There’s a pretty good “sci-fi” book called Ender’s Game where a young boy is recruited into a special long term military training program that seeks one person to lead the world and save the universe.
The training involves “gamified” military exercises, plus extensive training via video games.
Still very young, Ender is challenged to succeed in a new video game, a critical test of his skills. He wins the game.
What he didn’t know was the game was his ultimate mission and he wasn’t controlling virtual fighters. He was controlling real fighters in a winner take all showdown for the survival of mankind.
A very successful friend once told me he loved business because it was the ultimate game—sort of like Ender’s game. And I’ve concluded that understanding and embracing that fact, before you start to play, provides a huge advantage.
If you’re an entrepreneur (code for “business guy who can think independently”), it’s likely the best of your competition are playing their “game” something like chess. They’re at the board, on one side, making moves within accepted norms, systems, parameters, traditions, and known dynamics, following “best practices” and “execution”.
Be above the chessboard. Eschew the accepted norms exercised by your competition. Determine how to blow them up. Replace them. Create new paradigms. Redefine things. Destroy your competition, and save the universe.
We’ve got an amazing gang at Clarity.Golf. And it’s getting bigger and better just about every day. We’re blowing up the best practices—without giving a plug nickel what they even were.
Meanwhile, our Harvard MBA competition are sitting in their penthouse aeries, studiously working their digital slide-rules, pouring over financial statements, vetting the best sensitivity training courses, rigging plans for recurring revenues (code for “gouge the customer”), making their products more cheaply (code for “gouge the customer”), jamming human pegs into holes and then unceremoniously eliminating the pegs that don’t fit.
A Harvard MBA walks up to the counter and orders a double latte with a triple espresso shot and a dash of nutmeg. The guy behind the counter says, “You must be a Harvard MBA”. The righteous MBA responds “Well, yes, but that’s offensive. You’ve pigeon-holed me as a Harvard MBA just because I ordered a highly caffeinated, exotic, expensive coffee!” The guy behind the counter replies, “It has nothing to do with the coffee. It’s because you’re in a hardware store.”
Forest or trees?
We at Clarity are out to blow up the norms and save the universe. And, in our opinion, blowing up the norms includes focus on improving every aspect of the customer experience, code for “serve the customer”.