Book Review(2) — The Infinite Game
Winning from the head start is the successful creed arising up in an Asian Family. It seems like being a doctor or a lawyer means everything. If you are not, you are a failure. And native was the reply when I was candor to demand that I want to pursue my happiness. Life has finished line for a lot of Asian families, that is the standard finite mindset. But Life is a no end game since Genesis. Simon Sinek just paraphrases the finite mindset in contrast to the infinite mindset in the book, that whoops lots of people’s face who see success is the only thing to pursue.
Simon’s infinite mindset helps me think, not outside the box, but beyond it. The infinite mindset is a lifestyle, not just a word heard from a best selling writer. His views displays the prevalent thoughts I stand for are plain wrong. In the finite games, we all want to cross the finish line to win, because the finish line is the metric to call us winner. But in the infinite game, there is no practical end to the game, there is no such thing as winning. You have to keep playing, to perpetuate the game. And there are multiple metrics, which is why we can never declare a winner here.
The engagement between Simon and Noah at the Four Season Hotel reminds me of the faded-away memory. A couple of years ago, there was a bookstore I kept going for buying magazines. Not because they sold special, it was the staff who remembered my hobby, so she could precisely recommend the suitable book for me. Then I kept going until she wasn’t there. If the leader creates the right environment where the staff can service sincerely, the customer definitely can feel it. Because we are all highly attuned social animals. Then everyone from the owner to the customer would benefit from it. I reckon the bookstore demonstrated the example the message book wants to deliver too.
The biggest benefit of the infinite mindset is the trust or somebody would call it security. Both of these feelings make us to feel safe in expressing ourselves. Because trust is the stacking and layering of small moments and reciprocal vulnerability over time. Once you feel trust, the vulnerability comes along with it. They grow together, and to betray one is to destroy both. It also matches the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, creating an environment with security in which you can feel safe. That is the thing we all desire for. We all want to be treated respectfully.
We all live and work in a one-dimensional and finite view of business where people are not being invested in nor appreciated enough to stick around. People eventually leave if you still treat them like the towel, twist them until they are dry. This is the familiar phenomenon we see in business world. Maybe you gain the lucrative goal, but it is an ostensible winning. Your complacent behavior already made you lose on the board. Since the moment I have done reading the book, I think it is time to start a business renaissance. One thing is absolutely concern, Negativity can lead at halftime, Kindness always wins the game.
