This morning on my walk to work, I listened to an interview between Chris Do and entrepreneur-author Daniel Priestley.
They were discussing Priestley’s book, Key Person Of Influence, and the conversation is packed full of gems.
One that stood out to me was this (paraphrased):
“All great entrepreneurs make up their own game worth playing”
Meaning, business icons like Steve Jobs, Ray Kroc, Elon Musk – these weren’t people who looked carefully at market conditions and tried to fill a gap.
They didn’t step onto playing fields that others had created before them, and tried to win someone elses game, but they invented their own.
Steve Jobs’ game = get a personal computer in every home in America.
Elon Musk’s game = transition the world away from fossil fuel vehicles, into electric ones
(I hate to use those two guys as they are super cliched examples… but this is who was mentioned in the interview, and they definitely illustrate the idea).
You could easily extend this idea beyond just entrepreneurs, to most people who made a big impact on the world.
Martin Luther King worked towards a vision where people would be judged on the “content of their character” rather than their sking color.
Gandhi was playing a game we could call, “let’s free India from British occupation”.
There are a million examples we can think up using this framework.
The common thread is these people had a creative vision – they didn’t achieve big things by only looking for things they could change in their immediate environment, but first created their game, and then sought out next steps.
So whatever it is you want to do, ask yourself, what is the larger game I want to play here?
This is what will get you out of bed in the morning.
[ Post 15/365 ]
