Alex Hormozi Explains the Infinite Game of Business

0:00I'm going to redefine success real quick. So, if you think about any worthwhile endeavor, they're actually not finite games, they're infinite games. And so, a finite game Simon Sinek popularized this a little bit, but he I'll just recap it real quick. A finite game is where you have known players, agreed-upon rules, and agreed-upon way of winning. An infinite game is a game where there are known and unknown players, there are no rules, and the only point of the game is to keep the game going.

0:25And so, where people fail is that they apply a finite construct to an infinite game. So, like the US lost in Vietnam because Vietnam was just trying to stay alive. That was all they were trying to do. They weren't trying to win. They were >> They weren't going to stop trying to stay alive. >> And so, we tried to have a finite outcome to an infinite game, that's why we lost. And so, people try like most games worth playing, you can't win. You can only play. So, marriage, for example, you're not going to win marriage. You the point of marriage is to keep the marriage going. At health, you don't win health. The point of getting healthy, being in shape is to stay in shape. And you don't win at business. The point is to stay in business and to stay in the game and to keep playing. And I think when I redefine that, all of a sudden I realized that by being in the arena, I was a success. And so, I was able to enjoy the fact that by that definition of success, I was winning. And so, I think if if we are able to and anyone who's listening is able to remove the expectation of some finite outcome that's going to happen because I promise you, all of us here in this room have achieved some goal, and then we just move the goal post, right? And it's more just a game you play with yourself. Just like you when you're on the cardio machine and you're like, "Okay, 30 minutes is 3/10." And you're like, "Okay, it's 5/6." Already, you know, you like you play the game. But the thing is is like with with all of the games that are worth playing, they the fact that you can play them is what makes them worth the effort. And so, I think that if you if if you can redefine that, then it means you can't lose. And if you have a fear of failure, making your games infinite games guarantees victory.

1:59>> I love that, dude. It's [ __ ] true, too. I spent the first 18 years being in business not realizing that I could have enjoyed that entire process. >> [laughter] >> You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Because because I lack that perspective that you just said. I could have enjoyed that entire process cuz I'm still going to get there. >> Can I throw something else in real quick? So, um old person said this.

2:25What you don't realize when you're young is it it's always the good old days. >> Yeah. >> That like for some reason that like hit me cuz I was like I think you know I talk about the time when I was sleeping on the gym floor and at that point I was like this does not feel like the good old days. But when I was a little more successful I was like man I remember when I was sleeping on the floor when I had like six gyms before I lost it all again, right? And then going through all the [ __ ] that happened that you heard, you know, at the beginning of this podcast like I was like man this is horrible. I can't breathe. >> Yeah. >> Right? But then like I look back on that I'm like man those were the good old days. Like I was forging me, you know, at that time. And so trying to put on my hat of saying like right now I'm in the good old days of future me. And that's been like a really helpful frame in terms of thinking like how to enjoy it a little bit more and the other way I've tried to think through this. I'm going to give you a couple things that help help audience um or help me a lot. But I'm a I'm I struggle with gratitude. I'm not I'm not good at it.

3:18>> And so I've had to come with these things. And so I I have to focus on it, too. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> One of them was um whatever we're doing right now, many times it might be the last time you do it. Like I I my last sleepover I think I was 11 years old or something with a friend. If I had known that that was the last sleepover I was ever going to have probably would have appreciated it more. But there's a lot of lasts that we do before we die. We think that when we die like that's it. But like the last time you might go to Europe and like backpack might be in your 20s. Yeah. And like I'm never going to backpack in Europe. Like I accepted that. I was like it's never going to happen. I'm just at a point in my like I'm not it's not going to happen. And so I was like wow I miss that. Like that's it's never going to happen. And if you're in that, whatever your phase is, there's these things that will be your lasts. And if you can appreciate them for that, they just taste a little bit sweeter.

3:59And the last frame that's helped me out is I call it the grandfather frame. But try this out one time. Even like if you're driving or you're you're working out right now, imagine you were your 85-year-old self. Like you're really old. And that you woke up today in your body as it currently is. It's a weird It's a like it's it's kind of trippy to think about it. But like if you're 85 years old and I'm actually here, like I zoomed into this moment, dude, this is [ __ ] awesome. >> No, I'd be like, >> Andy's so young.

4:25>> Yeah. >> Because I remember cuz I'm 85. And I know what you look like when you're 85. I'd be like, dude, man, my knees don't hurt. You know what I mean? Like my my my shoulders don't hurt. Right? And I look at Leila and I'm like, I remember when we were this young, right? Man, we were just getting you know, we were just building just in our first or second year. Like this is so cool. Like and all of a sudden my morning coffee becomes this reliving of a moment that I have when I'm 85 years old. And it's just been something that's like I try and practice these things cuz I think they're like muscles. Like you just try and keep remembering those frames. And so like I think that if you can practice those while you're in the game and in the arena, it makes it a little sweeter, even the very painful losses.

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