Benefits of picking a Worthy Adversary
In his best selling book The Storyteller’s Secret, Carmine Gallo enlightens us on the benefits of picking up a worthy adversary to help course correct.
Tag: Worthy Rival
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As an ENTREPRENEUR are you AWARE of a WORTHY RIVAL?This will ALWAYS KEEP you in the GAME..
Adopted from the following great insight shared by Simon Sinek from his book The Infinite Game
In a finite game e.g. football there are fixed set of players , rules are fixed , duration is fixed.As a result of this “winning” , being the “best” are options.
In infinite games where duration in unknown , rules are not predefined , players are unknown it is of paramount importance to a player to keep playing with the goal of advancement of a “just cause”.
In such a game where being the “best” or “winning” does not matter , it is very important to know and pick a “worthy rival” from whom a thing or two can learnt for survival in the long run.
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What happens when a Worthy Rival drops out of the Infinite Game?
Simon Sinek in his book The Infinite Game , mentions the need of having an Worthy Rival to keep motivating another player to play better in an Infinite Game.
Frequently we come across scenarios like the case of Kodak , Blockbuster , Myspace where they found themselves playing the Infinite Game without an Worthy Rival.
This is when they took their dropped their focus and intensity and became complacent.
This is the reason all the three are now extinct.
This is why a WORTHY RIVAL always keeps us on our toes and inspires us to keep innovating by the day.
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This example mentions the benefit of having “Worthy Rivals”
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova dominated the game of tennis from 1970’s till the 1980’s.
They considered each other as Worthy Rivals and because of the intense competition were inspired to elevate their games to the next level.
Chris Evert had to learn playing more at the net than the baseline.The intense but healthy competition that existed helped push each other to the limits , to something where their individual coaches also could not.
This is what a Worthy Rival does in business as well.It inspires an organization to outperform itself driven towards its JUST CAUSE.
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game
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Why NOT to lose sight of a “WORTHY RIVAL”?
In an infinite game having a WORTHY RIVAL is the most necessary pre-requisite to keep playing the game.
The following are the most important reasons why a WORTHY RIVAL is needed:
- Worthy Rivals can help us get better at What we do
- Worthy Rivals can help us get clearer on Why we do it
- Safeguards an infinite player from Cause Blindness
Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book titled “The Infinite Game”
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Respecting a “Worthy Rival”
A worthy rival can often help us get better at what we do.
Often when a business is doing very well , the absence of a worthy rival can lead to complacency.As a result of this , if the business is not led with an infinite mindset it can lose focus and stands a chance of extinction in the near future when a new rival enters the market with a disruptive mindset.
As against this it is always better to admire “worthy rivals” who can keep a business on its toes.A matured leader and organization knows the need to appreciate the good qualities in a “worthy rival” to learn from the rival and cover up its existing deficiencies.
When arrogance sets in with no respect for a rival’s positive qualities , the organization loses out on key insights which can be very detrimental in the long run.
Simon Sinek highlights the importance of appreciating the good qualities in a “worthy rival” in order to be better equipped to play the infinite game.
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Role of a “worthy rival” in an infinite game
Historically if we look at business , numerous examples show how losing sight of a worthy rival , led to complaecency and eventual extinction of a company.
When an organization has rivals , survival is the key even to the extent to thinking of disruption opportunities.The moment a company dominates with apparently no sight of good competitors gradually complaecency sets in.
Look at the following examples of :
1) MP3 players , walkmans when Apple came up with iPod.
2) Kodak going out of market in the digital era
3) Blackberry going out of market with the advent of iPhone
4) Blockbuster underestimating disruption from companies like Netflix.
These examples prove beyond doubt how the presence of a “worthy rival” is so very important for an infinite minded organization who wants to keep playing an infinite game.
Simon Sinek mentions this in “The Infinite Game”.
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Why should you pick your WORTHY RIVAL?
In his best selling book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek makes us aware of the need to pick our worthy rival to stay on course.
In an finite game e.g. football there are fixed set of players , rules are fixed , duration is fixed. As a result of this “winning” , being the “best” are options.
In infinite games where duration in unknown , rules are not predefined , players are unknown it is of paramount importance to a player to keep playing with the goal of advancement of a “just cause”.
In such a game where being the “best” or “winning” does not matter , it is very important to know and pick a “worthy rival” from whom a thing or two can learnt for survival in the long run.