned about Bill
Gates and learning about other software
entrepreneurs and I copied them I
modeled them I brought their strategies
to my business and that’s where my
company starts to take off now again if
all I did was copy Bill Gates and I’d be
a junior version of Bill Gates so
eventually I had to come up with my own
plan my own strategies my own nuances
things that are different how I was
gonna operate but man that he saved my
company man did that ever help me get my
launching pad up to the point where my
company was actually getting some
traction the same thing happens with
YouTube is what you guys me known before
right now with my youtube channel when I
first started I always asked myself who
has done this before who could have
learned from who is the expert and so
when I started with YouTube I subscribed
to Derral Eve’s and I subscribed to Tim
Schmoyer and I digest it all of their
content and I learned all of it and I
applied all of it and my business
started to grow my YouTube channels
started getting more subscribers things
take off and I was having success and as
my channel started growing and it’s my
channel past their channels I had to
start thinking about new ideas new
techniques new new strategies things
that I can apply to my channel that
maybe other people aren’t doing and now
I’m pioneering and tested a whole bunch
of different things on my channel that
nobody else is doing I haven’t seen any
other YouTube do it and so that’s that’s
the point now where I’m playing the
infinite game on YouTube but I was
playing the finite game at the start and
a massively shortcut of my success and
so yes ultimately I believe that you
need to play the infinite game you need
to be an innovator you need to be on the
cutting edge you need to find your voice
your path you can’t do it exactly like
anybody else did it but a huge caveat if
you are just at the beginning I firmly
believe that by starting and modeling
success and studying the people who’ve
come before you and learning from them
you could rapidly shortcut your path to
becoming close to their level and then
you need to go in innovate and then you
need to inject your own personality your
own points of differentiation once you
understand how the model works I’ve got
a really special bonus clip for you but
before that commitment of the day you
watch this video what did you take from
this that you are going to immediately
apply somehow to your life or to your
business leave it down in the comments
below make it real by writing it down
you’re much more likely to follow
through I want to see it thank you guys
so much for watching I believe in you I
hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one word is much love
I’ll see you again tomorrow morning for
another shot of espresso and enjoy the
do something you’re very passionate
about and don’t try to chase what is
kind of the hot passion of the day I
think we actually saw this I think you
see it all over the place in many
different contexts but I think we saw it
in the internet world quite a bit where
you know it’s sort of peak of the sort
of internet you know mania and say 1999
you found people who were you know very
passionate or something they kind of
left that job and decided I’m gonna you
know could do something in the internet
because it’s you know it was almost like
the you know the 18-49 Gold Rush in a
way I mean you find that people if you
go back and study the history of the
18-49 Gold Rush you find that you know
at that time everybody who was in was
within the shouting distance of
California was you know they might have
been a doctor but they quit being a
doctor and they started panning for gold
and that that almost never works and
even if it does work you know according
to some metric financial success or
whatever it might be I suspect it leaves
you ultimately unsatisfied so you really
need to be very clear with yourself and
I think one of the best ways to do that
is this notion of projecting yourself
forward to age 80 looking back on your
life and trying to make sure you’ve
minimized the number of regrets you have
that works for that works for career
decisions that works for family
decisions you know do want I have a 14
month old son and it’s very easy for me
to if I think about myself when I’m 80 I
know I want to watch that little guy
grow up and so it it’s I don’t want to
be 80 and think shoot you know I missed
that whole thing and I don’t have the
kind of relationship with my son that I
wished I had and so on and so on so if
you think about that
so I guess another thing that I would
recommend to people is that they always
take a long term point of view and I
think this is something about which
there’s a lot of controversy you know
there’s a there’s a you know something a
lot of people and I’m just not one of
them
believe that you should live for the now
I think what should do is you think
about the the the great expanse of time
ahead of you and try to make sure that
you’re planning for that in a way that’s
gonna leave you ultimately satisfied so
this is just my this is the way it works
for me and I mean this is everybody
needs to find that for themself so I
think there are a lot of paths to
satisfaction and you need to find one
that works works for you the most
important work ever if you had to think
of one word that’s most important to you
or that sums you Apple that would be
like a little beacon they believe nation
if you want to know what the most
important one word is for Tony Robbins
Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey will.i.am
and Howard Schultz I have a very special
secret video for you check the description for details