There are times when you find yourself swimming in open water with sharks all around. The options for victory are minimal. Paths out are not clear. When this happens, the only action left may be to simply play each moment to win, whatever that may look like.
It can be surprising how often this strategy can work when in a no-win situation. Simply not giving up can earn a lot of victories. You’d be surprised at how often people stop trying when they think they are done, even though there’s still a good way left to go.
Playing to win can mean a lot of different things. Winning in the business sense doesn’t have to mean actually overcoming a person or beating a competitor for a new account. It could mean somehow finding a better way to get that presentation out the door against an impossible deadline. It could be discovering a new way of looking at the budget when no one thought it could be salvaged.
No win situations exist all the time. Everyone faces them regularly. Most of the time, we realize that we can’t win so we just move on to the next thing. Why bother fighting for something that doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day? What’s the point if the person you are overcoming doesn’t even realize a game is happening?
For me, the point is to be better than others expect. I thrive on impossible deadlines or projects with no scope. I can get something out that gets the job done. Some question this mentality of mine asking why I strive to be better when being good enough gets the job done. It’s an easy thing for me, the company that is better, earns more in the long run. The group that becomes most efficient has an easier time doing cool new things. The team that outperforms gets to work on the newest projects. The person that excels gets opportunities that others don’t.
Winning in the face of the impossible is about discovering opportunities. It’s about earning something more than just being allowed to do the same thing tomorrow that you are doing today.
I never want to be working on the same thing tomorrow that I was working on today.