My apologies for posting this a few days late. I had something else planned to post on Sunday when I would have normally uploaded my blog but with the tragic news of the passing of basketball icon Kobe Bryant I wanted to reflect on his influence and the example he provided to the world. Admittedly I was never a fan of his team the LA Lakers and in his younger years, I judged him as arrogant. He began playing professionally in the NBA at seventeen and as the world saw his talent develop I saw a young man evolve as a person and my respect for him grew immensely. Many will talk about his tireless work ethic, his competitive spirit and his dedication to everything he did. I was most impressed with the way he began to play the game of life. My respect and admiration grew further when I saw him retire and move on to the next stage of his life. His entire identity had been built upon basketball and yet once he made his decision to move on from his career as a globally respected athlete he not only said but also demonstrated that he was completely at peace with his decision.
Kobe Bryant achieved so much in the forty-one years of his life that he had nothing that he needed to prove to himself or the world. Yet soon after his retirement, he produced an academy award-winning short film and begin developing himself in new and different ways. People will talk about his talent for generations to come and we can admire his intelligence and spirit but today I would like to point out something about the inspirational way he lived his life. It has to do with the Mamba mentally as he referred to it. It was a mindset that drove him to improve each day and to outwork any of his competitors. I see great parallels between this and something that Simon Sinek refers to as the infinite game. To put it simply the objective of the finite game is to win and the infinite game to keep on playing.
In both business environments and private lives, I witness so many people worried about short terms problems, getting ahead of the competition or trying to change other people’s opinions. None of these things matter in the infinite game. None of us knows with any certainty how much time we have in this life and yet so many of us live as if one event in time; one success or failure, is going to define our lives. Many people live life as if they were playing a finite game. Is see this in business when people focus on competitors and short term goals as if it were life and death. I see people competing with their neighbours for who has the nicer stuff and who goes on better vacations. People look for revenge or to put others in their place. These are objectives for a finite game and yet we are all playing the infinite game of life where the other players are not predetermined and neither is the time or duration of play.
When I play basketball I am playing a finite game. I know how much time there is and who my opponent is and so I follow the rules of this game. The rules of the infinite game are much different. Live each day with meaning because you don’t know when your time will be up. Focus on your ongoing growth and learning. Not to pass some test or receive a grade but because it will improve the quality of your life going forward and add value to others. With this in mind, next time you are lamenting a problem or a setback in your life, ask yourself which rules you are following: the finite or the infinite game. If you find yourself playing the same finite game over and over stop following those rules. The infinite game has far more opportunities and wonderful surprises.
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