Back when I was at university, I had a course called “Business Simulation”, and my teacher asked the class the following question: “What makes a good businessman?” that she shortly replied to saying: “A gamer”. The teacher went on to elaborate her point of view saying that a good gamer knows the rules of the game like the back of his hand, as much as the businessman knows his market. The lesson was obvious: the market is a game and to conquer the market, one must know its rules like a gamer.
That day, I put a lot of thought into my professor’s words and I came across the conviction that she was speaking wisely. Without further ado, here’s how gamers can transcend their gaming success to the real world.
There is no denying that gaming helps gamers develop their communication, problem solving, and leadership skills. Some game genres like RPGs (Role Playing Games) require not only gaming prowess but skills such as the ones mentioned above.
For instance, when I was playing “God of War” on PlayStation 4, I came across a very difficult foe that I could not defeat with my combat skills no matter how hard I tried. Therefore, I have decided to take an alternative route to overcome the obstacles, I decided that I should enhance some RPG elements such as developing my character’s skill tree, forging him a new armor, upgrading his weapons and so on… So, I went to a tedious realm on the game called “Niflheim” in order to make these developments possible which eventually worked out pretty well: I was able to easily defeat that annoying foe after this long term planned strategy.
“Failure doesn't mean the game is over, but it means to try again with experience.”
Just like in a game, businessmen and entrepreneurs should create a clear path before they solve a certain problem and tackle it head on: you could consider this case a game and build your way accordingly. For example, you should start by setting a goal (defeating the foe in the game), and then assess if you are competent enough or not. If not, you should learn more valuable life skills relevant to the problem such as computer skills or interpersonal skills (upgrading weapons and armor in the game) and only then should you come back to take on the challenge.
Gaming can teach us many life lessons: from strategic planning to problem solving, and from confidence in our abilities, to resilience, to setbacks: all gamers are very familiar with the frustrating sentence “Game Over”, but it is exactly those two words that keeps you pushing, learn from your mistakes and subsequently grow your sense of perseverance. For a gamer, losing in his beloved game is not an option; no matter how hard the task is, he must always find a way to turn the tables.
After reviewing this article, I hope that you put it into perspective, and take your gaming behavior with you onto the real world, and act according to the life lessons that being a gamer taught you.
Bassem Charara