The Game
It’s all a game, isn’t it?
As a first time entrepreneur I am constantly trying to figure out how. How to keep going. How to make it work. How to keep my employees happy. How to pay rent.
As a first-timer, everything is new and pushes me to the edge of my sanity, health and ability. Because its all so new I revert to an ancient tactic, the analogy. Plato and Aristotle liked to call it ‘shard abstraction’. Astronomers, thinkers, theologists and theorists have all used it to explain the unexplained.
One analogy I have started to understand more and more is that entrepreneurship is like a good Barclay’s English Premier League game.
There is a goal, a large one, at the end of the field. Eleven players stand ready to relieve you of possession of the ball.
As you strive to reach that goal your first instinct says to just shoot. It can’t be that hard. You shoot as hard as you can, its all you know to do. The ball barely reaches the opposition half and with such little force that the opposition smashes it back in your face.
Your first failure.
You quickly adapt and take off running. You will carry the ball into the goal. You take the easiest route, straight. As you continue the opposition quickly converges on your path. Challenges fly in from all directions as the ball is sent back to the starting line.
Your second failure and you limp back to retrieve.
Still not defeated (play the whole 90!) you retrieve the ball and set off again realizing that you have learned some new tricks. You begin to dribble through the first wave of defenders but they work as a team to contain you. The ball is smashed back.
Your third attempt.
Demoralized and defeated you retrieve the ball. You realize that you also have a team that can work together in the same way that the defenders have worked against you. You begin to pass the ball back and forth quickly seeing that if one runs down the field and you kick it to them we can avoid the slew of defenders waiting to pounce. Your teammate takes off running and you whip in a long ball. The defender rises and heads back to the starting line.
Fourth
You are beginning to learn that what you thought was a simple goal is going to take a complex set of maneuvers to accomplish. You begin to strategize with your teammates. “We can go forward and see how the defenders react. If they move quickly, retreat back to our half and try another angle. Probe, pass, keep possession and look for opportunities.” You set off. Your team spread across the pitch. Passing as you go. Careful to keep the ball protected, you maneuver close to goal. Close enough to shoot. You rip a shot. The keeper dashes across the goal and swats the ball down.
Five.
You were close. There has to be a way. Try again.
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
And then it comes. The perfect set of plays, passes, and hiccups by the opposition.
Keeper passes to fullback. Fullback to center-mid. Center-mid beats a defender as another slips on the wet pitch. Center-mid out to the winger who streaks down the flank. He dips the shoulder, beats his man and whips in a cross. The keeper comes too late and can’t reach the cross. The goal is open! Diving, you smash a header into the back of the net.
Success.
