5 lessons for entrepreneurs from the Monopoly game

"Monopoly is a children's game that, as the packaging says, "teaches entrepreneurship." It is quite complicated, and the rules will become quite clear after a few hours of play. Despite the fact that this is an activity for kids, adults can also get some ideas for themselves by playing it. For example, Ivan Drobyshev, a successful PR manager and businessman, loves to play this game. He answers the question of what adults can learn from it:

"Monopoly was my favorite childhood game and still is. More recently, I was in a country house. By chance, I saw my friends playing this game with great excitement. Why were they doing it? I think it is because the game repeats life situations that are simplified. It gives you great pleasure when you solve them," says Sergey Drobyshev.

The main business ideas that a businessman may need in his life.

1. Pay attention to time. It can play into your hands if you know how to use it.

Using the example of Monopoly, anyone, even a beginner, understands that you can only get all the streets and opportunities in this game if you are ahead of everyone else. But at the same time, you need to remember to maintain the pace you set from the very beginning. If you adopt the tactic of "sitting back", you will find yourself lagging behind your competitors. This will result in loss of property and defeat.
It's the same in life: all the most successful decisions are made very quickly. Achieving success does not mean a complete stop in your activities. You don't need to slow down your ambitions, don't stop improving yourself.
Of course, it often happens that people have different starting capital of knowledge and means. It may seem unfair, but it's not how many opportunities you have that matters, it's how you use them. The winner is the one who is lucky in the end...

2. Pay attention to all instructions

"Monopoly is both a complex and a simple game. It has a whole booklet consisting of five spreads on both sides with only the rules. In real business, there are many more rules, and there are simply no instructions. People are not limited to legal laws, but succeed with their heads. Therefore, all the subtleties are learned with experience. You will easily notice them and catch your luck only if you do not take unnecessary "steps", avoid "fines", or go to "jail".
Of course, you can try to take the easy way out by cheating. But it only seems so easy. In reality, it leads to a loss of respect from others, and then to complete failure. It will be much more reliable to find legal loopholes and benefits. There are a lot of them if you look hard enough.

3. Luck is often not an important factor in success, and sometimes it doesn't make a difference at all.

Often in Monopoly, you can hear your opponents say that luck is the key to victory. Moving to someone else's street, getting random fines, and going to jail all depend on probability.
Similar statements can be found in life. But in reality, luck does not allow you to win. Yes, it can play into your hands, but it happens very rarely, almost never. It all depends on skills, experience and ingenuity. "Luck is an attitude" - as the advert of one of the companies producing alcoholic beverages said.

4. Don't be silent, take the initiative yourself, be active.

Whenever there is an opportunity to gain more benefit, do it. If your opponent has a building that you need, try to persuade him or her, assure them that they don't need it. It doesn't matter that you may not be able to do it the first time. There are other players as well. Sooner or later, you will achieve your goal, and you will be able to gain experience in negotiations, which will be useful in other situations besides the game itself.

Many people have such a psychology that it is easier for them to remain silent than to say something. And it's very difficult to negotiate, to arrange a dispute if necessary. But this is not an innate skill, it takes years to learn. "Monopoly is just such a game where these skills can be "pumped up". Remember the main rule developed by scientists at Harvard: both parties must win in an exchange, even if only one can benefit. This system of negotiations is called "win-win". Consider the interests of both parties and do not lose the respect of others.

5. Learn to count, take into account the price and cost

In Monopoly, the winner is the one who can buy everything. Therefore, any street, real estate, fines must be compared with your available funds and correlated, forecasted to evaluate and develop the asset. A random calculation is like relying on luck. Before that, we have already analyzed why luck is not so important. Moreover, it won't help if your opponents know how to calculate and compare.

Beginners mistakenly believe that the most prestigious streets in the game are those that cost more than others. But this is wrong for several reasons.

Firstly, their payback is very low at the start, which can lead to a quick defeat from those who bought the streets cheaper and saved a large amount of money. Secondly, there are only two of them, which means that the chance to get into them is very low.

Another common mistake is uncontrolled spending of all the money. Many players try to buy out all the streets at the start. As a result, they have no money left for improvements, and they do not receive any income. Such players do not even realize that it is possible to mortgage unnecessary property. It's the same in life: entrepreneurs try to cover all industries, buying everything they need and don't need. After that, they complain that they have no capital and see the reason not in themselves but in others.

At the end of the game, the winner is determined. According to Sergei Drobyshev, he used to lose often since childhood. Because of this, he was very upset and quit playing. But he kept coming back again and again because he wanted to experience the pleasure of the process. The same thing happened in his life. During his university years, he constantly failed in creating business projects and startups. But now, looking back, Sergey realizes that these defeats are a great lesson, perhaps more valuable than victories. They allowed him to evaluate all the wrong decisions he had made and analyze them so that he would not repeat them in the future.

Sergey Drobyshev is not the only one who has found a connection between this board game and real-life entrepreneurship. Jackie Summers sees Monopoly as a clear example of economic inequality, despite the fact that players start with the same amount of money. Even as a child, he was able to identify three tricks to win the game. They are very different from those five tips. The first trick is related to success. Summers attaches great importance to it. Of course, he does not give instructions on how to increase the chances of success. But if it happens, you need to be prepared. A lucky number is sometimes enough to make important decisions. Therefore, it is necessary not to get confused in time.

The economist also draws attention to the conclusion of transactions. The exchange should be mutually beneficial, i.e. in favor of the other person. He notes that at the start, this is necessary for further development. Friendly players pay less attention to strange decisions of their opponents. This is the shortest way to victory.

And the third trick is to maintain a balance between assets and liquidity. It is necessary to maintain a balance in the purchase of real estate, streets, additional buildings and cash accumulation. In the first case, the surplus does not allow you to pay the lease to creditors and pay fines. You have to spend moves on mortgaging unnecessary real estate that has not even generated income all this time. In the second case, there is no possibility of generating passive income. This results in lagging behind other players and dropping out of the game.

All of this allowed Jackie to become a real tyrant on the field as a child. As he recalled, "family members refused to play with me. They were not interested." All these approaches can be applied in real life, not only in theory but also in practice. Their correct alternation and application leads to even greater success in material and financial terms.