The Infinite Game of Ecosystem Building

“In a finite game, the game ends when its time is up and the players live on to play another day (unless it was a duel, of course). In an infinite game, it’s the opposite. It is the game that lives on and it is the players whose time runs out. Because there is no such thing as winning or losing in an infinite game, the players simply drop out of the game when they run out of the will and resources to keep playing.”

On page 7 of Simon Sinek’s latest book The Infinite Game, I threw my hands up in the air and furiously highlighted this entire paragraph, and many thereafter. My heart rate quickened a little and I felt excitement rising in my chest. Was it possible? Does Simon Sinek know about ecosystem building? Our efforts of nurturing entrepreneurial ecosystems so that founders in our communities can thrive are an Infinite Game! It existed before we entered the world of intentional ecosystem building, and it will continue long after we have had enough and stopped playing.

Value over Competition

“Which means, to succeed in the Infinite Game (…), we have to stop thinking about who wins or who’s the best and start thinking about how to build organizations that are strong enough and healthy enough to stay in the game for many generations to come.” Holy smokes! Yes! Instead of competing, we should be aligning our efforts toward our shared vision and strive like crazy to achieve this big audacious goal or — as Sinek calls it — our Just Cause!