Ashad Rehman
Remember the time when we used to spend hours on our gaming console trying to pass a stage? At times, it would become too difficult for us to just get our way around challenging bosses. Fortunately, somehow, we always used to kill the boss and finally clear that stage. Have you ever wondered how we used to do it?
We used to tweak around our perspectives. We used to modify our combat tactics and used to find new and better ways to position ourselves to attack them. These were the days we used to spend hours crazily tapping on our joysticks like true adrenaline junkies.
Back then, gaming was mostly offline and the best option we had was to play it with a friend in multiplayer mode. However, with the advent of the Internet, explosive advancement in graphics cards and computing power, PC gaming became the new norm of the gaming universe. It opened new doors to better options by giving a whole new different gaming experience to all of us.
We got online servers and game rooms to play with each other. And amazingly, with cloud networking making its way into the gaming world, it enabled us to save our progress in real-time so we can start off just where we left off the last time.
So much of it transformed in such little time. Our whole gaming experience changed as we were introduced to a range of new genres including MMORPGs and MOBAs… each one of the offering a whole new and different experience. According to research, it has been approved that gaming triggers the cognitive ability of the human mind in decent ways. Nowadays, game developers are designing games which move you out of a continuous repetitive cycle and intrigues you to make judgments, collaborate with other players, solve mysteries through investigation, make choices, puzzle solving and much more.
In short, gaming has changed the way it used to be back in the days. Have you ever wondered how similar online gaming is to entrepreneurship? Let’s see how gaming can teach us to become the perfect entrepreneur.
In Online Gaming, You Can’t Turn the “God Mode” On
Normally, when we used to play offline games on our console, we developed a habit of turning difficulty level to “God Mode.” It enabled us to easily tackle down some of the most difficult enemies and beat the system like a piece of cake. However, in online gaming, there is no such thing as “God Mode.”
In an online game, every enemy you face is a real life person sitting behind a screen just like you, ready to kick your butt. If you want to compete with them, you need to work on your toon’s skills and hone it to the maximum. The only way to beat them is to outsmart them in combats or offense/defense strategies.
A life of an entrepreneur is pretty much the same. There is no such thing as God Mode in the life of an entrepreneur. When they step into the market with their big idea, challenges come their way as if they have started their first quest in an online game. In fact, there are no tutorial or walkthroughs for an entrepreneur. They have to find their way into the battle, challenge competitors, and move up in the line constantly surpassing one after another. In case, you show anyone your weaknesses, your competitor will find a way to exploit that moment and turn the tables to their favor.
Never Stop Trying Until You Succeed
There is a famous saying,
“If you want to succeed in life; don’t ever stop trying to achieve your objectives”
Following that particular quote, I believe no experience can teach you this lesson as effectively as online gaming. For online gamers, stopping themselves from trying to achieve quest objectives is just second to none. Here’s food for thought, you can’t ask an online gamer to pause the game and do your biddings. Not because they are rude to you or anything, it’s just because they can’t pause! It’s an online game with real-life people battling to complete their set objectives.
Have you ever played Dota 2? I am sure you can relate to the fact what I am trying to say here. Plus, your MMR is important for you so you just can’t stop! Period. In fact, you can relate this rule with any other multiplayer game of your choice where competition takes place. So, when you are so consistently trying to achieve your goals, the chance of failing at achieving them becomes close to the minimum. Also, in offline gaming, you play against bots which are pretty much predictable. But, in online gaming, the case is different. Your challenges are real human beings who are ironically quite unpredictable.
I know what you are thinking here! How can one relate this to the life of an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are faced with organizational challenges… and here’s what they do, they don’t ever give up. They keep on trying hard until they find their way out of the pickle. They rethink their strategies, reiterate their operations, rework on their work hour manifestos and plan alternate moves to get out of that corner. For entrepreneurs, it’s sort of a daily grind. They improvise their routines and tactically resolve the problem.
In short, they never stop trying until they succeed.
Always Watch Your Back & be Wary of Your Rivals
Online gaming is extremely competitive. Therefore, every time you walk into the battle zone, you always make sure that you don’t enter an arena unprepared. Secondly, studying your competition is most important. If you aren’t going to study your competitor how do you think you are going to counter them when the odds are against you on the battlefield.
Here entrepreneurs can learn a lesson or two from active gamers. An active gamer is always vigilant and looking behind his back for his competition by checking leaderboards every day… speaking like a true gamer here! Entrepreneurs can also keep a check on their leaderboards in order to study their competitors every day. I know that most entrepreneurs have a completely packed routine but keeping an eye out once in a while isn’t going to cost you much of your precious time. Trust me.
But unlike any gamer in town, entrepreneurs aren’t always looking for a way to beat their competitors in the market. They are, however, more inclined towards the thought of studying them to understand what they are doing things differently. Entrepreneurs always want to add something unique to their offering, they want an idea that can sweep the market off its feet and in order to make it unique, they need to first find out if someone hasn’t already implemented it. So, keeping an eye out for competitors also helps them to stay up-to-date with competitor’s features/products/service.
Also, understanding what competitors are doing better and how they are doing it better from the rest of the crowd is an important aspect that can help entrepreneurs tap into their competitor’s audience.
Teamwork Gets You Ahead in Game
Are you wondering what other perks can bring the most out of an online gamer? Here’s something that can give your entrepreneurial flame a bit of a flare. Whether you are an online gamer or an entrepreneur, effective team collaboration will always keep you ahead in the game. As we can see that situations for both are somewhat similar, when an online gamer finds himself in the face of adversity or calamity, he always finds his way back to other teammates who are skilled enough to help him out in achieving his cause.
Same goes for an entrepreneur… there are many obstacles and challenges that an entrepreneur alone can fail to face alone by himself; hence they need assistance to overcome it. The best option that an entrepreneur has in such a situation is to find some allies who can help him/her to get out of the fix. Sometimes, even employees working under you aren’t adept enough to find a way out! The problem just might lie above their and your expertise. For example, you are run over by a Level 7 DDoS attack and the protection options you have are to prevent a DDoS attack from entering at a Level 3/4 layers.
What’s the best option you have? Find someone to help you fix it.
There is no harm in asking for favors if only you can return them back on a later date.
Time is of the Essence
Activities that are engaging can become quite time-consuming and can create a havoc of disruptions.
Same is the case in real life for entrepreneurs. However, online gaming has a remedy to help you buckle up and get time-bound in project execution and deliveries. So, when was the last time you played PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) lol.
Some online games are time-bound and enhance your time management skills while playing. When we talk about online gaming, time management is a key to survival. If you aren’t able to complete the task within a set time span, you can ultimately end up losing points, health or the stage itself. For example, in God of War 4, some combat modes are designed with time-bound attacks. If you fail to react to an attack inflicted by a charging opponent, you ultimately lose your grip on the battle and they overpower you. Now, in real life, you just can’t afford that to happen, could you?
Entrepreneurs spend hours in mastering the art of time management. They take multiple courses, organize their schedules and work hard to optimize their workflows so they can shave off some extra time on their clock. Yet, they always find them spending more hours in their business then what they have already mapped. Here’s a lesson for all of you, start playing time-bound games. They will not actually help you organize time by managing workflows, but they will help you to strategize quickly and better.
If you are good at quick decision making, it will be a whole lot easier for you to manage your time.
So with that, I believe I am going to call it a day. Here’s all the reason why I believe that online gamers can actually become a successful entrepreneur. Online gaming is not so bad if you don’t get too much addicted to it. In fact, it teaches you a whole lot more than you can imagine. It helps you map out things subconsciously when you are too busy strategizing and finding your way through the crowd.
Yes, some online game servers are hell busy with toons flooding every now and then, so be prepared 🙂
Until next time.
Joe Clark
Yousuf Rafi