Don't play infinite games using finite game rules
jasonleow • 22 Apr 2023 •
Alex Hormonzi talked about infinite games vs finite games:
“The infinite frame always conquers the finite. You don’t win by getting in shape but staying in shape. You don’t win at business but stay in business and keep doing business. The point of the game is to keep playing. If you put all those together success is an inifnite game.”
This is so damned true.
If I were to sum up my failings and therefore learnings from the past 3-5 years, this is it. I was simply applying finite game rules on infinite games.
I thought winning was:
- Going viral for my tweets and posts
- Getting 100K followers, having a huge audience
- Posting hockey stick MRR growth screenshots
- Hitting $10k MRR
- Going for moonshots, like aiming for $1M revenue in 1 year
- Winning awards
- Getting acquired, making a grand multi-million exit
But winning was actually:
- Blank calendar, time freedom with my family
- Location freedom to work and live anywhere, even with kids
- Staying in business, not having to go back to 9-to-5
- Jumping out of bed to work on my products, enjoying it
- Happy times with my kiddo
- Being physically and mentally healthy
Notice how the things on the second list don’t have an end date, a destination, a target. Winning is when you get to keep doing it, as much and as deeply as you want. They are infinite games. And my folly was using the finite rules and goals of the first list to measure if I’m achieving the second. It seldom does. In fact, it often contradicts! The more I get after finite goals, the harder to achieve the inifinite ones.
Infinite games > finite games
Comments
@Winkletter Well said on that last line. Yeah it has some utility. But it tends to get outsized favourtism in the world. It’s a daily fight against that.
That’s a good distinction to make.
Finite games can have a role in support of the infinite game, but focus too much on the finite games and you might realize too late you’re losing the infinite game.