Are You Playing a Finite or Infinite Game?

Teams and companies that remain fluid in their strategy and don’t seek instant glorification are the ones that are more likely to sustain long-term excellence.

March 05, 2020

“A finite leader works to get something from their employees, customers, and shareholders to meet arbitrary metrics. Meanwhile, an infinite minded leader works to ensure that their employees, customers, shareholders remain inspired to continue contributing with their effort, their wallets, and their investments.”

— Simon Sinek

In his book, The Score Takes Care of Itself, legendary Coach Bill Walsh urges us to put all of our energy into our preparation before the game begins, and the results will follow. But what would happen if there were no results, no scoreboards, no quarterly statements, and no measuring sticks? Best-selling author Simon Sinek believes those teams and companies that remain fluid in their strategy and don’t seek instant glorification are the ones that are more likely to sustain long-term excellence. The title of Sinek’s book The Infinite Game reflects this belief.

In a finite game, it’s easy to focus on winning now. But in an infinite game, we concentrate on the bigger picture. Sustained excellence is not a one-time win or a one-year championship. Sinek argues that when we focus on our love of the game, not trying to defeat the competition, not always having an enemy to judge our success, we perform at a higher level. Our behavior and being inspired to improve becomes the only competition when we no longer care about an opponent.

A perfect example of an infinite game strategy is Amazon. CEO Jeff Bezos has been playing the infinite game since day one. In his initial letter to his first investors in 1997, he wrote: “We will continue to make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions.”

In 2001, as Amazon incurred a huge loss, Bezos wrote, “As I’ve discussed many times before, we are firm believers that the long-term interests of shareholders are tightly linked to the interests of our customers: if we do our jobs right, today's customers will buy more tomorrow, we’ll add more customers in the process, and it will all add up to more cash flow and more long-term value for our shareholders. To that end, we are committed to extending our leadership in e-commerce in a way that benefits customers and therefore, inherently, investors — you can’t do one without the other. If we do our jobs right, today’s customers will buy more tomorrow.”

Notice the common words in these letters?

Long term.

Amazon is now worth more than $1 trillion.

Sure, we know we need some wins now to keep our jobs. But we must focus more on our long-term selves and stop looking over our shoulders so much. When we can finally move away from the volatility of the scoreboard and start valuing the bigger picture, that’s when we can truly flourish.

Please forward and share this email with your friends and family.