Three-sentence Summary

In life, we are just players in many games. We can choose to play these games with a finite or infinite mindset, where we try to “win” or “achieve” something, or perpetuate the game, respectively. There are many external, societal pressures that turn into internal pressures, which encourage finite mindedness; we must fight these pressures and remember the Cause that we aim to perpetuate.

Reading Context

Author, Simon Sinek pulls inspiration from a book that I read earlier this year, titled Finite and Infinite Games, by James P. Carse. It was while reading Finite and Infinite Games that I ordered this book, The Infinite Game.

Finite v. Infinite Games

An infinite game is a game where the game outlives its players. [p.7]

A finite game is any game where “winning” is defined as a set of constraints and when those constraints are met, the game ends. Infinite games are those where we play, but the only object of play is to perpetuate the game itself. In infinite games, because there is — by definition — no end to the game, there is no such thing as “winning”. Often, we still approach infinite games — such as business — with finite plans that try to “win” or achieve some arbitrary metrics, which in the long run probably mean very little. We must remember, the goal of participating in infinite games is to advance and perpetuate some purpose or Cause.

Just Cause

Our “Just Cause”, as Sinek calls it, “is something bigger than ourselves [p.89]. Something that we can’t achieve by ourselves because our lifetime is too short. We must live our lives thinking generations in the future. How do we inspire and encourage our children, granchildren and great-grandchildren? It’s hard to fathom thinking this far in advance — I know I struggle with it — but with a Cause or purpose and momentum in the right direction, we are working on something that will have multi-generational impact.

No matter how successful we are in life, when we die, none of us will be declared the winner of life… All of these things are journeys, not events. [p.4]

To live a life with an infinite mindset means thinking about second and third order effects of our decisions [p.223].

A Cause must be specific and visible, but necessarily unobtainable. Sinek called out “moonshots”, saying that these are not Causes, because moonshots are finite and achievable [p.53]. Similarly, Causes must be meaningful. A goal of “growth” alone is meaningless [p.59]. “Just like it would affect a human being”, Sinek says, “organizations that eat to get fat will eventually suffer from health problems.”

In an organization that is only driven by the finite, we may like our jobs some days, but we will likely never love our jobs. If we work for an organization with a Just Cause, we may like our jobs some days, but we will always love our jobs [p.33].

Understanding and explicitly defining our personal values is hard and often done abstractly. I struggle with this personally quite a bit. The abstract nature of values is probably what makes them easier for us to push to the side when evaluated against more concrete things such as an explicitly-defined salary, etc. [p.90].

As human, we often think from a finite, concrete perspective — e.g., winning, solving, or completing — because it’s easier. In reality, many of the activities in which we participate are more infinite and therefore, impossible to “win”, “solve” or “complete”, but rather only advance or perpetuate.

Viewing infinite activities in terms of finite outcomes is dangerous and exhausting. I recently read Shadow Factory, which talked about the goal of “winning” the war on terrorism. While one could argue that the war on terrorism could be won by going to some crazy extremes where all data is perfectly monitored, one would probably overlook everything — including one’s privacy, being able to travel freely, etc. — that would be sacrificed to achieve this “win”. But is this really a win? When you have nothing left, there is nothing more to lose.

The true value of an organization in the Infinite Game is not determined by arbitrary metrics, but rather peoples’ desire for the organizations Cause to perpetuate. One way that an organization can ensure that its vision is perpetuated is to focus on resiliency — not stability — to endure unpredictability [p.12].

Think about being in-shape, physically. While you can “achieve” being in-shape, fundamentally, there has to be a mindset shift that helps you perpetuate it. There’s little value in getting into shape once, only to revert back to being out-of-shape.

Consistency is more important than intensity. Instead, focus on the little things that you can do to continually make incremental progress and that help perpetuate the goal of being in shape rather than “achieving” it. It’s the same as a business becoming the best in their field. There is little value in achieving this position, rather than perpetuating the Cause of the company.

There are other infinite goals that a company must perpetuate internally in order to effectively be an infinite company, e.g., Trusting Teams [p.118]. Trust is something that takes a long time to build over numerous events, but can be lost with a single event. Before one can effectively work toward external goals, one must work on internal problems. Working on the internal problems may actually result in external momentum [p.126].

… customers will never love a company until employees love the company first … [p.126]

An internal component that many companies realize is important is culture. While it’s easy to write what you think the culture is or want it to be, that is not what the culture actually is. The true culture is defined by the reinforced values and behaviors of the teams, organizations, company and environment [p.121]. There may be multiple systems at play — possibly even acting against each other — that are reinforcing behaviors. It doesn’t matter what you’ve written down to define the culture, it’s all about what behavior is made easy and reinforced. Simple things — maybe even regulatory things — can ruin a culture that you’ve tried to establish.

In weak culture, people find safety in the rules… They believe a strict adherence to the rules provides them with job security [p.127].

Lazy Leadership putting in place process “solutions” to fix people problems is what further contributes to weak cultures. Processes are easy to define and roll out. While process solutions may get you what you want in the short-term, they rarely solve the deeper cultural issue. They are like cultural bandages.

Worthy Rivals

Without a Worthy Rival we risk losing our humility and our agility [p.179].

Worthy Rivals are the other players — competitor is a finite concept — with similar goals in the Infinite Game. In business, this is often another company. In school, it may be another student, etc.. We must realize that having Worthy Rivals is a good thing; they are what help us push to be better than we are today, by helping us realize and strengthen our weaknesses. We must not succumb to finite-minded thought of “beating” our Worthy Rivals [p.172], but instead think about how to perpetuate our Cause.

Existential Flexibility

Not to be confused with adaptability or resiliency, Existential Flexibility is an offensive maneuver seeking to advance the Cause [p.186]. There may come a time when what you are doing is starting to take a path tangent to the Cause. This path may still lead to “success” in some regards, but there may be a path that leads to more success in regard to the Cause. It is at that time that an Existential Flex — or leap — must occur.

Don’t confuse Existential Flexibility with “shiny-object syndrome” [p.187], where you get caught up chasing whatever is new.

Sinek believes that at some point, every organization will need to make an Existential Flex [p.194]. But whether or not they take it will most likely depend on whether the leaders are finite or infinite-minded. Often leaders become obsessed with finite-mindedness and the opportunity to Flex passes. Leaders allow the forces of the market — and not personal passion for the vision — dictate an organizations future [p.195].

It is precisely these forces of the market or space that we are in that encourage our finite mindedness [p.199].

Shareholder Value

Sinek talks about how Milton Friedman’s definition of capitalism and views on the purpose of business being to make money and distributing that wealth to shareholders has lead to “capitalism abuse” [p.75]. Relatedly, Friedman used the phrase “ethical customs”, which Sinek interpreted as and disagreed with, “what becomes customary or normal is ethical, until boundaries are defined” [p.77].